The Devil’s Cage

Leaf Dining.

Song Shi entered the restaurant like it was her own house, walking to the counter and sitting down.

“Today’s special, 10 servings!”

Song Shi then slammed a stack of money on the counter.

Kieran took it, counted it carefully, and put it into his money box before he told the kitchen, “10 servings!”

“Okay!” Starbeck replied.

Song Shi curled up her lips into a sweet smile when she heard Starbeck’s answer.

After she left the last time, she had been waiting to hear this voice again and now that his voice entered her ears, her mood was lifted, even more so when the smell of food entered her nose, she couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“Good smell!” she said.

She then asked Kieran, “Does Roye have a girlfriend?”

“No,” Kieran replied.

“Then does he have a fiance?”

“No.” Kieran replied the same again.

“Then what do you think about me?” Song Shi was very persistent with her question.

Kieran frowned, he felt vexed by her relentless questions but Kieran’s habit made him cover up his emotions and he answered, “Nothing special!”

“What?! What do you mean nothing special!? I’m not pretty enough? Is my body not good enough? Or is my family background not good enough?”

Song Shi went crazy over Kieran’s remark, glaring at Kieran in hopes of a reasonable explanation.

Kieran stared back frankly, his eyes as calm as still water, a slight sense of coldness starting to emanate.

A second later after the staring happened, Song Shi averted Kieran’s gaze.

His gaze was too scary!

Being stared down by him was listening to the requiem of death sounding in her ears!

However, this lady, Song Shi, wouldn’t want to give up just yet.

“You are not Roye, how do you know?” she asked in a muffled voice.

She was very soft but her words would not escape Kieran’s ears, the calm and cold gaze of his revealing an additional sharpness, like a knife stabbing Song Shi.

As Starbeck’s friend, how would he allow a playful girl who was obviously here for some excitement to approach him?

Song Shi was terrified by his gaze. It wasn’t the first time but she still couldn’t get used to the pressure similar to a sea of bodies crashing onto her.

How many souls had this guy reaped in his past life?

The terror that rose from her heart made her reveal her illusory animal fox ears and tails again.

It wasn’t for battle though, it was the natural instinct from her bloodline to protect herself.

The kitchen curtain was then lifted up.

Starbeck brought out a bowl of chicken soup with fresh shrimp wonton, carefully serving it before Song Shi.

“What you have is great, but not to my liking.”

Starbeck spoke as slowly as his movements, together with that soft, shallow, warm smile. It sounded very resolute.

Song Shi widened her mouth, trying to say something but nothing came out.

She lowered her head and ate her bowl of wonton.

Starbeck turned to Kieran, his meaningful smile reduced to a simple and plain smile; Kieran’s eyes also turned soft only for him.

“I’ll get you some also,” said Starbeck.

Kieran’s smile got brighter.

Li Jiajia stood in front of the kitchen, quietly clenching her fist.

‘See! This is the power of a cook!’

A delicious dish can solve every single problem!

‘This is my life goal!’

Li Jiajia was even more determined than ever, returning to the kitchen and wanting to repeat the basics her teacher taught her another 10 times.

Starbeck then brought out a bowl of special made wonton soup for Kieran.

Unlike the one he served Song Shi, this bowl of wonton was more meticulously cooked and much more heart was poured into it, even the aroma was different.

Song Shi, who was busy eating, got interrupted by the sudden smell, her nose moving as she looked up to Kieran’s bowl of wonton.

She looked back to her own bowl and frowned hard.

“Why is there a difference in treatment!?”

“We are different.”

Kieran picked his spoon for a mouthful of soup. The clear soup had brilliant green scallions and coriander but when it was put into Kieran’s mouth, the thick chicken broth spread on the tip of his tongue. There wasn’t any fishy taste, only the rich and delicious chicken soup.

“I paid for this!” Song Shi argued.

“That is why you are sitting here,” Kieran replied and picked up a wonton.

The wonton skin was almost invisible under the light, the reddish shrimp paste inside shallowly reflected, and after a bite, the springy shrimp meat exploded between his teeth. The sweetness of shrimp and freshness of chicken converged into a perfect taste, Kieran swallowing the whole wonton in one bite.

