Long Di stared from a distance, watching everything play out with an apathetic gaze, “So what are we watching here?”

Yaomu Shou, who stood beside him, could feel her blood rising when she saw this, “Something that’s becoming a real problem.”

****

“And what would that problem be exactly?” Long Di asked as he watched everything play out with an expression equivalent to the phrase ‘what am I doing with my life?’.

“Discrimination,” Yaomu Shou answered.

Long Di nodded, “Oh, so that’s a thing here too, huh?”

“What?” Yaomu Shou asked.

“Nothing, just… universal disappointment,” Long Di waved it off, not wanting to touch that particular wound.

Yaomu Shou chose to explain what was really happening, “You may not have seen it where we were previously, but recently there has been an increase in demons acting on this notion of purebloods being superior.”

“Purebloods?” Long Di asked.

Yaomu Shou nodded, “Right. Basically, the original demons. The ones who, millions of years ago, carved out the region that is the current demon region and lived here uncontested because of their power.”

Long Di, not being a demon like the others, was a bit confused, “I don’t get it. Based on what I’ve seen, you guys don’t even know all the kinds within your race. How can you tell who’s pureblood from who’s not?”

Even Feng Yu, Shen Ling and Jia Yan, who was standing to the side, listened attentively. Back in Blackstone City, they didn’t go through anything like this. At most, they were just victims of being poor.

Yaomu Shou paused for a moment to formulate a proper response, “Alright, so, for example, let’s use what junior sister Shen Ling was accused of being.”

“An Abyss Ghost?” Long Di asked.

“Y-Yeah,” Though Yaomu Shou was a bit worried that Long Di placed very little weight on something like the accusation of being an Abyss Ghost, while at the same she was relieved in a way since it probably meant that the accusation itself was most likely false.

“So what you need to know is that the Abyss Ghost was considered a race all its own. However, following their calamity, they, or their name rather, was relegated to being a species of demonkind. Then you have races that came to live within the demon region that were not necessarily demons to begin with, but when you take into account, the hundreds or even thousands of years of close contact and the subsequent procreation with these races that followed, you’ll have offsprings that are considered mongrel or mixed blood,” Yaomu Shou’s face tensed as she broke down a part of the social politics of the demon region.

“Then what of the races that lived within the region that aren’t demons?” Shen Ling asked. “Do they still retain their autonomy as a race different from demons?”

Though the disciples were demons as well, this information was something accessible to only high-ranking sects or families.

Yaomu Shou shook her head in response, “Maybe at first. However, time muddled those lines. So demonkind became a hodgepodge of races that lost their power, races that simply lived with us back then or even the offspring of those races.”

Long Di was beginning to understand, “So the purebloods…”

“Are the ones who are remembered as part of the original group of demons,” Yaomu Shou finished his thought.

“Then what if they are not remembered?” Feng Yu asked.

“It’s really rare.” Zi Yu chimed in. “After all, the original races are glorified. They’re well known and people know of most of them.”

“Most of them,” Long Di gave her the side-eye. “What of the ones who have faded into obscurity? Like Tie Lang, our resident Yu Lang demon.”

“Then for them,” Yaomu Shou stared at everyone here, her gaze lingering on Feng Yu a bit longer. “They are treated like the aforementioned mixed-bloods or the races that are integrated here. The bulk of which are seen as lesser-than.”

“Seems messy,” Long Di said, now having a better grasp of the situation.

“It is, and it’s only gotten worse since the more powerful sects have adopted this extreme form of discrimination towards the mixed-bloods, with some taking on more…” her expression changed here, “radical approaches.”

“Wait a minute, what about Jia Yan and me?” Feng Yu asked.

Yaomu Shou looked back at Feng Yu as she said this and Long Di saw that there was something she wanted to say but refrained from it.

“Let’s walk and talk about it,” advised Long Di after a while.

Saying this, Long Di and the others left behind one of the scattered houses that blocked them from the elder and his group’s view.

The only reason why Long Di and his group went undiscovered this entire time was due to Long Di covering them with his spiritual force.

Barring the fact that spiritual force was innately stronger in humans than demons, Long Di’s spiritual force underwent changes due to being baptised continuously in the unique energy known as tribulation lightning.

Even though it was no longer receiving its nourishment because of the Destiny Scale’s gluttony, the change already started and one effect was to completely cut off the perception of others around the same strength level and, in some cases, stronger. The only exception would be those who specialise in spiritual force, such as spiritual force cultivators, or those who focus on mental energy, such as xinli spiritualists.

Once they reached far enough away, Long Di lifted the veil of his spiritual force and observed the valley in its entirety.

