Snake 22, Year 8693 of the Grand Wulin Era, Hou Minzgzhou

We were about halfway back to the sect, resting in a campsite that'd taken us about ten minutes to set up. Ted and Kellan were still with us, supposedly in case of a prison break or something, but since they knew we had a couple guards just as strong as them tailing us at all times, I think they just wanted to make sure we were safe. We were surrounded by the Prison Walnuts, the smooth-looking fleshy green husks dotted with spots of lighter green and some thin, soft, semi-transparent stuff that looked like spines but weren't quite. They reminded me of kiwis, except whereas kiwis have tasty flesh surrounding a couple rows of seeds in the center, this was a thick, fleshy skin surrounding a hard, woody shell, which surrounded the people inside.

See, normally a walnut would have a lot of crunchy, flavorful nutmeat inside, but in this case the nut meat was people, and you don't eat those, especially without their permission.Well, there was enough nutmeat around them to feed them for a few more days, especially given that they were all cultivators, but still, you'd expect more from a nut that big. On the bright side, since these nuts had been magically bred over generations for specific characteristics, they let in enough air to allow breathing, and if the nutmeat ran out, the nut would gather mana from the air and generate more, as long as it still contained a prisoner. It also contained several like..gourd sack canteen things full of water, similarly distilled from the air using mana.Oh, bathroom related stuff? Cultivators can , when necessary, use their control of their bodies and some mana to break down food much more efficiently, using much more of the nutrients and the leftover waste turning into impurities that would be ejected naturally through cultivation. Most people don't like to, though, because the excrement of cultivators and magic beasts apparently makes pretty great compost, and going without going to the bathroom for too long feels weird and kinda unnatural. Sometimes high level cultivators do the super digestion thing because they can go into seclusion for really long times and you really don't want years or decades worth of that building up.

Then again, cultivators do things like sell arms, legs, blood, and all sorts of other body parts and products for money, due to the high availability of either medicines to help regrow that stuff or that their natural regeneration was just that impressive. There are a ridiculous amount of ways to make a living in a world like this, I guess. As long as you aren't doing harm, especially permanent harm, people seem to be okay with a lot of things. On the negative side though, people get a lot of weird ideas about what's okay to do into their heads when there's so much opportunity and power going around.

While we were all resting, Dmitri, who was a friend of ours, as well as one of two of our sect-assigned guards, contacted me through my communicator. These things made the classic cultivator ability of voice transmission more energy efficient and workable over longer distances, which was super useful,especially at lower cultivation levels.

"Mingzhou, there are 5 Mana Sea cultivators in the military uniforms of the Sol Magna Empire heading your way, Banken and I will be there about half a minute before they reach you. You three just guard the prisoners and let us and your two friends handle this!" Dmitri seemed out of breath and more than a bit panicked, so I went to tell everyone what was up. Why couldn't they hear Dmitri? Voice transmissions are projected directly into the ears of the target. Unless you intentionally speak to more than one person , you can't be eavesdropped on.

I gathered everyone from their tents or around the fire.

"Hey, Ted and Kellan, you two are gonna need to be ready to fight, and Alex, Avarius, and I will keep an eye on our prisoners. 5 Mana Sea cultivators from the Empire our prisoners are from are coming our way, but also we have backup coming so we should be ok I think?" I said, trying to keep calm as I explained the situation.

Just about then, a handsome, pale guy with white hair and black eyes who looked to be in his mid-teens flew in, followed by an Akita Inu about the size of a bear. The handsome guy was Dmitri, and I think Alex had mentioned something about his attempts to gain a human form before? Well, he had, and despite being kinda ratlike, he was pretty cute. The Sect robes with the black and white looked pretty nice contrasting with the hair and eyes, though I noticed he kept his tail. The huge Akita with a fairly standard sesame coat was Banken. Her name was pretty literally "guard dog" in the language of one of the regions of the Azure Dragon continent, and she apparently liked living up to it. She liked to fight even more than I did, and whenever she had to protect someone, she was 100% serious about it. She was a lot goofier when not on duty, which I chalked up to the fact that being serious all the time builds up a lot of goofiness to vent, especially when you're a dog. She usually fought in her beast form or her beastman form, and had a set of really awesome claw gauntlets made to be used in both forms. I think she was around the same age as Dmitri, and the two were pretty close friends, especially given that they'd both cultivated to their current states despite having started as ordinary animals.

About 30 seconds after those two flew in, 5 strangers flew in. Two of them were armored, two were in robes, one wore what looked like some kinda loose body covering suit made of what looked like metal woven into cloth. They all had a large, golden sun on the front of whatever they were wearing, symbolizing their allegiance to the Sol Magna Empire.

The woman in the weird metal suit spoke first, as our 4 Mana Sea cultivators readied themselves for a fight.

"Hand over these.. weird nut prisons and I'll let you all live." She said, her tone as arrogant as her words.

"Let us live? You're a long way from home, and this is our territory, but you're gonna threaten us and make demands? Just because you have one more person than we do... doesn't meant you can beat us." Dmitri replied, the aura of a Mana Sea Stage radiating off of him. He slammed a staff he'd been carrying into the ground. "Now, you either explain why you want our prisoners and then you leave, or we make you leave, understand?"