He didn’t care about Song Shi anymore. One bite, one wonton, a bowl of 10 wontons were cleaned up in matters of seconds. He picked up the bowl and poured all the soup into his stomach.

“Phew!”

After he drained the last drop, he heaved a breath of satisfaction.

At the same time, Starbeck brought Kieran his second bowl of wonton.

“No customer will come for this, you know!” Song Shi protested loudly.

Starbeck looked at her apologetically and bowed. It was necessary for the restaurant owner to feel sorry about being unable to satisfy his customer, but compared to the concern for Kieran, the apology was nothing.

To Starbeck, the restaurant was important because he and Kieran worked together to run the business and if Kieran wasn’t happy about it, why would he want the restaurant?

Starbeck always had his priorities clear.

Therefore, all Song Shi did was sit back and swallow her frustration back into her stomach, watching Kieran gobble down a total of 10 bowls of wonton before she received her second bowl.

Song Shi was starving when she arrived at the restaurant, so she didn’t care anymore, ditching the arguments and picking up her spoon for the meal.

The clinks that stopped a moment ago continued, and it lasted longer than before because Song Shi ordered 10 servings.

This time, Song Shi required none of Mian Yi’s help in delivering the digestion pills.

She came prepared, when she felt she was at her limit, she took out a digestion pill, tossed it into her mouth and slammed another stack of money on the counter.

Song Shi grinned when she saw Kieran counted the money again.

“You money face! If you aren’t the reincarnation of a God of Slaughter, you are no different from those greedy, stingy bastards!” Song Shi said resolutely.

Kieran didn’t argue, he admitted that he was greedy for money.

He didn’t steal or rob, he earned the money with his own hands, what so shameful about that?

He calculated the money in the money box and then looked at the empty fish tank beside the counter. The aquarium was filled with seafood yesterday, but now it was empty other than water.

He remembered he bought lobsters, escargot, abalone, crabs, octopus, and even sea cucumber, where did they go?

He split the tank himself and placed all the seafood into their respective sections, how did the seafood vanish so fast?

He didn’t remember eating a lot…

Also.. the fish tank… was too small!?

He should have modified the space under the stairs into a pond and with a bigger fish tank, he could keep bigger seafood inside.

Knock Knock, Knock!

Song Shi couldn’t help but knock on the counter.

‘What is wrong with this guy? He dazed off by looking at an empty aquarium?

Is the aquarium more attractive than me?’

Song Shi had always been confident about her charms, yet she was forced to doubt it.

However, the doubts did not make her forget the other reason why she came to the restaurant.

“Let’s team up,” Song Shi said all of a sudden.

Kieran finally turned around to Song Shi and looked at her with a rather surprised look.

“What kind of eyes is that? Am I that reckless and spoiled in your eyes? Am I that lazy and only know how to enjoy life, and don’t even care about the serious matters, a spoiled young lady?!” Song Shi questioned him.

“Em, yes,” Kieran nodded.

“YOU! Ahem! Fine, I don’t want to argue with you on that!”

Song Shi angrily stood up from her chair, but sat back down quickly enough. She crossed her arms at Kieran, nodded and said, “This Battle of Winter Night is unlike the previous. I really don’t think I will run into problems, but if I can have an extra helper, I think it would be better and more appropriate. It will allow me to halve my effort in looking for those special items.”

“Special items? You mean the things placed in the Battle of Winter Night this time?” Kieran asked.

“Of course! One of the items is sponsored by my family! Of all the special rewards in this upcoming Battle of Winter Night, more than half of them are sponsored by various families, some from monsters, some from Demon Hunters,” Song Shi explained.

“What about the rest?” Kieran asked.

“The rest are raised by the Herders, though most of them are just Crossing Coins. Useful items are only a few and barely any of them have value at all,” Song Shi showed a sense of contempt in her words.

In Song Shi eyes, ‘money’ was near worthless, but not for Kieran.

After he heard what Song Shi said, he squinted his eyes.

