I Have a Golden Crow

Yang Qingqing waved her hand casually, and the wall of leaves before them suddenly started to boil. In the blink of an eye, the photos vanished without a trace, revealing a whole pile of wooden weapons, creating quite the spectacular scene.

Yang Qingqing: ”Bow and arrow skills suit the traditional Demon Spirit Realm, but things in the tower are different. You can pick a melee weapon for self-defense.”

Du Yu was secretly delighted. Is Teacher Qingqing going to give me special training? Whether I complete the mission or not is another thing, but having a famous teacher personally guide me—how awesome is that?

Du Yu blurted out, ”Sword.”

Yang Qingqing’s major was the bow, minor the sword. Du Yu knew his teacher’s resume, so of course he picked the sword.

Yang Qingqing’s bright eyes seemed to see right through Du Yu’s little calculation. She smiled, ”Just pick the weapon that’s most comfortable for you. Also, I’m about to head out on a mission, not sure when I’ll be back. Your friend will teach you.”

Du Yu: ”Friend?”

Yang Qingqing pointed to the side.

Following Master Qing’s finger, Du Yu turned and looked, then his face turned to confusion: ”Fire Phoenix Tree?”

Yang Qingqing: ”Just speaking of melee weapons, it’s better at teaching them than I am, and a lot more specialized.”

Du Yu put on a look like he half-believed it: ”Really now...”

The exceptionally spiritual Fire Phoenix Tree seemed to sense Du Yu’s skepticism. Several vines shot out, grabbing up all twenty or so weapons from the tree wall and wrapping them up.

Suddenly, the big living room was full of weapons swirling everywhere. Even if they were all made of wood, anyone would get goosebumps just from looking!

Yang Qingqing turned and walked toward the stairs: ”If you ask what weapon Fire Phoenix Tree is best at, that’d be whips.”

Whip? Umm, maybe not then.

Du Yu still preferred more normal weapons, like sword, spear, sabre, halberd, that kind of thing.

A whip as a weapon... Always felt a bit off, you know?

But you know, fighting with a whip probably feels quite satisfying?

If I ever run into some punk, I can just give him a beatdown with a few whip slashes. Tsk tsk... Just imagining it feels great!

All of a sudden, a flower stem stretched down from above the staircase. As it came close to Du Yu, two pink-and-white blossoms suddenly bloomed on it.

One covered Du Yu’s ear, the other covered his mouth.

Du Yu tensed up, not sure what was going on.

Then, from the flower covering his ear, Yang Qingqing’s voice came: ”You need to understand the difference between your major and your minor. Don’t feel burdened by picking a melee weapon. Whatever feels good in the hand is best.

People’s energy is limited. Most folks never master even one skill in their whole life. If you want to achieve something with the bow, you’ll need to work hard on it night and day, don’t get distracted.”

From the flower covering Du Yu’s mouth came his muffled reply, ”Okay, Teacher, understood.”

Yang Qingqing: ”The first floor is your activity zone, the living room your training ground. Pick any guest room to stay in. Kitchen has all the food and Demon Pet Food you’ll need, just help yourself.”

After speaking, the flowers on Du Yu’s ear and mouth loosened, and the stem slowly retracted to the stairway.

Du Yu looked again at the pile of wooden weapons, feeling a headache coming on. He picked up the branch-wrapped Wood Saber and Wooden Sword, tried them out one after the other, but didn’t feel anything special. He wasn’t sure if he had any talent in the Sword Domain.

Should I try the Giant Blade?

Or maybe the Heaven-piercing Halberd?

After about ten minutes, Yang Qingqing came back down the stairs.

This time she didn’t look like a classical beauty anymore, but wore a modern tracksuit and a baseball cap, her long hair pulled back in a high ponytail.

Seeing Du Yu still unable to pick a melee weapon, Yang Qingqing realized—this kid had probably never thought about this stuff at all.

He hadn’t even dreamed about it, probably.

She walked back to Du Yu’s side and said casually, ”I don’t know when you’ll reach Demon Tamer Prentice·Peak Stage, but from what I’ve seen lately, it probably won’t take long.

But it’s unrealistic to expect you to whip up some solid melee weapon skills in so little time.”

As if worried she’d give the kid a wrong lead, Yang Qingqing pointed, and the Fire Phoenix Tree sent over a small hunting bow, wrapped in a vine, delivering it to her hand.

Yang Qingqing casually grabbed a thin Flower Vine and summoned two Wooden Short Daggers, then tied them one after the other to each end of the bow’s limbs.

Soon, the special ”Blood-trace Hunting Bow” was assembled and handed to Du Yu.

Yang Qingqing: ”Bows can be used for melee too. Try this out. If it doesn’t feel right, you can always change.”

Du Yu fiddled with the newly acquired hunting bow—it seemed made of the same material as Demon Soldier Black Wood, probably also a Newbie Level Demon Soldier.

Yang Qingqing walked to the door, reminding him: ”Train well. With a special teacher like Fire Phoenix Tree guiding you personally, don’t waste your chance.”

