“This… I don’t distrust you, Li Shen, but I am confused as to how this had happened. From what I had learnt, this Bianca shouldn’t have been-”

“She was with a kitsune and someone from the village, one… Song Ming, I believe-”

The outer disciples from the Blazing Skies Sect had been speaking in an open space in Xi Village, but few had the courage to do so much as look their way. After all, each and every one of them was a disciple of a sect, so whatever conversation they were having – and why there was one fewer than the last time they had all convened together – was none of their business.

However, at this point, their conversation was not interrupted by one of the disciples, but instead by someone they’d been all too happy to forget about.

“Song Ming? What happened to her? Why isn’t she with you?”

“Lin Shuming, you shouldn’t-”

Qi Ping was cut off by Li Shen’s loud exclamation, “She was fighting alongside two demons! She did something that killed one of us! She killed… she killed Li Yong! A disciple of our sect! She is a criminal, and-”

“What did you do? I know Song Ming! I’ve seen her grow up and I’ve seen how Song Ling taught her! She isn’t some random killer that would just lunge at you, so explain yourself!”

“Both of you-”

“It was a confrontation, and-”

“Stop this! We gain nothing from arguments such as this. Lin Shuming, something had clearly gone differently to how I had thought it might. I believe it would be best for us to report to the sect, get everything figured out, then share the results with you,” Qi Ping tried to be the voice of reason, even as she struggled to keep her own voice steady, “I’m not sure what had occurred, but-”

“Bullshit! Song Ming is a good person, just deceived or charmed by Bianca, or by the kitsune you’ve encountered! You must have done something to force her on the defensive!” he looked to Li Shen, glaring at her with no sign of the subservience he had displayed when first meeting them, “And then, you fought her and probably tried to kill her! What have you to say for yourself? Is this the behaviour of those great disciples of the Blazing Skies Sect? To attack the people of the very village you were supposed to protect?”

“You-”

“ENOUGH! Everyone…” Qi Ping had to take a breath, “Please. Every moment we spend arguing is time for Song Ming to get further away with Bianca and the kitsune, and also hampers the memories of all involved, so if there were any details we missed, they could vanish forever.”

“Is that an excuse for your actions?”

“I am not trying to excuse anything, just… Please, let the sect handle this. If any hasty decisions were made, we will make up for them, but we will also make sure to catch the demons responsible for what has happened to the people of this village. We’ve done this for many years, even before the Storm Skies split into the Calm Skies and our Blazing Skies Sects, and we will continue to protect the people of this land.”

“… If harm comes to Song Ming, I will not be silent. Now… I have things to do. I am the captain of what little guard we have, after all.”

He turned away and departed, leaving the eight of them in silence.

Li Shen was obviously fuming at that moment, but despite her utmost desire to speak, maybe even to shout back, she remained silent and simply glared at Qi Ping.

“We should return to the sect and tell everything to the elders, exactly as it happened. I… I will be honest, I have my doubts as well, but- Wait, listen to what I have to say,” she had to pre-emptively stop the so-called Phoenix of the Blazing Skies from lashing out at her again, “Whatever I think, this is for the sect to handle. I wasn’t there, and neither am I fully aware of the situation. It may well be that I had missed something in my investigations, or perhaps even that I had been deceived by Bianca or another individual I had failed to track.”

If she had been even remotely honest, she would have outright admitted her distrust of Li Shen’s account. It seemed entirely unlikely that the person she had learned about in Xi Village would be the first to attack, not did Lin Shuming’s perception of the situation match up with Song Ming being eager to fight on Bianca’s side.

Of course, if Li Shen attacked first, then it would be different. Few would not take up arms to protect themselves when the blade was moments from striking them, after all.

Unfortunately, not only did she lack the time to investigate it herself, but provoking more conflict would help nobody. For the sake of the Blazing Skies Sect, she had to maintain the peace and get her superiors involved, as they would be able to handle the matter significantly more effectively than she ever could. Yes, it was all for the sake of the sect, to avoid the damage that a number of rampaging demons could cause.

 

A strange beast, covered in a dark-red shell, leaned down to munch on some grass. Some parts of the shell at what could be described as its mouth parted, revealing a long red tongue that slithered out like a serpent, slowly surrounding a large portion of grass and covering it in a slick fluid.

