Liao Tingyan was captivated by that red flame; it was truly a beautiful flame, seemingly possessing magical powers.

She unconsciously became entranced, when suddenly a chill ran down her neck, making her whole body shudder and snap back to reality.

Sima Jiao’s hand rested on her neck, cold as a corpse. He pressed her neck, guiding her slightly forward, forcing Liao Tingyan to stiffen her neck as he pushed her before the red lotus flame.

The only centerpiece of this level was this small jade-water pool, with a single red lotus growing in it, and the flame burning spontaneously above the red lotus. Even with Liao Tingyan’s limited knowledge of the mystical world, she could determine this thing was certainly extremely precious. Yet Sima Jiao was quite casual, bringing her to the red lotus flame and then reaching out to unceremoniously pluck a petal from the red lotus.

Liao Tingyan heard a “wah” crying sound, but it only cried once before immediately falling silent.

A child’s cry? A flame made a child’s cry? She suspected she was hearing things.

“Do you know what this is?” Sima Jiao casually crushed the petal and carelessly tossed it on the ground. Liao Tingyan thought she heard another faint sob.

Liao Tingyan: “Uh, a flower?”

Sima Jiao gave her a strange look: “You know nothing, and they just let you come in like this?” The demon realm was indeed declining.

Liao Tingyan: “Yes, nobody told me anything.” Mainly because her master and senior brothers weren’t very familiar, they didn’t know any inside information. If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have come here even if she had to play dead.

Sima Jiao had no intention of explaining, only saying: “This thing, you come here every day to water it.”

Liao Tingyan: Are you serious? Although there’s a flower beneath the flame, the flower is topped with flames – won’t watering it extinguish the fire?

But Sima Jiao wasn’t joking at all, and having said that he left, leaving her alone there. The heartless boss dumped a puzzling task on the new employee on her first day, then swaggered away! You conscienceless dog of a boss!

Liao Tingyan didn’t dare to follow, and stared helplessly at the flame that seemed to have grown a tiny bit larger. She soon discovered it wasn’t an illusion – as the ancestor’s figure disappeared, the once small flame instantly doubled in size, like a cowering weakling returning to normal.

The suddenly enlarged flame burned off a small lock of hair from Liao Tingyan’s chest.

And that flame seemed to sway smugly. A flame? Smug? Liao Tingyan again questioned if something was wrong with her eyes. But she hesitated no longer – water it she would.

There was water in the small pool beneath the red lotus. She took out a bamboo tube from her pouch, scooped some water and was about to pour it on the flame when the flame suddenly leaped up, forming what looked like a gaping mouth, and from this opening spewed a jet of flame directly at Liao Tingyan.

Liao Tingyan quickly ducked while simultaneously pouring water onto the flame. With a sizzling sound, the flame suddenly burst into loud wailing.

“Villain! Villain, you watered me! I’ll burn you to death!” The voice was like a bad-tempered baby, its fury different from the ancestor’s.

Liao Tingyan: In a mystical world, flames that talk are also normal, don’t panic, stay low, I can win.

“Puff—” that flame seemed truly angry, huffing and puffing fire outward, extremely arrogant.

She never expected that watering a flower would endanger her life. Liao Tingyan moved further away, pondered for a moment, and took out a gourd-shaped watering can from her pouch.

Sorry, Qinggu Tian, a professional land cultivator, as a disciple of Qinggu Tian, the original owner of this body also had a complete set of tools. Although she didn’t use them much, the current owner carrying all her possessions found its use.

She filled it with water, aimed the gourd sprinkler at the huffing and puffing flame, giving it a sweeping spray, then ducked to avoid the flame’s pursuit, turned back for another sweep – watering a flower was like fighting a guerrilla war.

The small flame went from initial arrogance and anger to quickly becoming whiny. It surrendered when it couldn’t win, showing great flexibility, and said in a pitiful tone: “Don’t water me anymore, I feel so uncomfortable, wuwuwu.”

