Chapter 76 - A dream that has to end (Patreon)

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[Table of Contents]

Yung could only sigh. He hated it when people close to him kept secrets on important matters. He hated it more that he was doing the same.

<You want to keep how they killed Floofy’s other body double and what they are doing now to the body double’s foxball a secret… So only you and I should go in to solve this mystery.>

<Kii. Kii kyu!> Came Silky's worried cry. The critter seemed to understand what was going on. It cast worried looks towards the cave with tears barely held in.

Despite what he had said, Silky was a kind soul. In actuality, he did not want anything bad to happen to his flock. Even if they did betray him, even if… they were no longer the same flock.

I understand Silky. I promised to get your flock back. I will do it one way or another.

Yung must go. He should go. But Nyanya hadn’t convinced him. He knew he should not be so political in analysing his girlfriend and best friend’s emotional pleas, but he feared death too much to ignore his own feelings.

<Okay, I get it.> Yung said.

Nyanya smiled, but then frowned. Yung wasn’t finished.

<Let’s leave the other sects aside. What about the Twilight Blood Palace? Let’s take a bunch of them with us. I don’t have to be responsible if they die since they probably want to show off in front of you. It’ll be me doing them a favour.>

<How cruel of you, servant dearest.>

<If they don’t want to go with us, I’ll shut up.>

<Some secrets are only meant for family and boyfriends. Not all servants are loved equally, you know.>

<Boyfriend. Singular!>

<... We feel like that manner of cutesy complaining suits us more.>

<Also, what about Miss Maid and Su Haochen’s ninja gang?>

<The cultists weave their webs with insidious depth. The tragedy that befell your kin fourteen years ago shall not find itself reborn under our watchful gaze.>

So the voidfiend outbreak that happened when I was two… these bastards did it! So they are planning something again within Dim Gold City?

Yung looked at Nyanya with complicated feelings. He tried to remember his own parents but only got back the sorrow of his grandfather, and even Ziyou Maque’s destitute smile when he had talked about his departed wife.

Yung’s love for his Nyanya just grew, but so did his apprehension.

It felt like he was being forced to make a choice he did not want to. Even now, Yung could not get over this visceral feeling of denial that came from his very soul.

That he did not ever want to set foot upon some unknown place of danger, without absolute protection that he would be alive.

After all, he did not want to die!

And in this world, any random Qi-infused thing could murder him because of some ridiculous dao aspect it possessed. Nothing, not even the heavens and fate itself, could guarantee his life.

Absolute protection was an impossibility. Period.

…other than maybe cuddling with his girlfriend in a very safe hotel suite, guarded by cultivators from the richest clan on the whole plane.

At least he would be safe for the moment!

Su Nanya growled, then booped him on the belly with her giant foxy snout.

<Ouch!>

<A hundred miles cannot shroud the stench of your sinful daydreams from us. Cease immediately! Why must you keep forcing us to wear such stuffy clothes in your imagination?>

<W-What? I was just, umm, who the hell thinks French maid costumes are stuffy–>

<We keep telling you we are neither a maid nor a body double. Y-You shall stop making excuses. You try to rationalise your way into a false sense of security, but the world will not allow it.>

Yung gulped. He knew she was right.

Su Nanya continued with a stern but uncertain glare, <You… must grow and learn. You must be stronger than any hero out there! You wish to cuddle with us? But for how long will the jealous world allow it? Do you not remember that stinky man of yang’s words? To cuddle with us is to turn the whole mortal plane into your enemy. Every prince and king and lord and minister, from sect masters to rogue immortals, who doesn’t wish to cuddle with our fluffy flesh and fur? Yet, only you can. You! So, darling of mine to whom we will give our chastity, you must have courage and show your pride and live!>

<We’re finally gonna have sex?> Yung hollered.

<Why must you only concentrate on that part? You, you, you... a barbarian, with thoughts birthed solely from your loins!> The giant vixen whined.

I... okay, Yung, admit it… she’s right. Dammit! Yung let out a long exhale. He had been living a dream until now. A safe dream, with a safe house, a safe pet, and a safe girlfriend.

But the world wasn’t safe. He couldn’t stay the way he was. Because if Nyanya and Miss Maid weren’t here, a monster like the Wretched Emissary could murder the whole Dim Gold City, and no one could do anything.

He would have to get stronger. No ifs, elses, or buts.

Not stronger so he could plunder what others had, but strong enough to protect what belonged to him. His peaceful dreams and second chance at life.

For now, he had a rich and all-powerful girlfriend. She promised to keep him safe. Yung had no false sense of machismo, he was completely happy to let her be the provider, the protector.

But during the night of the sect recruitments, after their date, she had to leave. And within that small window, Yung encountered the heinous Divine Hawk gang.

Yes, Yung’s Heart qi and Empathic powers were a lucky cheat. And yes, Su Haochen was there too. But then, what if he wasn’t, like right now? It seems like he was busy dealing with the cultists back in Dim Gold City.

What if next time, there was a Divine Tiger or Divine Dragon gang, and they were not brainless thugs? What if they were in the Unfolding Heaven realms?

What if Nyanya, Miss Maid, and Su Haochen’s ninja party were simultaneously busy? With no one there to protect him,

Yung would die.

What if Su Nanya’s mother really was a heartless queen towards people she had no interest in? After all, like mother, like daughter. What if the matriarch of the Su Fox clan didn’t want her daughter to give her love to a talentless madlander like him? Could she veto Nyanya’s order so Miss Maid and Su Haochen would no longer protect him in Nyanya’s absence?

If so,

Yung would die.