Crossing Coins was better than those rare items for Kieran, because with enough Crossing Coins, Kieran could unseal all his attributes and return to his prime form, and with that aside, he could easily get his hands on all the items.

“Do you know where the items are?” Kieran asked the burning question.

Song Shi flipped a white eye at Kieran, her countenance of a lady swept away. She said “How would I know? In fact, other than that lord, no one knows where all the things are! Based on the news I’ve gathered, even after that lord put the items in a specific place, he too couldn’t make sure the items would stay there!”

Kieran frowned, doubts appearing in his heart.

“Where is ‘there’?” He asked.

“I don’t know!”

Song Shi shook her head, she couldn’t hold back her urge anymore and asked, “What do you say? Team up?”

“I’m better off alone,” Kieran answered.

“The more manpower, the more powerful we will be!” Song Shi emphasized.

“You will be nothing but in my way,” Kieran said calmly.

“You are unreasonable!”

Song Shi was pissed, standing up with a pouty face and left.

Kieran saw her off and after she was completely out of sight, he grinned and muttered to himself.

“Disguising yourself in front of your closest yet revealing your true intentions in front of me, a stranger? Gosh, these rich people are all so tricky and cunning.”

Kieran wasn’t sure whether Song Shi was being sincere in teaming up or had other ulterior intentions, but she had left an impression in Kieran’s mind and raised his alarm.

Kieran was utterly sure whosoever treated her like a weak lady that could be easily deceived or cheated. The one who did so would be the unlucky one in the end, and those unlucky ones would surely exist in the Battle of Winter Night.

There might even be some stronger ones participating in the event.

“This is getting more and more interesting,” Kieran thought in his heart.

Though he did not forget what his current priority was: he had to be fully prepared in order to leave the restaurant temporarily and assure Starbeck’s safety.

…

Inside an abandoned factory garage, three men huddled around a makeshift heater, heating themselves up.

The ‘heater’ was an abandoned gas barrel, wood pieces put inside as fuel for the fire.

The fire in the gas barrel shed light over the three men’s faces.

All three of them looked different but all were pale and gloomy.

One of them had a big scar on his face, it was daunting to look at.

“Enough. It’s too bright,” the man with the scarred face said softly.

The one on his left took the lid and covered the gas barrel to suppress the fire

He also asked, “Are we just going to hide here?”

“Hiding here is better than dying. Or do you want to end up like Mazmu, falling into the hands of the Song Shi family?” the scarred face man said coldly.

The man on the left pouted and ultimately went quiet.

To Witchcraft practitioners, they were happy to bring death and terror for others, but when the same was being done to them, it was hard to accept.

Moreover being worse than death, and ending up in Song Shi Family’s hands was exactly that.

The three of them could only imagine what kind of torture Mazmu had to go through.

“Hey, do you guys think the Philosopher’s Stone is real?” the man on the left said.

“Real or not, it matters not to us! What we need to do now is wait for the coast to be clear! And once it is, the other turfs in Ai City will be ours, together with their wealth and properties!” said the man on the right.

“But when will it be fine to go out?” the man on the left asked with a tormented look.

“Soon! The Battle of Winter Night is around the corner!”

“I’ve got news that this year’s battle is unlike the previous ones—it will surely draw attention and then it will be our time to move! The vengeful spirit I reared is anxious for some action. One guy told me before that he found a very special soul in a restaurant, I really want to have a look there!”

The man on the right said with utmost confidence.

The man on the left also showed interest whenever the soul was mentioned.

Both of them discussed the matter enthusiastically, but after a while, they noticed something wasn’t right.

The scarred face man in the middle was too quiet.

Although he wasn’t really much of a talker, he would never be this quiet about a special soul.

Both of them looked at their leader in the middle, seeing the scarred face man sitting there without budging. One of them pushed him with a finger.

Pak!

The scarred face man fell on the ground!

Both of them ought to stand up out of fear but their eyes were blinded by a flash.

Pak Pak!

A sword grazed their neck simultaneously, blood gushing out like geyser and spraying the place red.