The Feast for the Feisty

There will be a feast later for dinner like the Demon King had commanded. He had not yet given a word to the servants of the consorts nor to the high officials that came with them. Cheng Lamei had asked them to stay for dinner before going around to alert the staff of the castle while giving Lu Tianshi a quick tour. Zhao Mouye could have given the same for Cao Daimeng, but only places that they pass towards the infirmary.

The Demon King walked steps ahead of Fan Yusheng and Niao Yi as they traversed a path from the dilapidated castle, to the darker tunnels underneath. They seemed to be headed to the dungeons judging from the depths they were taking. The Demon King opened a huge double door using only his strength just as easily as Fan Yusheng would open the double doors in Niaochao. The lady watched him continue into the place voided by light.

"Leave your guard here." The Demon King spoke all of a sudden, when he was already in the shadows.

"Go on. I'll wait here. Scream if you have to." Niao Yi waved the back of his hand towards Fan Yusheng as if shooing her away.

"But I can't see in the dark." Fan Yusheng argued with almost a whisper.

"What are you talking about? You're an owl. Go." Niao Yi did his actions with two hands now, afraid of offending the Demon King by making him wait.

The lady only pouted and walked towards the door. There was no light source in the place, but Fan Yusheng managed to see as if her vision was in dim grayscale. The Demon King was standing before her, apparently waiting for her to come nearer. The consort had forgotten that she was reborn as a bird demon, making her human eyes different from what it used to be.

"Can you see?" The Demon King asked her.

"Yes, my king." Fan Yusheng bowed a little, finding a way to celebrate her discovery. Niaochao never had been poorly-lit, and so she was not immersed in complete darkness. She was not even informed of these changes; she just needed to remember that she had become an owl demon.

"Then follow me." The Demon King spun on his heel and continued to walk along the path.

"Where are we going, my king?" Fan Yusheng looked around, barely making out the insides of the cells. She knew it was the dungeon, but she did not know why she was asked to come with him there.

The Demon King did not answer her. She took as a reminder to only talk when he asked for her. She pouted as this reminder.

They soon arrived at a cell where she heard a man groaning and metal shaking and hitting each other. Fan Yusheng walked closer to the bars and saw three people hanging from the ceiling through chains. Their arms might have been tired, or worse, broken by the weight of their bodies. She peeped at the sight, covering her mouth with her fingers.

"Choose one for the feast," the king spoke behind her.

The demon's flat voice startled the humans. They knew they were going to be eaten, judging from the word 'feast.' Fan Yusheng turned to him and shook her head. However, she was a demon already; and it seemed that full demons care too less about other races. The Demon King himself did not even care for his own race.

"No," still was her answer. "I'd rather hunt animals outside the kingdom for you than choose a living corpse for the feast." She spoke in her soft voice, trying not to let her compassion show. "These human are already unhealthy. They look sick, and they might even make you sick. So no. My deepest apologies, my king."

"Keh." The Demon King only let out a short chuckle. He then spun on his heel and walked back towards the entrance. "Follow me."

Fan Yusheng could not help but raise a brow before lifting her hanfu and running to catch up with the demon. She slowed down steps behind him and walked gracefully like she did not rush earlier. They met up with Niao Yi outside the door, and proceeded to another location in the castle.

For a king, he did not seem to rely on his servants unless he needed to be in two places at once. Fan Yusheng noticed a lot of servants tidying the premises and greeting him and the lady, but he never once asked any of them to take them where he should. Either that, or he just ignored the servants since they were cleaning.

After the long walk, Fan Yusheng started to feel tired, but she did not let any of the men notice. She was too busy studying the back of the Demon King, and there was nothing to enjoy in the vicinity of the castle. The woman sighed, until they reached what seemed to be another exit. The Demon King threw the doors open again; but this time, they were welcomed by the faint light of the orange sky.

There were squares of dying earth which used to be patches to grow vegetables. The fruit bushes and shrubs were also withered, sending a pang to Fan Yusheng's heart. A few demon servants were caught harvesting the small grown fruits of the tomatoes, probably for the dinner. By the looks of it, the dinner was nothing grander than what even Hongtu could give.

"If not humans, what are we supposed to eat?" the Demon King asked in a chiding tone. He went towards a servant and took a tomato from its basket. He threw it for Fan Yusheng to catch. "If you could bite into that, I'll release the prisoners instead."

The wielder stared at the bad-quality tomato on her hand. She turned it around a few times as if inspecting it: the size, the smell, the color, and any other aspect of it. She then smiled at the fruit and soon to the king. "How about... I just surprise you what's for dinner? There will be meat, don't worry about that."

Silence was the king's answer. Soon, he just shrugged and walked off to a different direction. He did not ask Fan Yusheng to follow him, and so she took it as he was leaving her there. The woman then turned to the servants.

"Hi, I'm Lady Fan Yusheng, one of the new consorts of the king. Can I ask you to leave?" She smiled at them politely. The servants looked at one another, and soon left their baskets next to the patches. She saw them off, before turning to the patches. She rolled her hanfu up nicely before pressing her hands against the earth.

