Rong Chen Zi searched the market far and wide. He Bang was a demon in mortal form, and by all reason should have been easy to detect. However, ever since coming to Qingxu Temple, Rong Chen Zi had been feeding her water infused with exorcism talismans and had kept evil-warding incense burning for extended periods. One could say she had been raised with great care — the demonic aura on her body had grown increasingly faint with each passing day. Now, even with a compass disc, one would be hard-pressed to sense her without getting close.
In this vast and bustling lantern festival, where on earth was he to find her?
Rong Chen Zi’s heart burned with anxiety, and Ye Tian could only offer comfort: “Senior Brother need not worry too much. She is a demon after all — ordinary people shouldn’t be able to do anything to her.”
Yet how could Rong Chen Zi put his heart at ease? He Bang was innocent and guileless, her constitution delicate and fragile. Even the smallest ailment would make her cry for a long while. If she truly encountered someone with ill intentions… Had he known it would come to this, he should have kept her firmly at his side — how could he have let her go off alone simply because of what others might think?
Rong Chen Zi was overcome with both urgency and regret, not daring to let his thoughts wander further. Judging that not much time had passed and that He Bang could not have gone far, he broke away from the crowd at a quick pace and came to stand beneath a locust tree, intending to use the Immortal Crane Tracking Technique. Ye Tian hurried to hold him back: “Senior Brother, the Immortal Crane Tracking Technique expends a portion of energy every time it identifies a breath of spiritual essence. This is a lantern festival — there are probably no fewer than several thousand strangers here. No matter how strong your Daoist abilities, how could you withstand such depletion?”
Rong Chen Zi reached into the treasure pouch on Qingsu’s person and withdrew yellow talismans and cinnabar, then took up a brush and began drawing: “Things have come to this point — there is no choice but to press on.”
Ye Tian felt sorry for him in her heart. With a stomp of her foot, she said: “I’ll go search the western market. You investigate the eastern market first. Send word with a sound-transmission talisman if there is any news.”
Rong Chen Zi gave only a slight nod. The yellow talisman in his hand was folded into a paper crane. He murmured an incantation, the paper crane flapped its wings several times, stretched its neck, let out a low cry, and flew off toward the eastern market.
Lamplight swirled in confusion, and the crowd surged like a colony of ants.
He Bang walked along holding a bowl of tofu pudding, eating and strolling at leisure. In those days, a woman walking alone at a night market was still a very rare sight — let alone one dressed as magnificently and fragrantly as she was. She had gone forward for a little while and was just turning to ask Rong Chen Zi for that carp paper lantern when a large hand smothered her mouth with a handkerchief soaked in a sedative drug. Several men then gathered around her and swept her away from the market in a hurry, as though escorting their own young mistress.
Truthfully speaking, He Bang did not take these few men seriously at all. She was an inner cultivator, and her spiritual consciousness was exceptionally powerful — how could she possibly be knocked out by a mere sedative drug? But she still did not cry out for help. That stinking Rong Chen Zi — you told me to stay a step away from you, and now look, I’ve gone and gotten myself lost, haven’t I?
The road grew more and more deserted as they walked, gradually arriving at a desolate slope at the bottom of which there was a stone grotto. The men brought her inside and grinned ferociously as they moved toward her. He Bang sat on the ground, her large eyes glistening with puzzlement, looking utterly baffled: “Why did you bring me here?”
Her skin was so tender it seemed it would crumble if pressed too hard. The burly man who had captured her had grazed it and felt his soul nearly fly away, so he hadn’t dared use too much force. As such, she felt no pain anywhere on her body just now, and curiosity had taken hold of her.
She knelt there on the ground, her skirt pristinely white, her black hair like silk — like a narcissus just coming into bloom. Several of the men could hardly restrain themselves. They began stripping off their upper garments, and a burly fellow with a chest full of hair cursed under his breath, his gaze greedy: “This one we’ve got this time is seriously tender!”
Behind him, a bandy-legged fellow grinned wickedly: “Boss, this female’s truly rare. Let the brothers have a taste — this brother will give up his share.”
The man addressed as Boss let his gaze roam over He Bang a few more times and then made up his mind: “Forget it — let’s brothers all dig in first.”
Words like have a taste and dig in reached He Bang’s ears, and she understood at once — these fellows actually wanted to eat her! She was absolutely furious. Even if her true form was a bit on the plump side, surely she wasn’t enough to feed six big men all at once, was she?! And what’s more, they hadn’t even bothered with any seasonings like green pepper or minced garlic.
This was truly unprofessional!
Her eyes shifted slightly, and in an instant the several burly men fell silent. Those beautiful eyes resembled a vast blue ocean; gentle sea tides lapped softly over every inch of their skin, and their consciousness seemed to rise and fall with the rolling waves. Their minds went blank in a trance.
He Bang reached out her hand, and the lead man, his expression vacant yet careful and attentive, helped her to her feet. She swiftly issued her first command: “Go and fetch everything good to eat that can be found nearby — all of it, for This Seat!!”
