Chapter 850

Kat and Lily were feeling odd about the lack of popcorn, especially considering the show they were watching play out in front of them. Yang was going off about ‘Cavorting with demons this’ and ‘strict contract procedures that’ she obviously hadn’t worked with a demon before and likely just heard stories. Seriously, some of the conditions she was suggesting be added were downright ridiculous. Though Kat and Lily did have to suppress their laughter a few times.

‘No eye contact for more than 5 seconds’ was a personal favourite of Lily’s. While for Kat it was ‘No watching them when they sleep’. Personally, Kat and Lily thought Yang’s suggestions said a lot more about her as a person then it did about them. Part way through Xiang gained this intense look of ‘please somebody save me’ while looking pointedly at Kat and Lily. He was politely ignored and eventually Xiang’s face gained a look of resignation.

Kat and Lily had no desire to get into that mess, and the only way they could see to disrupt the argument would be to refocus Yang’s attention towards them. Not something desirable in the least. Kat was deciding to treat Yang like a particularly belligerent toddler with a slightly higher IQ and wider vocabulary. Just let them tire themselves out. Kat was not accounting for cultivator stamina. At some point Lily ended up changing back to human form and leaning on Kat. Mostly just to see if anyone noticed. They didn’t.

It was a full THIRTY MINUTES LATER when things looked like they were calming down. Lily had taken to practicing with her first spell, and was just barely managing to summon a magical circle. It didn’t cast anything yet, but Lily was pretty sure it was just a matter of time. Kat messed around with her fire. She would summon it from various points on her body and then try to move it all around her skin without stopping or going over the same areas before letting it dissipate behind her. She managed to graduate to two flames at once, though she didn’t quite manage to keep them completely separate. Focusing on two independent things at once was still difficult as a demon. More possible certainly, but Kat was lacking in training.

Yang finally let out a long huff, and just glared at Xiang. She still wasn’t pleased with what she saw as a thoughtless attempt at a Contract but she’d mostly said her peace and Xiang was apparently familiar enough with this that he just... didn’t react. That wasn’t satisfying at all, so Yang just huffed at Xiang and started to leave.

“Come on, we’re wasting time. We should be heading towards Xuena already,” yelled Yang at half the normal volume. Perhaps that was actually her speaking voice.

When Xiang dropped in behind her Kat and Lily followed. “So... are we actually heading off?” asked Kat.

.....

Xiang shook his head, “I doubt it honestly. It’s probably late afternoon by now and I think we’d all prefer a roof over our heads when we can get it. We also have to work out the exact route we want to take...”

“What are our options?” asked Lily while glancing at Yang to see if she was paying attention. The answer was... maybe. Yang did seem to react to the question, slowly ever so slightly... but she didn’t seem to notice it was an entirely new person asking said question.

“The two, or maybe three, options we are looking at are ‘follow the roads’, ‘go for a straight line’ or some mixture of the two. The roads are... from what I know at least... going to take us fairly out of the way. The sect is like... North-North-East of here and most roads run along one of the four cardinal directions only really making allowances for terrain.

“When you take into account just how far away the sect is as well... we’re looking at possible an extra twenty-five to thirty-five percent extra distance to cover if we follow the roads. Of course, if we follow the roads some, if not all, of the distance can be made up by simply being faster. That’s also not counting any of the river routes we might be able to take. Most of it is upriver though so... nothing cheap would be faster that’s for sure.

“There are also a few smaller issues. Like if we take the most direct path we have to go through ‘The Bog of Ten Thousand Poisons’. There is a path through it... but I’ve heard it isn’t particularly well marked and still quite dangerous. It’s quite large and nearby so we’re basically guaranteed to find it unless we go out of our way to avoid it totally. I’m not really sure what Yang would prefer...”

Xiang snuck closer to Kat and Lily to whisper, “She’d probably complain about wasting time if we went the long way, and complain about the muck if we go for the swamp,” Xiang stepped back, “Are you opposed to the swamp just on principle?”

*That does sound like Yang. I’m not sure which type of complaining would be worse... hmm... I don’t particularly enjoy the idea of the swamp but the dirt won’t really stick to me. Just you perhaps. I could probably fly us over... stay airborne and watch the other two... though Yang would really complain about that.*

[I... I guess it depends on how much time it saves. While I’m not necessarily in a rush to get home I’m not keen to leaving Xuena locked up longer than necessary. I can’t imagine how mortified I’d be if she was to ask ‘what took you so long’ and our answer was that we didn’t want to get a little dirty. Though... I will probably stick to Memphis form if we do. No transformations so my actual clothes can’t get dirty. My only concern is... trekking through a swamp is hard. Depending on the size and how far around we have to go. Might be faster to just... not]

“Not really. Just some general concern about the difficulty of making the trek. Just like how the roads might be faster... a swamp... if sufficiently deadly or just slow to get through might mean we are better off avoiding it altogether.” Said Kat.

Xiang hummed a bit thinking on Kat’s words. “I would guess that... it probably isn’t faster. Assuming ideal conditions at least. The road across the swamp is well used enough to be known as a road. It’s on my map and that seems to imply it sees some use. The roads around the swamp exist as well of course... but if they were faster nobody would bother with the swamp road. If you need to go into it you won’t be bothered by the lack of road... and if you are... well... you can use the bypass.”

Kat and Lily both nodded at this. “Is there any other major points we might want to know of?” asked Lily.

“Probably...” said Xiang with a sigh. “There a number of smaller towns and at least one city on the route. The question of if we want to visit them – both how many and how far out of our way we want to go – a lot of the smaller towns would only be worth it to have a roof over our heads... but they are often times a bit off the road.”

[That doesn’t bother you right Kat? I can always sleep on you comfortable. Better than any bed really]

“It doesn’t really bother us,” said Kat as way of answering Lily’s mental query. “The ground is fine for me and Lily can just use me as a pillow,”

Xiang nodded, “Yes I’m leaning that way myself... but once again I’m not sure about Yang...”

“Is it worth accommodating her so much?” asked Kat.

Xiang sighed, “It gals me to admit it... but she is stronger than I am. If it came down to a fight I’d lose. I mean, you’d probably come out on top, but I would lose,”

“How did you tie her up then?” asked Kat.

Xiang waved the question away, “Yang wasn’t expecting it at all. She was mostly just messing around.”

“Messing around... with a giant metal club covered in spikes?” asked Kat with some concern.

Xiang winced. “Yes”

Kat was going to comment but she saw Yang’s heavy nod at the answer. That... that actually bought up a few questions. *Wait... she CAN here us? I mean... I assumed she could but... why isn’t she complaining about us talking behind her back? That doesn’t really fit with what we’ve seen so far. Even just Xiang saying she might want to stop and rest at the towns should have set of her hair-trigger.*

[Yeah that is odd now that you mention it. We might need to keep a closer eye on her then we initially thought. A loose cannon is one thing. Predictable. Someone who might only be pretending to be one... that’s a potential problem.]