I Was Called A Demon

A chamber with fresh furniture, some with paint and coatings still drying on the surface. Fresh floor, some minor arrays for ventilation, and more luxuries.

This was the office of one white-haired kitsune, Xue Yaling, as she sat on the floor, legs crossed, eyes shut, the fragment of another artefact floating before her, almost melting into her being as she concentrated upon it.

Up to this point, the kitsune had integrated 5 shards into her body, as part of her cultivation technique.

The first, Aureate Sword, could mute her presence, or that of something associated to her, but it could also shift that presence, allowing her to mislead her foes and execute powerful skills while covering up them up during use.

The second, Anathema, permitting the exclusion of planar energy from an area, and to absorb that energy in a manner that enhanced her cultivation and planar energy recovery during combat.

The third, Nocturnal Aegis, a shield that was incredibly powerful in its fragmented state, but could also reform into a shield that could absorb a strike before erupting with immense force.

The fourth, the Butcher’s Cleaver, a mighty weapon that could conjure the phantom of a one-eyed monster to strike at a vast area, and to even conjure it at a specific spot that would allow the phantom to attack repeatedly while she focused on something else.

These were different and competing types of artefacts, so in order to make up for it, she had absorbed something called the Unrestrained Mark. She had no clue exactly what it was, or where it came from – and frankly, this applied to most of the other artefact shards she had examined – but she knew that it reduced the interference between different types of energy and skills. Furthermore, it was able to store the phantom of a skill, letting it be active even when another was used, approximating the effect of having two sets of meridians.

So far, the kitsune had managed to determine that the individual artefacts had actually been changed by whoever had used them before her. The first ability of each one was the original power of the artefact, and the second was often almost an inversion of the original effect, something imbued by their prior user.

And so, she made sure to pay attention to the next artefact shard she chose to absorb.

Sunlight Lance, a spear of some kind that carried the power of the sun – as the name would imply. While its power was slowly filling her body, she was coming to understand the effects of it, and she was feeling awfully restless already, almost disrupting her use of the Yin Soul Yang Root technique she had been forced to cultivate.

Through its use, she was able to keep the corruption filling her body from actually influencing her thoughts, to let it reside harmlessly and power the summoning of a cock instead. However, to keep it contained at all times, even when the defensive array powered by Bianca’s energy was flooding energy into her body, it took some concentration.

The upside was that each artefact implanted into her meant that she was more resistant to the corruption – they weren’t affected in the same manner as the rest of her body, so it gave her a further grounding and safety net.

‘But for now, just… focus… and…’ she inhaled slowly, holding in the air, then exhaled suddenly as she felt the fragment fully merge with her.

It filled her with energy, and she just had to come outside and test it. The cool mountain air hit her and made her awfully aware of how sweaty she’d unknowingly gotten in there, so focused on the task even as the numerous shards within her almost competed for dominance with one another. There was plenty of unused space and ruined buildings for her to use, so she just picked the closest spot and reached out, feeling the presence of the new shard within her.

Calling upon that power, she raised her hand into the sky, as though beseeching the morning sun to descend and destroy her foes… and with a spark of seemingly infinite might, the sunlight responded.

A vast beam fell from the sky – not from the true sun, but directly from above – and crashed down on the ruined building before her, the sheer heat from it instantly raising the temperature of the air around the kitsune. It was immensely bright and blazing hot, feeling as though it could melt metal if it was left inside the beam for a moment too long.

It lasted at least half a minute, though she had no ability to move it around at all, so it was only effective against a static target, or a set of targets that could all be funnelled through the vast beam. Nevertheless, in terms of raw destructive potential, it was nothing to scoff at.

‘And the other ability… the added one, is interesting, but I’d need a target to practise on,’ the kitsune furrowed her brows, unable to perceive anyone close enough with her spiritual perception.

She would seek out Bianca, but that was innately risky, given that her energy tended to be very difficult to put out once it starts to burn through flesh and planar energy. Furthermore, she did say that she was feeling a breakthrough coming along, and if she said that, she almost certainly knew for sure – that otherworldly power of hers tended to be quite precise, when it did give her any kind of information.

Jia Bo Xun was out training somewhere to the east, or perhaps north-east, and she was unlikely to return within the next few minutes, so she wasn’t an option.

“… Maybe Rushu. She has been wanting to beat someone up lately, and that happens to be what I need this time around,” she muttered to herself, and as though her utterance was the will of the heavens, she happened to spot the blacksmith on a road further down the mountain.