And so five of the burly men set off to find food. Before long, tofu pudding, pea cakes, and jianbing guozi flowed into the stone grotto in a steady stream. She sat herself on a slab of stone and began to enjoy the feast.
The six burly men, worn ragged until their complexions changed, wore expressions that remained blank, their every movement careful and meticulous. Had He Bang not told them to stop, they could have been worked to death on the spot.
Fortunately, He Bang had no desire to see them die so quickly. She sat on the back of the most muscular man, her little feet resting on the back of yet another, eating away in leisurely contentment.
However, she had not eaten for long when someone walked in. Red robes trailing to the ground, dark hair hanging to the waist — this person walked gracefully up to stand before He Bang and gazed at her for a long moment before speaking: “Your Majesty.”
He Bang was taken aback. She finally freed her mouth and asked: “Chunyu Lin, how did you find This Seat?”
The High Priest of the Sea Clan before her was silent for a long while before he let out a few words: “Followed the pea cakes here.”
He Bang broke into a grin. Her small feet, shod in exquisite soft silk slippers, made a tapping sound on the man’s back, and the six men were as docile as six little bleating pastry-lambs.
Chunyu Lin seemed to have long since grown accustomed to this Sea Emperor’s particular tastes. He picked up a piece of pea cake and offered it to her by hand. He Bang bit off half of it in one chomp straight from his hand, and he then asked quietly: “When does Your Majesty plan to return to the Sea Clan?”
He Bang puffed out her cheeks contentedly, completely at ease: “No rush, no rush.”
Chunyu Lin and this He Bang could be said to be as interdependent as lips and teeth, and so between themselves they had little restraint. He Bang was an inner cultivator; when she had been swimming along an inland river toward the sea, she had wanted to take home a souvenir, so she casually tucked a carp into her shell along the way — caring nothing for whether it was willing — and brought it right along with her to the sea.
Without asking any questions whatsoever, she had made Chunyu Lin cultivate the martial path. Chunyu Lin had relied on her for many years, even going so far as to manage all the affairs of the entire Sea Clan throughout the Lingxia waters. He Bang was the Sea Emperor in name, but this Sea Emperor was not unlike Song Jiang leading the one hundred and eight heroes of Liangshan — she was a sea overlord who had simply claimed dominion over a mountain.
And so this creature’s rough and unruly habits never changed. Later, when the Eastern Sea’s reach truly fell short, they bestowed upon her the title of Sea Emperor — a sort of pacification through official appointment. She neither paid tribute nor paid court visits, but under Chunyu Lin’s governance, the waters around Lingxia Mountain were reasonably peaceful, and the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea simply turned a blind eye.
Later, when the Sea Clan’s old sea turtle High Priest died, this He Bang simply installed Chunyu Lin as the new High Priest, while she shut herself in her shell to eat and drink to her heart’s content. The real power of the Sea Clan had thus largely fallen into Chunyu Lin’s hands.
This glutton had an enormous appetite, and whenever she fell in love with eating something, she would chase after it and eat it relentlessly. So much so that for a period of time she became obsessed with sea cucumbers and nearly ate every last one in the surrounding waters to extinction, forcing Chunyu Lin to purchase a great many from elsewhere to fill the shortage.
He Bang was using him as a backrest when, not long after, she seemed to suddenly think of something and lifted her powdery little face: “Chunyu Lin, go and find a pot, and get some green peppers and minced garlic and the like.”
Chunyu Lin seemed already accustomed to her sudden whims. He fed her the last remaining piece of pea cake: “Mm.”
In no time at all, a large iron pot was set up inside the stone grotto, with firewood crackling and popping beneath it. The great He Bang, having finished her jianbing guozi, suddenly shifted into her true form — a river clam — and with a gulp, rolled herself around in the minced garlic.
……
Chunyu Lin stood with his hands clasped behind his back, observing her for quite some time before he finally could not help but ask: “May I ask, Your Majesty, what exactly are you doing…?”
The great He Bang was still rolling back and forth in the garlic — the garlic was so pungent that its sting had been causing water to flow out continuously from between her shell: “One must see a performance through to the end, mustn’t one? These six men wanted to eat This Seat, so This Seat might as well add a little extra flair to the scene. Hmph — let’s see if that stinking Daoist dares not to hold my hand while walking through a market next time.” Even in such a state of being overpowered by the pungency, she was still smacking her lips. “Oh my, oh my — I’ve heard that garlic river clam is also quite delicious…”
Chunyu Lin’s elegant smile shattered into pieces: “…I ask you, Your Majesty — are you truly certain that these six grown men went to all this trouble to abduct you… just to make garlic river clam?!”
The great He Bang finally cracked her shell open just a sliver: “Then what else?”
Chunyu Lin lifted her out of the garlic and set her in the large pot to rinse her off — but the garlic smell was simply too potent. After washing for quite some time, she still smelled exactly like a dish of garlic river clam.
Chunyu Lin frowned, and after a long silence finally spoke: “Your Majesty, I must tell you with great seriousness — if you keep eating at this rate, your clamshell is going to become a cramped little hovel…”