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.

****

“This place is creepy,” Zi Yu subconsciously huddled closer to Jia Yan, which made the latter visibly annoyed.

“That’s what Thousand Emo Valley is known for,” Yaomu Shou said, looking around as well.

“You’ve been here before?” Long Di asked her from the front.

“Do I look like I’ve been here before?” Yaomu Shou snapped.

This reply sparked many responses that went through Long Di’s mind. There were things he wished to say but refrained from, as it seemed he was being compelled to somehow, “I just asked because you seem to know a lot about the place.”

“Yeah, because I can read. The family is kinda strict with the educational aspect and all that.”

The group continued on in silence for a while.

The place got darker as the sun outside the valley was setting on its own.

Eventually, Shen Ling asked out loud, “Why are we here again?”

Zi Yu rolled her eyes at the question, “To restock. We said it like an hour ago,” Zi Yu stated in an annoyed tone.

Jia Yan pushed her off of him as his annoyance rose, “Don’t talk to apprentice sister Shen Ling like that!”

“Oh, my heavens would all just shut up!?” Yaomu Shou’s own patience ran thin, causing her to explode. “You all j-”

A hand landed on Yaomu Shou’s face, covering her mouth and cutting her off.

Her eyes widened in shock at what had happened. Due to her status, few were able to speak to her, much less look at her and now someone dared to cover her mouth!?

It was Feng Yu who stared at her with undisguised disgust. “You’re too loud yourself. Can you not stay quiet?”

Long Di stopped walking at this point and looked back at everyone who was staring daggers at each other.

“What ju-”

Before he could say anything more, Yaomu Shou slapped Feng Yu’s hands away.

“Don’t you touch me!” she practically snarled at Feng Yu. “You can also forget about me telling you anything yourself, you mongrel!”

“Don’t call her a mongrel, you kidnapper!” Jia Yan effectively came to his senior sister’s rescue, standing in between Yaomu Shou and Feng Yu.

“What are you doing!?” Jia Yan heard a voice and looked behind him to see Feng Yu glaring at him.

“What do you me-”

“I didn’t ask for your help!” she shrieked at him.

“Fine! Do whatever you want then!” he stormed off, shoving Zi Yu and Xiannu Liang while doing so.

This sent the two of them flying into a rage as well.

At this point, Long Di couldn’t remain silent any longer, “My apologies, but did something crawl collectively up between y’all’s butt cheeks, proceed to set up residence there and then forget to pay rent? Why are you all so bitter?” Long Di couldn’t stay quiet any longer.

They all scowled in his direction before lashing out as well, “Shut up!”

Something was obviously wrong here. There was something here that was causing everyone to lash out for some reason.

Even the Shidashi Mao was starting to infrequently quiver under Long Di’s touch. He increased the ferocity of whatever he was doing.

However, before he could say anything else, everyone came to a head under their rage and inability to deal with their feelings.

“You know what? I’m leaving! You guys can do whatever you want!”

“First good idea I’ve heard in a while!”

“I’m gone!”

Before long, the only ones left in the original spot were Long Di, the Shidashi Mao, and Shen Ling.

Long Di looked to the left and to the right, and when he saw the empty spots of where his friends and/or acquaintances were, he only had one question.

“What the heck just happened?”

“Uhm, senior brother Long, aren’t you gonna try to go after them?” she asked after a while.

“No need, I attached a part of my spiritual force onto everyone just in case,” he said matter-of-factly.

Her expression immediately changed after hearing this, “When did you do that?”

“A few days ago.”

“When did you learn that?”

“I mean, I just used some rudimentary techniques accessible to me since I have spiritual force. Like if I can breathe fire, I’ll do it, if I have spiritual force, I’ll do what I did to you guys.”

“And you did this without our consent… again?”

“Brazenly and unforgivingly.”

“I don’t thi-”

“Hold that thought,” Long Di cut Shen Ling off and grabbed her before retreating a short distance away.

“Reeeargh!”

Boom!

He could feel a leaking of the murderous intent wafting from the Shidashi Mao, and just then it swiped at him. Though he managed to dodge, the power of its blow carved out three deep gashes out of the ground.

Long Di remained on alert as he stared at this peculiarity of a magical beast. Honestly, if he could help it, he would rather not fight it. Nevertheless, choice… didn’t seem to be on his side today.

“Meow…”

Surprisingly, however, it didn’t go off as he thought it simply sat down and started to lick… erhm, clean itself.

Long Di nearly facepalmed himself, he almost forgot that cats didn’t like to be overly petted.

“What did you do to tame him? We never did get around to that.” Shen Ling finally asked.

“Oh, I uh… I used to have a cat,” Long Di started and though his expression never changed, his eyes took on a sombre tone somewhat.

“I used to scratch him behind the ears and he really liked it,” he admitted.

That’s right, Long Di was able to subdue the Shidashi Mao because he treated it like an ordinary cat. Though its violent tendencies were unlikely to be removed, at least its fangs won’t be pointed at him… mostly.

“I sure hope Pebbles doesn’t get jealous,” Long Di muttered to himself as he went on his way once more.

“You’re pretty brave to have owned a cat,” expressed Shen Ling.

“Others don’t?” he was making his way through Thousand Emo Valley. He had to thank his furry friend for it.

She shook her head, “People are too afraid of Shidashi Maos and anything and everything related to them is rejected or shunned.”

“Cats are A-holes,” Long Di nodded in understanding. “But they’re adorable A-holes where I’m from, so we kinda give em a pass.”

“The Shidashi Maos are too much a symbol of fear, so we don’t find either of them… c-cute.”

She found it difficult to use both Shidashi Mao and the word cute in the same sentence.