As it spoke, it deliberately coughed twice, spitting out two tiny sparks from the gaps formed by the flames. Oh, watered too much, this fellow couldn’t spit fire anymore.

Liao Tingyan put away the gourd sprinkler, wondering if today’s flower-watering task was considered complete.

At this moment, the flame spoke to her again: “I’ve never seen you before, I haven’t seen other people for so long, who are you, how were you brought here by that person?”

When it mentioned ‘that person’, the flame’s voice was very small, as if afraid of being heard.

Having been here for so long without speaking much to anyone, Liao Tingyan was close to becoming withdrawn. Now, even if she was facing a flame, she still responded: “I haven’t been here long, I came to serve the ancestral master.”

The flame suddenly jumped: “You’re a disciple of Gengchen Immortal Mansion! I knew it, someone would come to rescue me from that person’s hands. Alright, alright, since you’re also a disciple of Gengchen Immortal Mansion, you’re not allowed to water me next time!”

Was this some internal company strife? The big boss gave her a task, probably to harm the interests of others in the company, so this person stood up to threaten her not to do it – was she playing out a workplace survival script?

Liao Tingyan: “If I don’t water you, how will I answer to the ancestral master?”

The flame seemed to put its hands on its hips, confidently saying: “Aren’t you his woman! Just act cute with him and it’ll be fine!”

Liao Tingyan: “???” Wait a moment? How did you reach that conclusion?

Flame: “Anyone he dares to bring here must be his person. You’re a woman, so you’re his woman. What’s wrong with that? Didn’t the person who sent you teach you □□? Quickly go □□ that person and win him over, I can’t stand this life anymore wuwuwu!”

Sure enough, the ancestor’s flame was also mentally ill. They said they had been confined here for five hundred years; looking at it now, the condition was truly serious. Liao Tingyan ignored the flame’s babbling and continued to water it.

Compared to an evil force that was just a flame that could only spit tiny sparks, it was better to bow to the more evil ancestral force. Company allegiance was just that cruel.

The flame shrieked as she sprinkled it with water, and started cursing.

“Sima Jiao, you heartless one! You betray your teacher and ancestors, you’re disloyal! You’ve gone mad, if you extinguish me, you’ll die too! And you, stinking woman, dare to water me, someday when I recover, I’ll burn you to ashes and scatter them in front of that bastard Sima Jiao!”

Hearing it curse ‘Sima Jiao’, Liao Tingyan guessed this was likely the ancestral master’s name.

Suddenly, the flame instantly fell silent.

Liao Tingyan sensed something, turned to look, and indeed saw the black-robed ancestral master appear at the door. His expression was irritable, and he came forward without a glance sideways, tearing off the red lotus petals beneath the flame one by one. He tore off six petals; with each one torn, Liao Tingyan could hear a soft sobbing, filled with intense physical pain.

In the presence of the ancestral master, that arrogant flame no longer dared to speak loudly as before, becoming very timid.

After tearing off the petals, Sima Jiao floated out like a ghost.

“Wuwuwu, my flowers, my flowers that I raised with such difficulty.” The flame quietly cried, then fiercely said to Liao Tingyan: “Help me, and I’ll give you benefits! Sima Jiao is a madman, anyone who follows him won’t come to a good end. Even if you help him now, he’ll kill you later. But if you help me, I can give you many treasures. See my red lotus? One petal equals a thousand years of cultivation. As long as you help me, I’ll give you twenty petals!”

Liao Tingyan: “…” Was this flame an idiot? No wonder, after all, it was just a flame, and flames don’t have brains.

She picked up the six petals that Sima Jiao had just torn off and carelessly discarded on the ground, plus the one he had initially crushed, a total of seven petals, and carefully stored them away.

“Thank you, now I know these are treasures.” This should count as wages.

Unexpected to receive wages, Liao Tingyan immediately felt her spirits lift. No matter how difficult the work, as long as there was sufficient pay, it was all negotiable. Wage slaves all had such principles.

