The morning after their stay in Ironhorn City, Li Yu and Demon Lord Malos resumed their journey deeper into the Night Queen’s territory. The stone roads made travel significantly smoother, though the visual of their departure was anything but ordinary.

  Li Yu walked with calm steps. Beside him Malos was happily swinging a burlap sack that clinked with the dull, heavy thuds of wet river stones.

  "Are you going to carry those forever?" Li Yu asked while casting a sideways glance at the sack.

  "I am considering having them mounted," Malos replied without missing a beat. He patted the sack affectionately. "When you have lived as long as I have, souvenirs of surprise are far more valuable than supreme artifacts. Every time I look at these painted rocks, I am reminded that a scrawny, one armed goblin looked at a Demon Lord and thought, 'Yes, I can definitely fleece this man.' It is a monument to mortal audacity."

  Li Yu let out a short, genuine laugh. He had gotten to know the Demon Lord over this short time and the man was growing on him. Perhaps it was because they were focusing on travel and the Demon Lord didn’t have to take any bad actions. They were two wanderers sharing the road.

  The Demon Lord just wanted to walk blindly into the unknown. For Malos, traveling with someone whose future he couldn't see was like a starving man sitting down to a feast. Every mundane bump in the road was a delicacy. One that he couldn’t get enough of.

  On their fifth day of travel, the duo came across another sprawling agricultural zone. The Night Queen’s edict to increase food production was clearly being enforced with an iron fist but the execution remained catastrophically flawed.

  They paused by a wooden fence and were leaning against it to watch a squad of heavily armored Night Demon Vanguard soldiers attempting to deal with an infestation of burrowing spirit moles.

  "Watch closely, Li Yu," Malos whispered. "I believe they are about to employ a new tactical formation against the rodents."

  Instead of using repellent powders, traps or sonic arrays to drive the pests out of the newly planted tuber fields, the Vanguard had opted for overwhelming military force.

  "Form up!" The Vanguard Captain roared as he drew his massive greatsword. "The enemy is beneath the soil! They seek to undermine the Queen's harvest! We show them no mercy!"

  A dozen heavily armored demons drew their weapons and raised them high.

  "Strike on my mark!" The Captain bellowed. "For the House of Night! Cleave!"

  Twelve greatswords slammed into the dirt simultaneously. They were also channeling explosive waves of Demonic Qi directly into the ground. The sheer force of the synchronized strike triggered a localized earthquake. A massive geyser of soil, pulverized tubers and a few highly confused spirit moles erupted thirty feet into the air.

  A massive trench had been carved through the center of the field and it almost completely ruined the harvest.

  The Captain walked up to the edge of the smoking crater. He peered down into the ruined dirt. He proudly sheathed his sword. "The vanguard is victorious! The pests have been eradicated!"

  "Technically correct," Malos observed from the fence and was clapping slowly. "There are no pests left in that specific patch of dirt. Because there is no dirt left. A flawless victory. It can be said a Demon had never lost to farm pests before."

  Li Yu rubbed the bridge of his nose. It didn’t affect him in any way but he felt a phantom headache building behind his eyes. "They destroyed all that food to kill three moles. If they keep this up, the Night Queen is going to have to conquer a neighboring territory just to find dirt they haven't blown up yet."

  "You must appreciate their enthusiasm," Malos chuckled. "They apply the solution they know best to every problem they encounter. If a door is locked, break it. If a crop is dying, threaten it. If a mole eats a root, eradicate the geography. It is wonderfully consistent. You should take notes. This is how we do things. Straight forward and with a light heart."

  They left the ruined field behind and continued their trek along the winding roads. As the sun began to dip below the horizon they found a quiet clearing near a babbling brook to set up camp.

  Li Yu handled the cooking. He brought out fresh ingredients from his spatial ring. Malos, in order to experience the "full ordinary traveler routine," had taken on the role of gathering firewood. He returned ten minutes later carrying an entire, fully uprooted petrified tree over his shoulder. He dropped it next to the fire pit with a deafening crash that shook the clearing. It was clear he was still getting the hang of things.

  "A bit excessive but it will do," Li Yu said dryly. He then used his Qi to splinter off a few manageable pieces. As the meat roasted over the flames and the strong wine flowed, the conversation naturally drifted toward their respective pasts.

  "You judge these demons quite harshly for their lack of subtlety," Malos noted while taking a sip from his clay jug. "But you are not native to this chaotic realm. You said you came from a human dominated world. Tell me, how do humans manage their domains? Is it the paradise of logic and creation you make it out to be? We have humans here as well and they aren’t that different from how we are. Only minor differences. I think the circumstances and environment shapes people of all races. Rather than what they are born as."

