Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 368 - Not A Chance In Hell

“Yo boring brother! Let me travel with you. I won’t forge shit, but I will spice up your life! Just gonna add this in there as a disclaimer, this place was already like this when I got here. And no, you don’t have to tell me, boring as shit!”

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Tell me the top ten list of things you expected to come across in a cultivation world.

See, I’m just gonna stop you right there because if you read as much cultivation novels as I did, you should know that by virtue of these novels being the LSD-induced lovechild of a soft-spoken introverted sociopath, there is way too much to consider for a list like that to EVER be constructed with any semblance of truth and/or sense.

Now, here I was on my journey to learn about myself when I just happened to come across a loincloth-wearing, walking forge eating food from a house in a city that appeared to be overrun by a speedrunning-obsessed plague.

I affectionately refer to him as the Black Death.

“Y-You’re a Ren’duan!” Firecracker was expressing enough shock for me and him.

“Looks like your eyes are working,” the Ren’duan responded in the closest thing to sarcasm I’ve heard since I got here. Well, that’s if we’re not counting Pebbles.

If you’re drawing a blank on who this is, it’s the same Ren’duan that the Chad of a Gatekeeper threw into the forge.

“Long Di, can we leave? If it’s not obvious, I don’t get out much and I plan to have as much as I can,” said Pebbles.

The Ren’duan saw Pebbles and then Lord Whiskers, and his ruby-like eyes flashed and sparkled with curiosity.

“Wow! What are you!? Who are you!?”

“I am Pebbles The Wondercat. Please say the whole thing if you would. Yes, that includes the ‘The Wondercat’ part. Yes, little one, every time.”

“Wait a second, Pebbles were you quoting A Pimp Named Slickba–”

“Long Di, we can’t take this Ren’duan with us!” Firecracker came over in a rush, his face embodied nervousness.

“Why are you so high-strung about this? Is it because he may be the reason these people can’t enjoy their dinner anymore?”

“These people have been stripped of their vitality,” Shai Bing noted after examining the dead bodies and their emaciated appearances.

At least one person is acting in a way that makes sense.

Qin Ling followed up right after this with an observation of her own. “Not only that, this didn’t happen all that long ago.”

SInce the Ren’duan was eating food that wasn’t spoilt, that was probably true.

“Could it have been because of the Death Armour Archaic Soldier?” Shen Ling asked. That was probably because Firecracker, who was still pestering me about the Ren’duan who just showed up, ended up having his vitality damaged in his fight against the enigmatic existence.

“No,” Wei Yun shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Most of these people are cultivators. It would be fine if one or two people fought it but the others should haven’t made trouble for it. Also, Violet Flame Noble only had his vitality damaged because he ignited his essence-blood to boost his power. For all these people to ignite their essence-blood to fight something like that doesn’t make sense.”

“Wei Yun,” Qin Ling turned to Wei Yun. “Do you recall that time we went to the sect library’s archaic section, and we read up on something that left a similar scene in their wake?”

Wei Yun’s eyes widened in shock when Qin Ling said this. “D-Divine Daughter, it may be improper of me to say this but my time in the cultivation world is a tad longer than yours. I have to stress that such a thing was ensured to never take place again.”

“But what if it does?” Qin Ling asked.

“Then…” Wei Yun looked down, her expression turning graver as time went by. “We’re all in danger. Not just us, but everyone on the continent.”

“What are you talking about?” Violet Flame Noble asked, putting the matter of the Ren’duan aside, thankfully.

Wei Yun didn’t say anything, as if just uttering the name was some kind of taboo.

“Nine Yin Cemetary Sect.”

When that name dropped, Violet Flame Noble and Heavenly Sun Noble’s expressions drastically changed. There have been so many expression changes in so little time today.

“Impossible!” Heavenly Sun Noble stepped forward. Her expression (told you) was beyond disturbed.

“Do you know what you’re insinuating!?” Violet Flame Noble shuddered in response.

“Now I don’t wanna be that guy.”

“If that’s the case, then accidents are a dime dozen with you, aren’t they?” Mina remarked when I was trying to educate myself.

“I’m gonna let that slide.” That was a lie. “So is the Nine Yin Cemetary Sect a sect that dabbles in the arcane arts of reanimating corpses as their bodyguards and/or new bodies?”

“You know of them!?” Heavenly Sun Noble looked at me with no small measure of shock.

“Well, apart from Yaomu Shou referencing the name once, you guys do know that your naming sense is about as good as a three-year-old, right? I’m surprised you haven’t called the Heavens the Cloud Flowing in Blue Stuff.”

“Or the act of sleeping Divine Restoration Regeneration Technique,” Pebbles sleepily added.

“Not to mention the names of animals or magical beasts,” Mina chimed in. “I mean, Shidashi Mao? True Cat? Seriously!? There are more profundities in Pebbles The Wondercat’s name.”

“Damn straight!” Pebbles nodded with his eyes still closed.

“Respectfully,” I brought the conversation back on track, I should receive praise for that. “A braindead mule with the mental bankruptcy rivalling that of every shonen anime mc protagonist ever could figure out what the intentions and/or features of your organisations, techniques, beasts, items and everything to ever exist ever will be if you put the item description in the name like that. It’s like you discovered something and your friend asked you, ‘Hm, what would you call this?’ and you said ‘Yes.’ How could I not figure it out?”

“Prrreeeaaacchhh…” Pebbles lazily dragged the word out with a fist in the air while nodding his head. The cultural dichotomy was jarring to see if nothing else.

