Li Yu and "Vera" moved like dust in the wind. If anyone was monitoring them, they would see random and aimless movement from place to place but it was actually driven by a singular purpose. They avoided the main roads, if they could even be called that.

  Instead, they took the goat paths. They skirted the edges of toxic swamps where the bubbles burst with the scent of rotten animals and sulfur. They traversed the plains where the wind screamed like a dying banshee.

  They took on jobs as well that led them towards their goal. Giving a credible alibi to why they were heading where they were. Small jobs. Escorting a low level herbalist to find Corpse Flowers. Clearing out a nest of burrowing beetles for a remote village. Whether or not they actually needed to do such things, they did not really know. They thought it was better to be safe than sorry though.

  They played the part of the wandering mercenary duo. One was the silent warrior with a murky, unrefined aura and his sharp tongued but enchanting partner who did the negotiating. It was slow. Quite agonizingly slow.

  Three weeks had passed since they left Towering Reach. In that time they had covered a distance that Li Yu could have flown in two days.

  "We could be there by tomorrow," Vespera murmured one evening. They were camped in the hollow of a massive dead tree trunk and were shielded from the freezing rain outside by a simple barrier array Li Yu had set up.

  Li Yu stirred the pot of stew bubbling over a smokeless fire. "And if we arrived tomorrow and your mother’s territory was surrounded by actual Demon Lords? Or filled with traps set for returning heirs?"

  "I know. We have talked about it before. We are useless against any trouble that would make my mother unable to respond to me." Vespera sighed as she pulled her cloak tighter around herself. "Logic dictates caution. But my heart dictates haste. The silence from my family... it gnaws at me."

  She held up the communication talisman. It was a piece of dark jade carved in the shape of a crescent moon. It remained dull and cold. It was refusing to light up no matter how much qi she poured into it.

  “I know you are worried. I would be too but they are the affairs of giants compared to us." Li Yu said gently while handing her a bowl of stew, "We would only be getting in the way if we get caught. They could be at a stalemate and all of a sudden have you as a bargaining chip."

  Vespera took the bowl. The warmth from it seemed to seep into her hands. "You call yourself a Soul Formation cultivator as if that is a limit. I have seen you crush things that should have eaten you whole."

  "I have good tools," Li Yu dismissed her words. "And I'm paranoid nowadays. Too many close calls."

  Vespera ate a spoonful of the stew. It was surprisingly good to her. It was rich, savory and spiced perfectly. Li Yu had a strange talent for making comfort food out of monster parts.

  "You underestimate yourself, Li Yu," Vespera said softly. "Do you know how rare you are? In the Demon Courts, we have geniuses. The sons and daughters of Demon Lords and other powerful warlords fed on rare beast blood and ancient pills since birth. Most are arrogant, loud and powerful. But you..."

  She looked at him across the firelight. The shadows danced over his face and highlighted his relatively average face, making him seem more handsome.

  "You are at most thirty." She stated. "In demon years, you are an infant. No, a baby. Even for humans you are barely an adult. Yet, your foundation is deeper than those that have trained for hundreds or thousands of years. You wield laws already. I have met some heirs who rule over a large number of people, Li Yu. None of them terrified me the way you did when we first fought."

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  Li Yu poked the fire with a stick. He didn't look up. "That's because you haven't seen what I've seen. I am trying to get revenge on a group called the Seven Sins. They are from my world. The guardians there, the three beasts that came and pushed Balor back using treasures. They told me I need to reach at least the realm after Divine Transformation before talking to them about it. I thought I was strong too but the world keeps showing me I am a mere ant."

  "I have seen terrifying things as well. Like Balor and the other Demon Lords" Vespera countered.

  "Balor was a monster," Li Yu agreed. He looked up and his eyes were weary. He missed traveling to enjoy the world. He was constantly on edge in this world. Always looking over his shoulder.

  "You see a genius. I see a bug that has barely managed to dodge the boot until now. I don't feel powerful, Vespera. I feel... hunted. Always."

  Vespera fell silent. She watched him and was beginning to see the tension that never truly left his shoulders. It was a kind of humility. Not one born of modesty but of trauma. He had survived so much that he couldn't accept his own brilliance. He couldn’t appreciate how he truly stacked against others at his age.

  "That fear will make you great one day, perhaps." Vespera said. "The arrogant die young. The paranoid rule forever. With time... with patience... you could rule realms, Li Yu. You could build a sect that rivals the Heavens."

  "I don't want to rule the realms," Li Yu muttered as he took a bite of his stew. "I just want a nap where I don't have to sleep with one eye open. I want to travel those realms and see how each one is different or similar. To see the different types of people living in this world. Ruling is for those with ambition. I just want to be truly free."

  "Hahaha. A lofty goal. Do you understand that your goal is the most difficult of all? To be truly free means you are the strongest. How difficult is that?" Vespera chuckled. The tension broke slightly.

  "Tell me about them," Li Yu asked after a moment. "Your family. If we are walking into trouble. I’d like to hear more about the people we are saving."

  Vespera’s smile faded and she returned to staring into the fire.

  "We are, or were, five," she began. "Two brothers. Three sisters. My mother, the Night Queen, believed in survival of the fittest but she also believed in family."

  She held up a finger. "My eldest brother, Renato. He is... a brute. He inherited mother’s strength but not her subtlety. He commands the Vanguard Legions. He thinks every problem is a nail and he is the hammer."

  She held up a second finger. "Ganhao. The second son. He is different. Quiet. Calculating. He manages the territories and the taxes. He smiles too much. I never trusted him."

  "And the sisters?" Li Yu asked.

  "Myself," Vespera said. "The middle child. I was a diplomat of sorts. A spy some would say. The one sent to handle problems that couldn't be solved with a sword or a tax ledger."

  She paused and her expression darkened. "Then there was Lana. My younger sister. She was sweet. Too sweet for our world. She liked music and poetry. The arts that most other demons would laugh at."

  Vespera’s hand clenched around the bowl. "She died forty years ago. A 'cultivation deviation,' the official report said. But I know the truth. It was a scheme. Poisoned by the heir of the Rotting Bone Lord, a rival of our mother."

  Li Yu frowned. "Did your mother retaliate?"

  "She decimated three of their border cities and charged towards their headquarters." Vespera said grimly. "But we could never prove it was the heir directly, so the Rotting Bone Lord and two other Demon Lords protected him. It taught me a lesson early on: Innocence is a death sentence in this world. You must be useful or you must be dangerous."

  "And the last sister?"

  "Nyx," Vespera said. "The youngest. She is... wild. Unpredictable. She ran away from home fifty years ago to become a wandering cultivator. She pops up every few decades to cause trouble and then vanishes. I don't even know if she is alive."

  Li Yu nodded slowly and was filing the information away. A brute, a schemer, a diplomat, a victim and a wild card. It was a volatile mix even without external threats. Even so, it was her family.

  "If your mother is silent," Li Yu analyzed, "it implies the threat is overwhelming. Renato would have fought. Ganhao would probably have tried to negotiate. If neither of them sent a message as well..."

  "Then they were silenced before they could act," Vespera finished. "Or they are dead."

  The fire crackled. The darkness outside the hollow tree seemed to press in closer.

  "We will find out," Li Yu said. "Get some sleep. I'll take the first watch."