Chapter 871

Kat twisted away as she heard the sound of a wild animal attacking nearby. When the sound continued, Kat opened her eyes and glanced down at the source of the sound. Lily’s stomach. Kat frowned at that. *Hmm... guess we need to get some food for you off the cultivators. Unless you want to try giant snake?* Lily mewed and put her paws over her face in embarrassment.

[Ugh. I can’t believe that happened. It was bad enough I woke up before you... but to know that’s what woke you up... I’ll never live this down...] complained Lily mentally. Kat just laughed softly and gave Lily a few quick scratches. Nothing too much, she didn’t want Lily to turn into goo just yet. They were having a serious conversation after all. Kat checked the sky with a quick glance and found moon was in the process of setting and the sun would be up soon. Not quite yet though, apparently.

*Hmm. Well, I’m a little more serious about the snake thing now I’m thinking about it. I’m just not sure what the chance the meat is poisonous is... I mean... this whole place is full of poison... but at the same time it’s so large it probably doesn’t need to be poisonous. Then again... I’m not sure if it has any venom either. Xiang seemed to assume it would... but there’s no proof of venom sacks.*

[Well, you could check the teeth for holes in them if you really wanted to know. That being said... hmm... how safe do you think the meat is? In Memphis form I’m really not put off by the idea of eating raw meat... so if it’s safe to have... well... free food. Fresh too. Probably. We did leave it all day... and overnight... hmm... this is sounding like a bad idea the more I think of it.]

*Do you know if you have the same demonic energy furnace I have for food? If you do there’s no way the poison would survive that... just not sure if it’s built into Memphis. Hmm... I’m leaning towards yes though. Nira said you could eat whatever you want... just not sure if ‘giant maybe poisonous snake’ counts as ‘anything’.*

[Depends how often she works with Gluttony demons I’d guess. Anything for them and anything for a normal ergh... normal sentient? Normal sentient, I guess. It’s quite different. I suppose... it might be worth testing out. Let me smell it first?]

Kat shrugged and got up from her position on the snakes back. It’s spine was wide enough for a person to lay down flat with a tiny bit of wiggle room. Kat was just glad she didn’t move much in her sleep. Though she was doubly glad that despite the fact Lily did move in her sleep, Kat herself worked as a sufficiently large ‘bed’ to move around on.

.....

Kat hopped down into the water and looked at the cut they’d made between the snake’s head and the rest of it. Kat glanced down at Lily who looked back up. After a few moments of silent conversation Kat moved Lily right up to the meat and let the time pass. [Nope. I can’t smell anything other than this shitty water. Can you slice off a bit for me?]

Nodding Kat moved Lily to the top of her head and pulled out her fans. A little bit of sawing later and Kat had a... well it was a small piece relative to both herself and the snake... but it was about the size of Lily’s face. *Do you want me to cut this up more?*

[No don’t worry about it.] Kat nodded at that and moved the piece up to Lily who took a careful lick before purring and chomping down on the rest. Kat let the meat be pulled from her fingers and listened to it quickly being devoured. [Yeah this is really good. Doesn’t taste poisoned. It’s actually a lot better then I’d think snake would be. I dunno if it has anything to do with how powerful it was... but this is really nice. Maybe try some?]

*I really don’t think I want raw meat Lily... despite her mental protest Kat got to work slicing off another piece for herself. Kat took a careful bite before spitting it out. Nope. Nope nope nope. I will have my meat cooked from now on thank you very much. I might be capable of eating it due to my demonic metabolism but it does NOT taste anything close to good.*

[Oh well. More for me I guess.]

*Lily. It’s a GIANT FUCKING SNAKE. The thing is the size of a train carriages and all. This thing could feed you... heck probably for a year or more. It’s more likely to rot before you’d eat it all. What is the ‘more for me’ nonsense?*

Lily mentally shrugged. [It just seemed like the thing to say.]

*Right... well... sorry for snapping at you. I’m just a bit tired of this swamp, and all the arguing. Honestly I’m a bit on edge. The fact that the poison might be affecting you isn’t helping either. Now, do you want me to cut off some more for you to eat?*

[Hmm... not now. That one piece was quite filling. Maybe if we aren’t putting the head in one of those storage rings we’ll ask if Xiang would mind putting in some of this meat for me. It’s much better than the garbage you guys have to eat.]

*Sure thing... hmm... Lily I have... it’s probably a bad idea... but... well... I’m going to try it.* Kat sliced off another piece of meat, having thrown away the previous slice, and set her hand on fire. After the meat was sufficiently frozen Kat tried to take a bit out of it. Her ingenuity was not rewarded. Kat spat the meat into the water a second time and threw the rest away. *It was a bad idea Lily. Remind me not to experiment. I’m clearly bad at coming up with ideas.*

[Kat it was one bad idea. Plus, your fire very clearly freezes things. If you want to try making food with it, perhaps try ice cream? Another option could be chocolate maybe? Melt it and then use demonic fire to form it into something nice? Yoghurt as well perhaps? Though I don’t have the slightest clue how to make that.]

Kat gave a shrug and the pair separated to try and practice more with their abilities. Lily was still trying to summon some paper, even just temporary mana constructs. The smell however, made it very hard to concentrate. What she didn’t know, was that the strong concentration of poison energy was also hampering her progress. Still, she was giving it her best try. Kat on the other hand was practicing more with her demonic fire sculpting.

It wasn’t really all that useful for combat, but Kat found it helped her calm down. She was trying to make a little ice Lily. Not the plant, the girlfriend. Though, after spending 30 minutes on her project... Kat was starting to realise she’d chosen something a bit too complex for a starting project. Probably should’ve started with the flower. With a slight nudge, Kat let the ice sculpture fall into the water, and pretend not to feel a slight pang of sadness despite it looking, at best, like a blob with icicles for legs and thump prints for eyes.

Yang was the next to wake, and Kat could already tell that they’d need to get a move on today. Yang groaned as she sat up, looked around and then flopped back down. Sunlight still seemed to converge on her position, but it was sluggish, and almost looked dim. Yang was in no state to be cultivating but she also NEEDED to. Even if it wasn’t to improve her foundation, just to help clear out some of the poison. It was building up further and Yang was struggling to keep her thoughts in their necessary configuration for cultivation.

When Xiang got up, he seemed better at first. He stood up and made his way to the snakes head for some flatter ground and started to run through some sword katas. It all looked fine for a bit until Xiang’s hands started to shake even when going through the easier positions. Xiang had proved, again and again that he was capable of lifting his sword without much effort. So to see him struggle, and shake as he tried carefully to complete his exercises... well it wasn’t a pleasant thing to witness.

At this point Kat had finished her ice sculpture and flew up to her girlfriend, “Here, a lily for my Lily,” said Kat with a smile she was somewhat forcing. The issues with Xiang and Yang were starting to worry her. Or more accurately, the chance the same poison would catch up to Lily.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lily actually swapped back to her human form to grab the ice lily and put it in her hair by winding a few strands around it to hold it in place. Probably not the best way to do it, but it worked. Kat got a quick kiss on her cheeks for her efforts.