Ji’an stood on the bottom step of the hut, pointing the tip of her spatula directly at the center of Yan Lie’s broad chest.

"You do not come near this hut until I specifically call for you," Ji’an laid down the law, her voice echoing with undeniable finality. "You do not threaten my squad. And you do not provoke me further, or I swear to the Heavens, the next beating will involve a cast-iron wok and boiling chili oil! If you think you’re some big, bad lord of the realm, then guess what? I am your grandmother! Respect your elders and learn some manners!"

She held the pose for a full five seconds, daring him to challenge her.

Yan Lie stood in the dirt. He slowly lowered his arms.

There was a distinct, red rectangular welt forming right in the middle of his forehead where the spatula had made first contact.

He stared at the gray-robed youth standing on the stairs.

His demonic blood was boiling, demanding slaughter. His pride, built over a lifetime of absolute dominance, was screaming at him to summon his abyssal fire and incinerate the entire village.

But his brain was stuck. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He had never been scolded. He had been feared, worshipped, assassinated, and betrayed. But he had never been swatted like a naughty child and told to mind his manners.

The sheer, colossal audacity of the act created a massive system error in the Mini Demon Lord’s psyche.

The anger evaporated, replaced by a blinding, overwhelming rush of pure, chaotic fascination.

His glowing red eyes widened slightly.

His heart, which usually beat with a slow, bored rhythm, gave a sudden, violent thud against his ribs.

"My... grandmother," Yan Lie repeated, the words tasting completely foreign on his tongue. He reached up, his large, calloused fingers touching the red welt on his forehead.

A slow, terrifying, entirely genuine grin spread across his face. It wasn’t his usual sadistic smirk.

It was the smile of a predator that had just discovered a completely new, infinitely entertaining species of prey.

"Understood," Yan Lie chuckled, a deep, vibrating sound that sent shivers down the spines of the Class 7 disciples. He didn’t raise his halberd, nor did he summon his flames.

He simply took a step back, conceding the territory. "I will wait for my dinner then, "Grandmother". Do try not to burn it."

"That depends on how you behave next."

He turned his back on her, walking toward a dilapidated inn across the street. He kicked the rotting doors open and vanished into the shadows, his booming laughter echoing into the fog.

Ji’an watched him go until the shadows swallowed him completely.

Once he was out of sight, her knees gave a subtle, almost imperceptible tremble.

’Holy mother of MSG, I survived!’ she screamed internally, lowering the spatula. ’I just slapped the Final Boss of the harem with a spatula! If he comes back in the middle of the night to flay me alive, I have no one to blame but myself.’

But she didn’t have time to indulge in a panic attack. The sun had completely dipped below the horizon, and the thick, unnatural fog of the deserted village was rapidly swallowing the remaining twilight.

The temperature was plunging, and the heavy, stagnant Qi of the area was pressing down on them like a physical weight.

Ji’an turned to the terrified Class 7 disciples.

"Alright! Show’s over!" Ji’an clapped her hands, instantly shifting gears back into Commander Mode. "Zhang Min! Take two of your least injured guys and drag that rhino carcass closer to the fire pit in the center of the square. Tang Bo, get out of here! We need wood, and we need it now!"

"Y-yes, Boss!" Tang Bo scrambled out of the hut, carefully stepping over the line of garlic Ji’an had drawn, grabbing an axe.

"Wait," Zhang Min hesitated, looking at the massive, armored corpse of the Iron-Hide Rhino.

"Senior Brother Lin... you’re not actually going to cook that, are you? That beast’s meat is notoriously tough. It’s like chewing on spiritual leather. And that guy... he’s insane. If you feed him bad food, he might kill us all."

The disciples didn’t know Yan Lie was a demon. To them, he was just a rogue, terrifyingly overpowered disciple from one of the upper classes who had severe anger management issues.

Ji’an’s reaction to his overbearing attitude seemed entirely justified, if suicidal, to them.

"I am aware of the texture, Zhang Min," Ji’an said, pulling her heavy iron cleaver from her spatial bag. "Which is why I am going to tenderize it. Move the carcass."

For the next hour, the center of the deserted village was transformed into an open-air butchery.

Ji’an worked with a speed and precision that bordered on the supernatural. The Iron-Hide Rhino was armored, but Ji’an knew the anatomical weak points.

She used her Qi-infused cleaver to slip beneath the armor plating, separating the massive slabs of tough, dark red muscle from the bone.

"Liu Liu, Su Wan," Ji’an called out, not looking up from her work. "I need the Weeping Mandrake roots and the Thunder-Root Ginger we harvested. Crush them together. The mandrake neutralizes the toxins in the meat, and the ginger breaks down the spiritual proteins."

Su Wan, who was still slightly dazed by the fact that Ji’an had just physically assaulted a terrifying warlord and survived, hurried to obey.

The White Lotus and Liu Liu began grinding the herbs with mortars and pestles.

Ji’an took the massive cuts of meat and tossed them into a giant, iron cauldron she had set up over the roaring bonfire Tang Bo had built.

"Now for the secret weapon," Ji’an muttered. She reached into her bag and pulled out a jar of the Murder-Bee Nectar and a handful of the Exploding Chili Peppers.

She didn’t just dump them in; rather channeled her Five-Grain Constitution to its absolute limit.

Her hands glowed with a warm, golden light as she massaged the fiery chili and the sweet nectar directly into the tough meat, forcing her Qi deep into the cellular structure of the beast.