Gu Shi Yi cocked her head to look at him, seeing that the figure standing in the doorway's shadow was, honestly... rather stout and ridiculously short, filling the lower half of the doorway. Judging by the voice, it was a man. She nodded and said,
"Indeed, may I ask who you are?"
That lump of a person replied,
"This humble one is Lai Tun from Nine Holes Cave!"
LastName Lai!
Like the scab of a toad!
Gu Shi Yi understood; no wonder the demon Qi was so dense tonight—it was an encounter with a shape-shifting member of the Demon Clan. There and then, she quietly reached under her pillow and clutched the three Exorcism Talismans given by the middle-aged man in her palm, her expression unchanged as she asked,
"May I know the reason Brother Lai is visiting late at night?"
This Toad Demon was quite polite, standing in front of the door and bowing as he asked,
"May I come in to talk?"
Gu Shi Yi nodded,
"Please come in!"
The other party walked in with a waddle, and once he reached the well-lit part of the room, Gu Shi Yi took a closer look and saw a bald head without a single hair, a mouth that seemed to split to the back of the head, a pair of bulging eyes, no neck, a large belly, thin arms and thick legs. Upon reaching a chair, he hopped up with a leap and settled himself down, and his bulging Confucian Robe revealed two sturdy thighs.
Right, this fellow was even wearing a blue Confucian Robe; one wonders whence he found a tailor to craft such a garment with a length-to-width ratio of 1:2!
Gu Shi Yi turned her face away, not bearing to look directly,
No, isn't it imperative to shape-shift in our case?
Isn't it fine just being a toad?
At least with round eyes, a white belly, it's not so different from a tadpole when it's small, and it doesn't need to study or go out to look for its mother!
"Ahem..."
Gu Shi Yi cleared her throat, forced herself to turn back, and politely said to the Toad Demon,
"Brother Lai, may I know what instruction you have for me?"
The fellow blinked his bulging eyes and opened his big mouth to respond,
"This... I have long admired Miss Gu's beauty and wish to ask for her hand in marriage. May I ask how Miss Gu feels about this?"
I... Fuck your mom!
Upon hearing this, Gu Shi Yi felt as if someone had crammed a pile of shit into her mouth, and her face turned green on the spot,
"What... what did you say?"
Gu Shi Yi's mouth twitched as she asked the other party, the toad brother who had just shape-shifted not long ago, completely unaware of worldly matters, and his understanding of matters between men and women of the Human Race was limited to having seen a few wild ducks mating in the reeds by the river; where it was all about action without words!
So the Toad Brother assumed that the Human Race was just like them, where the louder one calls, the more dominant they are, so he loudly said to Gu Shi Yi,
"I have a cave dwelling, quite spacious inside, with a thousand taels of gold, ten thousand taels of silver, a hundred River Pearls, and countless ancient Jade Stones. All these will be yours if you marry me, Miss Gu. I ask for nothing else but what's in Miss Gu's possession to serve as her dowry!"
Now even the corners of Gu Shi Yi's eyes began to twitch. She ground her teeth and stretched out her right hand towards the little man opposite her, saying word by word,
"Brother... Lai... if... you... are... sincere... about... wanting... to... marry... me, why... don't... we... shake... hands... how... about... it?"
The Toad Demon did not suspect a thing and indeed stretched out his thin arm, with webs still between the spread fingers!
"My lady!"
My lady my ass!
Gu Shi Yi glared dangerously as the human and demon shook hands, and as expected, sizzling sounds of roasting meat came from the Toad Demon's hand, and white smoke rose from where their hands met. The Toad Demon bellowed,
"Croak!"
He jerked away from Gu Shi Yi's hand, jumped off the stool, and Gu Shi Yi also leaped off the bed, hurling herself at the Toad Demon. The Toad Demon, with his short legs, couldn't outrun Gu Shi Yi's longer ones and was caught by his robe in just a couple of steps,
"Slap slap slap..."
She slapped its bald head like it didn't cost a thing, each blow releasing a puff of smoke. Before long, the Toad Demon's head looked like a volcano about to erupt, sending up clouds of white smoke!
"Croak croak croak..."
The Toad Demon, sensing danger, shrank his body and slipped out of his custom-made Confucian Robe, nakedly leaping forward, turning back into a huge toad the size of a calf and glaring at Gu Shi Yi while puffing up,
"Haha..."
Gu Shi Yi stood fearless, the Ghost-Expelling Talisman in her hand unfolding and igniting in the wind,
"Whooo... Take this!"
I'll burn you to death!
Gu Shi Yi threw the talisman,
"Croak..."
Upon seeing this, the Toad Demon displayed a look of terror, stepped back twice, then suddenly inhaled, inflating his belly,
"Whoosh..."
With a wide-open mouth, black Qi was expelled from the Toad Demon's mouth, quickly enveloping the burning talisman, extinguishing the fire instantly, and the talisman fluttered harmlessly to the ground,