The pile glittered with all kinds of different Qi.

  "Feed her," Li Yu ordered. "Use these to replenish her energy. Do not spare them. If you run out, tell me. Go through them all and at first pick the ones that best match her own Qi to feed."

  Vayla’s eyes widened. This was a fortune in cultivation resources. To give it so freely to a servant...

  "Thank you, Master," Vayla breathed.

  "I owe her," Li Yu said simply. "If she hadn't brought me time, the beasts might have arrived too late. She saved my life, this is the least I can do for her."

  Li Yu pulled out a small jade box. Inside sat a single pill. It was white, swirled with veins of gold.

  It was a healing medicine meant for physical injuries. Capable of regrowing limbs for cultivators. The same pill or a similar pill to the one that Magnar had used to help regrow this arm.

  Li Yu had looted a few of such pills from the Crimson Fang and his other enemies. He had never needed to use one till now. He had been saving them for emergencies.

  "This is for her physical form," Li Yu said. He gently pried open Vespera’s mouth and placed the pill inside. He channeled a stream of his own opalescent Qi to help dissolve it.

  The pill melted.

  A soft white light enveloped Vespera’s stumped shoulder and hip. The spiritual flesh began to knit. Slow strands of energy reaching out to weave new bone and muscle. It was slow, agonizingly slow, but it was working.

  Li Yu watched for a moment and ensured the process was stable. He then used his healing arts while channeling the laws of life into Vespera’s body. To help further heal her. Vayla and the others were surprised that he could do such a thing.

  "Take care of her, Vayla," Li Yu said once he was finished and began standing up. “Also, you and your sisters should use the demon cores here to heal as well. You have all spent too much of your own essence to heal her. I don’t want any more injuries here.”

  "We will, Master," Vayla said with gratefulness. As much as Vespera didn’t have to help Li Yu, Li Yu didn’t have to help right now either. He could have cut his losses and let her die. Keeping his resources to himself and moving on. That was very common in this demonic realm.

  She looked around at the destroyed villa and then out at the sea. The villa was slowly healing as Vespera herself got better. The sisters would have to create their own place next to it as their queen healed.

  “Master th-” Vayla began.

  “Please, just call me Li Yu.” Li Yu cut her off.

  “Li Yu, I can sense the surroundings since you didn’t cut it off for us. The place you currently are is our home. I don’t know where it is, but you have definitely returned to our world. If possible, find the Night Queen. That is Vespera’s mother. But… whether she helps you or kills you, I am not sure. Perhaps it is better not to find her…”

  "I thought as much." Li Yu grimaced. He faded from the Spirit Sea.

  Li Yu opened his eyes on the mountain peak. He felt lighter knowing Vespera was stable. It would just be a matter of time now before she got better. Now, he had to focus on survival.

  He walked to the edge of the outcropping and looked for a path down. The mountain was steep and composed of that strange black-and-gold rock. He wanted to be careful so he wanted to keep low to the ground. If he flew, he might be discovered.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  He began to descend and was moving with the fluid grace of a martial artist. As he dropped below the cloud layer, the ecosystem revealed itself in greater detail.

  The air here smelled different. It smelled of smoke, crushed trees, like pine and oak, and something metallic, like copper.

  He landed in a grove of the massive iron-barked trees. Up close, they were even more intimidating. The bark wasn't just colored like iron; it was metallic. When he tapped it with his knuckle, it rang with a dull clink.

  'Metal-attribute flora,' Li Yu noted. 'These trees must absorb minerals directly from the rock.'

  He saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

  A flower that was as large as a dinner plate and with petals the color of fresh bruises slowly turned its head to follow him. The center of the flower wasn't a pistil; it was a mouth and it was filled with rows of needle-like thorns.

  Li Yu took a step back. The flower hissed at him, a sound like steam escaping a valve.

  'Aggressive flora?'

  He continued walking and keeping his senses expanded. The violent Qi of the world made his spiritual sense fuzzy. The range was reduced and the density of the atmosphere acting like a fog.

  He came to a clearing and stopped. Ahead of him was a beast and it was drinking from a pool of the silvery water.

  It looked like a wolf but it was the size of a horse. Its fur was actually quills. Long and sharp like porcupine spines. It had six eyes arranged in two triangles on its face and its tail ended in a bone club.

  It was drinking the mercury like water greedily. Li Yu held his breath and was concealing his presence.

  The wolf suddenly lifted its head. Its ears swiveled.

  Snap.

  From the canopy above a blur of motion descended.

  It was a bird-like creature but it had four wings and no feathers. Its wings were leathery membranes stretched over bone. It shrieked as it was diving at the wolf.

  The wolf didn't run to escape. It spun around and whipped its bone-club tail.

  Crack.

  The tail smashed into the diving bird. It shattered its hollow bones mid-air. The bird crashed into the silver pool.

  Before the ripples even settled, the water boiled.

  Tiny, piranha-like things with glowing red eyes erupted from the depths. In seconds, the bird was gone. Picked clean.

  The wolf snorted at the bird and was seemingly unimpressed and went back to drinking.

  Li Yu waited for the wolf to leave. He appeared before the waters and using his Qi he captured several dozens of the piranha-like creatures for his Koi Sanctuary. He didn’t find other creatures. He then slowly backed away.

  'Okay,' Li Yu thought. 'Everything here wants to kill everything else. The water eats you. The birds dive-bomb you. The wolves have maces attached to their butts.'

  He retreated to the treeline and went to find a high branch on an iron-tree to perch on. He needed to think.

  'I am in the Demonic Realm. Or at least, a realm controlled by demons,' Li Yu mused.

  He looked at the horizon. Far in the distance, barely visible through the red haze, he saw structures. Not nature but architecture.

  Spires.

  They were tall, jagged towers that twisted into the sky like black corkscrews. They looked weathered.

  'Civilization,' Li Yu thought. 'Or at least, ruins.'

  He checked his supplies. His storage rings and Koi Sanctuary were full of foods and drinks. He could survive in the wild for years if he had to.

  But he needed information. He needed to know where he was, learn more about this place and then plan his next move. He looked back at the distant spires.

  'If there are towers, there might be people. Or demons. Or whatever lives here.'

  He leaped from the branch and landed silently on the mossy ground. He began to run towards the spires.

  As he moved, the environment blurred past him. He saw giant insects with shells like gemstones. He saw trees that bled sap that smoked when it hit the ground. He saw the skeletal remains of a beast the size of a whale. It was half-buried in a hillside amd its ribs forming a grim archway.

  This world was savage from what he had seen so far. It was brutal. Li Yu felt a spark of excitement.

  'Let's see what you've got,' Li Yu smiled as he made his way.

  He sprinted into the red twilight. Ready to carve his name into a new world.