”Okay, okay, thank you, Teacher.” Du Yu started to reply, wanting to go out and see Teacher off, but then—he stopped right where he was!

A Wooden Sword was suddenly pressed horizontally against his neck!

Fire Phoenix Tree’s twig was twined around the hilt, slowly sliding the blunt wooden blade across Du Yu’s throat.

God, this sense of pressure!

”Gulp.” Du Yu’s Adam’s apple quivered as he stepped back and back, but the wooden longsword just stalked him, pressing in on his throat.

Out in the corridor, Yang Qingqing stood before the elevator, muttering, ”Paper Crane Disciple, Du Yu...”

”Ding~”

As the elevator doors opened, Yang Qingqing snapped out of it, smiling as she walked in.

She found herself actually looking forward to seeing what surprises this talented Paper Crane Disciple would bring her.

Back in the living room, Du Yu kept stepping backwards as the branch-wrapped wooden sword pressed in, always right up against his throat. Until finally...

Du Yu toppled backwards into a thick nest of branches and was swiftly wrapped up by Fire Phoenix Tree into a ”Leaf Cocoon.”

”Let me out.”

”Brother Tree, come on, stop messing around, Bro Tree!”

”At least let me find a guest room and drop my stuff—” Before Du Yu could finish, he felt the tangle of branches suddenly retreat, and his surroundings changed.

He was no longer in the living room, but in a well-lit, tidy bedroom.

Du Yu hesitated, put his backpack on the desk, took off the Beard Tree Cloak, and a branch also placed his Demon Soldier Black Wood and Demon Soldier Silver Fire on the table.

Before he could even check out the guest room, a thick tangle of branches came again, rolling him up.

And when the branches let go, Du Yu realized he was in the kitchen.

One after another, flexible branches opened the cabinets, as if showing Du Yu the huge variety of ingredients.

”Ooh, that one’s good.” Suddenly, Little Fen Yang’s voice echoed in his head.

”Huh?”

”Fire Nether Fruit,” Little Fen Yang mumbled softly. ”That’s way better than the Nether Leaf Small Pearl Fruit—more helpful for Little You Ying’s growth.”

”Oh?” Du Yu was overjoyed! With better ingredients, who’d bother with Nether Leaf Small Pearl?

He quickly tiptoed up, fingers sliding over a bunch of wax paper bags in the top cupboard.

Little Fen Yang: ”Third from the left.”

Du Yu instantly grabbed the wax paper bag, tore it open—and inside was... not Fire Nether Fruit, but dried fruit.

Du Yu turned to the branch: ”Brother Tree, is this okay for my Demon Pet to eat? Master Qing said everything in the kitchen is fair game for me.”

The flexible branch wavered and a spray of leaves, like tiny hands, brushed Du Yu’s cheek, as if to say yes.

Naisi!

Du Yu immediately summoned Little You Ying.

”Hoo?” Little You Ying blinked around curiously, not sure where it was.

”Here.” Du Yu took two pieces of dried fruit from the wax paper bag, holding them out to Ghost Firefly’s tiny mouth.

”Hoo~” Ghost Firefly tried a bite of the Fire Nether Fruit, its big eyes immediately squinting happily—the face of pure joy!

”Oh crap!” Du Yu realized something was wrong and tried to bump Little You Ying with his forehead, but the branch beat him to it, winding up Ghost Firefly immediately.

”Poof!”

A tiny sound, and the round leafy cocoon carried Ghost Firefly out the window. Only after the smell had aired out did it return Little You Ying to him.

Little You Ying wobbled, looking utterly dizzy, as if knocked out by its own fumes.

@_@

Damn, so you’re afraid of your own stench too?

Makes sense. No matter who cuts the cheese, a fart’s still a fart.

Du Yu grinned with a mischievous smirk, ”Finally found someone who can handle you!”

But he didn’t get to gloat long before the branches wrapped him up again, carrying him back to the living room.

In plain sight, the whole 200-square-meter living room was quickly overtaken by leaves—no more walls in view, not a piece of furniture in sight.

”Holy crap.” Du Yu, buried in this leafy world, couldn’t help but marvel in awe.

Little did he realize just how serious things were—real-life, one-on-one tutoring from Fire Phoenix Tree, starting now!

”Swoosh!” A vine suddenly lashed out, aiming for Du Yu’s arm.

Du Yu didn’t even have time to think, reflexively bringing up his bow to block.

The bow arm stopped the vine, but the vine simply flexed around it, poking Du Yu right in the cheek.

Poke~

Du Yu: ”...”

His Demon Breath Battle Robe wasn’t damaged—in fact, the vine’s little poke basically didn’t count as an attack at all.

”Smack!”

The vine slapped the leaf-carpeted ground, as if warning Du Yu it was about to get serious.

”Whoa! Whoa...!” Du Yu scurried backwards, shouting, ”Can you first teach me how to use the bow in close-range combat? At least give me some basic moves—or should I look it up online or—eh?”

Poke~

”You tree!”

Poke~

”Don’t poke my kidneys—”

Poke~

”Ah~”