  Li Yu turned the skewers over the fire and the crackling fat spitting into the flames.

  "Hardly a paradise," Li Yu scoffed gently. "It was structured, yes. We had large sects, sprawling empires and hierarchies.."

  Li Yu passed a cooked skewer to Malos.

  "But the structure was just a different kind of mask," Li Yu continued as his tone turned cynical. "Here, a demon wants your territory, so he walks up to you, screams a challenge and tries to cut your head off. It's brutal but it's honest. In the human sect, an elder might smile at you, praise your talent and offer you a cup of tea that slowly cripples your meridians over ten years just so his own grandson can take your spot in the inner sect."

  Malos chewed his food thoughtfully at what Li Yu said. His eyes reflected the dancing flames. "Ah. The violence of bureaucracy and hidden daggers. I have seen flashes of such things in the human territories bordering this realm. It sounds utterly exhausting."

  "It was but it's just like anywhere else. Every place is slightly different. Some were like how it is here. Some are completely different." Li Yu agreed as he too took a drink of wine. "Everyone was obsessed with 'face.' You couldn't just fight someone; you had to justify the fight with a thousand pages of grievances. You had to maintain the illusion of moral superiority while actively robbing your neighbors blind. I think that's why I'm actually starting to prefer it here. At least for things like that. But schemes and such things are here as well. Just look at what had happened to the Night Queen. Ambushed by five other powers. No place is perfect."

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  Malos let out a rich laugh that echoed through the quiet clearing.

  "It is indeed quite a bit more straightforward here, I will grant you that. But as you said, it’s not always straight forward." Malos smiled. "But do not romanticize the honesty of beasts, Li Yu. Chaos is only entertaining when you are strong enough to stand above it. For the weak, a stabbing in the dark and a cleaving in the street feel remarkably identical."

  "Fair point," Li Yu conceded. "What about you? You must have some stories from sitting on the throne of foresight all these years. Has anyone ever actually surprised you before me?"

  Malos leaned back against his log and was looking up at the starry sky. He swirled the wine in his jug as a nostalgic smile touched his lips.

  "Surprised me? No," Malos said softly. "But they have certainly amused me. The lengths to which mortals and cultivators will go to outrun a prophecy they begged to hear is the greatest comedy in existence."

  Malos pointed a pale finger toward the fire.

  "Centuries ago, there was a rather ambitious warlord named Ghor," Malos began his story while taking on the tone of a storyteller. "He was a massive, heavily armored brute who had carved out a decent kingdom in the northern wastes. He ventured far to meet me and begged to know the circumstances of his death, so that he might prevent it. I was hiding away quite well at the time so I was impressed he was able to find me. I was very tired of people at the time."

  "You told him?" Li Yu asked. He always loved to hear stories.

  "I did," Malos nodded. "I looked at his fate and told him, 'You will be slain by water.' A very simple, very unavoidable vision."

  Li Yu chuckled. "Let me guess. He stayed away from water?"

  "He went completely mad," Malos laughed as the memory brought a wicked delight to his eyes. "He abandoned his kingdom in the frozen wastes and marched his entire army into the most desolate and bone dry desert he could find. He built a fortress out there. He ordered that no liquid water be brought within ten miles of his presence. He bathed only in dust and drank nothing but the thickest, most heavily fermented demon wines."

  "That sounds like a terrible way to live. All of that because he was told so." Li Yu noted.

  "It was a miserable existence," Malos agreed. "I was curious what he would do so I started keeping an eye on him after telling him. He lived in constant paranoia for fifty years. He survived countless assassination attempts, poisonings and sieges. Each time he would always be laughing because none of his enemies attacked him with water."

  "So how did it happen?"

  "Ironically, he died during a celebration of his own perceived immortality," Malos smiled widely. "He was holding a grand banquet. The desert heat was stifling. One of his favored concubines was actually someone from a family he had slaughtered in the past. She waited until he felt invincible and weakened from drinking."

  "He had let down his guard with her later that night. He thought he was going to continue having fun that night but his end came." Malos continued. "She stabbed him through the heart with a condensed blade of ice and then fled.

  Li Yu was stunned that was how it turned out. He had thought that Malos was going to tell him a funny ironic story of the warlord somehow dying from choking on water or slipping on it. That’s usually the type of story that brings a laugh. Instead he was murdered by ice arts.

  Malos laughed though. He thought it was hilarious. "By running from fate, he sprinted directly into its waiting arms. He had met her near that desert area and took her in at that time. The universe possesses a cruel sense of humor, Li Yu. Once you learn to appreciate the punchline, eternity becomes much more bearable."

