There was no response.

Undaunted, Kai tried again.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Demon? Please come out. I need to talk with you."

Nothing.

Kai peered at the painting. There was still smoke coming out of the chimney and the front door was a dull red. She was awake and inside the cottage. Therefore, there was only one conclusion. The demon was ignoring him.

"Demon, unlike the other mortals, ignoring me will do you no good. I can force you out."

Knock! Knock!

"You've got ten minutes!"

He waited for fifteen minutes, giving her an extra five just to be on the safe side. Since she was a female demon, it was only polite to give her warning before he extracted her forcefully from scroll. Who knew what she was up to in there.

"O'kay, times up. Come out now or I'll summon you."

The curtains fluttered but that was all.

Kai clenched his jaw and exhaled. He really would have preferred it if she had emerged on her own. This was not a good start for a civil discussion.

Forcing her out may antagonize her but he had no choice. He wanted to ask her a few questions her before reaching the village tomorrow. If it was not 'her' then it would be the usual visit to check up on the villagers' well-being. If it was indeed Senior Lin's demon then he would need to get her side of the story for further investigation 'on site'. At least this time he was one step closer to reaching his goal. He had a potential candidate. Hopefully it was her.

He, Kai, would be the one to conclude the Sect's longest active case. Right now he was at a dead end having gone through Senior Lin's report countless times and speaking to the villagers. The people there were not much help as at all. They only repeated the same thing, oftentimes with outrageous embellishments. Now, he had a chance for new information which would surely help him.

The demon hunter concentrated directing his inner force to do his will. Muttering the full incantation with proper intonations and hand gestures, he 'found' the demon's core essence and pulled it out.

A cloud of sparkly purple dust materialized from the tiny house to float out the painting. The steady stream coalesce in a spot in front of Kai. It solidified into a human shape.

"Aaiiiiieeee!! So rude!" exclaimed a dulcet female voice.

Kai was taken aback. This was not what he had expected. A sultry sexy demon trying to lure him, yes. Or maybe an angry and vengeful demon who wanted to intimidate him into releasing her. Perhaps even a scared being who was subdued or wary of him. But this, this irritated messy flour covered woman complete with tousled hair, splattered apron and rolling pin was not what he had in mind. She placed her hands on her hips glaring at him.

"Now see what you made me do. My dough is ruined!"

"You're cooking?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "No, I'm practicing my embroidery ..." she replied sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, but I did give you a warning."

"Pffttt! Some warning. I can hear you but you can't even hear me if I shout back," she grumbled. "I can't stop whatever I'm doing just to pander to entitled humans, you know. So inconsiderate!"

Huh? This demon seemed to be really annoyed and fed-up with humans. He wondered what she had experienced to make her that way. Him interrupting her in the middle of her cooking did not help much either.

"True, I suppose. But you could have given me a heads-up. Give me hand signals or mouth your words so I can read your lips."

"And leave my dumplings?" she scoffed. "Now my perfect dumpling skins will harden and my veggie fillings will get soggy."

"You're making dumplings? I love veggie dumplings," he blurted aloud.

"So what? You're not getting any!"

Kai blinked taken aback, then shook his head grinning sheepishly. The demon was a full fledged female alright. She had made him feel guilty and defensive the second she came out. She also managed to start an argument over something irrational and trivial. How on earth did he get into an argument about dumplings with a demon? It was a ludicrous situation. Time to regain control. He had more important things to discuss than ruined food.

"I'm sorry but I just need to ask you a few questions. Answer me and I'll let you return to your cooking."

"Hrummmppphhhh! By that time it will be too late," she grumbled.

The demon hunter regained his composure. She did not seem dangerous at the moment but he should keep alert for any tricks. He was also safe for the moment after casting a binding spell to suppress her powers temporarily.

"I am a demon hunter. My name is Kai. I will ask you a few questions to ascertain your status as an initial evaluation. If you are harmless or have reflected on your misdeeds which caused you to be bound to this vessel, I will plead your case to the council for your release back into the world."

"Really? You're a demon hunter?" she asked.

Lifen eyed him speculatively. If what he said was true, he may be her chance to finally be free. But could she trust him? Throughout her confinement, many humans had tried to take advantage of her, so much so that sometimes she hid in her house completely ignoring them. She escaped several owners that way. Since they did not see any evidence of a woman in the painting despite searching for days, they gave up. Some thought the scroll was really only a random scenery painting.

"Yes. What is your name and what type of demon are you?"

"If you are really a demon hunter like you claimed, you'd know what kind of demon I am."

"I was being polite," Kai replied. "Alright, I see that you don't trust me. So I'll start slow. I'll tell you what I've deduced and you just confirm for now, o'kay?"

"O'kay."

"I can see your aura. From the color, I know you are a plant based demon. Tree? Shrub? Grass? Flower? Herbs?"

"Flower."

Her short answer made Kai's heart race. Flower! Didn't Senior Lin capture a flower demon! Calm down! Go slow, take your time. Don't rush and don't get your hopes up too high, he admonish himself.

"Your demon dust is various shades of bluish purple. As it does not have a reddish tinge to it, you have not deliberately killed any animals or humans."

"Of course not! I'd never kill anyone or anything! What do you take me for?"

"How would I know? That's why I have to ask these basic questions. I'm trying to ascertain your background," he said. "Did you do other bad deeds then?"

She bit her pink lips. "Well, I only did what those humans made me do."

He arched an eyebrow. "Like?"

"Well, I may have stolen some stuff and frightened some people."

"And?" he prompted when she stalled. He did not believe that was all she had done.

"Maybe I did bully and threaten some people too but it was all a bluff. No one was really in any danger!"

"They did not know that! You may have cause mental or psychological damage to those poor people!"

"What about the poor demon who was being bullied?" she shot back. "I had no choice!!" her voice rising an octave.

"No choice? Really? How did they control you? Why did you have to obey Shang?"

The beautiful demon snorted derisively in an unladylike fashion at the human before her. "You want me to tell you?" she scoffed. "Not bloody likely! Why would I tell you how to control me?"

"Please, don't curse. Its not what ladies should say."

"I'm not a lady," she deadpanned crossing her flour covered arms.

"O'kay, o'kay. Let's change the subject," replied Kai pinching the bridge of his nose. He was getting a headache. This was a non-violent demon. He had guessed that when he had first seen her trail of demon dust. Demons associated with plants generally were not. However she was overly argumentative and belligerent. He studied her. Maybe she was scared and covering up her fear with bravado?

"How long have you been in there?"

She sighed. Maybe if she answered quickly and straight to the point, he'd let her return to her cooking and the familiar safety of her home. This man really was a demon hunter if he could force her out like that. At least he only wanted to talk and not make her do something bad like stealing or lying to people. She had had enough of that to last a life time.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Time is irrelevant to me."

"Who caught you and bound you to the painting."

"An uptight self-righteous but naive demon hunter. The silly man made simple things so complicated."

Kai grinned. He already felt sorry for his colleague whoever he was.

"What do you mean?"

"He caught me because some villagers slandered and maligned me. He believed them and took their side without investigating properly!"

"So you did nothing wrong?"

She froze. "Well, I wouldn't say that," she said averting her gaze.

"I see. So you were partly in the wrong?"

"Maybe ..."

"Tell me, where were you caught?"

"I was living alone minding my own business in a peaceful valley in northern Liang until some humans came to disturb me."

Kai sucked in his breath. She had perfectly described he village he was headed to! Was she? Could she really be 'her'?

There was only one way to find out.

"Tell me, what is your name?" he asked softly.

She directed her large luminous purple eyes directly at him. "My name is Lifen (fragrant flower)."