After the senior sister from the Service Department finished speaking, quite a few female cultivators couldn’t resist signing up.
Mu Yanxi, however, remained leisurely seated at the exhibition table, enjoying the free samples. Demonic Beast Meat was free—why not eat it?
At that moment, a somewhat dejected Hai Lingxue turned her head and suddenly spotted Mu Yanxi sitting there, chopsticks in hand, eating nonstop.
Her face immediately flushed red, and like a bristling cat, she demanded, “When did you get here?”
Mu Yanxi replied, noticing Hai Lingxue’s displeased expression, and smiled as she took the initiative to ease the tension.
“I’ve been here the whole time. I was already sitting here before you asked your question. I just thought the spirit dish tasted good, so I came to try it. Want some?”
“No need.” Hai Lingxue’s expression softened slightly. She stiffly sat down across from Mu Yanxi and stared at her. “Do you think it’s ridiculous that I’m joining the Service Department?”
“Not at all. What’s ridiculous about it? So many of our fellow disciples have joined—one more doesn’t make a difference.” Mu Yanxi replied while eating roasted Demonic Beast Meat.
Although she didn’t think much of the Service Department’s approach, the other associations in the Spiritual Moon Sect seemed more or less the same—none of them were particularly better.
Besides, the spirit dishes really were good. For the sake of the free samples alone, Mu Yanxi wasn’t about to say anything negative.
Seeing Hai Lingxue’s expression ease a little, Mu Yanxi added, “Do you really have to join the Service Department? There are so many associations in the Spiritual Moon Sect. If you don’t like it, you can pick something else.”
Hai Lingxue shook her head, as if she had already made up her mind. She stood and walked toward the registration area. “I don’t have that many choices. Thank you for your concern, Miss Mu.”
Thinking about Hai Lingxue’s unusual identity as an artifact spirit, Mu Yanxi seemed to understand something.
It appeared that the company she came from still had a strong hold over her—she didn’t have the freedom to choose.
Forcing Hai Lingxue into the Service Department meant making her learn how to serve a master.
Teaching an artifact spirit how to serve its master… that actually sounded quite normal. It was someone else’s private matter, and Mu Yanxi had no place interfering.
Still, there was an odd sense of dissonance in Hai Lingxue’s way of speaking, like the manner of a pampered Young Master.
And this was the first time anyone had addressed her as “Miss Mu,” which made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Even so, Mu Yanxi could tell that Hai Lingxue didn’t want anyone probing further. And Mu Yanxi wasn’t the kind of person to pry into things. After eating her fill, she stood up and left the Service Department’s booth.
After visiting a few more booths, Mu Yanxi fully grasped the Spiritual Moon Sect’s extreme spirit of self-sacrifice—devoting everything to studying how to please high-level cultivators in exchange for the chance to attach oneself to them.
And it wasn’t limited to male cultivators. High-level female cultivators could also be attached to.
Not only could the fake phoenix art be used for female-female double cultivation, but most of the auxiliary cultivation methods taught by the sect’s associations worked regardless of gender, such as celestial dance and spirit dishes.
These associations all ran counter to Mu Yanxi’s ideals. She still wanted to rely on herself in her path of immortality cultivation, rather than depending entirely on the favor of those above her. So far, not a single association had sparked her interest.
At that moment, she spotted her last roommate—the wolf demon Lei Mulan. During the Arena match earlier, Ruo Xuan had shattered her qipao uniform with a single strike, leaving her now wrapped in only a few pieces of cloth—quite eye-catching.
Unlike the others, she wasn’t asking questions or trying out the booths. Instead, she was hiding behind a pillar in Yuehua Palace, secretly peeking at one of the displays, her fluffy wolf tail swaying back and forth.
“What are you looking at?” Mu Yanxi walked up behind her and asked.
“Who’s there?!” Lei Mulan spun around, her guard instantly up as she saw Mu Yanxi. The fur on her tail stood straight up—not like Hai Lingxue’s catlike bristling, but literally standing on end.
Once she recognized Mu Yanxi, she let out a breath of relief and complained, “Oh, it’s you. Why’d you sneak up behind me?”
Mu Yanxi had originally thought demon cultivators were all brutal and hostile toward human cultivators—at least that was how they had been in her past life.
But from their first meeting yesterday and watching Lei Mulan in the Arena today, this wolf demon seemed surprisingly easy to get along with—completely different from the demon cultivators she remembered.
“I saw you sneaking a look at this booth, so I came over to say hi. What are you looking at?” Mu Yanxi asked, leaning forward to follow Lei Mulan’s gaze.
Nearby, the booth was filled with square tables covered in white cloth.
Female cultivators dressed in black-and-white maid outfits moved gracefully between them, serving drinks to seated female disciples with impeccable etiquette—almost identical to the Service Department.
The only difference was that all the servers here were demon cultivators. They retained obvious beast traits—most notably animal ears and tails.
But somehow, this was completely different from Mu Yanxi’s impression of demonic beasts in her past life. Back then, such features had only been terrifying, disgusting, or ugly—never appealing.
Yet here, the beast traits—whether ears, tails, crab claws, or even horns—felt undeniably cute.
Of course, part of it was because all the demon cultivators in the Spiritual Moon Sect were adorable young women.
But these animal features enhanced that cuteness even further, as if they had been deliberately refined to be this way.
Mu Yanxi noticed three ancient Yao Race characters written on the booth: Ferocious Pet Department. Honestly, she didn’t see anything “ferocious” about it—it felt more like a “cute pet” department.
One after another, the demon cultivator girls approached obediently, lowering their heads as they served tea and snacks, then spoke sweetly: “Master, please enjoy your tea. Would you like to eat first, or bathe first?”
Being treated with such deference by a senior sister who was a demon cultivator made the new disciples squirm with discomfort.
But one senior sister with pale green wings reassured them, “No need to be nervous, junior sisters. Just relax and enjoy the refreshments. This is also our way of welcoming you.”
Mu Yanxi also noticed that among those seated at the booth were demon cultivators, humans, and even other races—but the members of the Ferocious Pet Department, at least the ones in maid outfits here, were all demon cultivators.
“That’s the Ferocious Pet Department—the largest demon cultivator association in the Spiritual Moon Sect. Most demon cultivators join it,” Lei Mulan explained.
“Oh? So are you planning to join it?” Mu Yanxi asked. It did feel a bit strange, but compared to the nine associations she had seen earlier, this one seemed relatively normal—at least the atmosphere was decent.
“No way! I’m definitely not joining that!” Lei Mulan exclaimed, getting worked up.
“The Ferocious Pet Department specializes in teaching demon cultivators how to become spirit beasts for high-level cultivators.”
“Not only do you have to be useful in combat, but you’re also expected to double cultivate with your master or serve as a maid. I’m not doing that!”