Rue couldn’t believe his bad luck. He was stunned by his human’s insolence—his pure stupidity! He was glad the boy was now unconscious, at least now he couldn’t make their situation even worse.

Well, Rue was unsure of how it could get much worse.

Rue reached out with his spiritual senses.The ground was scorched and devoid of any vegetation other than the thin black Skel trees native to the domain. The trees stretched so high into the air that the tips of their branches were invisible from the ground. The heat they emitted was enough to scorch a Mortal Realm cultivator if they got too close.

Around the boy, bodies of pit hounds were rising from unconsciousness. The closest was still a few steps away, but Rue knew they would not keep their distance for long. He had avoided interfering too much for fear of stunting the boy’s growth and interfering with their integration. Though Rue had almost stepped in during the fight in the cavern. He was glad he hadn’t. The boy was just full of surprises. Both good and bad.

Rue shook his head in dismay. Pushing his spirit and Will from their shared core could potentially damage the boy’s spirit but seeing as how the boy was now unconscious and near death, Rue knew it was the better option. He pushed his spirit from the boy’s feeble body, meeting no resistant, and stretched his channels. It had been so long. He decided to keep his fluffy sable form. He'd gotten used to the shape, and he didn’t want to scare the boy in case he woke.

Now freed, he extended his senses further. He really hated designation XY-d31, cleverly nicknamed Penumbra. It was so dark and hot and just plain ugly. The skies were perpetually gray and covered in a thick layer of ozone that combusted into streaks of blinding lightning at odd intervals. The atmosphere and aura made sensing difficult, but Rue was used to it. He’d spent much of his life in a world similar to this one.

A growl sounded, and the closest hound pounced on the boy. Rue nonchalantly decapitated the chaos beast with a chop of his front paw. He quickly dispatched the hounds in the vicinity, and the remaining members of the pack grew some sense and backed away from the mighty Rue.

Despite his easy domination over the pit hounds, Rue remained vigilant. Something about the whole ordeal was rubbing him the wrong way. The sacrifices, the domain rift. It was obvious that the sect was trying to lure a particular beast, but the sacrifice of beast-children niggled at something in his memory. A monster with a taste for beast-children.

His gaze shifted as the boy’s robes moved. Rue hopped over to study the little beast-boy his host had tried so desperately to save. Hmm interesting. The boy was tiny, barely the size of a human infant. Its eyes were crystal blue and its silver. Its white hair perfectly matched its silvery ears. The ears were reminiscent of both a fox and a wolf. The boy had no cultivation system, but he could sense something inside his body.

Before he could delve into this mystery further, his whole body quivered, his hackles rising at the approaching aura. His memory suddenly clicked. Of course, it was her. How could he forget? Rue turned towards the approaching form.

Despite her large size, she barely made a sound as she approached. The creature was gargantuan. Her main body was the size of a large obsidian viper, but twelve multi jointed legs grew from the snake’s body. She undulated like a snake, her body sweeping the dust ground, while simultaneously pulling herself forward with her many legs. The movement was unnatural. It disturbed a primordial part of Rue, needling a deep seeded fear that he'd spent his whole life suppressing.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Adla, you really look wretched. The years have really taken their toll on you,” Rue intoned.

The viper-spider stopped just short of Rue’s spirit. The horns on her head glowed red hot as she sniffed the air. “What a ssssurprise old man. Others told me you’d died, but I knew it was too good to be true,” she hissed.

“The feeling is mutual, you old hag. I see your tastes for beast-children haven’t changed.”

“They are just ssso tender. Beast-children grow up so fast, but their bones and skin are more delectable than words can dessssscribe.”

Rue scrunched his nose in disgust. This is why he hated his old friends. They were just so… disgusting. “Glad to see some things just never change. So, is it the same trade then? Twenty beast-children for what, a forbidden scroll?”

Adla let out a laugh like scraping metal. “Oh no, old man. I have changed. I work for him now. He gives me much more fun toys to trade. I don’t have to give away my precious scrolls.”

A shock ran through Rue’s spirit, but he did not show it. “I thought better of you Adla. I remember what you were once. To think you’d submit to someone like him.”

“Oh, you have been away for too long RuLi. You really don’t know what he has become. He is powerful, yes, even more than the god-touched. He is our future. The future of those like ussss.”

“Don’t lump me in with the likes of you Adla.”

Again, that grating laugh. “No, it is you who has forgotten his roots. You think yourself apart. You think yourself better. But what are you really, especially as you are? Was your sssssacrifice worth it? You have grown ssssssso weak." Adla's body rattled and shook with each question. A challenge and a taunt. Thin translucent membranes slide along her eyes, briefly obscuring her slitted pupils as she blinked. "You are nothing compared to him." Adla's head lowered as she scented the air with a deep purple tongue. "And what is thissssss?” Her head was close enough to nuzzle the unconscious boy's face. Rue kept his expression blank, but his whole spirit screamed at him to get him away from her.

“Is this a human? What a pretty shell. Your next pet? Oh, sweet RuLi, you never learn,” she tusked, swing her large serpentine head in disgust.

“What I do is none of your business. You seem to have forgotten our last meeting. How is your tail doing?” Though he goaded, his spirit was screaming in alarm. Something was not right with his old friend.

“Oh, I did not forget. Contrary, I think it’s you that has forgotten.” Adla’s eyes glowed a deep crimson the color of a blood moon, and she dropped her spiritual barrier. The hounds around her were immediately crushed under her spiritual weight and Rue extended his protection to the boy just in time.

“Y-you,” Rue was for once, speechless.

“Yes, me. I have waited too long, old man, and I will wait no longer. He is amassing an army and he needs generals. Will you join ussss?”

Rue could sense the threat in those words. “You know I would never.”

“You are small minded as alwaysss. Closed to the possssssibilities. My power is not corrupt. It is immenssssse. Enough to make even the once great RuLi you submit.”

“You cannot hope to control me, even as you are, and even as I am, I cannot die,” Rue said plainly.

“Maybe you’re right. I cannot control you, and I cannot kill you. But he can.” She struck, fangs extended towards the boy. Only then did Rue feel true fear.