Chapter 353: Pressure

Month 2

I never thought I’d be on the run for this long. With thousands of people on my trail it seemed only a matter of time until they caught me, or I escaped from them. I could have never imagined that no matter what I did, they would always be able to find me again. I tried shedding my scales, burning off the outer layer of my skin, hiding my aura, changing my scent completely, even using Blood Refining to change the scent of my blood. Whatever method they were using to track me, I didn’t have a way to stop them.

I gave up trying to lose them. What I’ve been doing now is just hiding myself in dangerous locations. How am I doing that, you ask? It’s actually pretty easy, I’ve just been going to the Demonic Beast hunting grounds and resting near the strongest beasts. To them, I’m just another beast. It’s somewhat difficult for humans to know the extent of a beast’s territory, but for me its simple. Even if I wasn’t a Beast Tamer, I have the pheromone ability from the Succubus Beetle. Finding the territory of the strongest beasts is not only easy, but I can also make myself seem completely non-threatening to them. Well, at least most of them.

Many Demonic Beasts rely on scent as their early warning system and I can take advantage of that to appear completely non-threatening, weak, and of a type of creature they aren’t interested in as prey. It’s not foolproof, so if I get too close and let them see me, it can give me away, but for the most part I can hide for quite a long time on their territory. The territory of a predator is meant to deter other predators after all. They protect their own hunting grounds, keeping the best food for themselves. The stronger they are, the bigger their territory.

It’s actually been working pretty decently. I’m hoping I can find something strong enough that I can feel safe to go into Chrysalis, but so far I’ve only been able to buy a few days at a time before I have to move on to the next beast territory. They also seem to have learned their lesson. The first time, a whole Century was wiped out, but since then they’ve learned to surround a territory before slowly moving in with force. I can usually sense them coming and then get out of there before I’m trapped, but at least with this method I can start training again.

Month 4

Training has been going well. At least if you can call it that. I could be interrupted at any time and there’s no telling how long I can stay in one place. I also can’t be exhausting myself physically, since I need to stay at my peak condition. That means I can’t really contemplate on laws, nor can I work on that physical technique I’ve still been trying to finish. Instead, I’ve taken a different path.

My true body is actually quite small. It’s only a few dozen years old, and I was too distracted establishing the Jade Horde to focus upon it. I need to increase my strength and so I am taking the most crude and simple method: consumption. While I’m traveling between the territories of strong Demonic Beasts, I hunt. I use Blood Refining when I can, but the quality of these beasts is not the best. I’m also not hunting for quality, but quantity. Even when staying in the territory of a strong beast, if there’s a chance I’ll leave it to hunt more. I even got lucky a few times and captured a breeding pair of Spirit Animals. Some sort of rabbit and deer pair, I put them into my Inner World, putting them somewhere remote so they can proliferate before getting preyed upon by insects, hoplites, or bird folk.

Month 5

I was avoiding it for a long time, but it finally happened.

Ruanfu demanded answers. I had dug out a cave on the side of a cliff and she appeared with the backdrop of the open sky behind her. The Human Seal hasn’t been active for months at this point, and I hadn’t realized that the control over my human features didn’t apply to my true form. When I saw her again, something must have shown on my face. She looked into my eyes for only a few moments before she started crying.

She knew.

I hadn’t seen her for a few months, but for her in the Inner World it had been years. She no longer looked like a young girl, but a teenager. Her snowy white hair was no longer short, instead pulled back into a single long braid. White hair was usually only seen on the elderly, or in wigs, which made it so unusual to see on a young girl. Especially since her hair was thick and healthy. What was worse was those bright blue eyes, obscured by tears. Her father was dead.

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I had to close my eyes. I didn’t know what I could say to help her. There were no words that could make her father come back to life. There was nothing I could say that could undo what was already done.

I moved to her and coiled my body around her, the serpentine version of a hug. I told her that he died to protect her and her family. Saving me, so they could all live on. There was no way I could apologize deeply enough, we merely cried together for a few hours.

Later, I promised her to allow her and her father’s wives free into the world. If they stayed inside my Inner World they could only die with me. Upon reaching the fifth rank, the only way to really die was if one’s core was shattered. My core was the Inner World, so I would only die if it were destroyed, which would also lead to the death of everything on it. King had given his life to protect them, and I owed it to him for them all to survive.

Ruanfu didn’t answer me, instead she returned to the Inner World. She had to tell the rest of her family. They had all suspected, but now it was time for their hopes to be dashed.

Month 6

I still didn’t have any answer from Ruanfu, so I kept on moving. Initially I was heading towards Flying Wind Province, directly north of 10,000 Wave. They didn’t want me to escape to the ocean to the East, but I didn’t want to be moving in the way they expected. I chose to head West, into Endless Valley Province.

Abbot Kunga had been in Endless Valley since the Cloudmetal Charcoal mine was taken, working to expand the Jade Horde and make connections doing mercenary work. They probably never would have thought I’d go that way because the Jade Horde already had a presence there. What they didn’t realize was that I knew Abbot Kunga far better than they did. The monk had already lived a life of excess and vice in the past. He joined the Jade Horde to repent, to do some good after all the bad he’d done in the past.

Just like I’d thought, when I made it into Endless Valley, the Jade Horde in the province didn’t try very hard to catch me. They only put on a show of it, and only came after me when Whitestaff’s disciples were with them. I kept putting on size and a few times I used the Human Seal to keep from drawing attention. Compared to before my length had tripled, so I was pretty noticeable even from a distance now.

Month 8

Passing through Endless Valley Province went far better than I thought it would. Abbot Kunga ensured the Jade Horde groups there were quite lazy. He had always been pleased for the reason the Horde was created. Or at least, the reason I gave him. Helping the Hoplites earn money to support their villages. They could catch bad guys, hunt dangerous monsters, protect people, and their profits would benefit poor demi-humans. It was likely he was not happy with the change in leadership. I made sure to remember his good deed.

To the west of Endless Valley was the capital of the Dou Kingdom, but that’s not where I was heading. I went northwest, to Five Mountain Province.

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