A Prank in the Mortal Realm

True to her word, Su Mo bought a handful of buns and gave them all to Mo Yu.

As they chatted, observing the bustling crowd, Su Mo recalled Mo Yu’s ominous mention of a city besieged by ghosts.

With the recent Festival of Invoking Deities, and the watchful eyes of immortals upon them, ghosts would never dare to act recklessly.

For today, Dangyang County was undoubtedly safe.

Tomorrow, however, was another matter, especially with the Demon Suppression Bureau’s Golden Core cultivator taking Xiao Yao as a disciple—a protagonist whose mere presence in the story inevitably sparked chaos wherever he went.

‘Xiao Yao must have done something to gather all the cultivators in the county at the Fragrant Cloud Pavilion today,’ Su Mo mused, raising her eyes to gaze at the towering cluster of buildings, one of which, an ancient-style high-rise, was part of the pavilion.

She considered informing Xu Qingzhu about the impending turmoil.

Yet, she remembered his words, warning her to stay away.

‘Never mind. He’ll be back tonight; it won’t be too late to tell him then,’ Su Mo decided, lowering her gaze to watch the two children gnawing on their buns.

Mo Yu was genuinely ravenous, while Zhang Jingmeng was simply tempted, wanting a bun herself after seeing someone else eat.

As she watched, in the span of a single turn of her head, a young girl collided with her.

Pffft…

Struck on the shoulder, Su Mo spun gracefully with the impact, her skirt swirling as she turned, a bewildered expression still lingering in her eyes.

She had always believed herself adept at avoiding collisions, confident in her spatial awareness.

Yet, she had collided, sending someone tumbling to the ground, which felt quite embarrassing.

Snap.

Both children froze, their buns forgotten on the ground as they quickly clung to Su Mo’s side.

‘I’m fine, she…’

Casually reassuring them, Su Mo stepped forward, extending a hand as she subtly observed the girl.

The girl was pure and adorable, rubbing her backside with small hands, puffing out her cheeks as she spoke, sounding like she was scolding someone, yet also muttering to herself, uttering childish nonsense.

Only after Su Mo pulled her up did she realize the girl was a head shorter than her, perhaps around 1.5 meters, making her quite the loli.

With bright, watery eyes and a vibrant azure gown, she radiated liveliness. Two ponytails cascaded over her shoulders, adorned with a blue bird hairpin that dangled pearl beads, making her resemble a junior sister from an anime, or a neighbor girl with a penchant for ancient styles.

‘Are you alright?’ Su Mo leaned forward, her ample chest swaying inadvertently before the girl’s eyes.

The girl was startled into a brief daze, glancing down at her own ‘steel plate’ before muttering, ‘What’s so great about that?’

It was only then that she vaguely realized she had been hit.

Hands on her hips, she pointed at Su Mo and declared righteously:

—’You hit me, so pay up!’

‘It seems something happened and knocked some sense out of her brain. How pitiful,’ Su Mo thought, raising a hand to wipe away a nonexistent tear. Then, pulling the two children along, Su Mo casually slipped away.

The girl stomped her foot in frustration. Yet, as soon as Su Mo and the children were out of sight, her expression abruptly sobered, her gaze turning grave.

‘How could it not be her? Could I, Lu Yanling, possibly be mistaken?’ She patted her skirt hem, recalling ‘that enormous thing’.

‘Identifying someone by their chest—how wicked! It must be that Demoness Su!’

‘Even if the aura and spiritual energy fluctuations had changed, and even if her casual demeanor was different, still…’

‘It was her, undeniably.’

Such was the confidence of the Lu family’s prodigy, an inner disciple of the Moon Gate Sect.

The Lu family truly had a knack for locating people!

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to sneak out and successfully infiltrate Dangyang County alone to search for the missing Xu Qingzhu.

Rumble~

Her cheeks flushed, Lu Yanling cursed her bad luck internally. ‘Could my purse have fallen out when I was chased by a pack of malevolent ghosts on the way here?’

She quickly followed Su Mo, determined to make her pay, no matter what.

Rumble~

She was truly starving; the collision had left her too weak to stand properly.

‘Don’t run! Wait for me!’ Her shout from behind spurred Su Mo to quicken her pace, nearly shaking her off into a corner and disorienting her.

After finally catching up, Lu Yanling supported her trembling, weak legs, lifting her head and speaking in breathless, broken sentences from exhaustion:

—’Is there… is there anything to eat…? Consider it compensation?’

Su Mo re-examined the girl before her. Dressed impeccably, her demeanor, though lively and outgoing, still carried a faint air of refinement typical of a wealthy family.

‘This person… could she actually be starving?’

‘There’s a trick here! I, Su Mo, can tell at a glance that you’re no ordinary human!’