“Sooo…” I wasn’t going to comment outwardly on what Pebbles just said or did. “I’m guessing they were a destroyed sect or something. With the power that you’re fearing, maybe they were at the top of the Ten Great Sects.”

“They’re from another place entirely. In any case, even if their power is comparable to one of the Ten Great Sects, we don’t accept them as one of us We never did. Their methods and practice are too detestable!” Wei Yun spat out the last word with venom. “They are one of the Forbidden Sects.”

“Forbidden Sects, huh? Sounds badass.” I wasn’t lying. They sounded like the kind of people that get blacklisted from social events… or nightclubs. My kind of people.

“If this is true, we need to report it!” Shai Bing urgently advised.

“Then you better get to it.”

Far be it from me to stop someone from narcing to the police. Of course, I couldn’t do something like that. It’d damage my street cred.

“Don’t you know how dangerous this is!? You need to tell your sect too! The quicker we can spread the word the better!”

“My sect can’t create any waves and the only other member is my master who has walked far on the Dao of sadomasochism.”

“The Dao of sadomasochism?? What’s that?”

“Oh sweet summer child, allow me to explain.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t me that said that, but Pebbles, so I left him to it.

“Long Di, this needs to be reported.” Qin Ling said softly.

“Then send Wei Yun to tell your sect,” I told her.

“You–!” Wei Yun apparently didn’t appreciate the fact that I was sending her away.

“Wei Yun…” Qin Ling turned to her.

Wei Yun was startled at the tender way Qin Ling referred to her. “Divine Daughter I–”

“You can call me Qin Ling when we’re alone.”

“Careful…”

Wei Yun didn’t recover from Qin Ling’s tone and mannerisms at the moment. She didn’t even notice when I told Qin Ling to be careful lest she let slip too many things.

Even though I took steps to bring Wei Yun over to our side more by playing on her budding friendship with Qin Ling, I didn’t want to risk too many things if I didn’t have to.

Luckily, it didn’t seem that Wei Yun found it suspicious and instead felt relieved.

“Okay, Divine Daughter!” Wei Yun said proudly and with a bright smile. “I’ll go and let the sect know before coming right back!”

Shai Bing ran over to Wei Yun with a reddened face. “T-Take me back to my sect too, please!!!”

Wei Yun was shocked to see Shai Bing like this. “What are you–”

“PLEASE!”

“Fine!” Wei Yun didn’t know why the renowned Heavenly Sun Noble was acting like this.

I passed a glance at Pebbles who looked at me knowingly.

“What did you tell her?”

Pebbles smiled. “Everything.”

Yep, Shai Bing was gonna need therapy for that.

Seeing this, I turned to Firecracker. “Do you need to go back to your sect and tell them about this as well?”

He looked down in disappointment before asking. “May I?”

“Of course, you can. I’m not running a sweatshop here.”

“Y-You’re not going to think I’m running away?” he asked, looking at me in surprise.

Seriously, how do these people see me?

“No, I’m not. Get back to me ASAP. Simply take the ice carriage and have Wei Yun drop you off, and then Uber you back.”

“I’m not a taxi!” Wei Yun frostily stated.

I looked at her in bewilderment. I knew I failed at it, but I wanted you all to know all the same. “How do you know what a taxi is?”

“We listen to your conversation and the meaning of certain words can be deduced.”

“What conversations am I having the half time? I don’t even remember using these words? Plus the word you’re looking for is inferred.”

“Inferred, thank you,” Wei Yun nodded.

I have the oddest sense of déjà vu from this.

“Brother Long Di, about the Ren’duan–”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that. But allow me to ask, will I be in danger?” I asked him.

“N-No.”

“Is it absolutely urgent?”

“No.”

“Then we can talk about it when you get back.”

He then nodded and went over to Wei Yun and Shai Bing.

Before they boarded the ice carriage, Shai Bing surprisingly turned back to look at me saying, “Try your best not to get into trouble.”

“I only promise not to try.”

The ice carriage roared off and before long, it disappeared from sight.

“Do you think I should change my appearance?” Qin Ling looked at me and asked.

“Apart from pulling off plastic surgery that my world would use to summon thirst traps from the Nether realm, why pull out this flex?” I asked her.

I could see her expression change several times as she tried to make sense of what I said. It wasn’t that bad was it?

Aaaaand she gave up. That wasn’t even ten seconds.

“It’ll make it easier for me to move around.” She just moved on to explain herself. “I’d also rather not use the prestige of Ice Phoenix Hall to bully others.”

I could see everyone staring at her with a bit of surprise at her sudden change. She really was a good kid at heart.

Before waiting for anything else, she took out a special mask from her storage ring that she wore before it melted into her skin.

Her aura then changed, becoming completely normal and her face reshaped itself with some sickening cracking sounds. Once it was completed, she looked like your average run-of-the-mill non-waifu level female cultivator.

“Hey Mina, she reminds me of you.”

“Screw you! I don’t know how or in what way, but I just know you insulted me!”

She truly was a gem in more ways than one.

Our small group then boarded Lord Whiskers when the jingle for the song, ‘One of these things is not like the others. One of these things doesn't belong,’ played out in my head.

And there it was. It was the Ren’duan for anyone curious.

Bro inserted himself into our group and thought we wouldn’t have noticed him. Not gonna lie, I liked the brazenness.

He saw that he was found out and stepped forward to ask in the most straight forward manner.

“Let me travel with you guys.”

And I answered in the same way.

“Not a chance in hell.”