The Immortal Continent

by Virlyce

Durandal coughed.

  “J-just our underwear?”

  Lucia nodded again. “I want your clothes too. I bet I could sell them for a lot to Ilya’s dad.”

  No. That’s not right. My father has no interest in strangers’ clothes. Then again, my father does buy everything Lucia doesn’t need because he wants to maintain a good relationship with her. It’s unfortunate my grandmother doesn’t approve. Ugh, and I can’t even return home to help my father free himself from her clutches. But I’m sure he’ll be fine. Even if he isn’t, by the time I do return home, Lucia will practically be a god, so all troubles will be solved anyway. For now, I have to look towards the future. The only thing I can do is improve myself. I have to get a lot stronger than I am now; otherwise, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll die if I’m left behind by Lucia. Once again, my fate is left in the hands of a brain-dead squirrelkin.

  Chapter 4

  I’m rich! Maybe. I’m not sure how much money I’d need to qualify as rich in this world. But I have about sixty interspacial rings worth of items. Sixty? Where did I get fifty others? There were only a dozen or so so-called saint-realm experts. Hmm. Well, I’m not one to question good fortune! Durandal or Puppers probably picked them up somewhere and stuck them in my ring. I also have these fancy sets of clothing that I’m not quite sure how to put on. Oh wells. Ilya’s dad will buy them. He buys everything.

  Now that I’ve stripped and silenced these people, what do I do? “Hey. Mr. Shoe, how do I go home?”

  “I already asked him that, Lucia,” Ilya said. She did? When? “You have to become a sky-realm expert before you can open the path home.”

  Uh…. “Is there an easier way?”

  “No.”

  “Um, Madam Squirrel,” Mr. Shoe said. “May I have my clothes back?”

  Hmm. This person stood up in my defense when that crazy phoenix lady wanted to kill me, right? Fine. I can return his clothes. But just his clothes; I’m keeping everything else. I’m a poor defenseless squirrelkin in a foreign world that hates squirrelkin; I need all the resources I can to survive! Mm, from now on, I’m going to call myself a foxkin. I don’t think they’re hated here and I was already mistaken for one once.

  “What are your plans, Madam Squirrel?” Mr. Shoe asked as he put on his clothes. Of course I watched. How else am I supposed to learn how to dress myself like the natives? As long as there are no weird customs where women and men wear their clothes differently, I’ll be fine. “The Immortal Continent is not very forgiving towards rogue cultivators. How about you join my Shadow Devil Sect? With your strength, it’s possible for you to become an elder. Not to mention the fact that no other sect can help you cultivate the heart devil qi within your body.”

  “Heart devil qi!? No wonder why I feel so uneasy!” one of the people I stripped shouted. Wasn’t he afraid of Durandal cutting his head off? I would be.

  Mm, now that Mr. Shoe mentions it, I did feel some weird sort of connection to the people I robbed. I thought it was guilt, but it turned out to be the planting of heart devils. Phew, I thought I almost became a softie. A girl has to be cold and tough to survive in a world as harsh as this! At least, that’s the impression I’m getting. Though, these people are a bit honorable. How can they ignore the temptation and only receive a tribute when they can clearly take the rest? It doesn’t make any sense. Maybe that’s why it’s called the saint realm. They’re saints.

  “Madam Squirrel?”

  Hmm?

  “About joining the Shadow Devil Sect….”

  Do I want to do that? I heard from somewhere that rogue cultivators wouldn’t have an easy time on the Immortal Continent. But I remember the sects from the human capital back home. They were just preachers and con artists and, truthfully, pretty weak. Then again, now that I think about it, everyone back home is pretty weak. But joining a sect…, isn’t associating with other people just asking to be betrayed? Ground squirrels are supposed to be social animals, but … I’ve almost always lived alone. If I interact with a group of people and they treat me like family, then I might become non-selfish and grow as a person! I can’t have that happen. I like my current life very much. The current life before I was transported into this world, I mean.

  “Madam Squirrel…?”

  “She gets like that sometimes,” Ilya said.

  Who gets like what?

  “Try asking her again.”

  Ask me what? Oh! Joining the sect. Hmm. “Durandal, what do you think?”

