She paced her courtyard, muttering to herself. “Maybe I should spend some spirit stones and hire someone from the mountain again. Like last time…”

  Edmund leaned lazily against the wall. “Let Briar guide him.”

  Lauren froze. “What? Are you serious? Briar eats meat. What if it eats Wayne?”

  Edmund rolled his eyes. “It eats meat, not idiots. It’s not brainless.”

  …Fair point.

  Still, she hesitated. “I have to tell Master first. He needs to agree.”

  Edmund scoffed. “Are you being filial, or just annoying? You’re grown. Do you have to ask your master about every little thing? What happens when he’s not around anymore? Who are you going to run to then?”

  “How dare you say that?”

  “I meant when he ascends,” Edmund snapped. “You think he’s going to stay here forever?”

  She frowned but didn’t argue further.

  “Fine. We’ll still inform him,” she said. “We’re talking about a massive man-eating flower demon living on Starfell Summit. And now we want it to babysit a child. Master should know.”

  “Whatever.”

  Edmund snapped his fingers.

  A small figure emerged from the trees.

  Briar’s face was flushed red like a blooming flower. Its hands were two broad green leaves, and its feet were twisted tree roots. It looked more like a festival lantern gone wrong than a caretaker.

  Lauren rubbed her temples. “That appearance won’t do. Change. Try looking human.”

  Briar shook violently. The leaves split, forming several stubby green fingers. The root-feet stretched and twisted, attempting something that vaguely resembled legs.

  It looked… worse.

  Briar’s leafy face scrunched in frustration. “I’ve tried my best. This is as good as it gets.”

  Lauren stared at it for a long moment.

  “…Fuck it,” she muttered. “Fine. Let’s go see Master.”

  .......

  Inside Starfell Hall, Briar stood off to the side like a condemned criminal waiting for sentencing. Its twig-like toes kept scraping at the floor, nearly gouging holes into the stone tiles.

  It had seen this man years ago.

  Back then, it had tried to drag him into a dream. Not only had it failed spectacularly, it had gotten the absolute shit beaten out of it.

  Now it was petrified he might recognize it.

  “You said it’s Edmund’s friend?” Drake asked calmly.

  “Yes,” Lauren replied. “Like Edmund, it longs to return to the realm of the gods. It has nowhere else to go, so it followed its disciple here. Same situation as Edmund.”

  “Hmm.” Drake studied Briar. “Its appearance is rather… distinctive.”

  Uh oh.

  “Your transformation isn’t complete, is it?” he asked.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “No,” Briar answered stiffly.

  “Lack of cultivation? Or…?”

  “I’m still recovering from severe injuries. This is my limit.”

  Drake nodded. “Very well. Let it try. Just don’t frighten the child.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Oh—right, Master,” Lauren added quickly, “it eats meat.”

  Drake’s brows lifted. He flicked Briar lightly on the forehead. “This little thing eats meat?”

  Briar stiffened.

  Crack.

  A paving stone split cleanly in two under its root-like foot.

  Its face, already red, turned crimson. The leaf-hands trembled violently.

  “I don’t eat meat! I don’t eat meat! I’ll gnaw on bones!”

  Drake: “…”

  Lauren: “…”

  Who would believe this trembling idiot was once a heartless man-eating demon that slaughtered without blinking?

  Drake suddenly asked, “Does it eat chicken?”

  Briar blinked, confused.

  “As for food,” Drake continued casually, “I’ll allocate a separate plot of land. It can raise its own.”

  Lauren’s mouth twitched. Was he serious?

  Briar looked helplessly at Lauren.

  She smiled. “Thank you, Master.”

  Taking that as a cue, Briar immediately echoed, “Thank you, Master! I’ll eat chicken!”

  Drake: “…”

  ......

  Lauren brought Briar home in high spirits.

  “Luckily, my master is open-minded,” she told Edmund. “He accepts all kinds.”