Then, as it fully surrounded its food, the tongue suddenly contracted, pulling most of the grass out of the ground, and retreated into its mouth, the shell shutting as if it had never opened.

Its head rose, and with slow movements, it looked from side to side with small, black eyes, like little beads amidst the scales. It didn’t fully know what it was looking for, but as the meal was digested – somewhere with that three-metre tall body – it had to invest its energy into something. Just as its head was about to lower for another bite, something caused it to freeze up.

Then, a spike of ghostflame struck it right in the head, piercing its shell and easily annihilating its brain.

“There. The head isn’t edible anyway, don’t you worry,” Xue Yaling said to Bianca, “The best parts are the legs, and it has eight of them.”

“How… that looks disgusting.”

“Don’t be so childish. These things are entirely safe for consumption, barely even need to cook them, though we will do so anyway,” the kitsune approached the corpse and took out Bianca’s kitchen knife, which had been surrendered to her during their journey, “Honestly, you really are too much sometimes. I’ve found so many different things for you to eat over the last few days, and you barely touch most of it.”

“It’s… are things like this really normal?”

“Yes, of course they are. Would I be so calm if I saw a strange beast that shouldn’t be in a place like this?” the reply from Xue Yaling came as she was swiftly dissecting the shelled being.

Even Song Ming nodded, “I’ve not run into many of these myself, but I have heard of them before. Red-shell grazers, I believe they’re called.”

“… Ew. Please do cook them properly, or else I’ll definitely throw up.”

“You sure you don’t want to taste its juices? They’re seen as a delicacy in some larger towns in the Barren Expanse, the northern part of the Eastern Continent,” the kitsune explained, “Furthermore, it’s seen as being extremely beneficial to enhancing stamina and sexual prowess, and is lauded as medicine that can help one to grow their di-”

“STOP! Not interested!” Bianca covered her face and waved her hand as she hoped to force the conversation to move onto literally anything else before she either started to blush so much that it became suspicious, or became tempted to actually taste whatever fluids were within that disgusting red thing, ‘And she has way too much of an obsession with my… my dick. Which I haven’t even used since the matter with her Ghostflame Temple.’

Through the gap between her fingers, she glanced at Song Ming, finding her to be looking between her and the kitsune with a confused expression. Somehow, she had not yet caught on to Xue Yaling’s overly numerous references to Bianca’s ability to grow a cock, which was impressive in a certain regard.

Of course, if Bianca wasn’t the one with that unfortunate ability – made much worse by the fact that it took up one of her precious slots that might have been significantly more helpful if it offered something she actually wanted to use – she also wouldn’t have imagined that anything of the sort was possible.

“Fine, then. I do have something else for you from this thing,” Xue Yaling shoved her hand into the beast, some very wet noises following until she pulled out a small orb that had a faint green glow, only about the size of a circle Bianca could make with her thumb and index finger.

“… Which is?”

“The key for you to reach the next realm easily. Using one of your techniques, we can all absorb it and get a nice boost to our capabilities, and in your case, you will finally be able to enjoy some of the greatest advantages offered by planar cultivation,” the kitsune explained, tossing the orb up in the air before catching it with ease, “Hm, managed to slip it in anyway, didn’t I?”

“Slip in what?” Song Ming asked, tilting her head.

“Nothing! Xue Yaling… That sounds great, but please do avoid… whatever it is you’re trying to insinuate. It really doesn’t help.”

“Oh, I disagree. However, that can wait. Let me set up the fire, and then I shall assist you and Song Ming in the cultivation process. Even I might benefit from it a little this time, though I doubt I will obtain a whole stage out of it,” the kitsune threw the orb over to Bianca and proceeded to pull off the red-shell grazer’s legs, “Look away if you’re not so keen on its juices. There will be quite a lot coming out of it… not that I know how it contains that much moisture.”

Bianca was more than happy to heed that advice and looked away, though not before she sighed at the fact that she would have to bring out her Demon’s Commanding Rod yet again if she wanted to make the most of this.

“Are you doing alright?”

“Hm?”

