Has your daughter come back?” my aunt asked. “I heard the news. How about this, you let her go back to him, we split the money, and then she can just run away again. It’s not like she hasn’t done it successfully
before.”
My mom gave a strained laugh. “She’s not back. For all we know, he’s already found her.”
The two of them chatted for a while longer before my aunt finally left.
I was just about to make a run for it when my third uncle showed up. It was the same topic, and he even wanted to come into the cave to see if she was lying. My mom yelled at him until he left.
15
The stream of visiting snakes was endless.
It wasn’t until morning that I finally had a chance to slip out of the cave.
My mom’s eyes were glistening with tears. “Be safe, okay? I’m so proud that you were able to cultivate a
human form. When things blow over, come back home. Don’t let yourself be bullied anymore.”
I nodded and left.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was a rogue cultivator. My mom forbade me from dating anyone outside o
our own species. She said that was called “marrying far away.”
The mountain paths were complicated.
My plan was to crawl out of the deep forest before turning human, but a bird was being incredibly annoying
It had inky black feathers, and I couldn’t tell what species it was. Its cultivation level was even lower than
mine; all it could do was say a few human words.
t kept asking, “Lyra, you’re Lyra, right?”
told it I wasn’t, but it wouldn’t stop.
was so mad I shifted back to my human form, picked up a rock, and threw it.
gritted my teeth. “I told you, I’m not!”
The bird dodged it with a swift turn and started calling out again, “Lyra, Lyra.”
pointed at it. “One more time and I’ll turn you into braised chicken.”
That finally shut it up.
16
Being human was so much fun.
Dook at
Chapter 7
portions to avoid being discovered,
Now, I could eat whatever I wanted.
In just one month, I had eaten my way through the entire nearby food street. My next plan was to move to a new place and eat there.
I finally believed my mom when she said, “You will never regret cultivating a human form.”
I was sipping soy milk and strolling through the morning market.
“Lyra, Lyra.”
That bird was back, circling over my head.
The people around me heard the name and started talking.
“It’s been a month and she’s still not found. I bet she’s dead.”
“What a shame. That’s two hundred thousand dollars. I caught one that looked just like her a while back, bu
it wasn’t her.”
“Rich people are really something else. It’s just a snake.”
felt a little guilty.
I tried to shoo the bird away with my hand, but it wouldn’t leave, just kept circling me.
Suddenly, I felt a strange sensation in my body, like I was about to revert to my original form.
I quickly left the crowd and hurried back to my hotel.
Sure enough, the moment I closed the room door, I transformed back.
The bird was perched on the windowsill, tilting its head at me.
I hissed at it through the glass, baring my fangs in an attack posture.
It flew away.
