Chapter 889

With the shocking confirmation of Yang’s true nature, the conversation moved on. They ended up discussing their own respective childhoods and some random anecdotes along the way. This kept up until later in the afternoon when they heard a great gasping, like that of a dying fish attempting one last time to live. Looking over towards Xiang however revealed that it was in fact, just the cultivator waking up.

He saw all three of them sitting around near a dimming fire and stumbled his way over, collapsing into the tree that was... well it was somewhat nearby at least? Xiang was at least ten metres away from the rest of them but it was the thought that counts. “Are you alright?” asked Kat, trying not to be too loud... but with how out of it Xiang was, she erred on the side of caution and it ended up closer to a yell.

“Mrghmln” mumbled Xiang.

He was not ok.

Kat sighed and went over to the water, making one more bucket and gathered up the water then walked back over, and stopped beside Yang. “Do you want to do the honours?”

Yang’s eyes shone with mischievous light as she took the proffered bucket like she was being handed a small child. She then immediately hurled the water straight at Xiang’s face in that same motion, transitioning to anger in a flash. Xiang spluttered as the water covered him. He glared up at Yang, still pale and shaking somewhat and said, “What the heck was that for?” though the shaking in voice revealed he wasn’t anywhere close to back in full form like Yang was.

“Your half asleep ass managed to flop down at a tree so far away from where we were all sitting I had to make sure she still had a brain in there. It was touch and go for a while, and frankly, the data is still inconclusive considering you’re asking stupid questions like that. Perhaps more tests are required,” said Yang ‘sincerely’.

.....

“I’m recovering from serious poisoning, you can’t expect me to be on my feet and in... in... um... prefect? Prefect condition!” said Xiang.

“I’m sorry to say it’s, perfect. Perfect condition. A state I exist in, and you can only hope for. Now get up off your ass and join us around the fire. Maybe if you managed to pull yourself together a bit more Kat will even be nice enough to cook food for you,” said Yang as she strode away.

Xiang glared at her as she retreated but got up shakily and stumbled his way over. Yang, this time, had sat closer to Kat and Lily, and Lily was back in Memphis form. So when Xiang stumbled down onto the ground, after travelling in a straight-ish line, he was clearly separated from the group. His stomach growled but he resolutely held his head up high. Not willing to admit to that.

“So Xiang, now that you’re recovered, where are we going next?” asked Yang, ignoring how uncomfortable Xiang seemed at the moment.

Xiang of course grit his teeth and pulled out the map with no complaints. “Well, I guess we should try and work out where to sell the snake head first. There’s... not all that many cities large enough that I’m sure we could find somebody who was willing to buy it. There’s one about five days journey this way,” Xiang drew a line that ran roughly East-North-East but Kat wasn’t entirely sold on the ‘five days away’ thing. “it’s not too far out of our way. The only issue is that it’s probably the smallest of the nearby cities that are ‘large enough’.

“If we had in the other direction, there’s the largest city of the bunch. We’d be seriously back tracking and have to head through the nearby town and follow the road past it this way,” Xiang showed a road heading West nearly perfectly. There were quite a few things that they’d pass by but it would eventually lead them to a large city. “It’s maybe six days,” Kat looked at the long line of road and decided. If it WAS six days, that was just her running, at full speed, night and day, with nothing weighing her day, “but it’s in completely the wrong direction so I’m not particularly keen on going that way.

“Which leaves us with the final city. It’s... vaguely in the right direction. We have to head North-North-East or follow the road East, then North, then East a day or so once again. It’s vaguely in the right direction but we’ll be pretty far off course if we actually go there, slowing our journey down. It’s the ‘middle size’ of the options and is built overlook a huge lake that is said to have formed when a water cultivator slammed someone else into the ground. All the water qi in the area produces spouts of water or something... so... Yang? Thoughts?”

Kat jumped in though, “I’m afraid I’ll have to step in for once. I refuse to do anything other than run on the roads. It’s too hard to make my way through forests with the damned snake head,” said Kat firmly.

“Why?” asked Xiang. Clearly he was still missing a few screws from the poisoning and hadn’t yet found them again.

“Xiang... it’s simply too large to slip through trees, I can’t fly with it, and I’m not so tall I can just carry it above the canopy layer. I have to either look for large gaps between trees, which can be quite rare, or I need to use it as a battering ram to topple trees in my way. Neither are great, but both slow me down considerably. Even if we had the fastest straight line route to Xuena, the trees would slow us down so much we could go on a hot spring vacation while taking the road and still get there faster. It really is that slow,” said Kat.

Xiang frowned, “Why is toppling the trees slow?”

Kat looked over to Yang and gave her a look that said ‘you actually like this idiot’ and Yang could do nothing more than look ashamed of her life choices in that moment. Was it worth it? She didn’t know. She hoped so. But it was not looking so great in this moment. Yang quickly decided to blame the poison. Probably safer, and less taxing on her mind. “Xiang I’m not so strong I can carry a multi-tonne snake head and fell trees in a single attack while also keeping top speed.”

“Right...” said Xiang.

“It seems the city by the lake is what it has to be then. We can’t waste the time it would require to backtrack for the other one, and the smallest city, NONE OF WHICH YOU NAMED, is closest but only in a straight line and that’s cut out. That sum it up Xiang?” asked Yang.

“Right...” said Xiang.

“Blame it on the poison. Blame it on the poison. Blame it on the poison,” repeated Yang rapidly under her breath. When that didn’t work she changed it to, “Think of his abs. Think of his abs. Think of his abs,” something that only gave her marginal comfort. So she went for the big guns. “You had to rescue him from the spiders. You saw everything. Even flaccid it was a monster. You will never be sexually frustrated in your life if you can snag him. With that and the fate strings, it’s very worth it.”

*I really wish I didn’t have super hearing right now. I did not need to know that about Xiang. Or about Yang really. Frankly none of it is information I need or want to know. It’s times like this when I really start to dislike having a better memory.*

[I know what you mean. My hearing is more than good enough to hear that as well. At least we can share in our misery rather then having to suffer in silence. I mean... is it really worth it?]

*Lily, you made drastic changes to your body, and maybe soul, to accompany me forever. I’m not sure you’re really in a position to judge even if we didn’t want to hear that sort of thing.*

[It is COMPLETELY different Kat. Sure you’ve always been hot, and even before I knew you I thought you were the best looking girl I’d ever seen... but that wasn’t what gave me a major crush and sold my heart to you. It was all the times you defended me for no reason other then the fact I needed that help. It’s your personality that makes you more than just a pretty face, and into someone I’d do practically anything for. Yang is going about this in completely the wrong way if she wants to be happy.]

*I’m not sure she does want happiness from this arrangement though right? She wants power and is willing to overlook all of Xiang’s flaws for both, power and apparently good sex.*

[I still think it’s a shitty deal.]

*I suppose it must look that way to you. You got the beautiful girl with a great personality as well as the power and sex... eventually of course.*

[KAT!] Kat of course couldn’t keep the grin of her face. Teasing Lily was so much fun.