‘I have a few buns, want one?’ Su Mo squinted.

Lu Yanling’s eyes widened in indignation, clearly deeming the buns beneath her palate.

‘Surely, no one actually eats *this* sort of thing, right?’ Lu Yanling remarked, exuding an air of ‘Why don’t they eat meat porridge?’

The two children, still clutching their buns, felt personally offended.

Hearing this, Su Mo’s displeasure grew. How could the girl before her appear so cute, yet speak with such venom?

Su Mo raised an eyebrow, replying with a sarcastic jab:

—’Oh, yes, yes, of course. A noble young lady such as yourself wouldn’t deign to eat pig feed. You’re a fairy, after all, accustomed only to divine delicacies from the heavens, aren’t you~?’

Oddly, Lu Yanling pursed her lips in thought, failing to detect the sarcasm.

‘Father said those buns are made from dead rats, dead people, and other dead things. He warned me never to eat them.’

Born into a cultivation family, she genuinely had no need to concern herself with mortal food.

Any meal that didn’t include a bit of spiritual beast flesh or spiritual plant seasonings would be utterly unpalatable.

Yet, she had never imagined a day would come when she’d have to leave the cultivation world and venture into the mortal realm to find her childhood sweetheart.

Waaah~

She was about to move herself to tears.

‘My little Qingzhu, you must have suffered so many grievances, having to eat these unpalatable things as well!’ She gritted her teeth, her eyes blurring with tears at the thought of Xu Qingzhu’s hardship.

Truthfully, it wasn’t that cultivation world delicacies were so incredibly extravagant; it was purely the ingrained beliefs Lu Yanling had been fed since childhood that were at play.

She believed all mortal food was poisonous, not to be eaten indiscriminately, and ideally, not at all.

It was a deeply rooted conviction, akin to the idea that humans shouldn’t eat excrement.

‘What a rich inner world,’ Su Mo thought. Watching her alternate between dejection and profound emotion, Su Mo’s lips curved into an unconscious smile.

At the same time, she realized the girl before her was a young lady from the cultivation world.

For reasons unknown, she had ventured into the mortal realm alone and was clearly unaccustomed to its way of life.

It was somewhat akin to ‘Su Mo’s’ own predicament when she first fled the cultivation world’s pursuit and arrived in the mortal realm.

Fearing everything she ate, and feeling a deep revulsion for whatever she did consume.

Had she not been hunted, ‘Su Mo’ might never have adapted, nor shed this ‘rich-person’s ailment’.

Judging by this ‘ailment,’ it was evident just how many millennia of ease the cultivation world had enjoyed to foster such exaggerated prejudices.

Snapping back to reality, Su Mo hadn’t initially considered the cultivation world when she’d bumped into the girl, but now, it was clear. ‘Wouldn’t it be a shame not to trick her a little?’ Su Mo mused darkly, secretly deciding she harbored little fondness for the adorable yet clueless loli before her.

‘Come eat with me. We’ll just have to make do,’ Su Mo said, feigning an apology as she led the girl into a nearby restaurant.

The establishment featured a storyteller’s booth, with actors performing on a stage below, drawing Lu Yanling’s curious gaze.

Leading them to a second-floor table, Su Mo overlooked the entire stage, observing the myriad expressions and conversations of the tea guests, and discreetly ordered some ‘dishes’.

‘Yes, I’ll have the pickled radish, and the stinky tofu, too. Anything bitter, spicy, salty, astringent… Waiter, do you understand what I mean?’ Su Mo slapped down a silver ingot, its crisp clang startling the waiter.

Naturally prone to smiling, he rubbed the silver ingot and bowed deeply:

—’Rest assured, madam! This humble one understands perfectly! I guarantee your satisfaction!’

He scurried away quickly, as if fearing Su Mo might change her mind.

In no time, with supreme speed, a table of ‘fine dishes’ was presented to Lu Yanling.

Gazing at the ‘specialties’ that assaulted the taste buds, dishes she herself wouldn’t dare try, Su Mo shook her head.

‘I’m a conservative, but I feel this table of dishes isn’t quite radical enough,’ Su Mo remarked, raising a hand to invite the girl opposite to partake.

Then, to divert her attention, Su Mo casually asked:

—’I still don’t know your name…’

Watching Lu Yanling pick up a dish with her chopsticks, slowly raising it closer and closer to her mouth, Su Mo’s lips were on the verge of splitting into a wide grin.

The girl paused her chopsticks, smiling sweetly:

—’My name is Lu Yanling.’

…

‘The smile had vanished, though she couldn’t say who it had transferred to,’ Su Mo thought wryly. In that moment, a thousand ‘friendly greetings’ filled Su Mo’s mind. ‘Heaven truly seemed to enjoy messing with her. It was utterly speechless-inducing.’