Song Ming sat down beside her, leaning onto Bianca’s side, “I know that things haven’t exactly been… great, for either of us, but… I’ve spent more time in the wilds than you, and… clearly, I’ve come across more of those types of beasts than you. Plus… well, you’d been forced to take a life, just to protect me…”

‘… Why is she so kind and selfless? How in the world is she so… so angelic? Did whatever or whoever threw me into this world take some pity on me and put me next to the most gentle person in the entire world?’ she was almost afraid to look at Song Ming, just in case it somehow ended this unexpectedly positive aspect of a strange and terrifying world, “I… I hadn’t meant to do it, but… I’m glad that you’re well. I’ve had worst experiences out in the wild than this…”

“When- ah. Yes, I suppose you would have… I wish I could have chased after you and stopped you-”

“That’s not… It probably wouldn’t have worked out that way, but… I’m surprised by how much Xue Yaling has been able to bring with her, actually. I had seen the potential of the shrinking bag, but I hadn’t imagined it would be able to fit seemingly everything she had inside.”

“I’m glad you mentioned that!” Xue Yaling shouted over from her position beside the red-shell grazer, “It’s actually a dual shrinking back of my own design… and not really my own creation, but that’s beside the point! One layer allows me to greatly shrink the items within, and the other focuses entirely on the reduction of weight. Together, they function nearly as well as far higher quality shrinking bags!”

‘I… Does that even… I haven’t got the faintest clue. I should just pretend like everything she says makes sense… apart from her fondness of women’s dicks. She still hasn’t convinced me about those, but… whatever,’ she shook her head, “Well, she’s certainly enthusiastic about this. I’m tempted to just ask her about the Ghostflame Temple. Shuts her up right away…”

“Wrong!” the kitsune exclaimed, “I simply do not wish to waste our time discussing something when we could be rushing ahead, away from the sects! Soon… Ah, fine, maybe we’ll be safe enough here. If there had been a pursuit right away, we would already be in danger.”

She threw something wet and squishy – based on the sound, at least, since Bianca wasn’t about to turn and look – and then appeared behind them, her blood-stained hands hovering head Bianca and Song Ming’s shoulders. Each hand was just a centimetre or two away from their clothing, and by some absolute miracle, nothing dripped from them for the short while that the kitsune kept them in such a precarious position.

“Tell you what, I’ll explain it to you while we wait for the legs to cook.”

“Please bring your hands away.”

“Heh. Would you really be saying that if-”

“Please.”

“Tch. You really are too childish sometimes, honey. Fine,” she brought her hands up and coated them in ghostflames, revealing pristine skin the moment they faded, “Alright, I’m done with my cooking setup, and with this particular type of food, you ought to eat it with a sauce instead of seasoning it while cooking. Thus, we have plenty of time for discussion.”

That made Bianca looked behind her, as it seemed impossible for something to be accomplished so quickly – and with so little noise at that. However, she saw exactly the opposite of what she expected.

A large fire was set up and surrounded by stones to prevent the flames from spreading out of control. Several metal rods help the legs of the red-shell grazer near the flames, allowing them to cook while much of the excess juice dripped onto the grass below. There was a soft mat laid out, plates and chopsticks placed on it with enough space for all of them to sit down and have a nice time. Somehow, she even brought out four cushions, though who the fourth one was meant was not clear.

“When did you…”

“Did you think I was only disposing of things that were completely inedible? You’ve got to have the ability to multitask if you’re having to support two others in the wild. Now, come on – get those questions out of the way,” she sat opposite them, resting her back on a rock, “Go on, we don’t have all day.”

“… You said you were holding on to the Ghostflame Temple for one of the sects, right? The Blazing Skies Sect?”

“That? Did you seriously think that they had just lent it to me, and I was being a nice custodian and holding them while they were away? Really?” she sighed, “How is it that I keep encountering greater and greater lows when talking to you? Is this not something you could have figured out on your own?”

“Xue Yaling, don’t you think that this is a bit unfair? Even I wouldn’t have known, and I have all of my memories. Meanwhile, she has lost at least twenty years of her life!”

‘In a way, she’s not entirely wrong, is she…’ Bianca found an argument for either side.