"Are you trying to make tomatoes?" Niao Yi shook his head.

"I'm trying to see what else I can do with this land." Fan Yusheng had spoken so softly and warmly that it sent chills up Niao Yi's spine. She closed her eyes and stopped paying attention to whatever noise Niao Yi was making.

Soon, the land underneath their feet began to give off a feeble trembling. Stems grew from the soil from the nearby patches, and they all turned out to be different types of vegetables. However, Fan Yusheng stopped as a few showed their results. She asked Niao Yi to take one each, and she took a bite out of everything. Not all tasted good, but the lady refused to spit the bad ones out of her mouth. She buried the vegetables under the soil of their respective plants.

"This place's water tasted to bad. Hasn't it rained here for a while?" Fan Yusheng turned to Niao Yi who could have answers.

"I don't think I could say anything related to rain water in this part of demon territories and its taste." The other bird shook his head. "All I know is that it rained regularly, but only in some places like the swamps and the coastal areas."

"It only rains where there is water, huh." Fan Yusheng would do a facepalm, but her hands were dirty. She then looked around as if gaging the distance of the castle walls to the the patches in what used to be the edible garden. "Dinner is in six hours. Niao Yi, can I ask you a favor?"

"My mission is to guard you. Ask the servant demons if you need anything." Niao Yi growled under his breath. "I don't trust you with your own safety. Let me tell you that."

Instead of being offended, Fan Yusheng only hummed in agreement. "I guess. Let's see if we could gather some servants to help us. Ah, do you know where the kitchen is?"

After some minutes of looking for servants to guide them to the kitchen, Fan Yusheng managed to get a dozen of them, most likely the tailed demons since they make up most of the kitchen staff. The tailed demons normally looked like midgets, only around a hundred and thirty centimeters tall. They had these flat tails like beavers, but some of them had whip-like ones like a lizard. Different skin texture and tails only signified their home habitats, but they were all conditioned to work in hot areas like the kitchen.

Niao Yi could not help but to laugh as he watched from the side. Fan Yusheng was leading the tailed demons like a mother duck being followed by her ducklings. The woman was aware of the situation, but she tried her best to keep her composure. The ducklings, err, the tailed demons were carrying clean buckets filled with the shining water they use for drinking. She asked them to water selected patches, but they just dumped the water all over each. It was no issue though.

The tailed demons returned to the kitchen to fetch baskets as ordered. While they were gone, Fan Yusheng rolled her sleeves up once more and patted the soil which absorbed the water quickly. A stronger quake came under their feet, and the wet patches were soon home to tall shrubs and bushes. The vegetables and fruits had different color than before. The tomatoes had become redder, while the peppers became bluish. Fan Yusheng tasted the latter, which had a good mix of spice and sweetness. The tomatoes also tasted different, yet in a better way.

"Wow! The water really is wonderful! Not only that it's shining!" The lady swirled in glee. "Ah! I've never seen anything like this!"

"Uhm, you've never been to the demon nations after all?" Niao Yi had to break her trance and dragged her back to Huanjing. He hummed as he picked a cucumber from the plant closest to him. He broke it in half with his natural strength and sucked the sweet water coming out of it. "Why do you have to water the place before growing these?"

"Huh?" Fan Yusheng mused over the other plants, making sure each grew enough for the feast. "Do you think magic creates things out of nothing at all?"

"It's called magic..." Niao Yi continued to snack on the cucumber.

The lady hummed and stared at him. She then smiled. "Magic might be an amazing power, but like other things, it comes from something else. I can only make plants that had their basic energy embedded in the ground, and on the water that runs through the earth." Her smile turned into a sneer as she twirled to turn her back on him, giving him a ridiculing laughter. "Your hair was filled with pollen when we met. Since you had been traveling, dirt and sand stuck to your locks. You were also sweaty since we were in the deserts. Even though it was unconventional, I was able to make flowers out of it."

She returned to her polite self and wiggled a finger as if lecturing the bird. "That's how magic works. In order to produce a result, we must have our ingredients. Without the needed materials, we cannot produce a result we might have in mind." She gestured to the plants. "I can make more varieties if I did a little deeper into the earth, but I doubt demons before this generation gardened here."

Niao Yi stared at her with the cucumber in his mouth. Needless to say, he had no idea how it works or why it works that way. He only gaped at the fact that even the strongest magics of all time had its restrictions. He bit into the crunchy snack. "So you can't just summon dangerous plants to protect yourself?"

"What dangerous plants?" She frowned at him. "Do you see deadly plants in an oasis?"

"Welp, worth the ask."

The servants had come back, and they stared at the plants that were now standing before them. They looked at one another before almost tumbling to gather everything. It seemed that it had been a while since they saw these volume of harvest. Instead of being proud, Fan Yusheng could not help but to pity them.

"It's not just the place that was neglected..." she whispered, earning Niao Yi's attention, "but everything around him."