The jagged peaks of the Northern Demon Territories tore at the sky like rotten teeth. Li Yu continued to move through it as a phantom. He was still on edge and always hiding. Every shadow felt like it could hide a Demon Lord and while logic dictated that was unlikely, paranoia was a survival trait Li Yu refused to discard. He had been burned too much before.

  He found a small fissure in a cliff face that was hidden behind a waterfall. It wasn't luxurious but it was defensible and hidden. Li Yu stepped through the water and settled onto a dry rock shelf deep inside. He set up a few array disks to hide the entrance and his presence even further.

  He began to sort the chaos in his storage rings. Magma crystals. Spirit ores. Weapons of varying grades. It was a decent hoard amassed in a single hour of violence.

  As he was calculating the trade value of a demon blood ingot, a familiar ripple echoed in the depths of his soul.

  “Li Yu...”

  The voice was weak like a whisper carried over a dying wind but it was distinct. Li Yu froze because he recognized that voice. He hadn’t heard it for long but it had stayed with him ever since she tried to save him. He set the ingot down and sent his spiritual sense inward into his Ocean of Qi. He let his second mind take over and kept working.

  "Vespera?" Li Yu’s spiritual self said to her. She was still laying in bed with a few of her subjects tending to her. "You’re awake."

  A soft tired laugh echoed back. “Awake might be... generous. Conscious is perhaps more accurate. That heavy handed brute Balor was too much. I heard from my subjects that he is either seriously injured or dead. Or else when I am able to, I would let my mom know to seek some revenge for me.”

  "I am happy that you are feeling better." Li Yu said. "You’ve been sleeping here ever since that happened. Your fellow sisters here have been taking care of you since then. I stop by to check once in a while but we never saw any progress."

  “A Charm Demon is not so easily broken, Li Yu. We are creatures of the mind and spirit. Though... I admit, my head is ringing like a temple bell.”

  Li Yu let out a breath, he was genuinely happy that Vespera was alive and was recovering. Her wit was intact. That was the most important diagnostic.

  He shifted his spiritual body and looked at her. There was a question that he had been wondering about ever since Balor attacked. "Vespera, there is something I need to ask you. It’s been bothering me since the incident."

  “Go ahead and ask. As you can see I am not going anywhere in my condition.” Vespera responded softly.

  "When Balor was about to attack me… You tried to stall him, to trick him for me. Without that additional time. I might have died then and there. You shielded me."

  Li Yu recalled the memory vividly. The sheer and overwhelming pressure of a Demon Lord. Vespera had risked her life to come out and block his path. To trick him and for her efforts she was nearly killed. She could have just left his body before the attack had landed.

  "The contract didn't demand that," Li Yu said quietly. "The seal compels obedience, not suicide like that. You could have retreated. You would have survived even if I died. Why did you do it? Why take that chance when we barely know each other."

  Silence stretched between them in the spiritual villa. Vaspera stared at the ceiling for a long time without talking. It seemed like she was composing her thoughts. For a long moment, the only sound was the waves from his Ocean of Qi splashing onto the island.

  “I... do not know,” Vespera admitted finally. Her voice sounded perplexed. “It was not a calculation. Charm Demons are calculating creatures, Li Yu. We weigh influence and outcome in every breath. But in that moment... there was no reason.”

  She hesitated. “I felt a pull. A gut instinct. It was the same sensation I felt months ago, back when I was still in this world. The urge to go to the human realm. It defied logic then, too. Why would I leave my comfort to scout a hostile world? But I followed it. And it eventually led me to you.”

  “When Balor was about to kill you,” she continued as her voice gained a slightly firmer edge, “that instinct screamed at me. It told me that if you died, a part of my future, my fate, died too. Not just my life but something else would be lost. It felt right to do what I did. It felt necessary.”

  Li Yu absorbed this. He was a pragmatist. He believed in cause and effect, in transaction and exchange. Hearing a demoness speak of 'gut instinct' and 'destiny' was somewhat strange but he could understand. Having dipped into the laws of Karma and having a gut instinct of his own. Perhaps it was the pull of destiny or something greater. Whatever it was, the same thing remained, she had saved him.

  "You risked your existence for me," Li Yu said. "I don't like owing debts, Vespera. And I don't like holding chains on allies who prove themselves like that."

  Li Yu made a decision. He focused his will on the contract seal that bound them.

  "I am going to dissolve the slave contract we have." Li Yu stated firmly. "I will draft a new one in its place. A simple seal of silence. Just so I can protect my secrets and you yours. You will be more or less free. We met with you trying to kill me or enslave me but we shall leave as mutual friends. I will also owe you a debt. If you ever need it, you can call upon me."

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  Almost immediately after he had finished his planned speech.

  “No.”

  The answer was immediate and sharp.

  Li Yu blinked. "Excuse me?"

  “I said no,” Vespera replied. “I reject your offer.”

  "Vespera, I'm offering you back your freedom, Yours and your sisters here." Li Yu was surprised.