The blacksmith narrowed her eyes in suspicion, “You actually want to let me hit you? Did your head finally break from all that bullshit you’ve been writing?”

“My books are not… ah, just try and strike me. I can’t determine the full capability of my new shard without seeing it in action.”

“… Is it something to do with fire, at least?”

“Should be.”

“Then I’m safe. Alright, here I go,” Han Rushu slightly bent her legs, readying a fist, and then closed the gap in an instant, her fist heading straight for the kitsune’s face.

It was far from a lot of time to prepare, but Xue Yaling responded calmly, lifting her arm as a small shield – or perhaps large buckler – manifested over it, vivid sunlight manifesting from nothing and congealing into the solid, metallic form.

The instant that it clashed with the blacksmith’s fist, a vast eruption of sunlight burst from the front, forcing Han Rushu back and leaving her open, while her clothes went up in sparks, rapidly burning away from her body. Her skin remained untouched, a perk of her draconic ancestry, but even it still turned redder.

The sunlight only lasted a brief while, and yet it was immensely bright and potent, more than sufficient to take out a number of weaker foes or a single powerful foe that wasn’t prepared for her retaliation. Naturally, if it was someone like Han Rushu, whose bloodline made her nearly immune to flames beyond a certain level, it was effectively pointless, but… that’s how cultivation was. For every skill and technique, there was something that effectively nullified it, barring the occasional aberration.

Whoever the Master of Yi City was, for instance, was renowned for being undefeated during their existence, and their accomplishment has definitely withstood the test of time, so no particular skill was enough to take that down, clearly.

“… Fuck, that was bright. My eyes sting,” the blacksmith said, rubbing her eyes in exasperation, “And I feel like all my clothes burned off.”

“They have.”

“Ah, sweet, I get an excuse to show off my cock. How is it, huh?”

“Smaller than mine.”

That seemed to instantly resolve whatever pain she was experiencing, as Han Rushu opened her eyes wide and pointed at the kitsune, “Go fuck yourself, you fox whore! I will surpass you!”

“… Sure, cutie.”

“Tch. You remember how it was before, don’t you?”

“I… perhaps I do,” she shrugged, “What’s your point?”

“My point is that this used to be impressive, and now, somehow, every random twat that shows up has a bigger cock than mine!” the blacksmith yelled, her soft dick flopping around from her gesticulation, “How does this happen? I used to have every woman drooling over it, and now… ugh, this is what I get from not having any bitches to fuck. When are we getting some?”

“Eh, we’ve been waiting for something to come out of our new relationship with Heart’s Lake Town, and it’s been about three weeks since I last brought up reaching out to the Solitary Peak Sect…” the kitsune thought, counting on her fingers, “If I had to guess, you’d need to wait for at least one week.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know, but it’s long enough to annoy you.”

“Bitch… what about Bianca, is she actually going to break through?”

“Looks like it, yes. I can’t wait to see how she gets through the Display of Excellence.”

The kitsune looked away from the blacksmith’s naked body – it was, despite her rather irritating attitude, good-looking and fit, a clear showcase of the hours spent pounding… metal, supposedly, though knowing the blacksmith, it was almost certainly whatever sluts threw themselves at her back in the Dancer’s Abode.

Regardless, if not for her arrogant attitude and the fact that Bianca would almost certainly kill her for even daring to fuck someone else, Xue Yaling might’ve been willing to sleep with her now and again.

“Anyway, those shards of yours. Anything interesting left over?”

“No matter what, I will not let you touch them.”

“I wasn’t going to steal any… though it would’ve been fun to try and make something out them, perhaps recover a semblance of their original power and then scam people out of some planar stones by pretending that we’d recovered the original article,” Han Rushu quickly drifted away from the subject, only returning when she saw the kitsune’s disinterested expression, “Anyway, I’m just curious what kinds of shards you’ve got, and what other types of beating I can expect.”

“It’s… not entirely possible for me to comprehend them fully, so I only have some guesses. All of the remaining ones are very peculiar, though, definitely not parts of any traditional weapons or armour,” she replied, “One seems to just be a glass shard, I’m not able to get anything more out of it, other than the fact it was used by a prior user of the Shard half-archetype.”

“Great… you spend more time with Bianca, did she ever mention wanting a chastity cage?”

“A what now?”

“A cage for a cock, so that it can’t get hard. With nothing better to do and little metal to work with – high quality stuff, anyway – I’ve been experimenting with them lately, and I think I’ve roughly managed to make some decent ones,” the blacksmith looked amidst the ashes of her clothing and pulled out a small metal cage, “Don’t ask why I was carrying it around.”

