“I see now,” The gang leader continued, “Perhaps yer speaking the truth. The fox princess will let you ‘help’ the mundane folks better than us gangs and even the Youjin nobles ever could, and you gotta be part of her inner circle to ask such favours. You gotta pass the recruitments.”

“Finally, someone with brains!” Yung said.

“You’d help yourself too. Virtually sucking up the worship from half a million folks and brute force through houtian. But too rapid a progression will lead to hidden defects, even if in the short term it’ll let you power up, giving you better chances to pass phase two and three after you leave this city. Lad, it ain’t a nice feeling to be bloated with qi all day long, and it’s foolish to give up hopes of ever reaching xiantian for short-sighted gains. Overloading xinqi for years and decades without the means to process it fast enough is gonna cost you.”

“Why must you get it backwards again…”

Ziyou Maque nodded with self-assurance, and Youjin Liu concurred.

“I don’t get it…” Ziyou Ling said with confusion. Youjin Chun hid her haughty sneer behind her fan. Insults were thrown, and threats were made.

Yung decided to clear this up before the two headaches could start a catfight again.

“You guys might think the only reason Fairy Nanya is still in this ‘Backwoods Village’ is because she’s searching for her foxball, but that’s wrong. No need to glare, Youjin Ze; those were her words, not mine.” Yung frowned back at the old coot. “I can tell you this frankly. She is not. So you can quit having Youjin cultivators waste their time in a futile search. She probably already knows where the foxball is, and is using all this as some grand game. Fairy Nanya could leave one outer disciple from the Twilight blood palace here to officiate phase one, then leave for the next kingdom over, and there is nothing you can do about it. But I can. ”

“You mean to say….” It seems Youjin Chun had guessed the answer too.

“The reason why she’s still here is me. She’s interested in what I do and how I do it. Not the foxmoths or the foxballs, and definitely not you guys, some small backwoods clans fighting for scraps.”

“Never have I seen a man so shameless.” Youjin Ze could not help it any longer and yelled.

Yung saw Ziyou Maque nod from the corner of his eyes. “Lad, it ain’t right to assume a lass’s feelings like that. ‘Does she like me?’ is not a pitfall you’d wanna get in with the sect recruitments around the corner.”

Yung said with righteous indignation, blushing fiercely. “Hey! It’s not the romantic kinda interest for heaven’s sake, but pragmatic. Nyanya pardoned me in phase one of the sect recruitments! She obviously thinks I am special in regards to my ideas or talents. And besides, even if it was about romance, I can call her ‘Nyanya’ without the fox yao cultivators smiting me to ashes. Can you?”

No one said a word. And that was not disdain on their faces, Yung assured himself.

“My point is, Fairy Nanya wants to make me a loyal servant. I don’t know why, and again, I don’t think it’s because of my looks. But the fact is, she wants something only I can give her. Perhaps entertainment, or perhaps she wants to nurture an agent for the fox clan. But that it’s me, not you. Which is literally the only reason she is still here.”

Yung paused to swallow, looking each person in the eyes, “And her staying here for as long as possible will let me help people better and sooner. It will ensure that you guys will implement the terms in the contract without any funny business. Treat the foxmoths with respect and reparations until Silky is satisfied. And everything else written in the scroll. The goal is to help the people and the foxmoths. Xinqi, foxballs, and the sect recruitments are the means. And not the other way around.”

***

Elsewhere, on the highest suit of the Dim gold hotel.

Su Yafeng muttered, amazed. “How do you think he figured it out?”

Nanya was silent.

“Do you think he knows about Madam Floo—Su Xiya? And that you can take back the occultic foxball any time you want?”

“Silent. We are pondering matters more important.”

“Such as?”

“We wonder regarding Ziyou Yung’s speech to Youjin Chao. How did the new servant find out we are older than he? We look as young as a freshly bloomed lily, so pure our visage, yet unblemished to age. It is incomprehensible that our charms display wrinkles.”

“Perhaps it is the ‘wrinkles’ in m’lady’s abdominal folds—If you hit me I’m telling aunty matriarch!!!”

***

Back in the Youjin Clan citadel, Yung forcefully dispelled the awkward silence with more awkward hand gestures.

“In any case, I can only do the obvious action. I have to follow Nyanya’s commands to keep her interest alive. Get it now?”

“If you fail Fairy Su’s tests, you can’t go with her to the sect. In which event, the contract is dissolved.” Youjin Chun said.

“And you all can beat me up because I would’ve lost Nyanya’s backing. It would feel good for you, I understand. But let me assure you that the price you must pay won’t be worth it.”

“So it all boils down to you.”

“No! It boils down to Fairy Nanya’s and the fox clan’s continued interest in me. This is not me being a narcissist. This is me stating a fact.” Yung cracked his knuckles. Silky, let them come to their own conclusion.

“I had thought you had more chivalrous reasons for saving our ‘backwoods village,’ Ziyou Yung.” Youjin Chun said. “Did you not just say it was the motivation behind your actions? To help people?”

“If the fox clan wasn’t backing me, would I be able to talk with you all on equal grounds?”

Youjin Chun fell silent.

“To answer your previous question. These ‘chivalrous reasons’, as you call them, are literally to stop kids in the madlander slum and eastern upper town from starving. Let’s forget about xinqi and the sect recruitments for a while. Couldn’t it be that I arranged the events such that it would ultimately help out the less fortunate of the city?

“Hey, what’s with that face? It’s true! I could have used that blood spirit contract scroll to butter up some elder from the Twilight blood palace, get past even phase three without so much as seeing a fiend, and stay Nyanya’s servant. Why would I go through all the trouble otherwise? To help out the people who ate up my grandfather’s inheritance?”

