I Was Called A Demon

After a lot of drinking, the group came back together, all but Huang Su still coated in sweat but now far closer to being alive and sane.

Naturally, even those that weren’t looking at the time noticed what Song Ming had been up to, but they offered no comment, though all of them were now inspecting Bianca’s dear pet and the bottle in her possession in one way or another. Yu Juan had been sniffing at the air particularly intensively, quietly getting closer to Song Ming, her cheeks flushing as she subtly started to rub her thighs together after a minute or two of enjoying the thick scent of cum, still as fresh and musky as the moment it was produced.

Xue Yaling was hardly immune to it, though she showed it far less on her face, and restrained herself to only growing a little redder. It was more than Bianca expected, regardless, so she took the victory for what it was worth.

Han Rushu still seemed more interested in getting a bottle for herself, and Jia Bo Xun looked curious, but mostly confused. Perhaps she was a more innocent girl, or she didn’t know that Bianca could even conjure a cock, so she mistook the scent for something else. Either way, those two offered nothing in the sense of fun reactions.

Huang Su didn’t seem to be entirely immune to this, either. Although she did her best not to show it, whether to Bianca or anyone else, Bianca’s spiritual perception was able to pick up the faintest reddening of her cheeks, and the fact that she glanced over in her and Song Ming’s direction a little too frequently. It was possible that she was merely finding things to be a little awkward, of course, since Huang Su had been extremely professional up to this point.

‘Though, I can’t deny it would be a little hot if she was into all this too…’ Bianca thought to herself, her own cheeks flushing a little, “So, uh, we’re here now. How far to the lake?”

“A day at most. If we rush, we should be able to manage before we ought to sleep,” Huang Su replied, turning towards the north-west, “However, that all depends on our ability to traverse the woods and fields before us… and our willingness to travel in such a state.”

“In… ah, you mean all the sweat?” she knew instantly, since their scent was extremely overpowering even in this relatively open space, “Well, I have exactly zero issue with it, so it should be fine. Nobody else has a problem, right?”

“…” Huang Su clearly understood why Bianca was saying this, and must have not wanted to refuse her request.

Song Ming would never disagree with something that brought her Mistress joy like this, and the rest weren’t concerned enough to disagree either, so Bianca’s words ended up being accurate. Thus, that left them to determine the path.

“Well, in that case, we can proceed straight ahead. There should be no obstacles severe enough to impede us, and any that we do encounter… my realm ought to be more than sufficient in the worst case,” Huang Su said, “If we wish to get there prior to night, we will need to hurry. I couldn’t support our journey the whole way through with a movement skill, and everyone else would inevitably tire from such a long trek.”

“Don’t you worry, we’ll get there in no time,” Bianca said with confidence, “I, for one, feel like my energy could never run out.”

“I feel the same, Mistress,” Song Ming nodded along.

“I… I would agree. After… uh, after that flight, I’m fully motivated,” Yu Juan joined in, blushing a bit like her pet.

The Dancer had an immense sense of smell thanks to her vision being blocked for years, and it seemed that she had the same kind of appreciation that Bianca had for the scents of those around her. If there was even a single man around them, she might’ve been a little less eager to travel around while as sweaty as she and they were, but there were none, and if any got near, they would be shooed away before they could become a nuisance.

Without such interruptions, and without any complaints from those that didn’t choose to speak up, the group finally moved forward, their skin glistening from the sweat that slowly dried in the warmth of the sun.

They took a bit of the water from the stream with them, placing it in spare bottles and containers that Xue Yaling and Huang Su had in their possession, but they didn’t use it just yet, instead reserving it for when they were feeling thirsty once more, or the sweat on them got too much to handle. Even Bianca, the one with a kink for the stuff, knew that it could get excessive and would rather wash herself prior to then, so the others were only more eager to do the same.

 

Han Rushu, the one that suffered the least from the movement skill aside from Huang Su – who was immune to it, so it hardly counted – was the first to give in and waste water, opening up a bottle of it and pouring it out over herself. Her black hair was already moist and clingy, and the water only intensified it.

Of course, she had worked with flames enough times that she was able to manifest them around her hair to dry it, leaving herself looking mostly presentable.

Bianca would lie if she claimed that she wasn’t considering the same right about now, having gotten significantly sweatier than the blacksmith even seemed capable of, though the allure of eventually having some hot, sweaty sex with her pet – and perhaps a partner – was difficult to pass up.

As such, she instead distracted herself from all this by instead asking Huang Su a question.

“How far along are we now?” Bianca asked, trying and failing to see beyond the trees before her.