It consisted of two components, the metal ring that went around the base of a cock and balls and the actual cage. Both were made of a light, silvery material, though considering how the blacksmith produced them from random scraps found in the Reaper’s Grave, it was likely to be some kind of alloy or mixture that the kitsune couldn’t even begin to identify.

Still, the end result looked to be very smooth and refined, made with clear expertise.

“I won’t… huh, you’ve done an impressive job. I can’t say I’ve studied these before, but the manner in which it locks… no key?”

“I used a little trick from the old days, so it’s trivial to turn with your fingernail, but much harder to turn in any other manner,” Han Rushu smiled proudly, “Though… hm, for the sake of actually locking someone up, it would be pointless if they could just undo it themselves. Perhaps I need to look into how keys and locks work after all…”

The kitsune shrugged, “As long as you’re having fun, I suppose. Want to demonstrate it for me?”

“If you grow a cock, then sure, I’ll cage it up.”

“Tch, you saw through me.”

Han Rushu smirked, crossing her arms, “I’m not an idiot, after all. Not like… eh, never mind.”

The kitsune narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out who the blacksmith would be referring to. Eventually, though, she got bored of the pointless task and instead reached out her hand.

“Lend me that one.”

“Wait, why? Do you have someone you’d want to put in a cage? If they’re someone I can fuck, I’d love to see that myself,” Han Rushu immediately perked up – even her cock jumped a little as blood started rushing down there.

“No, but I have a feeling that it could be of use later,” Xue Yaling shook her head, keeping her hand out, ‘Could also serve as a good motivator for Bianca to finally learn a little more about cultivation. Her head refuses to absorb more than foundational knowledge even now that her Demon Queen aspect is almost constantly present.’

The blacksmith seemed disappointed, but eventually gave over the cage regardless, her dick softening fully before too long.

“Anyway, this one won’t hold up against someone deliberately trying to open it, unless you can somehow trick them about how you unlock it. Once I iterate on this a little more, maybe I’ll have something that’s effective on those that don’t want to be locked up!” she proclaimed, only to pause and frown, “Though, honestly, I can’t imagine why anyone with a dick big enough for this cage to make a difference would ever want to get locked up. If you’ve got a half-way decent cock, surely you’d want to use it?”

“… Who can really say what others think. Anyway-”

Her words were cut off by a sharp rumble of thunder, the clouds above darkening rapidly. In an instant, they went from clear skies to grey storm clouds gathering above, and as they built up more and more, it became obvious where they were most concentrated – at the peak of the Reaper’s Grave, near the abode of the Sect Mistress.

“Ah, shit, she’s already breaking through. Means I’ll need to get dressed soon,” the blacksmith sighed, “How do you think she’ll do?”

“Perfectly fine during the tribulations – her immense power is sufficient to trouble anyone in the same realm, and tribulations are rarely more than challenging for those of a proper realm, and with proper preparation. It’s the Display of Excellence that might prove difficult.”

“… I hope she gets through.”

“You want her to have an easier time taming you in future?”

“Shut it, bitch… I think I just want the safety that a proper leader could provide. Huang Su isn’t in charge, and the rest of us are stuck in the lower realms, but Bianca has been advancing decently quickly. Give it a decade, maybe she’ll be in the sixth realm.”

“Hah, as if…” the kitsune chuckled, though she couldn’t help but take it seriously on the inside, ‘As if it would take that long. As long as her current pace doesn’t drastically drop, she should be able to get there within half that time, if not less… which is absurd. I guess that’s the perk of being an otherworldly demon. I wonder if I… no, better not. There’s no chance such power comes for free, and more importantly, if it was truly as incredible as Bianca could make it seem, the strongest people in the world would all be otherworldly demons.’

There was a faint possibility for certain mysterious figures like the Master of Yi City to be using powers of another world, perhaps, but the vast majority of leaders here in the Eastern Continent clearly weren’t.

Their cultivation followed a clear path, their skills and methods working alongside the known laws of the world, which innately made them weaker than beings that had no such limitation. There should’ve been countless otherworldly demons rising to the top of the world, dominating it, standing at the peak without a single one that could oppose them – so why weren’t they?

Xue Yaling couldn’t possibly know the answer, not when she was just in the third realm, when she had only researched this matter for a little while, but she could easily figure out a single rule.

Power that didn’t truly belong to you wouldn’t last forever.