He kept close to the Shidashi Mao as he realised that whenever he walked too far away, it immediately became agitated causing its killing intent to leak out.

Apart from this furry shackle of his, he really did enjoy seeing and learning about new places, and it seemed that everyone did too.

Thousand Emo Valley was a peculiar place within the demon region. It wasn’t really considered a village, town or a city. It was considered what it is, which is a valley.

It was smack dab in the midst of two immense mountains, with the middle boasting a steep decline that ran deep into the heart of the valley.

The sheer size of the mountains made sunshine a rare commodity within the valley, but oddly enough, the valley overflowed with lush vegetation.

However, the vegetation was dark, cold, and thorny. The deeper the group went into the valley, the colder it got and the darker it became.

The stage where they were at currently cast the land around them in the glow of a perpetual sunset.

There were residents here who were… odd. Most wore dark robes and kept their faces hidden under cloaks.

Their number grew greater the deeper they went in the valley. They would pass by a lone building every now and again covered in brambles or thorn-filled vegetation.

Despite their numbers growing the deeper they went, it never appeared crowded within the valley.

As a matter of fact, it appeared desolate and barely populated.

One of the natives passed near the group, taking care to stay far away from the Shidashi Mao.

“Good evening,” Long Di offered a greeting.

“Ngh,” a grunt was the only response he received in response.

“Strange locals,” Long Di commented.

“The people here possess unusual temperaments,” Yaomu Shou educated.

“Senior sister Yaomu Shou?”

Yaomu Shou looked to the side where she saw Feng Yu staring at her. When the former saw this, she sighed knowing she couldn’t keep quiet about this any longer.

“When I mentioned me and Jia Yan earlier, you started acting weird towards me. Do you know something about us?” she asked.

Yaomu Shou never really had many questions about who or what she was. Demons were so varied as a species that one could find a new type being born every now and again. As a result, it became unrealistic to expect anyone to keep track of such a dynamic population.

This led to impoverished demons failing at keeping track of their lineage. The end result was many demons not knowing who or what they were which in turn granted the ‘purebloods’ an even more inflated sense of self-importance.

The only tools that the ‘lesser’ demons could use to find a superficial sense of belonging were by using visible features and cross-referencing them to see which demons’ ethnic groups they were from.

So when Feng Yu saw that Yaomu Shou might have some information they leapt at the opportunity.

“To be fair I would rather not talk about it,” Yaomu Shou admitted.

Feng Yu wasn’t about to let such a golden opportunity pass her by, “Please senior sister! We would love to know more about ourselves if we could, I’m sure!”

Jia Yan aggressively nodded to showcase he was surely interested.

“You’re the one who I’m thinking of being a pureblood. Jia Yan is actually a mixed-blood,” she said after a while.

They didn’t question why she was so sure about this. But they also knew that Yaomu Shou wouldn’t speak so carelessly about such matters.

Jia Yan looked down in disappointment after hearing this. He never cared before, but after seeing how much importance was attached to purebloods, how Tie Lang was treated the minute he was suspected of being a Yu Lang, and that even his senior sister was possibly a pureblood, he felt like a bit of a failure.

“Don’t let it get you down, junior brother Jia Yan. Your talent is unquestioned.”

“That’s right. Your strength is probably the greatest out of all of us.”

Both Shen Ling and Feng Yu came to the side of Jia Yan and comforted him when they realised he was feeling down. They were also telling the truth when they said that Jia Yan’s strength was the greatest relatively speaking out of the group.

“They’re right,” Yaomu Shou nodded. “Mixed-bloods have a low chance of inheriting a high level of talent, especially in cultivation. That’s why they’re so low on the rung within the hierarchy of demons. If I chalk up Feng Yu’s and Tie Lang’s talents as a result of their bloodline, then with you it’s a genuine talent and you should have no reason to feel like a lesser-than.”

Jia Yan nodded and gave her a weak smile. He was feeling a bit better, but the overall situation still left a bitter taste which would lessen with time; so they gave him a bit of time, which was best.

Feng Yu then took the chance to address Yaomu Shou, “Senior sister-”

“Junior sister Feng Yu,” Yaomu Shout cut her off. “Your situation is a bit different. I don’t normally have any qualms telling you what I know but give me a bit of time with this one.”

Feng Yu couldn’t help feeling a bit dejected, but she nodded to confirm she understood and would come back to this subject at a later time.

They walked further down one of the many beaten paths leading deeper into Thousand Emo Valley. By this time, the sunset-ish look had long disappeared, plunging the landscape in a twilight-esque ambience.