  Then she turned to Briar. “You’d better behave. If you scare Wayne into tears, you’re out of a job.”

  Rejected before even starting, Briar’s toes began digging nervously into the floor again.

  “Hey! Where the hell are you burrowing? Don’t ruin my floor.”

  Briar quickly retracted its roots.

  “You stay here. I’ll go get Wayne.”

  Wayne had proven surprisingly diligent. When Lauren told him to cultivate, he locked himself in his room and trained with utmost seriousness.

  When she called him out, he came immediately.

  “Miss Lauren, what can I do for you?”

  “Well…” She cleared her throat. “I need to enter seclusion soon. Once I do, I may not come out for several months. You’re still young—you can’t just be left alone. So I found you a nanny.”

  “A nanny? What’s that?”

  Lauren pointed.

  “It’s this.”

  Briar, in its half-baked human form, stood about Wayne’s height. Its red face grew even redder under scrutiny, and it began scratching at the floor again.

  “Hehe… I’m… the nanny.”

  Wayne stared at it silently.

  Everyone held their breath.

  After a long pause, Wayne suddenly grinned. “That’s fun.”

  Lauren blinked. “So… you’re okay with it taking care of you?”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  Good. No crying. No screaming. Everyone survived.

  “Come on,” Lauren said. “Let’s head down the mountain for a bit.”

  She went to exchange for medicinal pills, picked up the herbs Timothy had requested, and collected Wayne’s monthly stipend.

  Dante had contacted her days ago about retrieving the ring, but she’d been putting it off. This time, she grabbed that too.

  Dante looked at the boy beside her and smiled. “Is this Mr. Tarot’s new apprentice?”

  “Yes. His name is Wayne.”

  “Oh? From the Sharpe family?” Dante nodded. “The Sharpe family has produced several outstanding talents in recent years. No wonder I saw Mr. Cornelius walking around grinning like a fool the other day.”

  Wayne bowed politely. “Greetings, Mr. Dante.”

  Dante chuckled approvingly. “Promising child.”

  After finishing her errands, Lauren brought Wayne back up to Starfell Summit.

  Halfway up, she saw Master Gerald leading a group of young disciples, each one carrying several chickens.

  She stopped dead.

  What the hell?

  Her master worked fast. He’d actually gone and bought chickens.

  “Release them all on that hilltop,” Drake instructed, pointing toward a barren peak nearby.

  Gerald hesitated. “Mr. Drake… why are we suddenly raising chickens?”

  “To catch bugs.”

  Gerald: “…”

  Drake’s actions were always baffling. Gerald wisely chose not to ask further and had the chickens released into the mountains.

  The hilltop had once belonged to a senior disciple—now it was nothing more than a few crumbling stone huts.

  Lauren cleaned the place up and designated it as Briar’s territory. It would raise chickens there—and watch Wayne.

  To prevent Briar from devouring the entire flock in one sitting, Lauren painstakingly explained the basics of egg-laying, incubation cycles, and sustainable breeding.

  “Don’t eat them all at once,” she warned. “If you wipe them out, you’ll starve later.”

  She also asked Edmund to check in occasionally, just in case Briar did something stupid.

  Once everything was arranged, Lauren returned to her quarters.

  And entered seclusion.

  .....

  Three months later, Lauren finally finished purifying the entire spirit pool, turning every last drop back into ordinary water. Only then did she step out of her spatial dimension.

  Her cultivation had stabilized at the late stage of Nascent Soul.

  Using two different spiritual flames at once, she refined her very first batch of pills—

  Grade One Qi Condensation Pills.

  She practically bounced over to Edmund, holding up the small jade bottle like a trophy. “Well? What do you think of my Grade One Qi Condensation Pills?”

  Edmund glanced at them. “Not great.”

  Lauren froze. “Not great? How are they not great? I refined them with dual flames! They’re definitely better than the crap they sell outside.”

  Edmund answered bluntly, “They are slightly better than the ones sold outside. But they’re still nothing special.”