Still with Feng

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When Meng finally stopped laughing her face got serious. Feng was still in her arms of course, but the air around her changed noticeably and Feng could tell even though he wasn’t looking at Meng properly. "You know, if you really want, you don’t have to come with us," Meng spat out like it caused her physical pain to say.

*Well… considering how fucked up her head is she might be taking real damage saying something like that.* "Oh yeah, I’ll be super safe by myself with some creepy spy organisation you still haven’t named chasing after me," said Feng sarcastically, surprised that he managed to find a bit of his anger again.

"Feng, please, I raised you to be smarter then that. I’m a master of illusions and I was able to replace two sect leaders with my techniques and a bit of help. If you truly have no desire to remain with me I’m capable of creating an artifact for you to hide your appearance for anyone below Rank 5…

"And if you’re willing to visit every now and again so that I can recharge it, I could make something that even a Rank 5 would struggle to even recognise without concerted effort. I can make it possible for you to vanish, and I’m be willing to provide you with your third of the resources I collected for your cultivation,"

"Oh," said Feng, no other words coming to mind. She’s right… how did I overlook that? Am I just too used to thinking that I’m seeing her real face? Or did I never imagine that she would provide me with an artifact so powerful that many cultivators would murder me for, heck, they’d murder a lot more than just me for them. Hmm… will she give me time to think about it? Or will that be the trap? "Can you give me some time to think… that’s… that’s a big decision,"

"You can take all the time you want," *What?* "But" *Here it is.* "making an artifact like that takes sacrifices on my part, sacrifices that I AM willing to make for you, but not if you aren’t committed to the idea. While it is something I can recover from given time, I also feel the need to make a concerted effort to get to Rank 5, or 4.5 if I fail to ascend properly to Rank 5. I need to make it so clearly not worth the effort to keeping chasing us, and getting to Rank 5 would solidify that," said Meng.

*Well there is the trap. Two traps really. To get the better artifact I’d need to visit, regularly. Not sure how regularly, but Meng can say whatever number of months or years she wants and I’ll have no choice but to listen if I want something to protect me from the biggest threats… but even if I want the weaker one…ƒr𝒆𝑒𝔀e𝒃𝚗𝒐𝘃𝐞𝑙. c𝗼m

Meng would force me to stay away. I’d have to leave Bing and Lian behind with her. The way she’s worded things… Meng likely has to sacrifice a significant part of her cultivation to make and empower whatever it is she’ll make me… so if I took it I’ll be increasing the risk to Bing and Lian, possibly drastically…

Truthfully… there is also the matter of just going at it alone. I don’t know that I could, or if I’m truly ready to separate myself from the group. That’s not even accounting for the fact that it will take some time to make whatever this is. Meng isn’t going to make something like that in a week. So I’d be forced to interact with everyone until Meng handed it over… and they’d all know I’m planning to leave them, potentially for years.

I’m not sure how I could deal with the disappointed looks from Bing. Lian would… not be pleased I don’t think. I’m not sure if she wanted me to see those looks on her face when we were riding the illusionary boat, but she isn’t happy with me at all. I suppose I’ll need to spend some real time thinking about this.

Now… is there anyway I can get Meng to leave me alone with my thoughts? Because it seems I’ve miscalculated just how devious she can be. I assumed that she would not be overly manipulative with my, based on her very direct actions before now… and I suppose in a certain light Meng is still direct, or at least upfront. Hmmm…* "Hey… if you’re here, shouldn’t you be talking with the staff like Kat to convince them we can stow away on the ship?" asked Feng in an attempt to get rid of Meng.

"Nope," said Meng. Clearly, the attempt had failed.

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"Well… why not? Shouldn’t you be used to those sorts of negotiations?" asked Feng, just to make it seem like he wasn’t trying to get rid of Meng.

Based on her smug grin, Feng didn’t think he had succeeded. "I might be good at them, but I certainly don’t enjoy it. Kat is doing a pretty good job right now vouching for us. Oh, and if she failed, I’d just sneak us onboard anyway. You’ve repeatedly mentioned how much I like to kill people, why wouldn’t I just use a bit of illusion work to sneak us onboard a ship they don’t want us on? That’s barely a misdemeanour," explained Meng.

Feng felt like there were several things wrong with that statement but didn’t know which to address first. "Didn’t you say you weren’t spying on anyone at the moment?" was Feng’s first choice in the end.

"I said I wasn’t spying on Bing and Lian. Kat, and Bodeir’s staff are completely different matters. While I have some trust in Kat due to her inability to lie, and the fact she’s risked her life at least once, possibly more than that, to save you after you were an idiot and when I technically couldn’t have blamed her for it, I am willing to at least provisionally believe she means us no harm.

"Though she isn’t the best at negotiation, she is honest, heartfelt, compassionate, and most importantly, powerful, so she can get away with being bad at it. The reputation of demons makes it seem like she’s better at that part of the job when in truth she’s just particularly honest. Likely wouldn’t lie much even if she hadn’t been a demon. Still, even if I did trust Kat with my whole heart and mind, which I don’t, that means nothing for Bodeir’s servants.

"Not only do I know that the organisation has spies in Bodeir’s sect, I also don’t know how willing these servants will be to bend to our whims. They might lie to Kat about what they’re doing, and then try and screw us all over as a larger group. Unlikely perhaps, but scared people can do dumb things, and quite a few of the servants are definitely scared. Though the ones in charge seem to be handling things well at the moment so I’m not too worried about how this will all play out," answered Meng.

Feng rolled his eyes, "I suppose it’s good to know I’m not likely to be killed in my sleep while on the transport"

"Oh Feng," said Meng with a chilly laugh, "If they even dared to try something like that a crash and a bit of maiming on their sect heir would be the least of their worries. Though I would have to wait till Kat and Sue have left before making a move. Her Truesight is a bit of a pain…"

"Oh yeah!" said Feng suddenly remembering, "How good can that charm really be if Kat saw through it. Accidentally."

"Kat’s a fucking cheating cheater who cheats," grumbled Meng. "Truesight is IMPOSSIBLY rare even amongst the demon population. This isn’t a one in a billion talent, it’s way rarer then that. It also normally pops up in older demons, and I get the feeling Kat isn’t one of them. The chance of you running into someone with Truesight is much less then you getting taken out be a meteor, a passing spirit beast, or heck, one of the super volcanoes exploding and killing you. Truesight is such a non-issue that most people think it’s a myth. Just my luck I had to find out the truth of that particularly legend…" grumbled Meng.

"So there isn’t anything you can do against it?" asked Feng, curiously.

"Not that I know of. Supposedly, stronger and more intelligent people then me have tried. Not sure I agree with the second, but I can at least accept the first. Then again, with Truesight barely being considered real there is a possibility that proper research funds were never dedicated to it… but from what I know every Illusion cultivator and mage that finds out about Truesight tries to find a way to get around it… and none have ever managed it to my knowledge."

Feng let out a low hum. That might be good information.

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