Dusk had passed and the night grew deeper. Chen Qianfan's residence was more than ten miles away, and the cave was as cold as an icy pit.

Lord Bai curled up in Su Si's arms, confused for the first time.

Its ability must have gone terribly wrong somewhere, but it couldn't figure out which step was incorrect.

Was it when it left the Red Hook Sect?

The Red Hook Sect took it upon themselves to explore all the great tombs in the world, and they were especially respectful of matters of fortune. When entering tombs, they would bring ordinary poultry to ward off evil, let alone those with special abilities, which would be treated even better.

Lord Bai was found by a Red Hook Sect branch from a restaurant and offered to the main sect. It had a strong innate intuition, knew how to dispel evil and avoid misfortune, and could be called a "living magic weapon" of the Red Hook Sect.

The main sect of the Red Hook Sect was located in the northwestern desert, where it was dry and arid, but it could have its own clear pool. It used to sleep on the freshest and cleanest straw and eat the most tender grass leaves and fish fry. Those small tombs of princes and nobles were not even worthy of requesting its presence.

Lord Bai thought it could live a comfortable life.

A few months ago, it happily bullied the servants and suddenly had a bad premonition - that feeling was complex and intricate, indescribable. It always felt that it had to leave this place, but didn't know where to run to.

So it could only lie dejectedly in its nest, using its small brain to think hard about goose life.

Who would have thought that on that night, a pair of sinful black hands reached into the goose shed. Lord Bai was furious and was about to turn around and twist the person, but its mouth was caught by a rope loop. It was so frightened that the whole goose was stunned - this bastard was clearly prepared!

But this prepared bastard had a good appearance and good kung fu skills. He quietly picked it up, and the shiny blade was pressed against its neck.

Lord Bai didn't struggle. Its flesh feelers sensed the luck on this person.

Although Lord Bai had always looked down on people with its goose eyes, its brain was not as good as humans after all. At that time, it opened its bean-like eyes wide and made a simple and direct judgment - misfortune had appeared here, and this person had great luck. Then just follow him, what else was there to hesitate about?

Following the wrong person leads to being roasted in a restaurant, following the right person leads to a life of luxury.

However, since its "new servant" joined the Ku Mountain Sect, it had not encountered anything good. The bad luck of this group of people almost made it doubt goose life. Fortunately, everything was more or less smooth sailing, and the group did not encounter any major disasters. Su Si gradually became lively and active, so its premonition was not wrong.

Until this moment.

At this time and place, its "life of luxury" was extremely poor, and it looked like it was about to die.

Su Si curled up in a corner of the cave, his lips purple and his face pale. The blood on his clothes had frozen. A few steps away, a corpse with a miserable death lay on the ground, and the Mi Mountain Sect uniform on the corpse was tattered.

Lord Bai was held tightly in Su Si's arms, its pair of bean-like eyes rarely not stern, only worried.

Su Si smiled and rubbed its head with his chin.

"Your ability to seek fortune and avoid misfortune is not very effective... but you have already helped me a lot. Everyone has their own fate, I'm afraid I can only provide for you up to this point."

Lord Bai anxiously twisted its body and broke free from Su Si's slightly cold embrace. It kept honking and continued to think, trying to find out where it had led them astray.

According to its intuition, both of them should be able to survive.

Could it be that today was special?

Early this morning, Lord Bai sensed an extremely strong ominous aura. So it stepped on and twisted Su Si to wake him up, intending to save its servant.

Just as it had expected, Su Si put on his clothes and chased out with murderous intent.

Over the past few months, Lord Bai had come to understand its servant - Su Si was always vigilant and never left his boning knife. He was also very good at seeking survival and would definitely be able to walk out of the snowy plains alive.

Most conveniently, Su Si was quite calm and cruel, and never did anything useless. Su Si was not someone who had never used other humans before, and he was better than anyone at withdrawing in time.

What a stable and useful rice bowl.

Lord Bai's premonition was indeed timely. As soon as Su Si found the goose demon that had run far away, he saw a swarm of demons.