  Durandal crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Mr. Shoe. “What does your sect have to offer, and what do you expect in return?”

  “…Are there no sects in the pocket realm?”

  Ilya nodded. “There are, but they’re not important. If anything, we have an extremely bad impression of sects back home.”

  Mr. Shoe’s expression relaxed. “I see. Well, first and foremost, the biggest benefit of joining a sect is its backing. If you get in trouble, you can count on your sect members to help you out. If someone causes you to feel aggrieved, your sect brothers and sisters will help you get revenge. Of course, you’re expected to help any sect members in return. This deterrent will aid you in traveling the Immortal Continent, well, Kong County at least.”

  “So it’s like a gang.” Right? I’m pretty sure that’s how the Flopsy Gang operated before they were all hunted down. Hmm. Maybe sects are more like a country? But I wouldn’t help a fellow countryman if he was robbed by a different countryman. Maybe it’s not like a country. I guess it’s like the relationship between Durandal and me. …Would Durandal help me if I were being bullied? He better.

  “Err, maybe in the sense of camaraderie, but other than that, sects also have other benefits that joining a gang won’t give you,” Mr. Shoe said. “For example, exclusive cultivation techniques that can’t be spread to outsiders. I’m not sure why my disciple helped you gain heart devil qi, but just by that fact alone, you should join the Shadow Devil Sect. If someone from my sect were to find out that you were using our exclusive cultivation technique, they’d hunt you down—especially since the Heart Devil Cultivation Technique is only given to the core disciples of the sect. Other than that, resources such as medicinal pills, beast blood, engraved bones, defensive talismans, and spirit stones can be exchanged for. But most importantly, you’ll receive guidance and knowledge on how to break through to the higher realms.”

  …There’s too many words. My head’s starting to hurt.

  “You’ve only been listing the benefits,” Ilya said. “What’s the catch?”

  “There isn’t really a catch,” Mr. Shoe said. “You’ll be expected to help out when the sect needs help. You have to accomplish tasks for the sect to continue receiving resources. An example of a task would be like what I’m currently doing, escorting my juniors to a pocket realm. Speaking of which, do you know what happened to my disciple?”

  His disciple’s the person who drank my poisoned cup of hot chocolate, right? “Uh, yeah. He died.”

  “…Died?”

  “Mhm. I was having a friendly conversation with him, but then those people”—I gestured towards the scapegoats—“attacked us and he succumbed to his injuries, but not before passing on the Heart Devil Cultivation Technique to me.”

  “That’s not true, Senior!” one of the scapegoats shouted. “It’s true that I attacked him, but it definitely wasn’t enough to kill him!”

  Hey, don’t try to shift the blame onto me! It was clearly his own fault for dying, but I can’t blame a dead person, can I now? Peacefully take the fall! “They said something about ridding themselves of a heart devil by killing, uh….”

  “Sly Devil Chu.”

  Thanks, Ilya. “Sly Devil Chu. That’s right. They declared their intent to murder him.”

  “I, I did declare that, but I only hit him with two talismans!”

  “You only attacked my disciple with the intent to kill,” Mr. Shoe said. “I understand. If it weren’t for the fact that Madam Squirrel is using you
to grow heart devils, I would kill you. I won’t even injure you. Continue to grow strong for Madam Squirrel’s sake, knowing you will always be beneath her.” Mr. Shoe nudged me. “You should strip them of their underwear too. It’ll nourish their heart devils.”

  “Eh? I’m not a pervert!” Really, I’m not! “Besides, look at how small they are! They could cover everything with a blade of grass.”

  Mr. Shoe’s eyes widened as the scapegoats coughed out mouthfuls of blood. “Amazing! With this ability to plant heart devils in people, there’s no doubt you’ll be a chosen of the sect! Please, join the Shadow Devil Sect!”

  Mm. Chosen of a sect. I like the sound of that; it sounds special.

  ***

  I’m on a flying boat. Yeah, I don’t understand it either. How can a boat fly? Even magic isn’t capable of lifting something like this high above the clouds for an extended period of time. The boat has three floors below deck and two cabins above deck on the stern and bow. It also has four masts with two crow’s nests. In other words, this boat is huge. Apparently, the interspacial rings of the Immortal Continent are a lot larger than those of our tiny pocket realm. A vessel like this would never fit in a ring even if ten ninth-circle mages worked together.