“This mannerless—” Youjin Ze flushed like a rusty drain before promptly receiving a glare from the patriarch.

“Would that even be considered passing her tests?” Youjin Chun said. “Did you not say you have to pass with your own power?”

“Of course,” Yung said. “I will use my brain power, see? Just like I am doing now with this convoluted plan to save the foxmoths, save the madlander slum dwellers, save the uptowners, and save your Dim gold city and Youjin clan. What do I get in return? Only doubts and not a single thanks.”

The scepticism was palpable on everyone’s face. Youjin Chun and her father, Ziyou Maque, Ziyou Ling, no one seemed to buy Yung’s reasoning. He could see it in their eyes, but they would play along regardless.

He sighed, it is what it is.

“Let’s go with that, then.” Youjin Chun finally replied after a long silence.

No, Silky! Don’t use string shot. Let them come to their own conclusion. Important things had to be repeated thrice.

He floofed Floofy gently as she nudged up Yung’s lap with the foxmoth throwing mean glares at the Youjin clan. He was confident that they would trust him in time, not that he trusted them all unconditionally. Both sides would have to prove their sincerity with actions, as words spoken were cheap and easy and were tainted by the forced compliance of the blood spirit contract. Yet nonetheless, Yung was hopeful about the future.

***

“I thought Ziyou Yung was a timid child… His narcissism is a good match for m’lady!” Su Yafeng said, spying in from afar.

“What nonsense do you spout? Did you not hear our new servant say what he does, he does to save the village dwellers living here?” Nanya said.

“I think m’lady should be less gullible, or I fear you’ll be hoodwinked by someone with bad intentions.”

“With such ugly countenance? Surely you banter with us.” Nanya scoffed, then went back to meditating. “The fools of this backwoods village think our new servant hides his cunning objectives under a façade of selfless altruism. Yet it is precisely the opposite. The boy merely displays his caring heart honestly, for that is who he is. Yet strange indeed that a veil of egocentric self-interest is what his intentions come off as to the blind. Perhaps for no greedy buffoon here is used to such open honesty?

“Should we say he understands that the short-sighted villagers find no revelry in unselfish kindness? Or should we say he shall do whatever it takes to remain true to his ideology? After all, choice maketh the cultivator. More so for shenmo cultivation than any else. And our new servant most certainly chose well his path, his dao.”

“Does m’lady insinuate that I’m also a fool for thinking like the villagers? Also, it’s a city!”

Nanya smiled wryly, “Maid shall be wiser to discern the true objectives of others, or we fear you may be the one to succumb to the guile of boys with woolly-headed smiles.”

“How rude! M’lady goes too far with her insults. It’s not my fault I can’t peep into people’s dreams like you. M’lady should stop being a voyeur!”

Nanya ignored her maid’s complaints. The squid-like flower Su Xiya had taken from Ziyou Maque was in her hands. It was a rare treasure pulsing with a particular type of yuanqi that could be easily converted into Nanya’s jingqi. The same was true for the fiend skull Su Xiya traded with Youjin Liu today.

Not as efficient as coitus cultivation, but it would have to do. It was for resources like these had Nanya come to this backwater region surrounding the Warring twilight forest and joined the Twilight blood palace.

Nanya thought back on what she saw in Ziyou Yung’s nightmares with her elder souls. A paralysed fool, helpless to all tragedy. A maiden of golden threads. And a deep, zealous anger toward his own utter weakness.

Perhaps he is a true man yet, in his own cowardly ways. Nanya mused.

***

Yung drew the fiends he saw in Silky’s vision to the best of his abilities. “I confirmed two of them. This one,” Yung circled the giant hound with flesh falling off its body. “Is a Wretched Bloodhound.”

The massive hound was sized nearly double that of a fully-grown renyao. It had a muscular frame, and its powerful hind legs allowed it to move with frightening speed, while its curved tail dragged heavily on the ground like it had a mind of its own. Its grey fur was matted and falling off in chunks, exposing the rotting flesh and bones underneath. The fur also looked charred and blackened in some places, adding to the grotesque appearance of the beast. Its pitch-black sunken eyes were lifeless and gave it a dead look, while its mouth hung open, revealing razor-sharp teeth stained with dried toxins. Yet the blood and saliva that streamed from them like rows of needles showed it was not entirely dead. In Silky’s vision, its drool soaked the ground and gave off a putrid odour that scared away most weaker fiends. And underneath all that, ran an evil circuit of putrid green and purple pulsing with alien qi, as was the case for all voidfiends.

“A 1-star voidfiend, but it cultivated to the houtian 2nd order judging by its size.” Ziyou Maque said.

Fiends had two rankings.

The first was of their cultivation level, analogous to renyao cultivation, and could be denoted with similar major realms such as houtian and xiantian, but with orders instead of minor realms. Whereas a foundation building renyao would be in the houtian 2nd realm, a fiend with similar qi quality would be in the houtian 2nd order. Since fiends didn’t cultivate systematically as renyao did, it was hard to pinpoint their exact substages accurately. Before prying out the fiendcore after slaying the beast and appraising it, one had to guess by experience and the enemy fiend’s qi intensity, quality, and displayed abilities to assign them a stage.

The second was their species rank. It was marked with stars, with a higher number of stars signifying a superior species with higher base potential. Usually, a higher star species would be far stronger than a lower star one at the same cultivation level.

Foxmoths were 1-star chaosfiends. Animals really.

These don’t tell me how threatening they are though, Yung thought. If a 1-star flea can cause an epidemic, I would be worried more about that than a 9-star dragon.