Chapter 129: Down to Negative One Hundred

"Negative one hundred..."
Xiao Qing looked at Li Changluo with a resolute gaze.
I didn't misread it...
Your spirit-demon power level is a rock-solid negative one hundred.

"You said negative one hundred?"
Li Changluo picked at his ear, staring at Xiao Qing in bewilderment, the smile still lingering on his face.
"Mm-hmm."
Xiao Qing nodded emphatically once more.
"Heh, negative one hundred, it's negative one hundred. Then when I asked you earlier and you kept saying it was low, did you have some sort of misunderstanding about what I meant by 'low'..."
Li Changluo was practically driven to madness by this scatterbrained snake demon in front of him.
When I asked about your power level just now...
You looked so excited and happy, what was that all about?
Was it because you'd never seen such a pathetic power level before and couldn't contain yourself?

"Oh, it is low; it's lower than before."
Xiao Qing pouted, looking a bit aggrieved.
"You... let me have a moment of silence, will you? My mood is very complicated right now; I need to be alone to calm down."
Li Changluo looked at Xiao Qing with a sense of dejection...
How could he not be upset? One moment he thought he was a king, and in the blink of an eye, he wasn't even worth a bronze rank. This disparity left Li Changluo feeling terrible.

"Haven't you ever seen someone in such a bad mood? What are you trying to do?"
Li Changluo saw Xiao Qing slowly leaning in toward him, her cute face nearly pressing against his own...
The natural, feminine fragrance Xiao Qing carried made Li Changluo feel a strange itch in his heart...
He began to panic...
Could this little girl be...
That's right...
It must be...
Li Changluo's face began to flush, and he shyly closed his eyes...
This little girl must be trying to comfort me...
It’s just that this method is truly too direct for someone like Xiao Qing...
"Let's not make a habit of this. I am a gentleman, after all; I never take advantage of women."
Li Changluo kept his eyes tightly shut, waiting quietly...
Waiting...
But after a long while, he felt that something was wrong.
He hurriedly opened his eyes...
"With your hand raised so high, what are you trying to do?"
Li Changluo turned red with anxiety, for Xiao Qing was looking down at him with a spring-breeze smile on her face.

Her hand was held high, and Li Changluo was all too familiar with this signature move of hers...
"The manager said you’ve just recovered from a serious illness and shouldn't be overexerted..."
Xiao Qing blinked, and with her palm raised, she struck Li Changluo’s neck with a heavy chop...
"Snake spirit..."
Li Changluo didn't even have time to react. He managed only two words before his head felt heavy, and he blacked out...

When Li Changluo woke up again, it was already the next morning.
He scanned his surroundings vigilantly before letting out a long sigh of relief, as the "snake-crazy" Xiao Qing was gone...
He rubbed his sore neck and couldn't help but laugh through his tears...
The neural pathways of this snake spirit were simply unlike those of a normal person; "resting well" meant knocking you unconscious?
However, just as Li Changluo stretched and prepared to collapse back onto the bed for a nap, someone knocked on the door.

"Li Changluo, are you dead? If not, get up and stoke the fire!"
Mingshan’s booming voice rang out from outside.
"Li Changluo, open the door! If you don't, I'm coming in!"
Mingshan seemed to have run out of patience...
Li Changluo scrambled to put on his clothes and went to open the door...
"Li Changluo, do you think you're something special? It's your first day on the job and you're already sleeping in..."
Standing at the door, Mingshan glared at him aggressively, hands on her hips, pointing a large slotted spoon at him.
"First day on the job? Does this tavern usually have guests?"
Li Changluo chuckled. He knew this tavern wasn't like an ordinary one; how often were there days that required cooking anyway...
At least in his impression, there was only one day when the tavern needed to fire up the stoves: the day of the Monster Feast.
And that day had just passed...
"Learning to talk back, are you..."
Mingshan grabbed Li Changluo by the ear and dragged him all the way from the second floor to the kitchen...
"Ouch, ouch, ouch..."
Li Changluo rubbed his burning ear, crying out in pain...
"This is a kitchen. Although we only use it for the Monster Feast, we have to keep the fire burning every day to maintain the Divine Furnace."
Mingshan took a hot steamed bun from the pot and handed it to Li Changluo.
"Can I eat this?"
"If you don't want it, give it back."
Li Changluo hurriedly stuffed the bun into his mouth and devoured it.
"You're part of the tavern now, so you'll be provided with meals every day..."
Mingshan tied on an apron and began organizing the ingredients on the storage shelf.
"So, does this mean I don't have to fight the other monsters for tasks anymore?"
Li Changluo asked in surprise after hearing what Mingshan said.
So this was what it felt like to be on the government payroll—no more worrying about making a living...

Finally, he could live a life of idleness...
Could he just lie in a corner and soak up the sun like a lazy dog?
"Li, can't you have some ambition? Can't you be self-reliant..."
At that moment, a head poked out from behind the stove—an animal head with ears, covered in black soot...
It looked as if it had just crawled out of the furnace.
"Heiwa?"
As soon as Li Changluo heard that broken Chinese, he recognized it was Heiwa.
He rushed over excitedly and hugged Heiwa...
Heiwa had already reverted to its original form...
"Old Hei, what on earth did you go through in that bull's backpack? How did you get so dark, and why were you beaten back into your original form?"
"Old Hei, you've suffered; look how thin you've gotten..."
"Look at how starved you look—you've even changed your appearance; you look more and more like a dog. Where are your buckteeth?"
Li Changluo looked at it with a pained expression, stroking its head.
"Li, you, I'm right here."
Just then, another head poked out from behind the stove, and only then did Li Changluo see clearly that this was the real Heiwa.
"Then who are you?"
Li Changluo tossed the black creature in his hands to the ground.
"Woof! Woof! Woof!"
The black creature barked incessantly at Li Changluo, shaking the soot off its body.
It turned out to be the kitchen's furnace-guarding spirit dog, Ah Huang...
"How did you get in?"
Li Changluo asked Heiwa in surprise.
"You have an idiom that says, 'When one person ascends to heaven, the pigs and dogs are not as good'..."
Heiwa struggled to recall the idiom, trying to express his meaning.
"It's 'When one person attains the Tao, their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven,' please, spare me."
Li Changluo felt a headache coming on. He patted his head and looked at Mingshan again.
"It was arranged by the manager; he’s to be an assistant in the kitchen." Mingshan finished, then added, "Oh right, I almost forgot. The manager said there are conditions for this."
"..."
Li Changluo froze; there was truly no profit in waking up early for nothing.
"The manager says you're to go to her room after you finish stoking the fire."
Mingshan said, then added, "Even though you're now part of the tavern, you must still complete the tasks issued every month, and..."
Mingshan listened for a moment before continuing, "And we have a point quota. If you don't reach it, you're out."
"..."