Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage was definitely not pleased with the huge mess he’d been drawn into, but so far Xiezi seemed to be quite truthful with him. At the moment she was the only person in the Chong Clan that he cared for even slightly. He also had to admit that if the Wu Faction hadn’t tried to kill him in the past, his distaste for them would have been drastically reduced by the Jinxi’s careful attention. While they hadn’t done anything when the Lang was wiped out, by the time they found out about it, it was already far too late to do anything. Killing a stranger for revenge and gaining an enemy with equal strength to yourself would not be an easy choice. Especially since that possible enemy instead offered gifts to purchase forgiveness. It wasn’t the ‘right’ thing to do, but Sage had no illusions as to the morality of the people in this world. There weren’t many things in this world that couldn’t be forgiven in exchange for enough benefits.

Rationally, he couldn’t fault the Chong Clan’s actions. On the other hand, he had also suffered because of them. By the logic of this world, because he was strong enough, that meant he should also receive benefits in return. Such a slimy, cutthroat place this is.

Somehow, the way that Xiezi chose to meet him had sent him into a round of contemplation upon the nature of this world. He shook his head and smiled slightly at the woman, only just now realizing what her response was, “You’re right. Please come with me. We’ve got an important job to do.”

For a moment, he considered declining, but since he’d been forced to side with one of the two factions, it would be far smoother to play along. Even if he wished to betray or disrupt them, compliance now would not preclude disobedience later. Sage’s response was quite simple, “Lead the way.”

Xiezi led the way, with her dozen guards surrounding them on both sides and to the rear. Sage felt no caution around these guards, even though he was surrounded. They were merely too weak for that. The dozen guards were at the high stages of rank 4, not even Core Formation Cultivator’s yet. For them to be guarding two rank 5s and a rank 6, it would seem completely unnecessary. Only, Sage realized that the large number of people was more of a deterrent. With such a group, the people on the streets immediately rushed to the side, and even the carriages would turn down side streets to avoid them. With their impressive looking escort of guards with shiny Chong Clan emblems they walked directly out of Golden Cricket Cove without interruption.

Stepping outside of town, they traveled down the road for a few minutes and then Xiezi took a turn and walked right into the dense forests. They eschewed the road and followed a small game trail that led to a small clearing. The dozen guards stepped back and only Xiezi walked forward. In front of her, there was a loud crack. The trunk of a tree snapped and it slowly fell to the side. The dense underbrush was brushed aside and the sound of sticks and leaves scraping against a hard shell filled the clearing. Sage couldn’t help but admire the creature walking out in front of him. Xiezi was moving to greet it without any apprehension, so he wouldn’t make a fool out of himself by calling out to her, but he still retained his wariness.

The bushes were pushed aside and a massive bulk lumbered into view. Two huge pincers pushed the brush aside and to Sage’s eyes, they looked like the front end of a pair of big-rigs coming towards him side by side. The two exoskeletal walls swung to either side and revealed the ‘face’ of a truly huge scorpion. While it was far from the largest Demonic Beast that Sage had seen in this world, it was definitely the closest he’d been standing to one of these giant monsters. Those creatures he’d seen in the river from very far away had looked to be the size of a battleship, but he’d been miles away from them. Now, he was standing in front of a scorpion that seemed comparable to his own true form at its most massive. The scorpion’s pincers were each the size of a shed, easily ten feet tall and twenty feet wide. In the air behind the scorpion, a stinger with nearly the same size was poised about fifty feet into the air, making it poke up just slightly from the high trees of the forest.

The huge scorpion’s face was a bright blue, and the tip of its stinger was blood red. The two colors seemed to spread through its body and combine together. The pincers were a bright violet while its body was a deep and dark purple. While Sage was admiring its immense size, Xiezi looked at the falling tree, “You made a mess again! You can’t just break the whole forest, Uncle Zhuo!”

The huge scorpion suddenly lost the majesty of a colossal figure, the huge pincer went to cover its face in an embarrassed gesture. Then its huge chelicerae, which looked like smaller pincer arms that extended over its mouth, twisted into some obscenely terrifying version of a smile and a deep and booming voice came from it, “Oops! I’m so sorry, Xiao Zi. Uncle will be more careful.”

Only a moment later did Sage realize that the creature’s speech was not as simple as he thought. The voice he ‘heard’ was projected into his mind, and the Heart’s Tongue had made it sound like a normal voice without him even needing to think about it. Xiezi reached out and rapped her knuckles against one of those giant pinchers, “Not so loud! We’re standing right in front of you. Control your volume, Uncle.”

Of course, by volume, she meant the force of the voice transmission. The scorpion put so much energy into communicating that it felt like an assault upon the mind. Only after being reminded did its communication become more subdued, “Aiiyaah. You are always right, Xiao Zi.”

Then she smiled and leaned her head against the huge pincer, giving it a hug. After a moment she stepped back, “Uncle Zhuo, this is Lang Sheng, the new Lang Branch Head. Lang Sheng, this is my Uncle Zhuo, he will be escorting us. Come on!”

After making a rushed introduction, she walked between the two giant pincers, and then ducked under the scorpion's huge frame, walking underneath it with a slight hunch. She disappeared from view, so Sage cupped his fist to the scorpion, “My apologies.”

Then he ducked and bent forward at the waist, walking underneath the huge scorpion in pursuit of Xiezi. Sage caught sight of her to the side and followed after, emerging at the side of the scorpion in time to see Xiezi grabbing a few handholds on the joints of the scorpion’s leg and then leaping her way onto the giant arachnid’s back. Sage followed after her and found himself on a wide back. Looking down, he saw that Tujiu hadn’t moved and was instead just looking up at him. Sage gave him a wave and the bald man just leapt into the air, a graceful leap that brought him over the pincers to land on the scorpion’s back. Xiezi looked a little jealous of how graceful and powerful that leap was. She was a 5th rank cultivator, so leaping that far was quite easy for her as well, but she couldn’t have made it look as effortless or graceful as Tujiu did. Of course, she had no idea that Tujiu was actually a giant vulture and moving through the air was second nature to him.

She had just been teasing Sage a little bit, not telling him where she was going, but her good mood was spoiled a bit by her jealousy. Sage paid no attention to what she might have been thinking, and was instead just admiring the hard carapace of ‘Uncle Zhuo’. Standing on top of it he got to examine it from up close and also had a much better view of the scorpion’s tail and the shape of its body. A sudden motion startled him and he realized that the giant beneath them had started to move.

That’s when he turned to Xiezi and saw that she had brought out a chair and small table from her Storage Ring. Ones that seemed to be perfectly fitted to cling to the scorpion’s back without shifting. She sent Sage a smile and started to pour herself some tea, looking far too pleased with herself to show off how comfortable she already was.

Ahh, so this scorpion is our ride.