  Also, I don’t understand the purpose of a mast. The boat’s using some sort of energy to travel through the air; if anything, the sails are slowing the boat down rather than speeding it up. But Black Devil Shu says the sails are a necessity because the design on them will intimidate any robbers. But still, wouldn’t it make more sense to paint the designs on the sides of the boat and remove the masts? Surely the natives of the Immortal Continent are smart, no? According to Black Devil Shu, saint-realm experts can live up to three hundred years, and earth-realm experts can live up to a thousand. A sky-realm expert’s lifespan easily exceeds five thousand years. So how is it possible that the natives lack common sense?

  Take this boat for example. It’s huge, bigger than Lucia’s lakeside guest home. But it’s being used to transport a total of three people: Lucia, Black Devil Shu, and me. Before that, it was only used to transport Black Devil Shu and the poor disciple that was poisoned to death by Lucia. That’s a massive waste! Why not just take a smaller boat? When I asked Black Devil Shu about this, he gave me a really, really unexpected answer: Face. The natives—who will willingly hand over five percent of their belongings while kowtowing the instant they encounter someone stronger than them—are concerned about face. And when they say face, they mean reputation. So someone with a lot of face has a really good reputation. A shameless person has very thick skin on his face. It’s a weird concept, but it’s not unheard of. Back in the pocket realm, people would live above their means, forcing themselves into financial debt, just to show off amongst their peers. Of course, I believe those people are mentally ill. Going even further, the Immortal Continent is a crazy-house filled with mentally unstable individuals blessed with irresponsible amounts of power. Lucia would fit in perfectly.

  As for why we’re on this boat…, we’re going to the Shadow Devil Sect. There is definitely an ulterior motive for Black Devil Shu to recruit Lucia, but Durandal and Lucia won’t listen to me. Durandal says, “A true legend must face traps head on even with foreknowledge about them,” while Lucia says, “My tail’s soft and springy. What danger?” I really hope Black Devil Shu’s motive is something innocuous like he’ll receive a promotion for finding a promising sect member, but just judging by his name, it’s not going to be as simple as that. Someone with the middle name Devil can’t be a good person. His first name is Black, by the way. Apparently his disciple’s first name was Sly. Weird, right?

  So far, we’ve been traveling together for half a day now. Currently, I’m eating dinner with Black Devil Shu above deck. And right now, both of us are trying to ignore the moans and grunts coming from down below.

  “Durandal! Faster!”

  Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that. Even Black Devil Shu’s face is red. My lord, this is awkward. “So….”

  “Right there!”

  Black Devil Shu coughed. I couldn’t tell where he was looking because I was staring at the plate in front of me, but I’m pretty sure he’s staring at the table too. Did I mention how great the food was around here? Apparently, the food is filled with the energy of the world, similar to divine beast meat, but vegetarian. I’ve always been fonder of vegetables than meat. Black Devil Shu’s chopsticks nudged around some beansprouts. “Does she, uh, duo-cultivate often?”

  “Ah!”

  “I’m not sure how to answer that.” Lucia’s always been holding back because of her belief that Durandal would die if he engaged in, uh, nighttime activities with her unless he became a legend. Or should I say saint? Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if this became an everyday thing. “I hope you have earplugs.”

  “Oh.”

  Right. Can we change the topic? “What exactly is a chosen of the sect?” Black Devil Shu wanted Lucia to become one of those. Yes, I know what the word chosen means, but I’m not sure if Lucia was chosen to become a sacrifice or chosen to become the next sect leader or chosen to become a religious figure. There’s many things she can be chosen for.

  “Don’t you dare faint again!”

  Black Devil Shu made a strange noise before leaning back in his chair. I put my fork down and met his gaze. “Chosen of the sect…. Do you know how sects are structured?”

  “No.” Back in the pocket realm, there was one leader who distributed his techniques and the rest were disciples who paid the leader. I don’t think it’d be the same here.

  “Where do I start…,” Black Devil Shu said and rubbed his chin. “I never had to explain such common knowledge before. Mm, you seem young, so I’ll keep it simple.”

