Malice and Deeper Malice

The tiny blue flower continued to sway gently, its thick, sturdy roots weaving back and forth to protect the motionless figure beside it. Perhaps it, too, sensed that Long Miaoming was a formidable opponent.

“You care about him that much?”

Seeing the flower’s protective gesture, Miaoming asked the question instinctively.

The blue flower seemingly had no intention of answering. Instead, countless roots burst forth from the soil in all directions, lunging toward Miaoming like spears. Miaoming simply flicked her finger in the air again. All the roots were instantly shredded into fine debris, falling like rain.

She hadn’t broken a sweat.

Miaoming hadn’t used much strength, but the counter-attack severely depleted the flower’s vitality, leaving it visibly withered and weak.

“You look quite frail,” Miaoming said, narrowing her eyes. “To think you can’t even maintain a human form.”

The flower swayed again as if struggling through a final labor. A new, red leaf sprouted at a speed visible to the naked eye, followed quickly by orange, then yellow, then green…

“The Seven Colors of the Netherworld… when the petals fall, one becomes an immortal. I never thought I’d actually see such a thing,” Miaoming remarked in awe, but then she shook her head. “In your current crippled state, never mind blooming all seven colors—even if you did, what could you possibly achieve?”

As Miaoming predicted, the flower was forced to stop after blooming only five colors. The newly sprouted leaves began to wither one by one. This burst of effort had consumed most of its remaining energy, leaving it utterly exhausted.

The flower’s head hung low. Miaoming continued to watch it; though she couldn’t speak its language, she could smell the scent of its refusal to surrender.

Sure enough, a thick root surged from the ground, racing toward Luo Xiaoxi. It had realized that the girl behind Miaoming was the woman’s only weakness. If it wanted to save itself and the person beside it, it needed that shield.

Unfortunately, while the plan was ambitious, the reality was a crushing disappointment. Without even looking back, Miaoming crushed the root into dust in mid-air.

She didn’t want to waste any more time. She glanced at the flower demon one last time and raised her finger to deliver the final blow.

Suddenly, there was a movement nearby.

“No! Stop!”

The figure had woken up at some point. He let out a hoarse cry and lunged forward, shielding the blue flower with his body. He turned his back to Miaoming, his entire frame trembling.

Miaoming froze, then retracted her finger with a look of annoyance. The Heavenly Laws dictate: Immortals may slay demons, but they must not slay humans.

“Sister Long…” Luo Xiaoxi ran over.

“Xiaoxi, didn’t I tell you to wait over there?”

“But you already finished the fight! Sister Long, you’re seriously amazing. So cool!”

Miaoming had intended to give Xiaoxi a stern lecture, but upon hearing the praise, she became flustered and lost her train of thought.

“I-is that so? It was nothing, really.”

Miaoming tried to regroup her thoughts, instantly forgetting her plan to scold the girl. Xiaoxi gave a secret thumbs-up behind her back. Mission accomplished.

“Wait, isn’t this the person from before?” Xiaoxi asked, looking at the curled-up figure on the ground.

“You know him?”

“No, no. He’s the one who came to the shop to buy flowers, but Mama Qianluo wouldn’t sell to him,” Xiaoxi explained.

A look of realization dawned on Miaoming’s face. However, she soon looked at the man and the flower with a headache. She couldn’t kill them, but leaving them here might lead to more trouble.

“Let’s take them to my place,” Xiaoxi suggested. “Mama Qianluo should have a way to deal with this.”

“Hey, what do you two think this place is?”

Hua Qianluo stared at Xiaoxi and Miaoming, who had returned after less than a day with a human and a flower in tow.

“A recycling center, what else?” Miaoming sniped back while Xiaoxi was away getting water.

“Heh, you’re a pretty pathetic dragon if a tiny little demon scared you like this,” Qianluo countered without mercy.

The two women traded barbs, leaving the flower demon, Xiao Zi, and the hunched man, Lin Lan, in an awkward position. To these two powerful beings, they were apparently just “trash.”

“Tea is here!”

Xiaoxi walked in with a tray, only to see the two women looking exceptionally “friendly” toward each other. “What are you two doing?”

“Nothing, nothing! I was just humbly asking Auntie Qianluo for some advice,” Miaoming said, playing the innocent card first.

“This child is so diligent and eager to learn; she’s truly great material,” Qianluo added, quickly picking up the act.

Only the little flower demon and the man, who had been listening the whole time, twitched their lips. That is definitely not what you two were saying a second ago.

“Actually, this isn’t impossible to solve,” Hua Qianluo said leisurely after finishing her tea, eyeing the duo before her. “But first, I want to know your motive for the ‘killings’ this afternoon.”

The man looked at the flower and finally chose to speak.

The hunched figure was Lin Lan, a freshman at the local Baijiang University—technically a year older than Xiaoxi. That afternoon, he had been guarding the flower demon as usual to prevent tourists from bothering her. This was to protect Xiao Zi, but also to protect the tourists. After all, no matter how weak Xiao Zi was, she was still a demon. She couldn’t fight gods, but killing mortals was child’s play.

Today, a “bratty kid” had tried to pluck Xiao Zi. Lin Lan tried to reason with the child and even offered him other flowers, but the kid threw a tantrum when he didn’t get what he wanted. This brought the father over, who assumed Lin Lan was bullying his son. Without a word, the father beat Lin Lan severely.

Because Lin Lan frequently gave his blood to feed Xiao Zi, he was already physically frail. He was quickly beaten into a state where he couldn’t stand. Not a single tourist stepped in to help; they were all too busy filming the scene with their phones.

Driven by the need to protect her “husband,” Xiao Zi lashed out. And that’s when everything went south.

After hearing Lin Lan’s story, the three in the room fell silent. It felt a bit surreal, yet it didn’t lack a certain dark logic.

“But… how did you fall in love with a flower?” Xiaoxi asked, genuinely confused. She couldn’t imagine how a human could be interested in a plant. Even if Sister Long was a dragon, she at least had a human form.

Lin Lan smiled, looking at Xiao Zi beside him. “We have known each other for three hundred years. Three hundred years ago, she was a small demon who could take human form.”

“Three hundred years?!” Miaoming and Xiaoxi were stunned. How could a human live that long?

“Soul-Sealing Life Extension, refusing the cycle of reincarnation… a forbidden technique of the Heavenly Demons,” Hua Qianluo said, looking at Xiao Zi with intrigue. “Based on the level of this spell, it seems you were once a great demon who shook the world. You touched a taboo you shouldn’t have, and ended up in this state.”