“Still, this sort of thing should really be common sense. No, the sects did not give up their territory to a random third-realm kitsune with no particular affiliations or allies. Rather, this place was held by one of their disciples, and I made sure to remove them in a prompt and efficient fashion. The land remained, and eventually, they were bound to come looking for that land back. However, what reason is there to take it back right away if I keep it safe?”

“Uh…”

“The land isn’t at risk of being taken by any other major factions, nor is it especially precious. Hence, the wisest thing for them to do is just to pretend like everything is going fine. Then, when there is an opportunity to take back the lands without much effort, they would naturally go for it.”

“And that was the opportunity?”

“Yeah. We couldn’t kill them – or rather, we managed to avoid killing all but one – and we’ve had to escape their wrath, so all they needed to do is quietly send in a middle disciple to sit around for however long they need to muster a superior force that would properly be able to manage that place. It’s rather straightforward, really.”

“Well, when you spell it out that way, I suppose it is… So, they didn’t care that you chased away some of their disciples?”

“What were they going to do, mobilise an army? They have better things to do, and since I kept this place nice and tidy – mostly – they wouldn’t have found much to complain about. Better yet, if they showed up with a threatening enough force, I might have just left a day before they attacked, which would have left them with a perfectly maintained territory at the cost of a few people not strong enough to fight off one kitsune.”

“If it was so simple,” Song Ming spoke up, “then why did you not leave us behind?”

“Another thing I thought I’d explained before now already. Look, the two of you are rather interesting specimens. Bianca has her very unique cultivation techniques, and combat skills that match with it perfectly. In fact… No, I’ll speculate on that after she reaches the second realm. You, dear, have a physique that is exceedingly rare, and it is currently at an extreme level of power within you. Getting to investigate it more closely, even just on its own and without access to the other three connected to the Conqueror’s Eye, is an incredible opportunity.”

Bianca struggled to determine how she felt about that extreme honesty. She certainly appreciated not having to guess at the true nature of Xue Yaling’s actions and intentions, but even then, she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to trust her. She had little choice either way, but nonetheless, she wanted to make the right choice for once after the many mistakes she ended up making.

She glanced in Song Ming’s direction and found her looking just as uncertain as Bianca felt, which wasn’t a good sign. If she didn’t have Song Ming’s reliable knowledge to fall back on, she barely had anything, since her own experience just wasn’t of any use.

‘I suppose it’s a good thing. At least I don’t have to question her interests… not that it’s that hard to know anyway. She’s glancing down there even now, the foxy perv…’

“And what would happen if you figured us both out?”

“Hm. Honestly, I wouldn’t expect that to happen any time soon, if at all. This sort of thing has been studied and investigated by countless people since the origin of the Conqueror’s Eye concept, whereas you, Bianca, have an archetype that I’ve never even heard of before. It’s not even a Heart of Dao, as far as I can tell.”

“I see…”

They remained silent for a brief while, and then Xue Yaling clapped her hands together, “Glad you’ve gotten all the questions out. Now, it is time for our cultivation, and we’ll eat afterwards. Get prepared, Bianca.”

‘Stop pointing me out! I remember! Ugh…’ she tried not to blush while Song Ming glanced in her direction, clearly tempted to ask what it is that Xue Yaling was constantly hinting towards, ‘Luckily, the panties don’t seem to be especially fragile, so even if the kitsune does her thing again, it shouldn’t just outright snap and pop out…’

She didn’t want Song Ming to see it. The concern wasn’t that it would cause her to believe that she’d been hiding a cock in her panties all along, as that would be impossible given the times they’d been together prior to this, but rather that she’d be so turned off by it that it would permanently impact their relationship. After all, from what she knew, Song Ming had no interest in guys, and she grew a rather prominent feature of one, arguably the most important one, so… Lot of room for error there, and error was something she most definitely wanted to avoid.

At the very least Xue Yaling didn’t give them long to think, as she quickly forced them into a circle, holding one another’s hands, while the orb from the grazer was placed in her lap.

Given that she was in the highest realm out of the lot of them, and most knowledgeable about cultivation in any aspect, Bianca couldn’t find a reason to even want to contest this matter. Whatever misgiving Song Ming had about kitsune clearly didn’t win out over her interest to cultivate and, more importantly, to stay alive, which was predicated on her body being able to endure the sheer pressure from her own physique.

