“In that case, all you need to do is follow my movements.” After throwing out those ambiguous words, Habona proceeded to perform the Inversion Cut twice. She first leapt to the left before leaping to her original position. As she performed the Inversion Cut, I definitely saw her center of gravity shift towards the right and yet it moved to the left instead.
Having finished her performance, she turned towards me and nonchalantly said: “Just do that.”
“Huh!?”
“Just do exactly as I just did.” She snapped; my silly expression had probably irked her.
“…” Lady, do you think I’m some main character from a wuxia novel? Did it look like I was born with a photographic memory or a peerless comprehension ability that allowed me to learn any ultimate martial art with just a glance…I’m just an average Joe. Wasn’t it a bit much to expect me to learn this skill just by watching you jump a couple times?!
“You weren’t able to catch all of that?” She roughly deduced from my expression that I still wasn’t able to perform the Inversion Cut. “I’ll perform it a few more times, make sure to look closely.” She continued flatly.
“…lady, there are some things you can’t learn just by seeing a few more times alright? If you’re really serious about teaching me the skill, you should tell me how it works or even share the experience you had when you just started cultivating it, that might be a useful reference.”
“Experience…” She blinked her eyes at my words. “I learnt this by watching my mother fight, if you want to learn this skill from me, you just have to keep on watching and practising.”
“…” What the heck! Is this how you teach people…at least tell me how to exert my force!
Unfortunately for me, this was exactly how she taught me. Even after that back and forth, we still ended up at “watching and practising” with the end result being a few days of fruitless attempts. While I still didn’t know how to execute the Inversion Cut, that strange impediment I felt while swinging Shadowfang had lessened significantly; I was able to attack and chain my attacks much faster as a result.
Mo En’s territory was surprisingly far from the werewolves’ temporary base. Even with Habona’s speed, we still hadn’t reached his base after four days of running.
At a glance, the Summoning Zone wasn’t that much different from the other sections of the maze. The difference was a much more minute one that couldn’t be perceived easily. If I had to describe this difference, it would be that it felt like I had stepped into a different dimension upon entering this zone.
“We’ve just entered the boundaries of the Summoning Zone, it won’t be much longer before we reach the nest of Mo En. Given our proximity, I wouldn’t be surprised if we meet some of his men on patrols. In order to avoid any misunderstandings, don’t act rashly in front of them.”
This warning by Habona wasn’t directed at me but at Violet Snow instead. As for why she did so, it had to do with Violet Snow’s proud personality and their unpleasant first encounter.
During their first meeting, Habona had insulted her by calling her a mutt. Ever since then, Violet Snow had been at odds with Habona. Whenever the two met, they would end up in a fight with Violet Snow being the initiator and ultimately the loser as well. This ended up giving Habona the impression that she was a violent person…even though, she was actually the most violent of us three…
“Hmph.” She snorted rudely, not caring to answer the werewolf. That however, was enough of an answer for Habona. She knew that Violet Snow wouldn’t act rashly.
Having entered the vicinity of Mo En’s nest, it wasn’t long before we met up with a patrol of devils. Leading this patrol was a winged female devil who closely resembled a female child.
On her forehead were two, three cm long horns that looked more like bamboo shoots like actual horns. She had the signature red skin of a devil and even had the devil tail and flesh wings commonly associated with devils. She was in every way, the model depiction of a devil, a primal devil in fact. (Earliest stage of a scythed devil.)
The devil girl was only sixty to seventy cm tall which was roughly half my height. Her face had the exquisite sheen and redness expected of a devil and was framed by a short bob hairstyle with bangs that reached up to her brows. Her face was slightly rounded and had a petiteness that made it that much more adorable.
She was clad in clothes crafted out of animal hides. It was a tiny garment that covered her torso and barely reached past her hip, revealing a pair of slender thighs and arms.
While it clearly wasn’t fashionable by any definition of the word, this was the first time I’ve seen a clothed devil.
At the time we spotted their party, they spotted ours as well. With a flap of her wings, she left her team and approached us. Whether it was intended or not, she had flown to a height of four to five meters, and this ended up giving her a slightly arrogant disposition as she addressed us from high above: “Outsiders, you should not have come here.”
Her voice was extremely pleasing to the ear with a sort of soft and waxy feel to it. The only issue I had with her was that she was too high up in the air…it would probably hurt my neck just looking up at her for a period of time.
I jumped off Habona’s shoulders and extended a friendly greetings towards her: “Hello there, we’re here to see Mo En.”