Unless he grew strong.

Unless he earned the matriarch's approval.

But it still hurt, hearing Nyanya say so openly that her love for him might still have such conditions attached.

<How dare you!> The giant vixen dropped Yung before the barrier and pushed on his head with her massive paws. Gently. <We said no such thing. We do not love you!>

<That’s even worse!>

<B-But perhaps, even if we did, for example, feel this emotion called ‘love’ towards a smelly pervert like you, it would have no conditions attached. A-And even if there was such a condition, it would be for you to stay alive. For you to not die before us so we could continue cuddling and floofing and smooching under our safe and warm blanket even after a hundred years, a thousand years, and more!>

<Aww, I love you too!>

<Stop it! We are being serious here. Super serious, dare you not understand? We must be realistic. The world conspires to steal away our primordian yin and give it to a hero of yang. We have more suitors than the stars in the sky, more men leering at our buttocks and bosom than insects in the forest. Yet still, irrelevant may they appear now, they are all stronger than you, each and every one of them!>

<H-Hey, Chao has lower cultivation than me!>

<Dare you fight him then?>

Yung grumbled.

<And then, my mother dearest, the strongest vixen to walk the lands. It is exactly as you have guessed. She… wishes nothing but the best for us. She loves us dearly, perhaps more so than any soul in the realm. Your pathetic talents do not impress her.>

<Hey now! That’s a value judgement.>

<Then can you tell me with absolute certainty, that just cultivating by exchanging Essence qi with us, and so inefficiently refining your Heart qi into True qi, you can reach the heights of the Harmonious Heaven realm?>

Young grumbled louder.

<You cannot. A mere accumulation of Heart qi and Essence qi, even at such high quantities, is nowhere near enough for you to break through! And if you cannot, you will die an old man. We hate that. We do not wish to lose you. To get past the divide of Imperfect heaven, you need to cultivate your willpower.>

<I-I think I am quite tough, mentally.>

<You cried like a wee little fox babe yesterday when you had so ungracefully stubbed your little toe on the door-side.>

Yung didn’t grumble. He was just speechless.

<Even if you do nothing but cultivate in a cave with the world’s greatest treasures, you must hone your mental acuity, your cognitive prowess, your resistance to stressors of all kinds. The dao is not for the weak-hearted to plunder. If you are so afraid of pain, of the dark unknown, how can you ever hope to defeat your inner demons? How can you ever bear the pain of your dao shards forging into dao aspects like molten lava in your soul without crumbling apart into ashes? The despair of splitting apart your sense of self to become one with the greater world, full of sadness, pollution, violence, and betrayal?>

<You’re crying.>

<We are not! We… simply wish for our mother to approve of you. But she is not so easy to appease. And if in moments like now where our secrets—oh so feminine they are—are threatened to be laid bare for all to see, naked on our dying flesh, you, as our exclusive essence qi exchange partner, do not dare to stand erect with your impotent reserves of courage, so fearful of the hurt and of death—>

<Please,> Yung pleaded, <Use another word. I am not impotent!>

<You must prove that you love us enough to defy the heavens, not to us, but to our matriarch mother. Otherwise… our mother dearest has her own dao. One which is not so kind to, as you had intuited, those that do not interest her.>

Yung closed his eyes. Su Nanya brought her snout closer to his ears and sniffed, the sound coming in like a whimper.

It was a plea.

Yung was a fool. He hugged her coat, this time with tender care.

She was afraid. She was all-powerful, but she was still beholden to others.

Yung had to be realistic. Maybe he could hoodwink her mother into treating him nicely. But what about the rest of the world that shared no blood ties with Su Nanya but still wished to possess her like a trophy?

Su Nanya was a political figure.

She was the most popular, most beautiful, and sexiest celebrity on the plane, with millions, perhaps billions of rabid ‘fans’ supporting her. If they ever found out that their ‘idol’ got a boyfriend, and they did this and that under the blanket, then….

Yung shivered.

Even on earth, politicians and celebrities had stern managers, PR teams, and an army of paparazzi wanting to get dirt on them.

If the boyfriend, in this case, wasn’t strong enough, both mentally and politically, maybe even economically, then bye-bye to life.

Yung wanted to respond to her plea. He needed to respond.

But! No, precisely because of that, I…

He opened his mouth—

“Wait! Young Yung! Honoured Fairy Su!”

A voice rang out.

It was Ziyou Maque, jumping through the legion of fiends with spears in his hands and blades at his back. Behind him were the cultivators from the Free Sparrow Gang, including his daughter Ling, each working in tandem like a well-oiled machine, cleaving apart any fiend that came close without mercy. And then, there was the Youjin Clansfolk, led by their elders and the stern young mistress, Youjin Chun, heading towards Yung and Su Nanya with grim resolve written on their faces.

They came near the cave entrance, blood and grime on their weapons but even more fighting spirit on their soul.

“You dare disobey me, insect? Is An Ping deaf?” One moment, Su Nanya had her whimpering snout resting on Yung’s shoulder; the next, she roared, her voice marred with outrage and killing intent. Her essence qi, usually so gentle and naughty under Yung’s playful touch, now felt ravenous enough to devour anything with life in it.

It was the pull of death, and it was aimed at the newcomers. To those who did not interest her, she could and would be crueller than any unjust calamity.

“These bastards are the ones who killed my wife, Ling’er’s mother.” Ziyou Maque did not back down. He took Nyanya’s raging aura head-on. The colour drained from his dark face, and blood leaked from his ears. But he stood firm, "Give me a chance to take their head, and you will gladly have mine after!”