Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 216 - Mofang Dao

“Then let’s do it!” Yaomu Shou stated.

We all exited the little clearing we found and as soon as we were out of the valley, we headed in separate directions.

****

So, Yaomu Shou, Mina Tempesta and I were making our way through the forest we were in. It didn’t take long until we came from there and happened upon a plain. It was unlike the one we were in at the beginning.

This was a boundless prairie of crackled yellow earth that looked as if it was ravaged by war.

“It looks like we chose the path that exited the forest first,” Yaomu Shou commented.

“Quick question,” Mina chimed in. “Are the others really going to be okay? I mean we did fight a giant bird monster that even Long Di had trouble dealing with.”

Yaomu Shou answered this question. “They should be fine. Powerful magical beasts like that are normally guarding spiritual herbs and the like. As long as everyone else doesn’t go for those and just looks for weapons from the other weaker magical beasts, they should be fine.”

“Good to know,” Mina smiled. “I don’t want them to get hurt after all. I can’t survive with Long Di alone after all.”

“I have done nothing wrong this entire time,” I told her as I drew on a piece of paper. That’s right, I became part-mangaka all of a sudden.

We got to moving on and the minute we took a step forward, Mina and Yaomu Shou’s expressions fell.

There was a dense aura present that weighed on them… and me too, but these things didn’t affect me much, if at all. Based on their reactions, I could tell it was suffocating and hard to breathe.

A heavy trace of resentment hung in the air, a sort of air that spoke of spirits that didn’t wish to die.

“A war…” Yaomu Shou subconsciously commented.

“Is it that grand war that everyone’s always commenting about?” I asked her.

Yaomu Shou shook her head, “I don’t know.”

“Too far back?” I won’t lie, I have a fair share of admiration for Yaomu Shou. Her knowledge of the history of this world was to be commended.

Yaomu Shou shook her head. “Nah… I slacked off.”

Aaand that admiration fell a few levels…

We made our way forward for a while and didn’t see much of anything. On the flip-side, I used the downtime to get some info from Mina regarding the need for my blessings.

I mainly wanted to know if she was going to take Pebbles the Wondercat’s blessings, but surprisingly she said that Pebbles was in the clear. Apparently, he only has one blessing, which is that of a nigh-perverted bloodline. I had hoped that when I said pimp him out she would have taken it less literally, but oh well.

At least with her, I confirmed that he’s with the dragons and is a dragon. Which is awesome by the way.

She had told me about my parents before we came into this realm and I am glad to hear that they’re fine so far. I know that Pebbles won’t let them die. But I do wanna meet them immediately.

“Are you planning to join any sects when you leave the demon region?” Yaomu Shou asked me out of nowhere.

“Sabre Mountain and I’ll probably only go up from there,” I answered without a thought.

Yaomu Shou nodded in understanding. “Good to know.”

“Surround it!”

“Don’t let it escape!”

Suddenly, shouts came from ahead that caught all of our attention.

Following it, we went on for a while until we came upon a ridge. We slowly approached it and popped our heads up a little to see what was going on.

When the entire episode bore itself to us, that rare spark of interest of mine lit up while contempt fuelled Yaomu Shou’s expression. Mina was indifferent to the whole thing, but I was still drawing. I wanted to have a stockpile on hand before I gave any of them to her.

On the other side of the ridge were four human cultivators, with swords in hand hunting and surrounding another cultivator of a race I had never seen before.

This race was twice the size of the humans hunting her. Her skin was a light brown colour that reminded me of coffee with a little too much milk thrown in. There were also diamond patterns covering her from head to toe.

Her eyes were like that of a frog or the sage mode of a particular ninja, and her dark brown hair was wild and unkempt. It appeared to have the texture of wool from afar. Whether it was brown because that was its natural colour or if it was owed to the dirt that plagued it, I honestly couldn’t tell.

She was way past dishevelled at this point since she was bleeding in several places and her clothes were a tattered mess. Her breathing was also haggard and rushed, a clear sign of the exhaustion that threatened to take her any second now.

Nine cauldrons spun behind her. Eight were white and one was red. Her talent could be seen at a glance as not being very high. Well, she was either talentless or broke… so same thing.

The four human cultivators, on the other hand, all had cauldrons at the high grade on average, with one sporting a supreme-grade cauldron.

The swords they held all had bloodstains splattered all over them. Each of them obviously got a hit in on this unfamiliar person.

“A Mofang Dao,” Yaomu Shou whispered to herself.

“A Mofang what?” Mina asked.

Yaomu Shou explained. “They’re not demons or anything but a separate race altogether. Let’s get out of here.”

Okay, so there’s a bit of scorn there. However, I’m not complaining and I’m sure as hell not proposing something as ludicrous as helping a complete stranger.

As we backed away from the ridge that hid us from view, I looked back to see the Mofang Dao sneaking a glance at me.

I know I’m physically unable to give anything away emotion-wise, but hers was clear as day. It was filled with unwillingness and anger.

Even though this was the case, it was almost as if she was battling with an internal decision. One that she didn’t have much time to make. Eventually, the indecision ceased, and she made her move.

Shu!

In a surprise action that caught both Mina and Yaomu Shou off guard, she took off in our direction.

Well shit.

Shing!

Yaomu Shou’s expression turned grave in an instant, and she quickly unsheathed her sword and Mina hid behind me.

As she came closer, Yaomu Shou’s aura spiked explosively as her grip around her sword tightened.

When I saw the Mofang Dao nearing us, something told me this wasn’t as simple as we thought.

“Yaomu Shou, step aside.”

“Come again!?”

Both Mina and Yaomu Shou were shocked at my request. She didn’t hide her disgust at the Mofang Dao and I’m pretty sure she knew that I knew there was a reason for her to be acting this way.

Thankfully, with much reluctance, she acquiesced to my request.

“I have to say that if it’s using us to offset their attacks, I won’t have mercy on it. I made an enormous concession already not going over there to kill it myself!” she hissed.

I agreed with this condition. What Yaomu Shou meant by offsetting their attacks was a tactic where the Mofang Dao led over her pursuers where under the assault of their attacks, she would direct them toward us instead.

This could either cause a seed of conflict to arise between my group and the human pursuers or, at the very least, allow an attack to be resolved without her power, which would give her some breathing space at least.

Yaomu Shou, or anyone for that matter, didn’t like being used by anyone in such a way, so though she listened to me, she could only take so many steps back.

“Third Step Wind Blade!”

Whoosh!

One of her pursuers unleashed an attack with his sword, which caused three blades of wind to manifest towards her.

By now she was a few metres from us and was in the perfect position to use us as scapegoats if she wanted.

Shu! Shu!

Through deft movements, she dodged the first two wind blades and as for the last one, well…

Pu Ci!

A spray of blood flew into the air as the third wind blade mercilessly cut into her back.

Yaomu Shou saw this and was shocked.

“What the—”

Shu!

Before Yaomu Shou could process what was happening, the Mofang Dao had already run past her.

When her pursuers had arrived at the top of the ridge and us, they were slightly surprised.

I thought this was the sign of a sure fight coming on since it didn’t take a genius to figure out that humans and demons didn’t get along well at all.

But surprisingly, they didn’t bother with us and only continued their pursuit until they and the Mofang Dao disappeared from view.

We all stared in that direction long after Yaomu Shou had lost sight of them.

“Why did you have me stand down?” she finally asked me.

Why does everyone want to run everyone’s fades in this world? I’m surprised they’re not all extinct!

“Why did you want to kill her?”