“We’re about half of the way there, Mistress,” the Sect Master replied, her form of address suggesting that the others were close enough to hear them.

They had not been in a perfect rank and file while traversing the lands, travelling however they wished and straying from the group whenever the desire arose. Of course, none of them ever got far enough that they’d get lost, since that would be rather risky out in the wilds, with the beasts in the region being able to threaten them with their third realm prowess.

Still, that distance that they had was insufficient to prevent spiritual perception from reaching out and spying on them.

“Ugh, this is the least interesting walk in the woods I’ve had so far. There’s nothing here at the moment. Where did all the beasts go?”

“Are you interested in having a filling meal, Mistress?” Huang Su asked, though almost instantly she had to correct herself, “Of course, I’m referring to cooking some of the beasts we find. Doing so on the move would be impractical, but it should be easy enough to preserve them to the point that we stop, where we can then spend the night cooking.”

“Well… hm, yeah, I’d like to have something nice after all this sweating around, and a nice roast, uh… whatever the fuck lives in this forest,” Bianca thought about it for a while and nodded, “If any of them are nearby, then let’s quickly hunt one.”

“With your own strength, Mistress?”

“Yeah, why not… although, if you do capture one on the side, then there’s no risk of me ruining the meal by cutting it apart into nothing,” she replied.

“Very well, Mistress,” the Sect Master nodded, a small smile flashing on her face.

The silence resumed, their journey taking them through areas that looked familiar, though simultaneously different. It was difficult for a city girl like her to tell apart the wilds at a glance, and with the Sect Master guiding them through in this direction, and Xue Yaling leading them in the other, she had few opportunities to learn much in this process. As a result, all that Bianca really had was the opportunity to take in the scenery, and with how limited her visibility was…

Yeah, she was mostly bored. Even if she tried to fantasise about something extremely lewd, such as inflating her pet’s belly with cum or finally getting her to try out Bianca’s latest fetish, she would need to pay enough attention to the ‘road’ to not slip up or lose her way, and she would just end up getting pent up without any opportunities to relieve herself.

Therefore, she could only look around and ponder surface-level matters.

‘These trees look neat, I guess… nothing special about them, but they’re… filled with vitality, unlike some of the trees back home. There, most trees were planted on the side of the road and would be thin and trimmed down every year or so…’ she focused on one tree in particular that was ahead of them, a tall giant that was thicker than any other trees in sight, ‘That thing in particular is quite impressive, I could imagine a park being centred around it…’

Her prolonged attention did expose the fact that the tree was moving… an oddly large amount. Parts of it almost seemed to slither, numerous small bark-like serpents or tendrils forming the overall shape of the tree.

‘Uh… that doesn’t look right,’ she instantly looked to Huang Su, “The tree up ahead… uh, it’s not just a normal tree, right?”

“I would’ve pointed it out in a few minutes, but yes. My spiritual perception suggests this is a manifestation of a hungry nest.”

“Hungry nest… wait, another one? We’ve fought one of them before – and when I say fought, I mean Song Ming destroyed it with her runes when she managed to use them properly,” Bianca recalled, omitting a few of the details, ‘Pretty sure we ended up doing something lewd, but it’s a bit of a blur at this point.’

“Hungry nests aren’t exceptionally rare, it’s just that you don’t typically run into the nest itself. Primarily, they will hunt via sending out constructs resembling wood-type beasts that will gather food for it, and most people will kill or evade one of those and assume they evaded the true danger.”

“Ah, of course… I have a feeling Xue Yaling tried to explain something like that before, but I wasn’t paying that much attention.”

“Ah, B- Mistress, it would be ideal if you committed at least some details to memory. It would aid you greatly in this world, even if the wide variety of planar fauna and flora is so vast that one would need a mind as vast as a library to ever truly recall everything there is to know,” Huang Su said, her slip-up subtle but surprisingly noticeable after she had managed to keep her act up so far, “I hope you’ve been attempting to keep more information in your head over the last few days, at least.”

“Eh, more or less. I’ll admit, it’s been a little easier as of late, though I still zone out whenever I hear too much technical stuff.”

“That’s understandable if you’re not used to it, Mistress. That’s why you ought to challenge yourself to remember and focus more each time, until you reach a point that you’re able to follow along without any trouble at all.”

Bianca sighed, “Yes, mom, will do.”

“I… hm, yes, I suppose that isn’t too dissimilar to how my own mother would try and teach me, once upon a time.”

During their chat, they got closer and closer to the enormous tree before them, until they were near enough that it was impossible to overlook its oddities. Bianca chose to stop then, and the rest of the group followed suit, gathering up as each one of them noticed that their leader had chosen to pause. It didn’t take long for most of them to figure out what they were looking at.

