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.”

****

“What happened with senior apprentice sister Feng Yu!?” Shen Ling asked worriedly.

“Hold that thought. Why aren’t you moving?”

Though Long Di and Shen Ling were atop the Shidashi Mao, the former realized only now that they weren’t moving.

Despite Long Di’s question, the magical beast didn’t budge.

“Do you want cat foo… wait, they don’t have that here. Uh, do you want more petting?”

The Shidashi Mao’s eyes only opened slightly at this bribe before closing again. If it wanted more petting, it would simply slaughter a city or two to force the petting out of Long Di.

“Feng Yu is in trouble. Don’t you wanna go save her?”

At this, the Shidashi Mao’s eyes snapped open, and it looked at Long Di with the kind of expression that said, ‘You best be telling the truth or so help me I will unalive you.’

“I’m telling the truth, Lord Whiskers Furryback The First.”

“…”

When the Shidashi Mao heard this, both it and Shen Ling gave Long Di a look of, ‘What the heck did you call (me/it)!?’

“That’s your name.”

Like hell it is!

The Shidashi Mao didn’t say anything, but its expression was about as verbal as anyone else’s!

“Meow!”

Long Di was insulted, “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“Meoẘ!”

“You talk about my mother like that again, and I will skin you alive. There are lines that we don’t cross here,” Long Di was not gonna take any lip from Lord Whiskers Furryback the first.

“Meeow!”

“Fine, then let’s go. Cuz she’s in trouble.”

Shen Ling just sat back and took all this in. She didn’t know what she just witnessed, but it was beyond bizarre and dangerously disturbing.

Shu!

The Shidashi Mao took off, and Shen Ling was surprised at the level of comfort it provided as a ride. They had left their Super Donkey powered carriage outside the valley on account of the battalion not allowing magical beasts, except those native here, inside.

The Shidashi Mao was given special exception due to its unique way of slaughtering all living things within thousands of miles, turning it into a land of death, carnage and cataclysmic ruin.

To Shen Ling, everything was a blur to her, owing to the speed of Lord Whiskers Furryback I!

They were heading deeper into Thousand Emo Valley. The darkness that was ever-present grew stronger and more opaque the deeper they went, making it hard to see further ahead. At this stage, even spiritual force would meet some kind of obstruction.

Long Di was the only one who was able to make out the terrain of where they were heading.

There was nothing but black earth, thorns and some blacker than ink mist that drifted all around.

Shu!

“We’re here,” Long Di didn’t give Shen Ling much of a chance to respond. He jumped off Lord Whiskers and rushed through an opening in the spinose structure before them.

He didn’t take long before he came upon a clearing and saw a rustic-grey skinned demon with runes over very little parts of his area. Over his face was a mask of sorts that only covered his nose and mouth.

When Long Di saw it, his first impression was that Covid entered the chat.

However, what drew his attention more was that in his grasp was the neck of a fair-skinned young demon girl. Her dark hair fell to her waist and her hands were desperately gripping the arm of the demon that held her.

Her eyes were red-veined from both anger and a lack of oxygen. For some reason, this person was none other than Feng Yu and the person who unceremoniously held her like an enthusiastic serial choker was one of the disciples that accompanied Huise Chongtu.

Though they were in the middle of a clearing, on the opposite side was a dark cave that appeared like the gaping maw of a gluttonous beast.

Long Di was a bit surprised when he saw it, “Is that the cave? Well, that was lucky.”

“Long Di?” her head slightly turned to him after noticing his arrival.

Surprisingly, however, her expression for him was more one of contempt than anything else.

It seemed that whatever aura it was permeated his place was doing a number on her.

“Who are you?” the disciple asked. He was a bit shocked that Long Di appeared unaffected by the environment in Thousand Emo Valley.

“Isn’t it good manners to introduce yourself before asking for someone else’s name?” Long Di replied with an answer. He was kind of annoyed that he did that, but it is what it is.

“You’re not worth knowing my name!” the disciple responded harshly.

Long Di’s expression remained unmoved at the disciple’s arrogance, “Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less what your name is. I genuinely don’t care, as I was playing along with the tropes for a bit.”

“What?” the disciple was confused.

“Can you release my friend?” Long Di didn’t pay attention to his confusion.

“I’m taking her back on reasons of suspicion!” the disciple responded. “I would advise you to forget about her!”

“Suspicions of what?”

“That’s for us to know!”

“On what grounds are you doing this?” Long Di could feel a headache coming on.

“You don’t have any reasons to know,” the disciple responded.

“And if I force you to release her?” Long Di raised his hand.

In response to this, the disciple sneered, “Are you truly willing to offend a member of the disciplinary committee of the Nether Immolation War Temple?”

“Ah, a member of that cool sounding name where everyone who is not cool resides. I don’t give a rat’s gluteus maximus where you’re from. Release her or I’ll-”

“Or you’ll what?” a voice cut off Long Di, and the latter turned around to see the very same elderly demon from before, Huise Chongtu.

He was followed by the other disciple, who appeared similar to the one that was throttling Feng Yu at the moment.

It seems he was in hiding before and revealed himself only when Long Di arrived.

“Or I’ll cripple him. I don’t want to go around killing if I don’t have to, but I will if I need to or FEEL the need to.”

Huise Chongtu’s brow rose at Long Di’s provocation before a thought came to him. “You’re the one who offended Mistress Yue Wang?”

“Yue Wang?” Long Di couldn’t recall ever meeting a Yue Wang ever.

Huise Chongtu saw his confusion and clarified, “She’s the sixth concubine of our prime disciple!”

“Ah yes, I did,” Long Di admitted.

“Good, good, good,” Huise Chongtu nodded with a bright smile on his face, following Long Di’s confession when it turned malicious in an instant.

Boom!

His cauldrons burst into existence while he held his smile. He took a step forward and the ground fiercely shook in response.

“Since you admitted to the crime, you can kill yourself now!”