?"That was interesting," Old Fu said as he was wrapped tightly with rope around his body.
It was the same for every one of us, me included. Though to be honest I could easily rip these ropes out, but I wasn't keen on doing it right now.
After all, we need to learn more about this palace, and we meet with people who know of it. We might as well peacefully just go with them and see where they'll lead us.
"What do you mean by interesting I replied to Old Fu.
"These people, they're strong," he said.
I took another look at them, not an ounce of Qi in their bodies, but to have bodies like this, Qi must be involved. Body cultivators?
"Shut up humans…" one of the taller demon kin poked at me with the wooden side of his spear.
I gave him a dirty look to which he replied, "What? Soft skin, you want to fight?" he said with a grin.
I was tempted to take him on but the small girl intervened.
"Don't fight him, he's a sorcerer," she said warning the half-demon.
The rest of them gasped, their eyes turned worried and wary of me however one of them spoke
"Sorcerers can't use their magic well here, princess are you sure?" one of the female half-demons said.
"Normal ones, like those they can't," she said pointing at the soldiers, "but these two are different."
The two were me and Old Fu.
I could use some of my Poison Qi normally, but what did she mean by old Fu can also use his 'sorcery' which I presume to be his cultivation.
"Then, princess, why are we taking them home? Wouldn't it be better to execute them or let them be here to fend for themselves, not like they'll survive the Dark Garden anyway," the bigger half-demon said.
"Because they saved my life, one of the night terrors found me… it was able to see through my invisibility kelp…"
"That's not possible," another demon said, "That cloak was made by the shaman himself, there is no way it won't function," said the female half-demon. "Also where is the Night Terror, I can't believe that this soft skin can beat it without a single wound on his body," she added.
"If you're asking about the Nargacougar, it's right above us," I said.
The guards laughed at me as they looked up and didn't see anything.
I glanced up and muttered, "Don't make a fool out of me, reveal yourself."
Suddenly, the Nargacougar from before growled as it lessened its stealth and revealed itself for all to see. Everyone seemed disturbed by the fact that a ma.s.sive Nargacougar was above them without anyone noticing.
"It's been following us for a while, I don't know why, it seems to be interested in the small girl, she saved its life after all," I said.
"Saved its life? You mean you could have killed it? A night terror is a challenging opponent for even the mightiest of our warriors to fight alone," said the female cultivator.
The smaller girl then replied, "It is true if this man didn't stop, that Dark terror would have died. She was pregnant too, it would have been a huge loss," she said.
"They're both fine," I said "I can see them both," and I did.
Since my poison was still coursing through her body I was able to get a clear inner visual of her body and the life it was holding within it.
"We're near the village," said the young girl.
"Leave," I said to the Nargacougar, "Your curiosity will kill you and your unborn child, leave," I repeated.
The Nargacougar seemed to realize that it was about to enter a territory full of other people and didn't dare risk her child or herself here so she withdrew once again into stealth.
Soon our group was standing in front of a ma.s.sive wooden gate.
The gate had wooden walls made of the same trees we saw earlier the trap trees, tightly erected next to each other creating a barricade that extended all around the village.
And this village, not a single building was built on the ground, all of the houses and huts were built around the trunks of gigantic trees, that were linked together with hanging wooden bridges.
All of the trees of the village were erected in circular formation and in the center of the village was a ma.s.sive open circular s.p.a.ce that seemed to host many of these tribal people. Two were currently wrestling in the middle of the arena, a woman that's slightly taller than me, and a male that was at least double her size.
The two wrestled or were wrestling, because the moment we showed up at the gate. The female demon kin looked at us, then back at her opponent, and simply grabbed and chucked him outside the arena as if he didn't weigh anything.
The rest of the demon kind cheered as they watched and were witness to the tribeswoman's victory.
She then wiped her hands and approached us while our captors stayed standing.
The small girl rushed toward the woman and jumped at her, the latter grabbed her and said, "Where did you find these soft skins?"
"They found me," she said.
'I suppose it is her mother,'
"I also found you a mate," the small girl said. "That one," she pointed at me, "He is strong."
"d.a.m.n, must be your lucky day," said old Fu grinning.
"Believe me when I tell you, her ladys.h.i.+p remained single for more than three hundred years, don't count your blessings yet, you'll die before you get to court her," said another half-demon while grinning.
"I'm not interested," I shrugged.
"It isn't your choice," the biggest of the people leading us said.
The woman approached me, she had red blood color hair and golden eyes just like the younger girl. She had a beautiful tanned body with muscles that weren't as absurd as the rest of the female cultivators around her.
But from the display before, these muscles although toned and not too oversized were the real deal.
Her thighs were wrapped with rope and her red hair was braided. Her physic was perfectly fit. A dream body for any woman. However, her gaze was bland and bored, "Are you sure?" she said to the girl in her hand.
"Yes, older sister, he really is strong, he took down a Night Terror with two fingers," she said.
"That's not strength, he used sorcery," said the tall half-demon.
"Sorcery…" the woman spat next to my feet, "That won't help you here, take them to prison, we'll deal with them later."
Our group was soon led to the back end of the village.
Here, the loud sound of water rus.h.i.+ng down could be heard from a distance away.
There was a river that pa.s.sed behind the village and ended in a gigantic waterfall. Looking down from where we stood, the waterfall had stalagmites that seemed to point up in the pond that this torrent of a river flooded in.
At the top of the waterfall was a ma.s.sive tree that had an extended branch and from that branch a rope extended downward which held a pretty big wooden cage.
You could already see the bones of former captured people there, dead people of course.
One of the half-demons grabbed a long wooden plank and pinned one of its ends with one foot, "Give," said the soldier.
"Give you what?" I asked.
"The sorcery pouch, don't try anything funny," he said.
"He means the holding bag," said Old Fu. "They captured other people before," he said as he pointed with his head to his side, "Here it's hanging on my side." Old Fu said.
I shrugged and gave him mine too, there was nothing important in it anyway, just a few pills, explosives, and poison, and some weapons, the major items I needed were all in the Poison G.o.d's Heritage next to my heart.
"This is thievery!" the captain of the soldiers with us said.
"You're being captured man, also you do realize that this place is so heavily impacted with the Sea of Demons water that you won't be able to open that bag anyway," I said.
The captain grumbled before he gave up his bag, and so did the rest.
"Move," added the half-demon.
I sighed as I followed their orders and walked up the plank to the opened cage. There was no need to fight back or be feisty, this might look like a deadly trap to anyone without the ability to use Qi, but for me, it was simply a resting area.
Once all of us were inside the cage the plank was pulled back. And one guard was left standing waiting at the top of the waterfall.
The atmosphere was nice here, the weather was fine, the air was clean and the sky was… well not bright I guess since we're in a cavern, almost a perfect spot to rest in.
Down below you could see the majority of what these half-
demon kin called the Dark Garden. From here I could see many things that we couldn't see before since we were inside a forest.
And from here you could see beasts, yes beasts so far away that even through this darkness and distance can still be seen.
These colossal things were roaming this place… as if it were their backyard.
And people like this tribe are still able to live in peace with things like that roaming about.
There is much to learn from these people, and I should take it into consideration. Since we're new to this place we need information. So for now, I do not need to break free from this cage, it's good to get more intel.
I closed my eyes and rested them. A Long night awaits us.