  They sat by the fire late into the night and were trading stories of hypocritical sect elders and doomed warlords. The boundaries between the ancient Demon Lord and the human cultivator blurred. Though they didn’t see eye to eye much, some camaraderie was being built on the shared understanding of just how ridiculous the cultivation world sometimes was.

  The next morning their journey brought them to a massive, roaring river of acid. It was actually a mix of many things but the effect was the same, it would eat away at things it touched. The churning green waters cut a deep scar through the landscape and dissolved anything that touched its surface.

  Spanning the lethal river was a single stone bridge. And standing dead center on the bridge was a towering, heavily muscled Mud Fiend. He was wielding a rusted iron club the size of a tree trunk.

  "Halt!" The Mud-Fiend bellowed as Li Yu and Malos approached. "This is the domain of Grag! If you wish to cross the acid river, you must pay the toll!"

  Li Yu had seen such things before. It was much easier to pay so he reached into his spatial ring to pull out a few spirit stones. It was standard practice in the chaotic regions. But before Li Yu could hand over the toll, Malos threw an arm across his chest to stop him.

  "Put your wealth away, Li Yu," Malos said seriously as he stepped forward. "We are ordinary travelers. Ordinary travelers do not simply hand over their hard earned stones. We must haggle! It is the mortal way! We cannot be cheated out of our hard earned money."

  Li Yu stared at him. "Malos, just let me pay the asking price."

  "Absolutely not," Malos refused and walked up to the towering Mud Fiend. He pulled a purple painted river stone from his robes and held it aloft with the reverence of a man presenting a supreme artifact.

  "My good Fiend," Malos announced grandly. "I see you are a connoisseur of fine tolls. I offer you something far more valuable than mere spirit stones. Behold! The Supreme Purple Earth Radish!"

  The MudFiend blinked its small, beady eyes. It leaned down and took a sniff of the wet rock.

  "That is a rock," the Mud Fiend grunted. "Do you take me as a fool? Are you mocking me?!"

  "A rock?!" Malos gasped at the words. He was clutching his chest as if he had been physically struck. "Sir, I am insulted! This is a dense vessel of ancient Qi! To unlock its boundless power, you merely have to boil it for three weeks! It will increase your cultivation base tenfold!"

  The Mud Fiend slowly raised his massive iron club and was glaring at the grey robed scholar. "Grag thinks you are making fun of Grag. Grag is going to smash you into paste."

  Li Yu quickly stepped between them and slapped a handful of spirit stones into the Mud Fiend's massive palm.

  "We are paying the toll, kind sir. We will happily pay. Excuse my friend here" Li Yu said firmly as he was grabbing Malos by the sleeve and physically dragging the Demon Lord across the bridge.

  "You ruined the authentic experience!" Malos complained loudly as they scurried past the confused Mud Fiend. "I was on the verge of a breakthrough in negotiations! I could see the greed in his eyes! He would have taken my rock in just a bit of time"

  "You were on the verge of getting us flattened," Li Yu shot back at Malos. Li Yu couldn't hide the massive grin on his face. "If you ever try to barter with those rocks again, I am leaving you behind."

  "You wouldn't dare," Malos chuckled as he safely tucked the painted rock back into his robes. "Who else would provide you with such high tier company? It’s not everyday you get to walk around with a Demon Lord. Think how many would beg for such an honor and here you are getting to enjoy it for free."

  Their laughter faded into a comfortable silence as they continued down the road. By mid afternoon the landscape shifted once more. The rolling hills and sparse forests gave way to a massive and sprawling basin. Li Yu and Malos stopped at the ridge and were looking down into the valley below.

  The capital of the House of Night lay before them.

  It was a city of contradictions. Massive, jagged black towers pierced the sky but many of them still bore the deep, catastrophic scars of the siege. Half crumbled walls were held together by colossal scaffolding made from the bleached bones of demonic beasts.

  Yet, amidst the ruins, there was an undeniable pulse of life and furious energy. Thousands of workers were swarming over the structures like ants. They were hauling blocks of stone and massive timber. In the sky above, a massive, intricate web of defensive arrays pulsed with a cool, silver light. It was weaving a protective dome over the entire capital. It was the undeniable handiwork of Prince Ganhao, hoping to secure the sky against any future invasions.

  The banners of the silver crescent moon flew from every repaired parapet, snapping proudly in the wind.

  "There it is," Malos murmured while looking down at the massive reconstruction effort. "The seat of the Night Queen's power. It is broken, bleeding and yet, it refuses to die."

  Li Yu nodded. He had inadvertently given them the chance to survive but they were doing the hard work of rebuilding entirely on their own. Whether they were doing good or bad was another thing altogether.

  "Let's go," Li Yu said as he began the descent into the basin. "Let's go see the Queen."