  I’m offended.

  “There are sect elders and sect disciples. Amongst the disciples, there are those of the outer court, the inner court, the core, and the chosen. The closer a disciple is to the center of the sect, the more resources the sect will invest in them. With Junior Lucia’s abilities, there shouldn’t be any issues with becoming a chosen. Of course, she could also become a guest elder, but the sect won’t nurture her as much if she does.”

  “So you want Lucia to become the highest class of disciple.” The question is … why?

  Black Devil Shu must’ve realized my unasked question. “I wish to sow good karma with her. On a cultivator’s journey to immortality, there will come a time when they have to resolve their debts. They have to pay back what they’ve been given. If Junior Lucia happens to become an immortal, there’s no doubt that the whole Shadow Devil Sect, including me, will be blessed by good fortune. The whole purpose of a sect is to produce an immortal.”

  Something that’s been bothering me for a while now has been the whole concept of immortality. I still don’t really believe in the longer lifespans for obtaining more circles but putting that aside…. “Do immortals actually exist?”

  “Yes. I’ve seen one with my own eyes.”

  Anyone can claim to be immortal because they’re alive. They’re only immortal until they’re dead, then they’re clearly not immortal anymore. Heck, I can claim to be an immortal. But it seems like these kinds of beliefs are deeply engrained in this society, so I’m not going to question it too much. I’ll just keep it at a distance, neither acknowledging nor disregarding these delusions. After all, as a wise man once said, there are only two things that are certain: death and taxes. Which wise man was this? My drunkard teacher, Rogath Winemark. From what I’ve seen, he hasn’t been wrong yet. For a drunkard, he’s pretty smart. I wonder if I’ll ever see him again. I hope not; I really didn’t like him.

  ***

  During our pillow talk, Durandal confessed something weird to me. He … eats swords. Am I married to a cannibal? Wait, I’m not even married to him. Yet. It’s so weird; I never thought there’d be a day when I’d consider marriage. I don’t think of the future very often, but when I do, it’s about what I’m going to do for dinner the next
day. Thankfully, I still have lots of divine beast corpses to eat inside of my interspacial ring. And my interspacial ring was upgraded! Well, replaced with a shinier and bigger one that I received as a tribute. But that’s what upgrades are, right? I wonder if I’ll be able to upgrade the quality of my dinners. I hope so. There should be plenty of legendary-realm beasts. Why do I think that? Because that crazy old lady said phoenixes exist! I bet they taste like fried chicken since they’re already on fire. That settles it. I’m going to eat a phoenix. “Mr. Shoe!”

  “Lucia?” Durandal asked. He was sitting in a corner of the room eating a really fancy-looking sword that I probably could’ve sold for a fortune. “What’s up?”

  “I want to eat a phoenix.” I cupped my hands over my mouth and shouted at the ceiling again, “Mr. Shoe!”

  A few seconds later, Mr. Shoe’s and Ilya’s presences were announced by the stomping of footsteps. I think they were being extra loud on purpose. Why? Hmm, well, it doesn’t matter. I wrapped my blankets around myself because I’m not an exhibitionist and waited. The door to my room opened, and Mr. Shoe and Ilya peeked their heads inside. What’s with that red face? Was Mr. Shoe drunk? And Ilya’s face was red too! She’s underage; she’s not allowed to drink alcohol! What are you doing, Mr. Shoe!? You’ll end up in jail!

  “Junior Lucia. Did you call for me?”

  “I want to eat a phoenix.”

  Mr. Shoe stared at me. What? Is there a problem? “Phoenixes are a very intelligent kind of creature. They make great companions, and I don’t think there is a single person in Kong County who’d be willing to eat a phoenix. In fact, there are only two phoenixes that I know of that even live in Kong County, and they both belong to the Star Phoenix Sect. Is there any particular reason why you want to eat a phoenix?”

  There’s only two phoenixes here? Then breed them to make more! Unless those star phoenix people are as unlucky as me and ended up with only female phoenixes. But still, I’m not going to not eat a phoenix! I was a slave that became a legend; I refuse to believe I can’t fulfil my goal of snacking on a fiery bird! “How strong is the Star Phoenix Sect?”