Ch 6: The Malevolent Monster Just Wants To Farm

Jiang Lin didn’t argue with them. Instead, he took out several bowls from his space and said, “You’ll understand once you try it.”

With that, he served each of them a bowl of soup and divided the remaining roasted chicken into six portions for the demons to taste.

Of course, before eating, each demon was required to thoroughly wash their hands.

The golden broth and the fragrant, crispy roasted chicken were so enticing that the demons didn’t even have time to thank Jiang Lin before rushing over eagerly.

A few moments later…

The crow demon, holding an empty bowl, exclaimed, “I’ve never eaten anything this delicious in my entire life!”

The other demons nodded in agreement, deeply moved.

The old monkey demon went even further, saying, “To have tasted something this good before I’m buried in the ground—my life is complete, even if I die now.”

Although the two wild pheasants were quite plump, after Jiang Lin and the cat demon had their fill, dividing them among the six demons wasn’t nearly enough.

Each demon had only managed to get a taste.

But precisely because of this, having experienced such a delicious flavor without being fully satisfied made them crave it even more.

The crow demon, recalling what Jiang Lin had said earlier, asked, “Your Majesty, you mentioned that we could have something this delicious every day—is that really true?”

Jiang Lin had been waiting for this question!

He nodded. “Of course, it’s true. Today’s soup was boiled, and the chicken was roasted. These are just two methods of cooking. Besides these, there are many other ways to prepare delicious food, and the flavors are just as good, if not better. For example, my favorite—a dish called hotpot—its aroma can spread for miles. Unfortunately…”

Here, he deliberately paused, glancing at the demons to gauge their reactions.

Sure enough, the demons were captivated by his words, eager to know what this “hotpot” might taste like.

But just as he had them hooked, Jiang Lin suddenly stopped talking.

Even the usually reserved pheasant demon couldn’t hold back, repeatedly asking, “What’s the unfortunate part?”

Jiang Lin put on a regretful expression. “Unfortunately, hotpot requires a lot of ingredients and seasonings. Given the current state of White Tiger Ridge, gathering everything we need would be very difficult.”

The already won-over cat demon immediately looked disappointed. “Does that mean we won’t be able to taste it?”

The other demons also looked at Jiang Lin with bright, expectant eyes.

Good, the fish had taken the bait. Jiang Lin mentally gave himself a victory sign.

He pondered for a moment before saying, “It’s difficult, but not impossible.”

The demons’ eyes lit up, and they all asked in unison, “What’s the way?”

Their simplicity almost made Jiang Lin feel a bit guilty.

As he looked at the seven pairs of bright eyes in front of him, Jiang Lin couldn’t quite understand how these naive and sweet demons eventually turned into evil minions following the White Bone Spirit to pillage, plunder, and even devour humans in the original story.

It’s a testament to how terrifying the passage of time can be.

However, now that these demons were still so naive and easy to deceive, it was the perfect time to recruit them as laborers—a deal that seemed very advantageous to Jiang Lin.

Having made up his mind, he said, “Naturally, we’ll have to do it ourselves—if we want to eat something, we’ll have to grow it.”

“Grow?” The demons didn’t quite understand what he meant.

Jiang Lin explained, “You go and inform the other demons around White Tiger Ridge to come to the White Bone Cave tonight. I have something to announce.”

“If there’s nothing else, you can go now.”

The demons left.

Only the cat demon remained, her cat eyes blinking as she pointed to the bowls left on the ground after they had eaten. “My lord, shouldn’t these be… washed?”

In the cat demon’s eyes, these clean and shiny objects that held food—what they called bowls—were already very clean.

So naturally, she didn’t think they needed to be washed.

But remembering how the lord had insisted they wash their hands before eating, she felt that perhaps the lord was very particular about cleanliness.

If that was the case, then shouldn’t the bowls be washed after eating too?

She only asked tentatively, but Jiang Lin looked at her with surprise and said to the system, “This little cat girl is smarter than I thought.”

The system replied, “These demons just live in the mountains and haven’t seen much of the world. They’re not dumb; they just don’t play mind games.”

In the system’s world, the demon race ruled one of the realms, and their status was on par with that of the cultivators.

Jiang Lin clapped his hands. “Smart is good. The smarter she is, the more work she can do.”

The system: “…”

It looked at the petite and delicate cat demon, and even though it didn’t have a physical form, it still found her cute. Yet its host didn’t seem to have a shred of pity.

Since the cat demon had asked, Jiang Lin had her clean up the dishes and wash what needed washing, while he slipped into the White Bone Cave.

The first thing Jiang Lin did was cast a spell to summon a gust of wind, sweeping all the dust out of the cave.

Then he brought in clean water to thoroughly wash the dark cave.

As for the animal skins that had been on the stone bed for who knows how long, Jiang Lin simply burned them to ashes.

With the White Bone Cave now spotless and gleaming, Jiang Lin was pleasantly surprised to find that the cave actually had pretty good natural light.

He took out a small pothos plant from his space.

The cultivation method Jiang Lin had obtained from the jade space was called the “Nine Spirits Technique,” a wood-based technique divided into nine levels. Normally, it allowed him to absorb spiritual energy from the heavens and earth for cultivation.

Aside from enhancing his cultivation, the most notable feature of the Nine Spirits Technique was that with each level mastered, the cultivator could choose a plant to form a contract with, turning it into a companion spirit plant, which could also serve as a battle partner.

The abilities of the spirit plant could grow alongside the cultivator’s cultivation.

When Jiang Lin had accidentally activated the jade space and successfully fused with the Nine Spirits Technique within, the closest thing to him had been a pothos plant owned by the house’s previous owner.

At that time, Jiang Lin had no knowledge of what was happening, and with no other choice, he accidentally formed a contract with the pothos.

This pothos had helped Jiang Lin a lot during the apocalypse, even setting up unexpected traps when danger arose.

So, when he finally encountered the system and understood what was going on, he defended the pothos when the system disparaged it:

“Low grade and powerless? I think she’s great. If it weren’t for her, I might not have survived, and you wouldn’t have found me as your host.”

As soon as the pothos was released, it anthropomorphically extended two vines to wrap around Jiang Lin’s fingers, affectionately shaking them.

By now, the pothos had developed sentience.

Sometimes Jiang Lin felt like he was raising a little girl who loved to be pampered.

Of course, underestimating her because of this would be a mistake.

“Pothos, this is where I’ll be staying for a while. You can stay here too.”

As soon as he placed the small, delicate pothos on the ground, it suddenly grew, extending countless vines that spread all over the cave.

The once bare cave was now covered in greenery, adding a touch of charm.