Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 328 - Signing Up For The Competition

He then mumbled to himself. “Karma is a hell of a thing. I need to get to a Ren’duan Dwelling just to check it on or off the list.”

Violet Flame Noble piped up. “I-I know where to find one.”

****

“You do?”

Firecracker was about to make my life a lot easier and I was over the moon about it. I mean, you couldn’t see it but you’ll have to take my word for it. We spoke as we headed to where Lord Whiskers Furryback The First was.

“Y-Yeah,” Violet Flame Noble replied. “M-My sect is most versed in the flame attribute. Because of that, sometimes we are able to speak with them.”

That was unusual as far as things went. “They want your flames?”

“In a way…” Violet Flame Noble blushed when he said this.

“What are you talking about?” Obviously, there was more to this than I initially thought.

“How much do you know about the Ren’duans?” asked Violet Flame Noble.

I cocked my head to the side as I thought about this for a bit. Owing to Uncle Tian Lu, I can’t help but feel that I am woefully unprepared for this task.

“Less than I should. What am I missing here, Firecracker?”

Violet Flame Noble reeled back from that nickname. “I-I’m sorry. F-Firecrack–?”

“Sounds like you care way more about your namesake than what’s really important.” He followed me as I went back to the forge and sat down on the ground, leaning on it.

“It’s just that my title is–”

“More important than what you’re about to tell me, apparently.” He needed to understand that my ass was random. Not the actual physical ass, mind you, I’m referring to myself as the ass… that didn’t come out right.

“No! I… sorry, allow me to explain. You see, the Ren’duans are a fickle race. They don’t come out to meet other races. They stay within their space and… forge.”

“So they forge… it seems tame, to me.” Personally, I didn’t see the big deal here.

Violet Flame Noble shook his head. “You don’t understand. They are forging fanatics. They only care about forging. You can only get their attention by bringing in something that has to do with forging in some capacity.”

I looked at him for a while before understanding dawned. “You have flames.”

“Yeah. It’s the only thing we have of worth to them.” Violet Flame Noble admitted, blushing a little.

Yeah, no shit. The name of your sect is Dao Flame Mansion. It’s a little on the nose.

He continued. “They’ll also talk with you if you bring them rare materials that they haven’t had the pleasure of working with for a while or ever.”

“I thought since you’re a member of one of the Ten Great Sects that your people would strong-arm them into working for you.” I wasn’t naïve to the way most powers in the cultivation world worked. Might makes right was a creed that most lived by.

“My sect is not…”

Violet Flame Noble was about to argue on this point until he saw the absolute lack of a damn that I gave. As you can see, the new shipment of damns is running late. So I still have none to give.

“They’re not easily bullied.” Violet Flame Noble chose to explain more about the Ren’duans. “They are obsessed with forging, sure, but it doesn’t mean they’re weak. None can count the amount of mighty spiritual artefacts under their belt. Several sects have tried to attack them in the past only to incur severe damage in return. Since then, no one has tried to challenge them. With Ren’duans, you have to play by the rules. If there is no luck with them, then there is no luck with them. It’s as simple as that.”

I descended into rumination upon hearing this. It seemed like this wasn’t destined to be easy.

“But you know where they are right?” I asked him. I just wanted to be sure.

“I do.”

As I thought about this, a disparate element caught my eye, breaking the chokehold the darkness of night had over the land. The first rays of sunlight began to crest over the horizon.

Violet Flame Noble commented. “Day is quickly approaching.”

Captain Obvious strikes again. Still, this gave us a pretty clear path. As soon as we were finished with Cang Bian City, we would head to wherever the Ren’duan Dwelling was.

With this being the case, I turned to Violet Flame Noble. “You can do what you need to do for the rest of the day.”

“I wish to travel with you.” He stated with little emotion.

“Suit yourself.”

And so Violet Flame Noble and I walked down the street to Golden Lion Gate.

Before long, we came upon a giant building whose architecture had one mission and one mission alone. That mission, by the way, was to look like a giant golden lion gate.

This isn’t a joke either, seriously. Hear me out.

So imagine a giant plot of land and I mean giant! Giant enough to bury a body which would take the police years to find. Don’t question the comparisons I use.

We good so far? Great. Now, this is where it gets over the top. The younger audience might need to use a search engine for this one.

It’s basically the cat’s lair from Thundercats, and I mean the old one. Just imagine the cat’s lair the exact same way BUT, it’s a golden lion instead AND there is a double gate in the middle with two giant golden lion door knockers on it.

Behind it were numerous golden structures that made up the entirety of Golden Lion Gate, and they were designed in such a way that they—get this—looked like the body of a giant golden lion.

Form over function for this place. Gotta hand it to them though, when they decided on a theme, they went all in on it.

We arrived to see a giant crowd in front of the entrance.

“What is this?” Long Di asked.

Violet Flame Noble answered. “It’s the registration for the martial competition taking place.”

Ah yes, there was something like that happening. “I see. Are you entering Firecracker?”

“Yes, I would like to. If I win the competition, I may be able to see a wider world which will in turn give me access to certain things that I normally wouldn’t be able to see or find here.” Violet Flame Noble advised. Suddenly, he looked at with… I wanna say dread, but I couldn’t imagine why.

“A-Are you planning to enter?”

Now I can imagine why.

I stared at the crowd of people before answering. “I mean, maybe-ish.”

His eyes widened when I said this. “D-Don’t you think it’ll be boring for someone like you to enter a competition like this?”

He seemed to be worrying about me entering the competition since he saw a portion of my true strength and that it wouldn’t be so easy to beat me.

However, I put him at ease… I think. “You do realise that since you’re part of my group, if I win and benefit from this, you will too.”

Violet Flame Noble cracked a smile when he heard this.

“I almost forgot about that,” he said with an awkward smile.

“Well, at least you have someone to rely on… if necessary,” I told him.

He shrugged when I said this, before saying, “It’s not a bad feeling. However, I would still like to enter, even if only to see how much I measure if we face each other.”

I respected that honestly, “Then let’s get to it.”