"Spare my life, Celestial Immortal!"
This Snake Man, naturally, was far inferior to Bai Suzhen and Little Qing in terms of refinement. You could tell just by looking at him — both Bai Suzhen and Little Qing could transform into human shapes, yet this Snake Man remained half-human, half-snake. This was different from Zhao Ling’er, who was born that way; this guy simply hadn’t mastered the Shapeshifting Technique.
Even Bai Suzhen, with her thousand-year refinement, would be scared stiff by Fang Zheng, so it’s no surprise this one here immediately kowtowed in a way reminiscent of the Japanese - though it was a bit off.
"Alright, get up. I have a few questions for you."
Fang Zheng was indeed quite curious about many things, such as why this yokai couple was forcibly capturing young women. In the game, Li Xiaoyao was solely focused on finding Zhao Ling’er, and if he couldn’t, he’d just go on a rampage, so Fang Zheng never understood why these yokai would capture so many girls to serve them.
"Why did you capture so many young women?"
"To answer the Celestial Immortal, we captured these people... it’s... it’s to take care of our daughter..."
"What?"
Everyone, including Lin Tiannan and Lin Yueru in the back, was stunned upon hearing this.
"Your daughter is a yokai, right? How can humans take care of her?"
"The Celestial Immortal is not aware: my wife and I met after we transformed into human form, and that’s how my wife bore a daughter, who was born in human form. We don’t know how to raise her properly, so we had to find humans to help take care of her."
"I see......"
Hearing this, Fang Zheng nodded. He was curious about how a snake and a fox could overcome reproductive isolation, and it turned out they resolved it by transforming into humans first.
At this moment, Lin Tiannan also stepped forward to ask a question.
"Are the girls you captured all right?"
"They are! They are!"
Hearing Lin Tiannan’s query, the Snake Man quickly nodded.
"We just captured them to take care of the child, clean the house, and serve tea..."
"But you’re yokai."
And then Lin Yueru joined the conversation.
"Don’t you eat people?"
"Young lady, that is incorrect!"
Hearing this, the Snake Man’s face immediately turned solemn.
"My wife and I have never done anything wicked. Yokai like us can indeed increase our power by consuming human souls and flesh, but such methods are too brutal and would incur heavenly punishment. After obtaining our powers, my wife and I live on dew and light; we have never eaten a person!"
"Uh..........."
Faced with the Snake Man’s response, Lin Yueru didn’t know what to say for a moment. In ordinary people’s minds, yokai are extremely ferocious and frightening, with eating humans being a common occurrence. Not to mention the two yokai had captured so many girls, Lin Yueru had naturally assumed they must have eaten those girls.
Yet now, this... was a bit unexpected.
"Take us in to have a look."
Fang Zheng didn’t say much more and directly gave the order. The Snake Man hurriedly led Fang Zheng and his party into his cave dwelling.
"Really unexpected......"
Following behind, Lin Yueru came up to Zhao Ling’er and Aika, whispering her thoughts.
"I thought all yokai were ferocious creatures..."
"This..."
Upon hearing Lin Yueru’s musings, Zhao Ling’er’s expression grew a bit complicated, unsure how to respond, while Aika just narrowed her eyes and smiled.
"Does it really matter? To me, whether human or yokai, they’re all the same."
"How can humans and yokai be the same?"
Hearing this, Lin Yueru immediately protested, but Aika remained unfazed.
"Really?"
"Yes, humans wouldn’t do such things, right?"
"But while I was traveling with my father, we encountered bandits and brigands who looted and kidnapped villagers. They were all burned to death by my father."
"This........."
Faced with Aika’s response, Lin Yueru was momentarily at a loss for words. After all, as a young lady from a wealthy family, she hadn’t witnessed such things, and the world she knew was more palatable. Of course, she had heard rumors about bandits coming down from the mountain to pillage villages, but such happenings were too far removed from Lin Yueru’s reality, and she didn’t have much personal experience.
However, Aika, as a connector of the world’s origin, evidently wasn’t as naïve as Lin Yueru.
While talking, the group reached the Snake Man’s dwelling. The Snake Man, seemingly scared, called for his wife without delay, and then their daughter — who, compared to the Snake Man and the Fox Spirit, indeed looked no different from a human. Particularly with a pair of fluffy fox ears on her head and big, blinking eyes, she was quite cute.
As for the captured girls, they nervously stepped forward. After Fang Zheng and Lin Tiannan asked them a few questions, they confirmed the Snake Man’s account. Though captured and initially frightened, the girls hadn’t been harmed. They were simply asked to clean, serve tea, and take care of the little girl named Su Mei.
Speaking of which, Fang Zheng felt like commenting on why foxes always like to give themselves the surname Su.
Don’t you have any clue in your heart about how terribly the last fox with the Su surname died?
Having found the girls, the group’s task was halfway complete. The remaining issue was... how to deal with this yokai couple.
According to Lin Tiannan, yokai wreak havoc in the world, and naturally, it’s best to just cut them down. Although according to the words of the snake man and his wife, those people who came to the cave before had nothing to do with them. Those people were killed by the snakes in the cave, and the couple didn’t touch a single finger. But since it all started because of them, Lin Tiannan was naturally unwilling to let the snake man and his wife go.
However, Lin Yueru and Zhao Ling’er stood up to plead for them. After all, the little girl is so cute, who knows what she would become if she lost her parents. Both sides were in a stalemate, unable to make a decision.
This is a problem too...
