The Dragon of the Fallen Demon Master Sister in a Book - Chapter 13

“Shopkeeper, this one, this one, and that one…” Feng Qingzhuo pointed deliberately, pretending to hesitate before ordering every variety of pastry on the menu. Growing impatient with the slow process, she finally said, “Never mind, just give me one of every pastry in your shop.”

The pastry vendor: “?”

The shopkeeper froze momentarily, then eyed Feng Qingzhuo skeptically—her hairpin, bamboo basket, and sword all looked ordinary and unremarkable. But when his gaze landed on her pristine white cultivation robes embroidered with golden cloud patterns, his doubts instantly vanished. His eyes nearly popped out of his head as he immediately bowed and said with reverence,

“Of course, Immortal Master! Please have a seat while we prepare them fresh—it won’t take long.”

Turning toward the back, he shouted, “Second Uncle! We’ve got a customer—a female Immortal Master! She wants one of everything! Freshly made!”

With a beaming smile, he ushered Feng Qingzhuo to a seat and poured her a cup of premium Biluochun tea.

Feng Qingzhuo glanced at him, noting his recognition of her robes—at least he had some discernment. She accepted the tea and took a small sip.

As the shopkeeper turned to leave, she beckoned him back and handed him a small pouch of spirit stones. “Go buy one of every edible item on this street for me,” she instructed.

Using spirit stones to purchase mortal food was excessive—after all, the gap between mortals and cultivators was vast. Even for ordinary practitioners, spirit stones were precious resources. Most cultivators barely scraped together enough for cultivation, let alone spare any for indulging in mortal delicacies that might even hinder their progress.

Thus, this food street mostly catered to wealthy mortals or gluttonous cultivators.

Clutching the pouch, the shopkeeper felt almost dizzy with disbelief. He craned his neck nervously, glancing around as if expecting someone to snatch his sudden windfall.

“Keep the extra as your tip,” Feng Qingzhuo said with a friendly wink.

“Y-yes! Right away, Immortal Master! Please wait just a moment!” The shopkeeper sprinted off, terrified she might change her mind. He stuffed the pouch into his robes, grinning so wide his face might split.

I’m rich! RICH! If I sell these spirit stones to merchants with cultivators in their families, who knows how much I’ll make! he thought giddily. Opening a pastry shop near a cultivation sect was the best decision ever! Trading money for spirit stones is like catching stars—utterly rare! And it actually happened to ME!

–

“Immortal Master, everything you requested is here,” the shopkeeper said, bowing deeply. “Shall I arrange delivery to your residence?”

Looking up at the mountain of steaming food piled on her table, Feng Qingzhuo sighed slightly. With a wave of her hand, everything on the table vanished instantly. The shopkeeper, who had been keeping his head down, caught a glimpse of this from the corner of his eye. When he looked up properly, he couldn’t help but marvel inwardly at the wonder of immortal magic.

“Leaving now,” Feng Qingzhuo stood up, having finished the tea in her cup. “The tea was decent.”

By the time the shopkeeper noticed, she had already walked more than ten meters away, leaving behind only a slender silhouette.

–

“Qingzhuo, are you very powerful?” Chris, who had witnessed everything from the basket, suddenly whispered to Feng Qingzhuo.

“Hmm…” Feng Qingzhuo thought for a moment before explaining, “It might be because of this robe.”

“This pure white cultivation robe with golden cloud patterns can only be worn by the direct disciples of Tianxuan Sect’s elders.” Her voice was calm, devoid of any hint of boastfulness or pride. As she spoke, she pulled out two steaming pastries from her storage pouch and slipped them into the basket behind her.

Seeing the pastries descending from above, Chris immediately reached up with her paws to catch them. Upon closer inspection, she found they were peach blossom pastry and black sesame pastry. Holding one in each paw, she waved them in front of the cat’s face and asked, “Which one do you prefer?”

As an apology for accidentally squishing the cat earlier, Chris offered the first choice. The cat lazily lifted its eyes and pointed with its paw at the black sesame pastry in Chris’s right paw—the one that looked sweeter.

It had a sweet tooth.

So, Chris handed over the black sesame pastry and began munching on the peach blossom pastry herself.

“Delicious,” Chris ate quickly and happily. The cat, infected by her joyful eating, picked up the black sesame pastry and began nibbling at it daintily.

