“Hah! No more! If I go any more, I really will puke up a few organs.” Yuki fell on her back. Her hair and fur were all in disarray. Next to her, Selene was not in much of a better condition.

    “Yeah… I don’t think I can fight anymore today.” Selene replied. “Yuki, why are you here?”

“We are headed to a location that is supposed to have bad demonic cultivators. Ones who are using the citizens of a nearby town as their cultivation resources.” Yuki explained.

“I see… then we are heading to the same place. Do you mind if I tag along?” Selene asked. She had planned to go in alone, but with Yuki and the others here, there was no reason to risk it.

“Sure. The more the merrier.” Yuki smiled as she sat up. “Although, I think we should both take a few healing pills. If my eyes get any puffier, I won’t be able to see.”

“Yeah.” Selene nodded. She reached into her robes and took out a porcelain bottle. When she uncorked it, the smell of medical herbs filled the air. Yuki raised an eyebrow since she knew this was good stuff. Selene handed Yuki a pill before taking one herself.

“So hey, what’s a wolfkin doing here anyway?” Delia sat down next to the two girls and asked.

Selene froze and narrowed her eyes at Delia. “I think you are mistaken.”

    “How could I mistake such a thing? While your transformation technique is good, the fact that you are standing in front of me makes it useless. Although I think there are only maybe a few people in this mortal plane who could see through your technique.” Delia was not going to let Selene go so easily.

“Delia, be nice. Selene is my friend.” Yuki, whose eyes were now able to open properly, scolded. 

Delia pursed her lips and gave Yuki a pitiful look. Yuki couldn’t resist her cuteness, so she reached out and began scratching Delia’s chin again, which quickly appeased the tiger girl.

“Anyway…” Yuki would not force Selene to show her true form, so she did not plan to push the issue any more than it already had. “Selene, I still owe you a lot for saving me last time. I did not get a chance to give you a proper thanks.”

“It’s fine. Just fight with me, and we can call it even. I do not get the chance to fight strong people who are around the same cultivation as me. Although I do wish to have an all-out fight with you, I know now is not the time for such things. Stopping evil demonic cultivators is more important. I just do not understand why so many demonic cultivators choose to go the evil route. It gives us a bad name….” Selene hated this fact. 

As someone who grew up in a demonic sect, she did not understand why those around her always chose the evil route when it came to cultivation. Demonic cultivators did not need to kill people or use their blood to cultivate. 

While these kinds of techniques allow people to grow stronger, you end up losing your mind in the process. She hated it and wished to change the sect she was in from the inside out. This was why she had always chased after demonic cultivators. She would either try to set them on the right path or, if they were too far gone, kill them.

“I think it has to do with greed and temptation.” Nana sat down next to Yuki and said. “People are greedy for power. I know this well since I, too, am greedy. But unlike demonic cultivators, I do not have the temptation. The temptation of being able to grow stronger faster is something many can not resist. But I always felt these kinds of cultivation methods had a flaw. Most that I see that deal with evil methods normally stop looking human or whichever race they are. They almost look dead.”
 
“That is what I mean. Some of these cultivation methods that my own sect members use are basically stripping them of their souls. I have been investigating this for so long that I have actually come across a few scrolls with some interesting history of this plane.” Selene added. She had really been trying to find any and all methods to try to save some of her sect members from falling into this hole where they would lose themselves. So she searched and searched for information on any kind of way of reversing the process of cultivating using evil methods.

“History of this mortal plane?” Yuki grew interested. She had always liked learning as much as she could about this world since it had such an interesting past.

“Yes, it was not much more than what seemed like a person’s rambling, but it kind of made sense after reading through everything they wrote. That the reason that evil demonic cultivators end up looking as if they are dead is due to their soul actually being sucked out every time they cultivate.” Selene began.

Yuki was a bit confused when she heard this. “Wait… their souls are really being sucked out, but why is it that they can still live hundreds or even thousands of years then?”