Watching this scene, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but shake his head. He was quite clear about the issue at hand. Frankly, there are reasons why humans dislike yokai. Although yokai like Bai Suzhen and Little Qing, after refinement, can speak with humans and can transform into humanoid forms. Yet at their core, they still adhere to the jungle law, the survival of the fittest, their beastly nature unchanged.
Take Bai Suzhen, for instance; her story truly ended tragically. But to be honest, Bai Suzhen’s tragedy is largely related to her disregard for the rules of the human world.
To begin with, Bai Suzhen and Little Qing wanted to live amongst humans, but instead of working to earn money, they went to steal from the government treasury.
Joking aside, can you just steal from the treasury? If you rob a bank nowadays, would you dare to spend that money carelessly? Even Fang Zheng wouldn’t dare to blatantly rob a bank in any world; he would always work in the shadows. Otherwise, if caught, he wouldn’t be able to do anything but play hide and seek all day.
It was because they stole the treasury’s silver and then handed it over to Xu Xian that caused him to bear the guilt, exiled thousands of miles away. It was fortunate enough he didn’t get executed. By rights, had Bai Suzhen and Little Qing obeyed the rules of the human world, things wouldn’t have escalated so badly.
Afterward, Xu Xian was scared to death upon seeing Bai Suzhen’s true form. To save him, Bai Suzhen ventured alone to the Celestial Court to steal the Immortal Pill, and when discovered, attempted to snatch it instead.
Of course, this could be seen as a result of Bai Suzhen’s urgency to save Xu Xian, perhaps forgivable. However, subsequent actions were quite different.
Xu Xian was elected as the head of the Three Sovereigns Society, but due to poverty, he had nothing to present. Bai Suzhen then instructed Little Qing to steal four treasures from Prince Liang’s Mansion, directly leading to a series of tragic events.
This clearly shows, although Bai Suzhen is a good wife, she completely disregarded human rules. She still held the thought process of a beast, believing that what she desired was hers, that anything of worth was for the worthy to take. From start to finish, even after Xu Xian’s exile, Bai Suzhen didn’t learn anything. She needed these treasures as displays, not to sell secretly for money. She never considered the possibility of exposure leading to catastrophe because, in Bai Suzhen’s mind, she possibly never had such common sense.
The same goes for the snake man and his wife. Perhaps, in their view, capturing these girls to care for their child was already giving face. They felt no moral guilt over forcibly taking someone’s child. After all, in the jungle, it’s survival of the fittest, and many hunters specifically target young.
So, in the eyes of yokai, capturing human children without eating them is already generous. Why are humans so angry?
Completely incomprehensible.
This is why there’s such a communication gap between humans and yokai.
"Doctor Fang, what do you think?"
Unable to decide with his daughter, Lin Tiannan had no choice but to consult Fang Zheng, realizing these yokai seemed to fear Fang Zheng. Thus, only Fang Zheng could make the call.
"Hmm..."
Hearing Lin Tiannan’s question, Fang Zheng pondered for a moment before replying.
"Although this yokai couple has their reasons, forcibly taking young girls is undoubtedly wrong. Given they haven’t harmed the girls... how about this?"
Saying this, Fang Zheng looked at the yokai couple.
"Those who wish to leave, you must provide them some compensation and emotional damage fee. If anyone chooses to stay, you can’t have them work for free and must compensate them. Additionally, from now on, you mustn’t disrupt others’ lives. Remember, you now have a daughter. If you harm humans, you might bring upon yourself a deadly calamity like today. Consider how sad your daughter would be if she lost her parents... do you accept?"
"We accept! We accept!"
Hearing Fang Zheng relent, the snake man and his wife quickly nodded in agreement. Although Lin Tiannan was not fully convinced, he said nothing further.
Even so, he remained somewhat skeptical of Fang Zheng’s proposal.
"Doctor Fang, you’re too optimistic. These girls, after the fright they’ve experienced, how can they possibly choose to stay here?"
"Hehe."
However, facing Lin Tiannan’s words, Fang Zheng merely smiled mildly.
"Let’s just watch and see."
Afterwards, most of the girls chose to leave. But to Lin Tiannan and the others’ surprise, three girls decided to stay!
"Why do you choose to stay here?"
Perplexed by their choice, Lin Tiannan questioned them. One of the girls, after exchanging a look with the others, stepped forward and said.
"In answer to Lord Lin, the three of us are orphans with no father or mother. Even if we descend the mountain, we have nowhere to go. Moreover, the corrupt landowners below are already coveting us sisters. Who knows what fate awaits us once we descend. Living here may be monotonous but it’s peaceful and safe. And..."
She paused, glancing at the little girl hiding behind her parents. Noticing her gaze, the little girl looked up at her with wide eyes.
"I cannot leave the young lady behind..."
"This..."
Hearing this, Lin Tiannan was at a loss for words, and Fang Zheng nodded as well.
"Staying here is good too. You should teach them the rules of the human world, to prevent these two fools from causing trouble again."
Saying this, Fang Zheng curiously looked at the snake man again.
"But... have you always lived here? According to Lord Lin, there were never any reports of serpent demons here before."
"In answer to the master, my wife and I actually came here from somewhere else."
Upon saying this, the snake man put on a troubled expression.
"To be honest, my wife and I originally lived in Jinhua. But several years ago, a Great Demon appeared there possessing a Water Spirit Pearl, able to freeze blood at will. We were no match, forcing us to leave..."
"Oh, I see... huh? Wait a minute."
Hearing the snake man’s explanation, Fang Zheng nodded, then suddenly paused.
Water Spirit Pearl?!

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