After finishing, the fastidious dragon cub licked her paws clean. Just as she was about to ask Feng Qingzhuo for more, she noticed the woman had suddenly stopped walking forward, as if drawn toward something.

“Qingzhuo, what’s wrong?” Hidden in the basket with no full view, Chris dared not emerge suddenly for fear of causing trouble, so she could only whisper her question.

When Feng Qingzhuo remained silent but changed direction toward a small stall at the very edge, Chris grew curious. Peering through a small opening, her eyes immediately landed on a shiny gold coin placed at the stall’s far end.

The dragon cub’s eyes sparkled at the sight.

Dragons… dragons simply couldn’t resist gold coins.

The dragon cub wanted that coin.

Spotting the coin, Chris quivered with excitement.

Perhaps it was hardwired in dragon DNA to love shiny things, but the moment Chris saw that gold coin, she wanted to claim it as her own—with all the speed of love at first sight. Her entire dragon face radiated desire.

Feng Qingzhuo crouched down and picked up an ancient-looking gold coin from the stall. Her gaze, too, was captivated by the coin as she turned it over in her fingers.

The cool metallic touch felt pleasant, seemingly nothing out of the ordinary. After a moment, Feng Qingzhuo set down the coin and stood up, walking toward the stall owner who sat on the ground with half-lidded eyes, uncertain whether asleep or awake.

Standing before the stall owner, Feng Qingzhuo pointed to a simple, ancient-looking coin placed at the very edge and asked, “Excuse me, how many spirit stones for this coin?”

The stall owner was a clean-cut young man—or so it seemed—holding a sword in his arms, sitting cross-legged beside his stall with half-closed eyes. Though he appeared youthful, standing before him, Feng Qingzhuo inexplicably sensed an air of aged weariness, as if his vitality was fading… as though he didn’t have long to live.

Feng Qingzhuo discreetly observed him, but the “young man” suddenly opened his eyes.

They were strikingly bright and piercing eyes, framed by sharp brows that gave him a heroic, spirited appearance. Slowly, he said, “Here, it’s quite rude to observe others like that.”

Hearing his voice, Feng Qingzhuo suddenly realized—this wasn’t a young man at all.

“She”… was actually a woman.

Feng Qingzhuo froze.

Mistaking a woman for a man was indeed rather impolite. Quickly, she clasped her hands in apology.

The woman dressed in men’s clothing glanced at her and said, “If you truly want it, then 100 spirit stones.”

“100 spirit stones?!!” Before Feng Qingzhuo could respond, Chris, who had been eyeing the coin, was inwardly shocked.

Chris had just noticed earlier—Feng Qingzhuo had bought her so much food, practically clearing out the entire street, yet she had only given the shopkeepers small pouches of spirit stones, at most five or six pieces. She never imagined this single coin would be so expensive!

“A-Zhuo, maybe forget it,” Chris muttered quietly, afraid Feng Qingzhuo might act impulsively. She anxiously gestured with her claws. “It’s too expensive, not worth it.”

“This is practically robbery! What a rip-off!!”

Feng Qingzhuo had already spent a lot on her today. Though Chris hadn’t fully grasped this world’s trading system, she still understood that money wasn’t easy to come by. Spending so recklessly wasn’t good.

The dragon hatchling hurriedly averted her gaze from the exquisite coin, as if looking at it any longer would cost her two more spirit stones.

“Do you mean low-grade? Mid-grade?” Feng Qingzhuo met the stall owner’s gaze. “Or are you asking for high-grade spirit stones?”

Chris: !!!

Chris was dumbfounded. What was going on? Now they were talking about high-grade, mid-grade, low-grade—what kind of coin was this expensive?! Was it made of gold?

Oh… Chris suddenly realized. A gold coin… was indeed made of gold.

Wait, but that still shouldn’t make it this expensive!!! Were they taking advantage of her lack of understanding about spirit stones?!

The dragon hatchling’s eyes widened instantly, her dark red pupils dilating into thin slits.

After a moment of silence, the dragon soul spoke up. “If you ask me, you two could stay here a couple more days.”

“Some people may look young on the surface, but actually…” The dragon spirit twitched its nose, sniffing the air as it analyzed, “You can wait here. Her life force is very weak—she probably won’t last more than two days before dying in this place.”

“Just imitate her posture, sit cross-legged in front of her stall, and stare at her until she passes. Then everything on her stall will be yours without spending a single spirit stone.”