All of a sudden, the nut that Regulus Septimus was in shook, and a whirlpool of mana began to form around it as it sucked in as much mana as possible. See, the Prison Walnuts dont block Divine Sense, and they also allow the person inside to cultivate, if they want to. So our prisoners could obviously tell what was going on, and it looked like Regulus Septimus had finally begun to break through to Mana Sea. Sensing this, everyone on our side looked at each other, and simultaneously decided to buy the man some time. Alex, Avarius, and I gathered around his walnut, sure we could at least delay her, while our four Mana Sea cultivators glared at the enemy. Everyone could sense that a fight was going to break out, and all we could do was delay the inevitable.

"I'm Aelia Maxima Optimus, and I'm here for Regulus Septimus and the rest of those traitors. You should know who I am, given that that bastard's probably told you his version of events. Can your second-rate sect, even with the backing it has, dare to offend my empire? You want to pull that pathetic you shall not pass routine on me, mouse?You're just a stupid animal that thinks he's a person, are you gonna smash me with that silly little staff you're holding?"

Banken growled, shifting into her beastman form, a monk's habit in the style of the Earth Dragon Continent with the sect's insignia seamlessly appearing on her as she did. She brandished her pawlike hands, her claw gauntlets glimmering in the sunlight as the ones on her feet became clawed boots. As her snout shortened a little and her features became somewhat more humanlike along with her changed form, the snarl on her face became that much more evident.

She spoke, her words half-growled, half-spat. "One. Dmitri is a rat, and he is a person. Two, nobody threatens these people under my watch especially not some rich military brat who got her position and her power because grandaddy loves her. Yeah, we've talked to the prisoner, but even if we hadn't, everyone that knows much about your empire know's that you're the shame of your family for what you did. Now do you want to back off, or do you want you and the soldiers you're probably taking away from their duties for no reason to suffer?" Damn, she was really worked up. Banken usually didn't speak much, communicating mostly through really expressive gestures and low-level telepathy. When she did,though, it was pretty important to listen.

Aelia's face turned bright red with anger, apparently suprised that anyone would disrespect her like that. "You'll die first, you canine bitch!" She screeched, and pulled two short swords out from sheaths at her waist, as she charged at Banken.

Banken smirked,and her skin and fur shimmered with light andturned the same shiny, metallic silvery color as her gauntlets. She crossed her arms in front of her head,relying on her tough defenses to disregard this attack. The attack didn't contain fire-type mana or strong enough sword dao insight to break through Banken's Steelstone Body. The Steelstone body was a metal-earth dual element Body Refining technique that created a body with both terrifying offensive force and supreme defense by drawing on the user's affinity for metal and earth, as well as their knowledge of relevant Dao.One could also absorb special ores and elementally infused materials or plants to be able to better mimic the properties of specific metals or minerals. Banken had a high level of proficiency with this technique and a naturally strong body, so Aelia's sword attack that contained neither elemental mana or Sword Dao Insight only left white scratches on Banken's arms below the gauntlets.

"Hmmph, looks like i'll have to get serious! You two Warriors, go after the little man and the tall man, while you two Mages go after those kids and the rat. I'll join you as soon as i've taken out this trash."

Aelia's swords began to glow with a green and red aura as she channeled the elements of wood and fire. It looked like she was channeling the elements of wood and fire, since fire melts through metal and wood separates earth. Was this her version of Regulus Septimus's sword technique? It could probably do so, but given that metal element could counter wood, it'd be a bit less effective against the two cooperating elements that Banken used. The swords also seemed a bit sharper, was she using Sword Dao insight?

As I thought about it, the two warriors engaged Kellan and Ted, the latter two shifting into their beast forms. Kellan whipped his tail at the first, who barely managed to dodge, and the impact he did take knocking him back a few feet. He grimaced, holding up his shield and pointing his sword towards Kellan.

He spoke. "Look, I don't even want to be here, but I guess we've got to do this. Gimme your best, alligator man."

The other engaged with Ted, his spear stabbing the air faster than i'd ever seen Alex's move, yet Ted gracefully dodged every time.

"Trying to keep up in speed with a cat like me? Try again in your next life, buddy."

Ted sped up. turning into a green blur as he aimed his claw's for the man's neck. I guess he was trying to slice through the weaker armor there? That was all I saw before the two Mages captured my attention. As they prepared to attack, Dmitri was casting an illusion to distract them while he prepared his signature technique,called the Laser Trap. It involved focusing light into a mana-infused laser beam, then bending the laserbeam until it became a cage that trapped the opponent, and would slice into them and burn them if they touched it. It had taken him years to develop, and was ridiculously lethal when he wanted it to be.

As the opponents disregarded the illusion, which had told them we were much farther away than we were and that there was a Shard Formation cultivator between us and them, the whirlpool behind us slowed to a crawl, and a cracking sound was heard. A cage of bluish light had formed around our shocked opponents, and as they tried to break it, the Prison Walnut behind us cracked into four pieces and fell apart from the inside out.