“A hungry nest? Mistress, would you like me to-”

“Hold on, sweetheart,” Bianca cut Song Ming off, looking to the others, “As she said, there’s a hungry nest before us. Does anyone have anything they want to get from it?”

“This is only a third realm material, so I have no need of it,” Han Rushu spoke up first, the water on her face having dried long ago, leaving her looking only slightly dishevelled, “Of course, if you want a chair, I’m sure someone could make a decent one from a wood-type hungry nest.”

“Eh, I’ll pass on the chair… anyone else?” she asked, and seeing few replies, shrugged, “Alrighty. Should I destroy it with the tree, or is there some value to keeping the thing intact?”

“Generally, a hungry nest is sufficiently common and weak for it to be of low value regardless of condition. The only exception would be if you managed to capture it alive, or otherwise take a corpse that is so perfectly preserved that it can pass for being alive. Then, a collector is likely to pay you a decent amount for it, but those collectors are few and far between, not to mention all of them being perverts,” Xue Yaling explained.

“Low value and weak… are you sure you haven’t adjusted that based on the fact that we have a sixth realm cultivator in the team?” Bianca asked, “I distinctly remember them being a bit of trouble when we first ran into them.”

“We’re now in the third realm, so we’re on par with the hungry nests in most situations even if one only considers our realm. However, we’re also stronger than most third realm cultivators thanks to each of our… particularities. Your cultivation technique and skills offer destructive power and defensive capabilities to rival the fourth realm – when you’re angry enough – Song Ming’s physique is equally powerful against an enemy that can’t evade it, my shards are slowly building up to let me handle most situations, Han Rushu… hm, if we were to face a woman, she’d probably be able to charm her easily.”

“… Huh?” the blacksmith turned to them, having gotten distracted soon after she gave her answer earlier, “What was that?”

“Never mind,” the kitsune sighed, “Point is, the threat of the creature has greatly reduced relative to our capabilities, and the amount of money we’re able to earn has increased as well. If we went out of our way to earn money for a while, we’d be far richer than we had started out.”

“With or without Huang Su’s involvement?”

“You know all too well what I mean, Bianca. You’re just pulling my leg at this point,” Xue Yaling shook her head, “Regardless, mayhap we should focus on the thing before us, and how we’ll deal with it?”

“Ah, right, that’s how all this started… Fine, instead of the materials, does anyone want the combat experience? If the thing gets a chance to summon some creatures, it might end up being a tough fight,” Bianca suggested, “For anyone other than Huang Su, obviously… and probably me, if I really feel like killing it.”

“Hm… I don’t have that much experience with fighting enemies that cannot be charmed or drawn into dream,” Yu Juan offered, “If I had your protection in the case of an emergency…”

“Of course, we’d step in the moment you were in danger,” Bianca nodded without hesitation, “With Huang Su here, you can go in without fear and try your best.”

“I would prefer to know that you are able to protect me as well, but… I understand that I shouldn’t worry. Then, if I may, Huang Su, where is the entrance to the hungry nest’s domain?” Yu Juan turned and bowed, showing respect to the Phoenix Sect’s Sect Master.

“We’ll go there together. The closer we are to the entrance, the more able I am to defend everyone, and the more able Mistress would be to slay it afar if needed.”

Bianca had no reason to object – Huang Su knew better than she would anyway – so they followed the Sect Master around this tree, without ever stopping too close, as it would naturally agitate the hungry nest within. There was a section where the terrain descended, a small hole in the ground that led into a tunnel straight to the underside of the tree.

The very entrance was inconspicuous, but looking in a little deeper revealed countless roots covering every side of the tunnel, these roots writhing ever so slightly, causing the whole tunnel to shift with every breath.

It looked… rather wrong, in Bianca’s mind, but perhaps she was a little too horny to be seeing things normally. Regardless, it was blatantly the home of some kind of wood-type creature, and thus it was obvious that it would be the home of the hungry nest that they were looking for, unless there was somehow a second creature living in this same spot that happened to have the same kind of qualities that the nest demonstrated.

‘I doubt that there would be anything like this… Especially if Huang Su hasn’t said anything so far. Perhaps she would intentionally keep out some details to let Yu Juan have a proper fight, but what do I know…’ Bianca thought, waving over to Yu Juan, “Here you go. We’ll be behind you, just not too close so that we don’t end up being targeted.”

The Dancer nodded, gulped, and headed into the writhing pathway, while the others watched on… and Bianca still thought it looked weirdly lewd, even then.