Thus, as they were about to begin, Bianca reluctantly used the Demon’s Commanding Rod, and felt her panties fill out even more than last time. It was a slight change, relatively speaking, but there was only so much of a gap between filling her underwear and bursting out of it.

‘Don’t get too hard, don’t get too hard…’

Either Xue Yaling saw the bulge or used her spiritual perception to confirm things, as she didn’t hesitate for a moment to begin absorbing the energy of the red-shell grazer’s core, a wondrous light of many shades spilling out of and circulating all around the three of them. For a while, it did nothing else, but then it was split into three distinct threads.

One flew towards Bianca, and her Demonic Tyrant made short work of it, greedily sucking up each and every bit with the Tyrannical Deity technique. Another thread, only a little larger than her own, was directed to Song Ming, who had to focus much more to absorb it. It was also fed to her more slowly.

And then, there was Xue Yaling’s portion. It vastly exceeded their two threads combined, but even with her limited understanding the reason behind this became obvious. Bianca’s cultivation technique aside, Xue Yaling was in a higher realm, the one processing all of this energy, and even the one most likely to be taken in without an interrogation if the sects ever caught up to them. Any one of those could easily be used as decent reasons to explain this divide, and she didn’t have the time to care about it too much.

As she consumed most of what was given to her, she focused and glanced inwards, looking at her dantian. It was nearly filled to the brim with the darkness of the Tyrannical Deity, and as more and more trickled it, there was soon no place for it to go. Like usual, the darkness began to grow thicker in an attempt to reduce the space it took up, but it suddenly began to collapse into the centre, endless clouds of darkness sparking with crimson and violet as they became darker and darker.

It sounded as if something shattered, and then the sight before her changed. At once, Bianca saw out of her own eyes, but it also seemed as if she was given a fraction of the perception of some omniscient observer. She could see every detail of herself, every pore on her skin and, of course, any detail she never wanted to know about on her cock.

Luckily, her attention was pulled away to a sudden manifestation of darkness all around her. It took on the form of a black, fanged skull with a mouth large enough to fit her, and then shifted as more and more darkness appeared around it. Its teeth grew sharper, horns burst out of the forehead, and crimson lightning tinged with a strange purple glow amassed within the eye sockets. Worse yet, she felt as if it was somehow growing closer, its mouth opening wider as it aimed to devour her whole, to capture her without a single chance of escape.

Her hand broke away from Xue Yaling’s grip as she nearly began to get up and flee, but then the skull was gone. In its place, above the palm of her now free hand, was the very same power that had filled her dantian moments before the breakthrough, crackling with the same fiendish light.

Furthermore, that strange extrasensory perception was not gone, though she could barely focus it anymore. She knew that she could bring her attention outwards, to see things that her eyes could never grasp, and she even vaguely felt its limits roughly a metre away, but to actually reach out and feel those things felt nearly impossible.

Bianca saw Xue Yaling reach for her hand, though she stopped a hair’s width away as light poured out from both her and Song Ming, each dyed in their own colours. The kitsune was surrounded with a strange shape made of her ghostflames, some kind of three-sided pillar that evoked the feeling of flame from just its shape alone, and Song Ming’s body was briefly washed by a watery glow. As always, the water was calm and soothing to behold, though for the briefest moment, it seemed as if there was something within its depths, a dark thing of unknown origin and nature.

However, that impression passed so quickly that it seemed more likely that some dust got into Bianca’s eyes. After all, she had been sitting with her mouth agape and her eyes wide open since the skull manifested around her.

“Well, congratulations, Bianca. You are now within a realm where you can really be called a cultivator,” Xue Yaling said as soon as the ghostflames vanished from around her, “… and since it seems to have grown your hair just a little, I can confirm it’s gotten lighter. When we find a good spot, I’m helping you trim away what you’ve currently got and grow the shade – and no complaints. We don’t need something that attracts attention like that.”

“Uh… S-Sure? Did… did you not see the huge skull?”

“Hm? Oh, that was your Scene of Completion. It completed the first realm’s reinforcement of your body and allowed you to externalise your energy. Trust me, a skull is not the strangest thing it could have been.”

‘… I guess… that makes sense?’