Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 66 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 66 – Tou He

Descent was always faster than ascent. Considering the way they had chosen to do so, the trio find themselves at the halfway point where the snow gave way to earth and dust. Along the way, they managed to start two small avalanches, riding just ahead of the rumbling descending snow and anger one particularly powerful mountain spirit made of stone and ice.

The running battle where the monster threw massive icicles and brought forth galeforce, freezing winds after the fleeing demons continued till they had nearly reached the midpoint. Flashes of frozen chi, jutting ramps and walls of ice had blocked their way, but the trio worked together to flee, never once stopping their plunging escape.

Dusting himself off, Tou He grinned at the pair. “First.”

“This was not a race,” Minsci said, stiffly.

“Say’s the slowest,” Biamin replied.

“Only because he wasn’t targeting you two as often!”

“And what excuse do you have for being beaten by the fire cultivator?” Biamin said sweetly. A loud yip showed agreement from her companion who was shaking his fur now, discarding snow all around him.

Minsci just harumphed and brought his foot back into his vehicle. “Let’s get down.”

Laughing, Biamin joined the rolling descent, leaving Tou He to kick off the ground and float after the pair, utilizing the slipstream of their chi to carry him down. A rather lazy but efficient way of descending. No reason not to, after all.

His heart still glowing a little with the impromptu race and moment of freedom, Tou He let himself drift along behind his friends. They had a long distance to go, and some danger that the fort might send a patrol to check out the disturbance they had caused.

In this way, the trio continued their journey. Biamin moved ahead to the closest village, stopping by briefly to acquire food and directions before they continued their journey, days passing into nights as they cut across the landscape.

Tou He had briefly tested the surroundings with his aura, passively reading the information that was plastered across the surroundings by the spirit beasts in the surroundings. None in the surroundings were at the Nascent Soul level, and those that were in the Core Formation were passive for the most part rather than enforcing their own boundaries and hunting grounds.

It made sense, of course, with forts and civilization so close. The army would have hunted down any antagonistic creature it encountered, pushing back the wilds further. If there were monsters of greater power or whom might be particularly aggressive, they had the wisdom to stay quiet.

For a week and a half, they crossed the lands. With the army fort and the likelihood of their faces and descriptions being distributed fading away, the group chose to travel upon the trade routes that crossed the land. Crushed spirit stone embedded in the pounded earth kept the roadway in shape and aided the groups passage. Though a miniscule aid for a group with such strength, each addition over the course of their passage would add up.

They could travel faster. They did, in truth, more quickly than many of the demons that littered the roadway. Not many of them, this was no merchant empire, no singular nation but a stitched together conglomeration of multiple clans and tribes turned into a single kingdom. As such they came in a variety of shapes and sizes, many familiar to Tou He from the army he so recently fought. Big eyed, red skinned. White skinned with multiple eyes and angular cheekbones of the biamin. The ruoliguo, slithering along on their tails. Towering giants with grey-green skin that carried with them urns of water that they drank from continuously. Hairy yeren, the long fur across their bodies either kept smooth with repeated brushings or twisted into braids filled with tinkling beads. So many  more, even the occasional passing niuquhue, often hobbling along and injured but still given respect due to a dominating race.

This might not be a trading nation, but traffic was constant. There were merchants, scholars, pilgrims and even nobles alike, none of them could keep up with the trio who exerted only the smallest modicum of their own energies to fly forwards.

Nearly a hundred li might be crossed in a single day, such that they passed multiple of the stage and boarding houses set aside for travelers in a day. Those that were around were often filled to the brim with the travelers, many preferring to stay there and cut a day short or run longer into the night such that they might sleep under the dubious protection of minor enchantments and protective formations of these lands.

For the disparate travelers though, such safety was unnecessary. No wandering spirit beast would dare even close on them. Even when they did stop at the clay or wooden hovels that made up the rest stops, they were able to acquire rooms with little issue. More than once, a group were removed from their accommodation for the trio, an act that sat ill at ease with Tou He, but one that he was forced by his companions to accept.

Not that he was allowed to speak or interact with many of the demons. Even in the villages that they stopped at, he was hidden. Head wrapped in cloth, a hood added to provide additional coverage, he was sent to the room once possible, never allowed to speak. Isolated from the surroundings and demons, he could but listen to them through his aura, study the language and broaden his understanding further and watch the interactions at a remove. All for fear of alerting the Twisted Lotus Eaters of their presence.

Even hidden, Tou He learnt much.

How few men and women there were, of the breeding age. Many had been swept up in the press gangs, drawn from villages and towns and settlements, over and over again. Each time, more of the populace were taken, such that now there were only those women with young children and those in the early buds or latest periods of their life remaining.

No country, no clan, no nation could exist like this. Not for long. The niuquhue was draining the empire of its very lifeblood, the incessant wars drawing those who were necessary for the functioning of the country to be brought to wage wars rather than farm lands or other productive exercises.

This was an empire intent on its own destruction, burning itself out for a single, massive conflagration. It did make Tou He wonder, what it was that was causing such a roadblock. Surely the sacrifice of thousands, tens of thousands, would have been enough to raise the Emperor already.

Such rife speculation even lingered on the tongues of the merchants and farmers alike.

Yet, speculation there might be, but there were no conclusions, no clues about why. Not out here, not in the new formed hinterlands of the empire.

Good thing they were going deeper.