Discovering fresh human flesh, a few small demons left the team and pounced directly. Su Si lowered his eyes, and the light of the boning knife flashed, and blood immediately splattered on the ground.

Up to this point, it was still normal. Next, that calm human seemed to have made the wrong decision -

Seeing the crisis in front of him, Su Si did not run away. He kicked the demon corpse at his feet and was attracted by the broken talismans on the demon skin.

As the young sect master of the Red Hook Sect, Su Si did not need to learn how to cast spells or draw formations. But he had to learn the basic formations commonly used by enemies and the yin, evil, and strange techniques commonly used in great tombs.

"Before, I only felt that these ghost talismans were annoying, but now I should thank that old witch."

Su Si picked up the inconspicuous white paper scraps and examined them carefully in his palm.

"You called me out for this?... It's just a simple formation-breaking technique. But someone deliberately tore the talismans into snow, spreading them all over the demons, and hid the spell within the demon aura."

"Want to weaken the protective formation without anyone knowing, hmm, there's the sect master and Senior Yin on San-zi's side, there shouldn't be any problems..."

Lord Bai blinked, waiting eagerly for Su Si to take it and escape - the goose demon didn't understand any spells or formations, only knowing that the ominous aura of this place made it anxious.

In the past, Su Si would have run far away long ago. But now he was standing in place, muttering incomprehensible words like "pursuing the culprit" and "breaking the formation".

It didn't come out to save him so he could space out!

Lord Bai was so angry that it bit Su Si's calf. Unfortunately, it was bitterly cold, and Su Si's clothes were not thin. Its bite was in vain, and it could only flap its wings in anxiety.

"Honk!"

"I know, we have to find the caster quickly." Su Si glanced at it. "If the technique is not broken, the protective formation on Chen Qianfan's side won't last long."

"Honk!!!" You don't know shit, who cares what they're doing!

However, Su Si only tightened his clothes, wrapped Lord Bai in his outer robe, and followed the path of the demon army.

...Forget it, forget it, it didn't care anymore. Anyway, it didn't sense any ominous signs of trouble. As long as it and its servant didn't die, it didn't matter if they delayed for a while.

Lord Bai felt a little resentful.

Of the three people in the Ku Mountain Sect, only the red-eyed one still looked human. The other two were stranger than the other. Su Si didn't give it any fresh grass or fish, nor did he have his own clear pool. It really couldn't understand what it was attached to in the Ku Mountain Sect.

After a little while, Su Si successfully found the long-range caster. It was just that the person was more alert than they had imagined and stronger than they had expected.

The two battled for a full three hours. Lord Bai hid behind a giant rock in the cave the entire time, trembling like a leaf - aside from predicting fortune and misfortune, all it could do was pinch people, not even doing half a natural spell. Any random spell that flew over could send it to the afterlife in an instant.

Moreover, there were more spells exploding in front of it than it had seen in its entire life.

Its servant exhausted all his strength to finally sever the opponent's life force. But when the enemy fell, Su Si was also covered in wounds, barely able to stand steadily.

Normally, these injuries wouldn't immediately take his life. But this was the desolate northern lands, let alone being heavily injured, even a whole living person could freeze to death.

Lord Bai was nearly scared witless by Su Si's condition.

Its servant already looked like death, and it would be left alone trapped in this icy snowy land, its life uncertain.

But it still couldn't sense any ominous energy. Were its fleshy feelers frostbitten? Or was it too frigid here, and it was weak and hungry, lacking vital energy?

"Honk! Honk!" Lord Bai stumbled and ran towards the corpse, hopping up and down and yelling loudly.

Based on Su Si's personality, he should go gnaw on that corpse. Eating something, even reluctantly, might give him a bit more strength to hold on.

But Su Si just shook his head wearily.

"They will definitely come looking for me. Unfortunately, the demon horde won't disperse for a while, and this place is hidden. The soonest they'll come is after sunrise... Even if I eat human flesh, I won't live until sunrise. I don't want them to... see me in that disgusting state."

He exhaled a breath of cold air, even revealing a trace of a feeble smile.

