New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1102: Non-Achievable Goal

Gu Fang smiled at him before scanning over the others present and feeling a slight ache where his heart should have been, had he still had a physical body.

"I see some fresh faces among your group, Alexander. It’s good to see you haven’t stopped expanding your team. But you are far from being an army capable of stopping what’s to come. You’ll have to do better."

Alex looked at him with a mix of complicated emotions.

"I wish we had more time to talk about that. But that is not what I want to hear from you in this instant. Did you agree to become his vessel and get locked away in this prison? Or were you forced to do it?"

Gu Fang shook his head no.

"Unfortunately, even if I would like to say I had no choice, ultimately, it was my decision. You don’t have the full picture here, Mr. Leduc. Even if I would rather still be inhabiting my body, my presence in this pagoda is needed."

Alex frowned.

"Needed for what?"

Gu Fang opened his mouth to reply, but before a word could escape his lips, he vanished.

"There you have it. He was not forced. Can we get back to our conversation now?" Tian Kuo said, looking at Alex with exasperation.

Alex wanted to jump over the table and force the fox to bring his friend back, but Kary put her hand on his thigh, shaking her head lightly.

So, he grit his teeth, trying his best to contain his emotions.

"Fine. Although there isn’t much to discuss, now that I know the entire reason we came here can’t be achieved," he grumbled.

"Oh, but that is irrelevant. You may not have more questions, but I do. Many of them, for that matter."

"And why would we have to answer any of them?" David replied mockingly.

"Because if you don’t answer, you can’t leave," the fox replied, smiling at them with barely hidden malice.

David’s mocking face immediately turned serious.

"Don’t threaten us, fox. You couldn’t hold us here if you wanted to, and you know that. You barely have the power to keep the demons you hold captive in place. Do you think we can’t break out?" he replied, his tone cold as ice.

The fox scoffed at his threat.

"You would risk destroying the prison array on the pagoda, and liberating all the demons within, just to break away from a simple conversation? How petty of you. Typical mortal."

Alex raised his hand to stop David from answering.

"Ask your questions. I’ll decide whether I answer them or not. And don’t kid yourself, Mr. Tian. Unlike you, I don’t need to trap the demons. I can kill them. I am not afraid of letting all of them loose if that means leaving this place whenever I want."

From the strength he could feel deep below, the demons locked in this place were a joke, when compared to what he had already met in New Eden. Liberating a few of them, and hunting them down soon after, wouldn’t even be sport.

"Preposterous!" Tian Kuo replied, clenching his fists.

"If demons could die, do you think I would waste my time and resources just to lock them away? How arrogant of you to think this a matter of strength. I could crush you under my heel like the insects you are and not form a single pearl of sweat!"

Alex smirked at him.

"And yet, here we are. Can we stop posing in front of each other and get to it? I already feel like we wasted our time coming here since I can’t get Gu Fang back. I would like to return home sooner than later."

Tian Kuo wanted to slap that smirk off his face, but he controlled his emotions once more, realizing he was letting two mortals run circles around his patience. It had been centuries since someone had been this arrogant to him, and he wasn’t used to it anymore.

"I will ask my questions now. I want you gone soon as well. I fear your attitude might rub off on my disciples, and I seldom wish to be forced to kill some to reinstate respect."

David chuckled at his words, but kept his words to himself, as he felt Kary’s death glare land on him.

"My first question is the following, and it is for the death-walker. I was told previously that you know a lot about the Zhong Kui. Which organization do you represent, if you have knowledge that shouldn’t be available to common folk?" Tian Kuo asked, his gaze trailing to David.

David looked at Alexander, not needing his approval to answer, but wondering what he wanted to do, here.

Alex nodded slowly at him, and David took on a smug face.

"I represent myself, not an organization. The knowledge I have of the Zhong Kui doesn’t come from others, it comes from actions taken that revealed your existence."

Tian Kuo frowned. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

"Actions that revealed our existence? Not possible. We have stayed hidden on this mountaintop, only rarely coming out to hunt demons. Our actions are always taken covertly, and we leave no trail leading back to us, ever."

David snorted a laugh, looking at the fox derisively.

"I said actions taken, sure. But I did not mean actions taken in the past, you old coot. I know how careful you’ve been in the past. I’m talking about actions taken in the near future. You practically reveal yourselves to the world, in hopes of gathering more of our kind under your banner."

Tian Kuo’s frown deepened.

"Actions taken in the near future? You make no sense. What are you, an oracle? How can you claim to know the future? Even divine beasts like me can hardly grasp at destiny’s threads for a glimpse. How would a mortal even see further than his own present? If you didn’t want to answer truthfully, you could have just said so, or kept mum."

And before David could mock him again, Alexander coughed lightly to interrupt their quibbling.

"It matters not the source of his knowledge, does it? He knows about you, a lot more than he lets on, and he isn’t afraid to use the knowledge. What is it you really wanted to know with this question?" he asked, already feeling tired of this conversation.

The fox looked at him, clicking his tongue and sighing.

"Fine. I wanted to know if we had a leak in the Zhong Kui, or if I needed to call in a meeting with the other organizations and start wiping some minds clean. But if he insists that it isn’t from any of them, I see no reason to antagonize them, at least at the moment."

Alex kept quiet, and the fox saw it as reason enough to ask his next question.

"Alright. Second question now. This one is for the young ones in your group. Even though I can tell they don’t have an ounce of Qi inside them, I can still sense the power in them. Would you be interested in joining the Zhong Kui, and becoming infinitely stronger than now?"

But before anyone could answer, the table cracked with a resounding snap; the crack extending from Alexander all the way to the celestial fox, and a feeling of dread washed over everyone.

The fox looked at Alexander, his skin crawling at the sight of his red eyes, as Alexander had let a part of Sanguis bleed through him again.

’That Nephilim inside him is practically a demon waiting to erupt... How is he even holding it back?’ he wondered, sensing its fury.

"You better know your place, fox. I entertain your questions, but don’t you dare try to poach my friends from me. I will fuck you up faster than you fuck up your disciples. Back off," Alexander growled, his presence tugging at everyone’s souls.

"I’ll eat your fucking soul."