The flame became angry: “If you help me, I’ll give you more. You should know, in this world, apart from Sima Jiao, only I can pick the red lotus petals!”

Liao Tingyan: “No need.” Greed leads to disaster. Such treasures, to be honest, she didn’t dare use them yet. What was “thousand years of cultivation”? It sounded very powerful. What if she used it carelessly and couldn’t handle it and died? There were many such traps in novels.

The flame continued to persuade, like a pyramid scheme. Liao Tingyan took out her homemade sleeping earplugs and inserted them into her ears.

The flower-watering task was completed; she should be able to take a short rest now. A person who carried a complete set of bedding and a bed could enjoy leisurely rest anytime, anywhere.

At this moment, the big black snake crawled in. It saw its recently found master and was very pleased. The flame, upon seeing the black snake, shrieked.

“Dog-fucking snake! Get lost!”

The big black snake crawled next to the flame, gulped water, then raised its head, spraying all the jade-pool water onto the flame.

So colleague Big Black’s job was also to water the flower. Liao Tingyan understood.

The flame, having been watered twice, was like a bullied naughty child, shouting, screaming, and crying loudly: “That woman already watered me, why do you, stupid snake, still come to water me!”

The big black snake sprayed it once more, waited until it wilted down, then slowly slithered to Liao Tingyan’s side, nudging her hand with its large head.

Liao Tingyan: “…” Brother, you’re a snake, really not a dog.

She took out the bowl for the big black snake and poured bamboo juice into it. The big black snake happily drank the bamboo juice, and Liao Tingyan asked it: “Brother, do you know when I can get off work?”

The big black snake gulped gulped gulped.

Liao Tingyan collapsed back, “Never mind, let’s wait a bit longer. Climbing stairs is exhausting. Let me gather my strength first.”

The big black snake, as if suddenly understanding, actually flicked its snake tongue. It turned and crawled outward, turning back to hiss at her. Liao Tingyan packed up her things and followed, being wrapped by the snake’s tail and placed on its back to sit.

The big black snake often carried Sima Jiao this way and was used to having someone sit on it, but Liao Tingyan was riding such a cool “vehicle” for the first time and felt a bit carsick.

The black snake carried her outward, passing through tall corridor pillars and wide-open windows. They were at a very high place; outside the windows were those crisscrossing thick iron chains and floating jade tablets inscribed with “seal.” They emitted a depressing aura. Liao Tingyan had no doubt these were used to imprison the great demon’s ancestral master. This place was indeed, as she had guessed, a prison.

Liao Tingyan felt a bit dazed, and before she knew it, she was taken by the black cab to a room. This room was equally spacious but had more things than other places – there were long tables and shelves, a bed, and a rectangular pool.

The water in the pool was giving off cold air, lowering the temperature of the entire room. A person was floating in the middle of the pool. The wide black clothes and jet-black hair spread out in the water like seaweed. The excessively pale face in the water displayed an eerily cold color. The robe was wide open, revealing the neck, collarbone, and a large part of the chest, like a water demon that could bewitch souls.

Liao Tingyan even saw the ancestral master’s two points on his chest… No, this is deadly! She suddenly grabbed the scales of the big black snake with both hands, pulling its head backward. Leave quickly! Being caught peeping at this ancestor bathing would be fatal! You scheming snake, are you deliberately framing a colleague?!

The big black snake didn’t understand what she was panicking about and hissed questioningly twice. Liao Tingyan watched helplessly as the ancestral master soaking in the pool was awakened, opened his eyes, sat up, and looked at them.

“Ancestral Master, I’ve watered the flower. You see, can I get off work now?” Liao Tingyan asked in the gentlest voice of her life.

Sima Jiao stared at her for a while, staring until her scalp tingled, before slowly giving an “Mm.” He watched as that stupid snake was dragged and pulled out by Liao Tingyan, and suddenly laughed.