Long Di’s earlier attacks only landed superficial wounds, but this one ran straight through him!

“What a terrifying child,” he remarked. “No killing intent, but he can kill at the drop of a hat.”

****

We took quite a few turns as we went deeper into the sect. We saw fewer disciples as we went along.

The architecture of the Nether Immolation War Temple was a bit… interesting, to say the least.

It was like a collection of cathedral-like churches of all shapes and sizes. However, the inside of them could easily be seen. There were no doors or windows on the walls because there were no walls.

The many structures here were supported by large pillars which lent the entire place a unique air.

“Yaomu Shou, what’s a Shidashi Linghun?”

I finally asked her, since it didn’t seem like we were going to arrive anytime soon.

Lord Whiskers followed us without so much as a sound. He’s been pretty tame since Feng Yu did the whole magic eyes thing. Must be love at first sight.

“A Shidashi Linghun…” Yaomu Shou took on a pondering expression before she stared at me in silence.

“You know, it’s odd,” she said after a while.

“I find it odd that you’ve yet to tell me what a Shidashi Linghun is,” I said to her.

“Tch,” she kissed her teeth. “Couldn’t you allow me to be mysterious?”

“Okay then, go ahead.” I couldn’t care less, to be honest.

“Forget it. The mood is gone.”

“The mood missed the bus and never came.”

“Shut it! Don’t you wanna know what a Shidashi Linghun is!?” she snarled. I’ve been getting a lot of those lately.

“Yes please,” as you can tell, I’m quite polite.

“The legends say that a Shidashi Mao goes against the heavenly laws.”

“In what ways?” I probed.

“I’m getting to that!” she snapped at me. “The heavenly daos and the Heavens contain many laws. One of those laws is that of life. Everything that lives does so under the Heavens and, in a way, lives because of the Heavens. However, the Heavens will not permit certain things to exist that are able to challenge it. I’m sure you heard of the legends of the first and only empero-”

Rumble…

An invisible pressure descended the moment she tried to say the last word.

She quickly shut her mouth and banished the thought to finish that sentence. After a while, the pressure disappeared. It didn’t even seem like the old demon leading us along noticed this.

“What the heck was that?” I asked. It didn’t feel like the pressure from the sect master. It was much more powerful and a bit… regal, if such a thing has a feeling.

“The karma for certain matters is quite strong,” she said with a grave expression. She then looked at me, “I just don’t understand how you were able to say it before and nothing happened. I guess cats and dogs don’t have the same luck”

“Meow?” Lord Whiskers perked up at its lesser’s name being called.

She was right. I said emperor many times and even talked about it with the goddess and the mere fact that I can say it and nothing happens is really weird, meh I’ll figure this out eventually I’m sure.

“Anyway,” she continued. “In the legends, it said that the Heavens unleashed a calamity to wipe him out because of his destiny. That is the Heavens acting in response to something that is born in defiance of it. You can think of the Shidashi Maos in the very same way. They can live then die only to live again a total of nine times.”

“Okay, okay, I am so sure that there are sects that deal with bringing corpses to life,” I said to her. Almost every cultivation novel I read always has that one weird sect that does something corpse-related.

“You know of the Nine Yin Cemetery Sect!?” she said in shock.

I stared at her blankly because I didn’t know what the heck that was.

When she saw me staring at her and not saying anything, her cheeks reddened after a while, “What? What!?”

“I still don’t know what a Shidashi Linghun is?” I said. Seriously, was it that hard to get an answer to a simple question?

“I can’t win against you, can I?” she sighed.

“Your optimism at believing you’re a competitor is endearing.”

“Whatever…” she threw up her hands and went on. “What makes the Shidashi so different is that it is not a simple reanimation but a complete and perfect resurrection. What dies should die, this is why the heavenly daos are so intolerant of it.”

I thought for a moment about what she said before asking, “If the Heavens are responsible for life, as you said, then how could the Heavens allow such a race to exist and flourish in the first place?”

“We’re not sure,” she shrugged her shoulders. “It is said that the Heavens grew careless at one point, resulting in a heaven-defying existence like the Shidashi Mao to come into being.”

“And the Shidashi Linghun is?” I was about to drop the subject since I doubted she even knew what it was at this point.

“Right, so, it’s-”

“We’re here,” the old demon finally said.

“Motherf-”

“Long Di!” Yaomu Shou’s shout cut me off. “Language.”

Apparently, I lost control a while ago, so I’ll need to take care to have a better reign on my bombastic and overexcited self.

We arrived at a building that was not like the others. As a matter of fact, this building was in such a secluded spot that I doubted we were still in the Nether Immolation War Temple for a minute.

How did I get here? Holy constipation, I did it again. I need to pay attention to these things.

Anyhow, this building actually had walls and reminded me of the more recent and modern buildings in my old world.

It lacked any of the ornate designs that covered the other buildings I saw on my way here.

It had windows, doors, walls and a shape. Not gonna lie, my old world kinda sucked in other ways.

“This is our meeting room,” the old demon advised.

“We revere battle above all else, so not much thought was put into anything else.” He finished this by saying, “Still, it fulfils the basic needs of a meeting quite nicely. You may go in,” he ushered us inside and then closed the door behind us.

“Hello, young warrior.”

We were greeted by the most bizarre scene. Inside this building, or room, as they call it, was all the normal equipment for a meeting.

A large table, a few chairs here and there, oh and a demon taking a bath in a wooden basin.

All in all, my stranger danger senses weren’t just tingling. They were having violent spasms while coughing up blood.

I stood at the entrance and wanted to gauge my reaction based on everyone else. I looked to my right and saw that Yaomu Shou appeared disturbed.

I looked to my left and realised that Lord Whiskers was living his best life by not giving a diseased scrotum about what was happening, and Feng Yu was still unconscious.

Never thought I’d be jealous of an unconscious adolescent girl in a room with a naked elderly demon, but here we are.

The old demon stared at us for a while with a smile before gesturing to us with his arms, “Care to join me?”

“Over my dead body!” Yaomu Shou’s reddened as she stared daggers at the nasty old man.

“What she said,” I jumped on the bandwagon with nary a second to spare.

“What?” he looked confused as he stared at us before enlightenment dawned and his expression turned to one of embarrassment. “Do you take me for a dirty old man!? I meant to take a seat, you little-”

“You’re taking a bath naked in a wooden basin in front of an eleven-year-old boy and two teenage girls,” I said to him.

“Stop making it sound as if I'm some criminal!” he became visibly agitated and started thrashing around in the wooden basin.

“If only stating facts makes you sound like a criminal, then you made all the wrong choices in life. In addition, can you stop thrashing around? The only reason I’m still in the room is because the wooden basin has hidden from us a traumatic sight.”

I was immune to trauma but Yaomu Shou wasn’t and I was anywhere near qualified to undertake the journey necessary to fix the metaphorical mind rape she would experience if certain things were… exhibited.

“What?” he seemed unsure what I was referring to before a light bulb seemingly went off.

“Hehehe…” his laugh echoed in the spacious room before it came to a weak stop. “I don’t think you need to worry about seeing anything down there.”

Okay, so I was legit confused. Was demon anatomy different from humans?

“What are you talking abou…? wait a minute,” a light bulb went off in my mind.

“It’s hard to believe you just noticed who you’re talking to,” he said with a shake of his head.

I stared at Yaomu Shou looking for answers but saw that her brain was still rebooting from almost seeing an old demon’s sticks and stones.

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?”