Chris slowly raised a question mark with her claws.

“Help! Is this how you teach young dragons?!!”

“Listen to yourself—what kind of nonsense are you teaching?! How on earth did you manage to raise dragons with decent morals?!!”

The dragon spirit seemed genuinely puzzled by Chris’s reaction. “What’s the problem here?”

The little white dragon frowned in thought, its long, slender whiskers fluttering in the wind. “Once, a red dragon hatchling wandered into the human world and met its lifelong rival—a human female mage.”

“The hatchling was too young to defeat the mage, but it really loved the beautiful crystal orb on her staff. Guess how it eventually got its hands on that orb?”

Chris cautiously raised a claw. “Please don’t tell me it’s what I’m thinking…”

“Well…” The dragon spirit lowered its gaze. “That red dragon hatchling made a century-long pact with the mage. Every hundred years, it would challenge her to a duel. If the hatchling won, she’d give it the crystal orb. If it lost, the hatchling would guard her mage tower for a century.”

“You know…” The dragon spirit sighed. “Two-legged creatures are such short-lived beings. Yet you have to admit, compared to long-lived species like us, their progress is astonishingly fast—as if they’re trading their lifespan for this rapid advancement.”

“For us dragons, simply sleeping makes us stronger. It’s the simplest cultivation method, but… too slow.”

The atmosphere grew heavier as they spoke of this.

Chris asked, “How did the story end?”

The dragon spirit shook its head. “The red dragon hatchling never won against that mage. So… it guarded her tower for two hundred years. But the longest human mage lifespan only reaches 180 years. Before the second century arrived, that human had already aged beyond recognition.”

She died.

They say she was the greatest mage of her century.

She had many disciples and was renowned across the continent as a master of all elemental magics.

On her deathbed, she specifically woke the sleeping dragon hatchling. She confessed she couldn’t fulfill their pact, and so she offered the crystal orb from her staff to the young dragon.

Their story had seemed like a transaction—the hatchling guarded her tower, and she gifted it the orb.

Two-legged creatures—so fleeting, so fragile.

In truth, the dragon whelp had hardly fought any battles for her. Rather than being a guardian, it was more like being “kept”—that red dragon whelp had instead slept comfortably inside her mage tower, after all… the tower’s owner had kindly provided room and board.

“So… I suggest you’d better not fall in love with such creatures.” After saying this, the dragon spirit glanced at Feng Qingzhuo. “They’re too short-lived.”

“A lifespan of a hundred or two hundred years… Perhaps one day we’ll wake from sleep to find them gone.”

“By then, you’ll be heartbroken.”

In truth, the dragon spirit had left something unsaid to Chris.

That red dragon whelp had nestled in the human mage’s arms, watching those withered hands stroke its scales over and over—through her youth, adulthood, middle age, and old age. It had accompanied her mostly in slumber, yet every time it awoke, no matter when or where, it was always given the freshest food and the finest garments.

Cradled in her arms, the elderly mage struggled just to hold it, yet she still softly chanted her final spell before death. Her eyes shone brilliantly, even as her vision faded, and she murmured, “If there’s a next life, I hope to be a long-lived species.”

With that, she breathed her last.

The red dragon whelp couldn’t comprehend such emotions—it was still just a juvenile. And so, under the witness of all the students of the world’s greatest mage, the red dragon that had guarded the mage tower for a century betrayed its duty. It carried her body back to the Dragon Valley, burying her amidst the sea of flowers where it had been born, before sinking once more into slumber.

Chris suddenly didn’t want to ask about the red dragon whelp’s fate. Instinct told her it was likely a sorrowful tale.

So, she changed the subject.

“Oh! By the Dragon God! You know I’m straight! Wait, no—you know I’m a straight dragon! How could I possibly fall for another female?” Chris mimicked the dragon spirit’s tone, declaring righteously, “That would be hopeless!”

Unable to resist, the dragon spirit rolled its eyes at her again. “Well, you should also know that in such stories, females can still have offspring together.”

Chris: ?

Chris froze on the spot, utterly bewildered, her mind in chaos.

Wait, what are you even talking about?!

I’m still an underage dragon whelp!!! Why are you asking me such things?!

Just as the little dragon was lost in turmoil, Feng Qingzhuo had already concluded her transaction.