“You’re looking for Mo En?” She immediately puffed up her airport runway of a chest and said, in a slightly flaunting manner: “That old coot’s dead, you all can leave now.”
“Dead? That’s not possible!” I refuted immediately. This was clearly news that I didn’t want to hear after such a long journey to see this devil. But then, it’s not like she had any reason to deceive me either…
With a slightly hesitant tone, I asked her: “I mean…is he really dead?”
“He’s really dead.” She nodded her head and told me in a tone as clear as crystal.
Even so, I pressed her, not intending to let up on this issue: “When did he die?”
“When?” She scratched her head before counting with her fingers. A while later, she was still counting, evidently she no longer had enough fingers to count with as she began hugging her thighs as she bent down to count her toes as well. Having used up those as well, she started counting her hair as well…
Unfortunately for her, hair wasn’t that easy to count with. It didn’t take long before she lost count. The little devil girl ruffled her hair in frustration and said: “Exactly when did he die…Mimiya just can’t figure it out…”
“…” Where did this airhead pop out from…I was just asking when he died…if you didn’t remember the exact timing, you could just say so. Was there a need to torture yourself by counting your toes and hair?
It was at this moment that the rest of her team caught up with her. Unlike her, the ten large imps weren’t simple minded enough to trust us and immediately adopted a guarded stance. As they weren’t sure of our intentions, they immediately stepped forward, shielding Mimiya from us.
One of the large imps noticed her continuous counting and asked out of curiosity: “Missus, what are you doing?:
“I’m counting when did Grandpa die.” She answered without lifting her head. Having said that, she returned her focus back to the task of counting.
Her reply stumped the large imp. He meekly looked at us before whispering in what he thought was a soft voice: “Missus, Master Mo En…he…isn’t Master still alive and well…”
“Mimiya knows that.” She halted her counting and looked at the large imp. She continued in a serious tone: “But grandpa told Mimiya that if someone came looking for grandpa, Mimiya should say [Grandpa is dead]. But Mimiya just can’t remember when did grandpa say this.”
She pointed at me, “And this fellow wants to know when so Mimiya is over here counting the date.”
…
So he wasn’t dead…he’s just pretending to be dead. At the side, her answer had left Habona, Violet Snow and the other large imps just as speechless as I was…
“So he’s not dead.”
Sometimes, I just don’t know what to say about this unconventional fellow.
“…NO NO, Grandpa is dead…” She began spinning around in circles as she anxiously tried to explain this to us. “Mimiya just remembered. 100 days ago, Grandpa told Mimiya that no matter who came looking for him, Mimiya is to answer [dead] that way…”
“Grandpa?” A chill ran through my heart as a sudden realization hit me. “Err, Miss Mimiya, are you Master Mo En’s granddaughter?”
“That’s right.” She stopped her spinning and answered with a furious nod of her head and an intent stare of her adorable golden eyes.
“His actual granddaughter?”
“His actual granddaughter!”
“Then how many granddaughters does he have?”
“Just Mimiya of course.”
“…”
What the heck is this answer that makes me want to cry. I get it now, Mo En wanted me to go for a marriage interview and the person I’m to meet was his granddaughter…which was this potato in front of me…
No wonder he emphasized how cute his granddaughter was…she really was that adorable…she was so dense that she was actually cute!
“Now then, can you bring us to meet Master Mo En?” It was probably better to be more direct with a potato.
“But Mimiya’s grandpa is dead.”
“…” I want to cry right now. Don’t you have the self-awareness to know that your lie has been exposed. How stupidly adorable can you be! Can I have someone normal to communicate with!
Just as my head was filled with thoughts of meeting Mo En and finding out how to get summoned to the Western Human Realms, a strange ringing echoed in my head. It was a very sudden appearance that seemed like it had come from within my head instead of being transmitted through the air.
I focused my mind on the ringing. Immediately, I felt a force trying to pull me into some other region. It was an extremely forceful pull that brooked no resistance from me. Before I could even react to it, my body was struck with a sense of weightlessness as the scene in front of me began to distort.
Not only did my vision begin to distort, my body began contorting as if it was a boneless mess. A distorted Violet Snow tried to tell me something but her voice simply couldn’t reach my ears, as if there was an invisible barrier separating the two of us.
What followed was a severe sense of dizziness that lasted over ten seconds or perhaps even a few minutes. The weightlessness disappeared and I found myself in a foreign yet familiar room.
It was foreign as I had never seen this room before. As for why it was familiar, that was because…there was a human in front of me…and not just one either…