“Do you know why everyone just went bat crazy not long ago?” Long Di asked while looking around Thousand Emo Valley with a wandering eye.

She shook her head to indicate that she didn’t. She then asked, “Are you sure it’s fine to just leave them be?”

“It’ll be hard to get them to comply considering they’re all busy being insufferable brain tumours.”

“Busy being what?” Shen Ling wasn’t familiar with some of the words he was using.

“Nothing.” he was looking around until he spotted one decrepit building that had the word shop on it.

“What are you looking for exactly?” she finally asked.

“A clothes store,” he admitted.

“And you’re just heading to a building that says store?” she questioned.

“As far as I’m concerned they’re halfway to being what I want them to be,” Long Di said as he eyed the word ‘store’ on the building’s post.

The word was faded and the remaining paint that was left was even peeling off. In addition, the building was covered in thorns and was overrun by dark vines. The one place clear of its mark was the door, and it was most likely this way due to its recent use.

Creak…

The door opened with a groaning scrape. The smell of rotting cloth assaulted the senses, but it was oddly… inviting. The inside was pretty dark, a bit worse than the outside.

Long Di was still able to see quite well on account of his cultivation. The same could be said for Shen Ling as well even though it was to a lesser extent.

“What do you want?” a raspy voice could be heard from behind a counter that was hilariously filled with clothes.

“Clothes,” Long Di answered.

“Get out,” the voice ordered.

“Okay then. Let’s go, Shen Ling,” Long Di headed for the door with Shen Ling in tow.

“Wait!” the voice called out.

“What?” Long Di looked back to the counter in confusion.

“You’re just leaving?” the voice was even more confused.

“It’s how I learned to get out,” Long Di wanted to know what to expect here.

The voice was a little thrown off by the question but still answered, “I see, but don’t you want to know why I said that?”

Long Di shrugged his shoulders, “Meh… listen I’ve mastered the art of not giving a damn.”

“Oh,” the voice was a bit shocked.

“Yup.”

“…”

There was a period of awkward silence between the two, which brought about the reemergence of an old foe.

Shu, shu, shu…

A tumbleweed came through the door and circled Long Di before it exited the same way. His eyes never left it the entire time, and he was rightfully disturbed by it as always.

“Did you see that?” Long Di pointed to the perpetual anomaly.

“Are you saying that you want to know why everyone in Thousand Emo Valley is acting so weird?”

Long Di reeled back before he could respond, “Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Fine, I’ll tell you,” the voice replied.

He looked to Shen Ling with worry, “A-Am I talking to myself?”

She simply shrugged her shoulders. He then looked to the Shidashi Mao, but the darn thing only meowed before it lay down with its huge head by the door.

“This place has a certain aura that has pervaded it all the way to its core,” the voice started to explain what was happening here.

“What the heck is happening here?” Long Di was well and sure lost in everything.

He came here to buy clothes when the shop owner, who’s also the owner of the voice, told him to leave. When he went to leave, the voice told him to stay.

When he stayed, he was not offered any clothes to buy but was instead being force-fed information like an academic goose. Did that make any sense? No, it didn’t, just like this entire situation.

“The aura comes from a cave deep within Thousand Emo Valley. The aura unsettles the emotion and causes one to easily become agitated, it’s why the folks in Thousand Emo Valley are so odd to you. It’s the norm here. I don’t sell any of these clothes because I only use Shadow Silk,” the voice explained.

Long Di gave up and entertained this person’s quirks. “And what is Shadow Silk?”

“I’m glad you asked,” the voice responded. “Shadow Silk is a type of material found deep within a cave. It has a very sought after ability. If crafted into an article of clothing, it grants its wearer an unusually high level of defence. It also passively absorbs darkness attributed spiritual energy.”

“Darkness attributed spiritual energy!?” Shen Ling was shocked.

“You know what it is?” Long Di asked her.

She nodded, “Very! It’s an element of spiritual energy that is very rare due to there being almost no cultivation technique able to cultivate it.”

“Exactly!” the voice sounded smug at this point. “All these clothes are the failed outcome of creating shadow silk. It doesn’t have a one hundred percent refinement rate of being crafted into an article of clothing, but I am the best at it and I am sure I can make you a level of work that you’ll be pleased with. I am willing to create a set of outfits for you if you bring back a certain amount of Shadow Silk.”

Long Di stared at the counter that was filled to the bring with clothes for a while before asking, “Did you tell me to get out earlier because you wanted me to show interest in what you were all about so that it would eventually end up with me doing what you wanted whilst you appeared wise and unfathomable even though your role in life could be summarised as exposition and your secondary role to me is you being nothing more than a glorified tailor… ?”

Sssaaaa…

The person behind the counter couldn’t be seen, but if anyone else was in the shop, they would unknowingly describe the sound they heard as someone’s eyes widening in unease and stupefaction.

“Okay, so you’re not going to answer that… fair enough. Can you at least…” suddenly Long Di stopped talking as he stared off into space. Of course, it was for a split second but he quickly came to.

“Where’s the cave?” Long Di asked.

The voice was a bit flustered, “W-Wha-”

“Cave. Location. Now,” though Long Di’s tone didn’t change, there was an inflexion of urgency and the shop owner picked up on it.

“It’s called Emo Cave and it’s located in the extreme southern direction from here, through Thorn Passage,” the voice advised.

“Good, you have a deal. Shen Ling we’re dealing,” without waiting for a response, Long Di left in a rush.

He awakened the Shidashi Mao and quickly boarded it. Shen Ling followed him outside, a bit worried.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He took her hand and hoisted her up behind him, “It would seem that your senior apprentice sister is in trouble.”