"Besides, if I was going to eat, I should eat you first."

"...Honk!" What nonsense, simply outrageous!

"Lord Bai, come here." Su Si's voice suddenly steadied a bit.

Lord Bai stomped on the ground, trying to walk over as majestically as possible. Before it could stand firm, a warm object appeared on its body. Glancing down, it saw a block of warm red jade.

"I found it on that bastard, probably some little trinket they use to warm their fingers when casting spells. You wear this and go far away... anywhere is fine."

"Honk?"

When things are out of the ordinary there must be something strange. It was as cold as an ice cellar here, how could this person bear to give away such a treasure.

"With your small size, you can still preserve your life relying on this thing. In my condition, just warming a finger is useless... I don't want to struggle to live a moment longer."

Su Si seemed to have figured something out, his smile growing even more brilliant.

"Doesn't this line sound a lot like a 'hero'?"

What nonsense. Lord Bai, with the warm jade hanging on its chest, went to pinch Su Si's hand again.

However, Su Si didn't respond anymore. His eyes were half-closed, unclear if he was resting or had already lost consciousness. Lord Bai rubbed its head against his palm; Su Si's palm was ice cold.

Things shouldn't be like this, it dully thought.

Perhaps it should wait here. Maybe it wasn't mistaken and a turn for the better would appear. It had originally relied on warnings of fortune and misfortune, resigning itself to fate to live this long. As long as it found the right human servant to depend on, everything would be fine. It didn't need to think about anything or do anything.

Its ability had never been wrong.

Thinking of this, Lord Bai tentatively pinched Su Si again. Su Si still had no reaction. It drooped its head, sitting there blankly.

Su Si's life force was faint, he really was about to die.

Maybe it should listen to him, leave here, and find the next person with great fortune to freeload off of. Even if half of its predictions were wrong, at least its own life would be worry-free.

But Lord Bai still felt a bit unhappy, the warm jade on its chest burning uncomfortably.

Su Si saw how quiet it had been the whole way, so he dared to come here alone, right? Its ability, in the end...

Forget it.

Lord Bai straightened its neck, letting out a loud honk, its two fleshy feelers completely drooping down.

It no longer wanted to consider whether it had abilities, or the good or bad of the situation. Those things were too complicated, making its head swell thinking about them. There was nothing wrong with being a goose. If it received a favor, it would return a favor; even a goose should have a sense of righteousness.

Lord Bai flapped its wings for a while, then charged out of the cave. Its body was snow-white; the moment it stepped onto the snowy ground, only its orange-red beak and feet could be seen. The wind and snow paused momentarily, the surroundings utterly silent. Lord Bai puffed up its feathers and ran to the most open area, raising its head and honking loudly nonstop.

When it got thirsty from honking, it lowered its head to eat some snow. It didn't know how much longer Su Si could hold on, nor if there was anyone nearby at all. It just honked as if cursing someone out, growing more exhausted the more it honked, but also more refreshed.

It didn't want to die, so it would honk until it had just enough strength left to survive. That way, it could also leave this northern land with its head held high.

If it owed its servant a debt of gratitude, wouldn't that be humiliating?

Lord Bai didn't remember how long it honked for. It made such a racket that it felt a bit dizzy. It only remembered that when the dark clouds dispersed and the stars appeared, a pair of feet stopped in front of it.

It raised its head and saw a young woman. The woman was wearing a dark red cloak, her makeup exquisite, her eyes blazing.

"I thought it was something else, but it turns out to be just a little goose demon."

She grinned, caressing the small silver whistle at her neck.

On one side of her shoulder, three fat sparrows crowded together, curiously cocking their heads to the side.

Author's Note:

Today's chapter was delayed by an hour, I'm very sorry!

Actually, it's like this. I originally wrote this chapter from Su Si's perspective, but halfway through I always felt something was off _(:з」∠)_

I felt everyone probably didn't want to read a monologue and another fight scene, so I rewrote it.

As usual, the updates are unstable. Tomorrow there will be a 5000+ word compensation update... This isn't setting up a flag, it's the rule _(;з」∠)_