D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Xiang returned to the top of the staircase and Kat said, "Now that Yang is…" *should I point out that I saw her tied up? Hmm… let's go with no on that one.* "… otherwise occupied with the intricacies of the escape arts would you be able to fill us in on who exactly we are supposed to save?"

Xiang's eyebrow only twitched slightly at the phrasing but he managed to slowly nod. "Yes… I suppose I should. Though… would you like to hear the longer version of this story or the short one? I… I'd have to start more or less straight after we last… met."

"If it is necessary for the long version feel free to start then. This seems to be a rather big issue... so I'm willing to hear you out. I just want all the information you can provide. If I find it satisfactory I shall put forth considerable effort to help you. Your goal is much nobler this time," said Kat.

"Yeah… well… you know… hmm… could you?" Xiang started and stopped a few times, clearly struggling with the desire to ask something. "No never mind. We can get to that later. I don't remember the immediate aftermath but I woke up alone in the woods. I'd been captured by a trapdoor tarantula and I didn't quite realise how badly injured I was when I first awoke.

"I struggled and failed to free myself for quite some time before Yang came in and saved me. It was rather harrowing… but I imagine you don't much care what sort of danger Yang was in do you…"

"Eh…. I'm not completely uninterested but it doesn't seem all that relevant from where I'm standing," explained Kat.

"Yeah… so… um… Yang was being given a test by her sect. She is rather good at cultivating… but the club is considered… well it's not looked upon very fondly. She was tasked with slaying the tarantula as a test of worthiness and just so happened to find me trapped. She saved my life for the first time in that moment."

Kat and Lily, though Xiang didn't realise the cat on Kat's shoulder was anything abnormal just yet. Still, the simple nod showed they didn't really understand. Xiang rand a hand threw his hair as he sighed. "I see you don't really understand. I… I'm not sure how to properly explain it to you considering you aren't really part of our culture. Yang didn't try to determine my allegiance, didn't try to bargain with me.

"She simply cut me down and said I was free to go. She… she clearly hasn't made the best impression on you but she is beyond kind when it truly matters. To be rescue like that… it is a great shame for a cultivator even one as young as myself. Perhaps easily forgiven amongst family, or sworn brothers and sisters… but for someone like me… we are not of the same sect. I did not offer her a reward. I was already in a monster den.

"Many cultivators, not just demonic… errr…" Xiang glanced at Kat's lack of reaction, "I mean to say… those cultivators that will do anything for power would have killed me without hesitation. In fact they likely would have used me in some bloody ritual for more power. I was already trapped so the hard part was done. Many cultivators that like to think themselves as righteous wouldn't be much better.

"As I was not clearly affiliated with a sect, I'm at best a wondering cultivator and at worst a… I'm just going to say demonic ok?" Kat nodded, "Sorry it's hard to explain otherwise. Right so… in more simple terms, I'm either a useless wanderer, or someone actually evil. Many would consider it right and just to simply leave me to die. I was already caught and they were not obligated to save me. They owed me nothing.

"Then there's of course those who would ask me to swear on my cultivation to serve them in exchange for my life. It is a… I hesitate to say fair trade. Considering my lack of formal training I like to think of myself as exceptionally talented. I do not truly know how rare a talent I am among cultivators… but my cultivation talent is likely more valuable than my life. Many demonic cultivators would point that very fact out as they steal my talent and life, or simply kill me to prevent the competition.

"If they were a bit nicer, they might just take everything I own in exchange. It makes them feel like the better person, and the fact I'm likely to starve afterwards is really none of their concerns.

"Despite this though… Yang cut me down, and said I was free to go. Of course, I was exhausted, and I'd later learned poison on top of heavily injured. So I just collapsed straight to the ground. In the end, Yang asked me a few questions, and I managed to answer them by blinked. She agreed to take me to safety in exchange for a promise to never attack her or her family."

Xiang sucked in a deep breath as he let the words hang. "I want to be clear, I do mean promise. Not oath. I would not truly be bound in any way. It is… honestly as touching as it was, and as much as I appreciate it, it was a foolish request. In the end, I accepted of course and Yang took me to safety.

"She then took it a step further and brought me not only to safety but to her friend, you may have already heard her name Xuena, Xuena Ning. She is not as good at cultivating, apparently, it's something to do with her rare physique, but she is a genius of alchemy. That was the second time Yang saved me life. Even if much of the credit goes to Xuena. I count them both as saving me that second time.

"Xuena nursed me to health using some rather rare and valuable herbs. I insisted I'd pay her back… but at the time I wasn't aware of just how rare what they'd used on me was. Not to say that I would have stopped them anyway… by the time we got to Xuena's workshop I was delirious from the poison and in no shame to make deals of that magnitude. Xuena said it was all fine because I was a friend of Yang's. Which was not true at all at the time. All that I'd done for Yang was be a burden up to that point. So you can see why I hold her in high esteem. Anyway…

"It turns out what they used to help me was a thousand-year-old sunlight silk moth cocoon." Kat and Lily gave blank stares. Xiang grumbled a bit about that but explained quickly, "Sunlight silk moths aren't all that rare. In fact, as fare as cultivator insects go they are one of the most common. The issue is that they do not live long. They have only a short time before they cocoon themselves and try to reach the next stage of their development.

"So perhaps, that is all fine and good. Set up a temporal array and stick some moth cocoons in? Sadly it doesn't work like that for these moths. They have two annoying properties that when mixed make them nearly impossible to find at later ages. The issue is that the moth must decide how long it will remain a cocoon before it starts to weave its silk… and that once the silk moth leaves the cocoon it is entirely useless for alchemy.

"This means that you need to constantly watch the cocoons or simply get lucky in the wild. The other problem is that while rare, there are technically better ingredients for most things. This means most people will farm them. They are quite valuable but not exceptionally so for the rarity of it. The main issue with acquiring them is just how rare they are. You can't buy them not because they are worth a king's bounty but because you hardly ever find them.

"So in most scenarios, I would have been heavily indebted to Xuena, or maybe Yang depending on how deep their friendship is. The problem… is that the sect patriarch of the endless rain of immortal ice sect needed SPECIFICALLY that one ingredient to heal a wound his son procured.

"Xuena didn't know this when she took the ingredient for me… and when the sect patriarch showed up a few days later… well things were bad. Xuena's family were shamed for withholding the purchase. Though let it be said the patriarch had not actually paid for the materials yet. It is why Xuena had such easy access to it. Relatively speaking. Xuena didn't know of her parents deal either…

"But in the end they had no choice but to allow Xuena to be taken as collateral until they find another cocoon to exchange. However, it is unlikely they ever will find one. The cocoon they were trying to sell had been in the family for three generations, waiting for someone with talent to use it. There is little hope Xuena will live long enough for one to be found.

"That's why I need your help. Well, I wasn't specifically looking for you… but now you are here… can you help me?"