Chapter 122: The Demon Hunter Tao Yaoyao

Taoyao’s expression was as if she had just eaten a live cockroach. She forced herself to swallow the noodles in her mouth, then grabbed the water kettle and gulped down water fiercely.

“Yaoyao?”

Taoyao waved at Lian, signaling her to wait a moment.

Lian remained silent.

After a short while, Taoyao seemed to come back to herself, staring blankly at the bowl of noodles. Following Lian’s gaze, she slowly muttered, “This noodle, Aunt Zhou’s cooking shouldn’t be like this.”

Those words happened to be overheard by Aunt Zhou, who had been cleaning the dishes. Having served no customers for two consecutive days, she felt bitter inside. “Yaoyao, do you think Aunt Zhou has gotten old? This noodle not only lacks any real flavor but even smells foul. If it weren’t for you insisting, I wouldn’t have the face to make it at all!”

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. Taoyao quickly steadied Aunt Zhou. “Aunt Zhou, don’t worry, just hold on!”

Taking advantage of the moment, Lian drifted into the shop. There were only a few tables, the place neat and orderly. She passed through the door, behind which was where Aunt Zhou made the noodles.

A faint, ethereal aura surrounded the area. Lian, noticing the red tail sticking out from under the steaming basket, smiled knowingly before drifting away.

“Yaoyao, this might be something you have to handle.”

Taoyao paused, holding Aunt Zhou’s hand tightly. “A spirit?”

Lian nodded.

But Aunt Zhou couldn’t see Lian; she was excitedly clutching Taoyao’s arm. “Yaoyao! Do you know why the noodles came out like this? Do you?”

Seeing Lian’s affirmative look, Taoyao nodded.

Aunt Zhou seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, embracing Taoyao solemnly. “Yaoyao, please hurry and help me check. I was nearly ready to close the shop these past two days!”

“Okay.” Taoyao replied softly and then stepped into the kitchen.

Following Lian’s guidance, Taoyao moved step by step toward the kitchen.

She lifted the lid of the steaming basket to find a little demon, entirely flushed red, with a rounded head, a cleft lip, small eyes, and no eyebrows, sitting with its back turned.

The little spirit, caught red-handed, hurried to cover its behind and tried to escape but realized the area was sealed by a barrier.

Taoyao watched as the little spirit frantically bumped around but couldn’t get out. She glanced at Lian’s profile; it was obviously trapped.

“So it’s a flavor-eating spirit.”

Lian had only read about this type of little demon in books, and the descriptions were brief.

Taoyao, however, spoke at length about the flavor-eating spirit.

“A flavor-eating spirit is a low-level demon that likes to devour odors. Food that’s been drained of its scent tastes dry and bland, losing its original texture. As for why this particular batch of noodles smells bad after being consumed by it... maybe because it carries some bad breath. Ba... bad breath! Ugh! Ugh!”

Realizing this, Taoyao suddenly remembered she had just eaten those foul noodles. Her stomach churned, and she retched.

The flavor-eating spirit, seeing how disgusted Taoyao was with its breath, gave up on fleeing. It just sat on the steaming basket, looking at Taoyao foolishly.

Lian suddenly recalled what Taoyao had said earlier—“The demons in Shennu Village are usually docile.” Looking at this flavor-eating spirit, it wasn’t just docile; it was like an innocent little chubby creature, untouched by the world’s filth.

Feeling like she needed to cleanse her stomach, Taoyao finally regained composure and looked at the innocent spirit. “How did you get here?”

The spirit sucked on the food flavor lingering on its finger, looking satisfied. “Gulu, gululu, gugu~ gululululu gu.”

Lian suddenly realized she didn’t understand demon speech!

She had been hoping not to deal with demons and thus hadn’t bothered to learn their language.

Now, she regretted it deeply!

If heaven gave her a chance to start over, she would definitely study demon speech!

But what on earth was this gibberish the spirit was saying?

“Are you saying you came here by accident?”

“Gugulu~!”

Lian was dumbfounded.

She hadn’t expected Taoyao to have such a skill — understanding demon speech. She made a mental note to ask Taoyao later for a book to learn the language.

“What’s it saying?” Lian masked her embarrassment with a blank face.

“It says it was eating its meal when suddenly a claw grabbed it away. It woke up here, and because it was starving, it started looking for food.”

Taoyao thought the logic was reasonable, but Lian frowned. A claw?

Meanwhile, Taoyao was chatting away with the flavor-eating spirit in a language Lian couldn’t understand, full of chattering sounds.

Shortly after, a beaming Taoyao pulled out a jar—likely a pickle jar.

She wiped off the pickle leaves stuck to the outside and placed the flavor-eating spirit inside. Mission accomplished.

With the spirit gone, Aunt Zhou’s cooking returned to normal. Overjoyed, she made Taoyao a big bowl of noodles for free and even gave her a bag of money!

Taoyao was so thrilled she nearly jumped up. Now she had money to buy rice! Her master wouldn’t have to beg anymore! Such joy!

Leaving the market, Taoyao carried Lian and the pickle jar, heading west.

“This road, I haven’t been here before.”

“Lian, you have such a good memory. This road leads out of the village, so I didn’t bring you here before.”

Lian raised an eyebrow.

The path ahead grew narrower and narrower. If it weren’t for Taoyao leading, Lian might have suspected someone was trying to harm her.

After a long walk, they finally reached the end—a fork in the road.

Taoyao took off the pickle jar she was holding, opened it, and a wisp of red smoke flew out and settled on the ground, transforming into a stone-sized spirit.

The flavor-eating spirit bowed respectfully to Taoyao, then vanished.

“Do you carry this jar with you all the time?”

Taoyao put the jar away, tucking it into her bundle. “Yes, Master has always done it this way!”

She then bounced happily on her way back, singing as she went, “By the roadside, I found two coins, da da da da da...”

This little girl was really into finding money.

Back at the market, she bought a bag of rice and carefully stored the remaining money in layers.

On the way back, worried the sack of rice might crush the skinny, bean-sprout-like Taoyao, Lian used her spiritual power to carry the rice up the mountain.

Halfway up the hill, the strange sight of a little girl talking nonstop to the air appeared, with a bag of rice floating beside her.

When they returned to the shabby thatched cottage, dusk was nearing. Old Xu had already prepared dinner and was waiting for Taoyao’s return. Spotting her approaching figure, he called out loudly.

“Taoyao! Come eat, the food’s gone cold!”

“Alright, Master! Coming right away!”

Lian followed behind, sensing Taoyao’s excitement. She let go of her spiritual power, and the rice bag floated automatically to a corner.

Sitting at the table, Taoyao didn’t start eating right away. Instead, she searched her body for the money she still had to hand over.

But then, “Hey? I clearly put it here... Wait, what!? It’s right here!…”

Old Xu looked on curiously. “What are you looking for?”

“Money! Today, after dealing with the flavor-eating spirit at Aunt Zhou’s, she gave me a reward!”

“A reward?!”

“Yeah! I still had a good amount left after buying rice…” Taoyao almost cried.

Old Xu immediately understood. “Don’t bother looking. The money probably got lost. As long as you have rice, that’s enough.”

Taoyao shouted and smacked her head in frustration. “Right! I forgot I’m just a little pauper!”

Lian silently mourned for Taoyao. This girl’s constitution was truly that of a little spender.