  “Because of the gut feeling, you foolish man,” Vespera sighed. The sound echoing with a mix of exasperation and amusement. “My intuition has rarely led me astray. It told me to go to the human realm. It told me to save you at that time. And now, it tells me that our bond isn’t over yet. That I should stay with you. At least for now. If it ever tells me to leave, we can do what you just suggested.”

  She paused and Li Yu could practically hear the smirk in her voice. “Besides... are you trying to throw me away just because I am broken? Is the great human cultivator so cruel that he discards his toys the moment they get a scratch?”

  Li Yu stared at her and then a small and genuine smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Toy? You’re a high maintenance demoness. Have been nothing but trouble since I met you."

  “And you can’t seem to get rid of me,” she teased weakly.

  "Fine," Li Yu said as he relented. "If you want to stay, you stay. But we are friends from now on. Not in practice. We are a team."

  “A team,” Vespera agreed softly. “That sounds... acceptable. But do not expect me to carry things for you.”

  "Deal."

  Li Yu checked her status through their connection. She was stable but her energy reserves were still low. It would take time for her body to absorb all of the demonic cores that her subjects have been giving her.

  Li Yu looked forward to when she could travel with him. Her skills would be useful and would act as a secondary cover. Since he would always attack alone, having a companion would make him less likely to be suspected if there was ever a widespread search for him. Her skills in charms and illusions would be helpful in battle as well as in everyday life in this world.

  "Rest," Li Yu said gently. "Consume whatever energy you need as before."

  Li Yu’s mind returned to the outside. His second mind had already finished organizing his loot. He checked his map and planned where to attack next. He was targeting groups that he had heard about in passing. Groups that were particularly cruel and would have many enemies. That would make it harder for him to be identified as the person who did it.

  "Next target," Li Yu murmured.

  Forty miles northeast of the Iron Tooth ruins lay the Blazing Gorge. It was a strategic choke point controlled by the Blood Viper Sect. Unlike the brute force of the Iron Tooth Clan, the Blood-Vipers were cultivators of poisonous arts and stealth.

  They were the supply runners for the larger Demon armies. Moving high grade medicinal pills and toxic ores through the gorge. Li Yu didn't care about their arts. He cared about their inventory.

  He arrived at the gorge an hour later. It was a narrow canyon of red stone and crawling with guards who blended into the shadows.

  Li Yu didn't blend. He simply wasn't there. He was hiding inside the first layer of the void and scouting. He stood on the canyon rim and was looking down at a caravan. It wasn’t large but was heavily guarded. Most of what they were carrying was likely in a storage ring or rings of someone down there.

  "Logistics," Li Yu noted. "The lifeblood of war."

  He left the first layer of the void and dropped down. He still wasn’t at the proficiency where he could enter and leave the first layer quickly enough or without a massive drain to his Qi. If he was ever able to reach such a point, he could really be like a ghost. Leaving instantly to attack and then shift right back in.

  It was something he dreamed about and was working towards. When, if ever, he could reach such a point he had no idea. However, the closer he got to that stage the deadier he would be.

  He entered the canyon like a drop of ink falling into water. He was smooth and silent. He landed on the back of the caravan. Two Viper guards were walking in the back and their skin was covered in shifting camouflage scales.

  Li Yu grabbed their heads and in quick motion smashed them together. He looked at the caravan ahead. There were twelve merchants in total and they were protected by perhaps thirty elite guards.

  Li Yu blurred forward. He moved from guard to guard as a streak of grey death. They were much weaker than he was but he was still being cautious. Afraid that somehow this could be a trap set by a Demon Lord to get him.

  Strike. Strike. Strike.

  His staff was a blur. He aimed for vital points. A temple shattered here. A spine severed there. A heart stopped with a palm strike.

  The Viper captain was a demon with fangs dripping with green venom. He leaped from the lead of the caravan and screeched a sonic attack. Li Yu was completely unaffected by the soul attack and it hit him harmlessly. Li Yu tossed his staff like a javelin towards the captain.

  The staff crossed the distance in a quick moment. It hit him in the chest with the force he couldn’t handle. The captain was launched backward and crashed through three crates of supplies before embedding himself in the canyon wall.

  Li Yu waved his hand and the staff flew back into his hand. Silence returned to the gorge. It was quick and easy, the exact thing that Li Yu wanted right now. He went around and collected their storage rings. The few crates that had been smashed opened by the captain flying through them contained glass vials filled with a shimmering red liquid. It looked to be some sort of beast or demon blood.

  Li Yu searched through the storage ring and sure enough. The ring from the captain held the majority of the cargo. It was mostly filled with Blood Refining Pills. Something that demons and beasts used for body tempering. It wasn’t used by humans as much because it was too violent for their bodies.

  He also found some poison pills in decent quantities. The rest were just a mix of random goods. Li Yu wasn’t done with just taking the storage rings though. He methodically stripped the caravan.

  He took the guards' weapons and armor that looked like they had decent value. He even took bits of the caravan itself. Wood, metal and leather that looked high quality. He wasn't leaving anything behind.

  Li Yu stood at the exit of the pass for a moment and was checking his haul. He then dissolved into the fog once more and left the area as quickly as he had come. The corpses on the ground were silent testament to the predator that had passed through.