With that, I looked back at the old demon, and a question I asked at the beginning reared its head once more.

To the chief elder who Lord Whiskers fought into a bisected cockroach, I asked this, “How are you still alive?”

****

That’s right, the old demon in the room taking a bath in a wooden basin giving off a whole lotta rapey vibes was the chief elder, who was cut in half at the waist by Lord Whiskers.

“I’m not rapey in any way!” The chief elder suddenly bellowed.

“The heck are you on about?” Lond Di questioned.

The chief elder sniffled, “Don’t joke with me! I know you’re thinking of me being a dirty old rap-”

“Hold on,” Long Di couldn’t keep listening to this. “We’re getting off track here and I do NOT want to linger on your extra-curricular activities.”

“What extra-curricular activities are you pinning on me!?” the chief elder was curiously interested in Long Di’s thought process and what he thought of him.

“If this is what we’re going to be getting into, I’m leaving,” Long Di provided an ultimatum that caused the chief elder’s expression to change.

“Fine,” he finally gave up and brought their conversation back to its original track. “To answer your earlier question on how I’m still alive. It’s because I’m a Huoli Demon. We possess an incredible life force. So injuries such as loss of limbs, organ failure or things of the like don’t necessarily result in our death.”

“The elder who was in charge of the enforcement hall looked just like you and he died when I cut his head off,” Long Di explained.

The chief elder’s cheek twitched when he heard this. Though he was to remain cordial in front of Long Di, the death of a colleague still rubbed him the wrong way.

“Cutting off the head is a quick way to dispatch of us,” he said after a while.

Long Di nodded before looking for clarification by saying, “So you’re like a lesser cockroach.”

“Pfft! Ha!” Yaomu Shou blurted out a laugh before she covered her mouth to stifle herself.

Her shoulders shivered as she struggled to keep her composure. Normally, she wouldn’t care about the time and place and simply do whatever she felt like, but there was just something about laughing in a room with an old naked demon that just didn’t feel right.

Hearing this, the chief elder’s grey face darkened, “You little!”

“What did I say?” Long Di asked. “Is it because I said little? Okay, fine. Then you’re a large cockroach.”

“Hahahahaa…!” Yaomu Shou couldn’t hold herself back and soon found herself on the ground, holding and clutching her gut. It was further exacerbated by Long Di’s innocent demeanour. The boy was a true demon!

A vein bulged on the chief elder’s forehead and Yaomu Shou’s laughing didn’t help.

“You dare call me a cockroach!?” The chief elder roared.

“What’s wrong with that?” Long Di asked.

“You called me a cockroach!!” The chief elder’s eyes reddened as he barked at Long Di. Was the boy truly not seeing the insult in his words!?

“I don’t get it. A cockroach has a strong life force just like you, but there are a few key differences. I mean, a cockroach can live seven days without its head while you guys die immediately. If that’s not a lesser cockroach, then I don’t know what is.” Long Di threw up his hands in the sky as he thought this was easy to see.

“You little crap!!” the chief elder gnashed his teeth in anger.

“Hahahahahahaa!” Yaomu Shou’s laughter echoed in the room as she and the floor nearly fused into one.

“Well, name-calling isn’t going to solve anything,” Long Di advised.

“You called me a cockroach not five minutes ago!” the chief elder trembled in rage, causing the bathwater he was in to swish around.

“Au contraire. I never called you a cockroach. I said that you were like a lesser cockroach.

“I can be beaten but not humiliated!”

“… So just like a cockroach then?”

“Ack!” The elder threw up a mouthful of blood in anger.

“See… a cockroach wouldn’t have thrown up blood like that.” Long Di didn’t let the visual aid pass him by.

“Shut up!” The chief elder didn’t want to give Long Di the chance to say anything else. He was afraid the boy would anger him to death.

“Long Di. P-Please, stop with the cockroach thing… or else you’ll kill both him and me,” Yaomu Shou wiped the tears from her eyes as she begged Long Di to cease. Whether it be from happiness or anger, they wouldn’t last much longer and their business here would never end.

“So, mister chief elder, judging by the smell of that water, I’m guessing that’s a medicinal exudate bath. You must be really important to the Nether Immolation War Temple for them to use that on you. I wonder why?” Yaomu Shou cocked her head to the side with a smile that wasn’t really a smile.

The chief elder’s angered expression disappeared upon seeing Yaomu Shou.

“You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?” He finally asked.

“The Yuan race walks freely upon these lands. The entire region is my home. Dare you say otherwise?” Yaomu Shou asked lightly.

“I don’t dare,” the chief elder bowed his head.

“Forgive my lack of etiquette. I currently lack a lower body due to a…” he looked at the Shidashi Mao, who stared back at him with a mocking grin. “Natural disaster.”

He went on, “I’m sure that you know that even though I am a Huoli demon, losing the entirety of my lower body then being afflicted by a tribulation of sorts,” he then looked to Long Di with a piercing gaze as he said this. “Cursed me with injuries that need external help.”

He was clearly aware that Long Di used tribulation lightning to ‌jolt the Shidashi Mao back to its senses. Of course, this didn’t mean that he wasn’t affected by it. A minuscule amount of it still blighted him. The only reason why he survived despite his severely weakened state was due to the tribulation lightning being connaturally drawn to the Shidashi Mao, leaving him a portion he was able to handle.

“In any case,” the chief elder adjusted himself for a more comfortable position before saying. “I don’t know why you are travelling with a human, but I’m sure you’ve heard the rumours tha-”

“Why did you call us here?” Long Di asked, realising that this was going off on a tangent he wanted nothing to do with.

The chief elder turned his attention back to him, “I’ll be honest.”

“That would be preferable,” Long Di said.

His eye twitched in irritation, but he fought it back and went on. “The Nether Immolation War Temple wants her,” he said, pointing at Feng Yu.

“Hearing you say that makes the back of my right eyeball itch,” said Long Di. “The answer is-”

“Yes,” a weak voice made a decision that caused Long Di’s brow to ascend to the very heavens.