As the caravan packed up their stuff from the night before and got ready to get moving again, a feeling of pure and utter awkwardness could be felt amongst them.
The reason being none other than the fact that a good majority of them had eaten Ravager Otter meat in the form of hotpot, and then proceeded to act in a manner befitting such consumption.
"So...I didn’t know you felt that way about her."
"I mean...I knew from the times we got drunk that you did, but damn. I did not expect you and her to-"
"One more word and I swear to the Emperor, I will flay you like a fish!"
"Oh dear gods, its the oasis incident all over again!"
"Don’t worry about it!"
Evidently, this little hotpot incident affected, predominantly, the Skyscales Company members and some members of main Zhen clan.
A majority of the branch clan managed to avoid any issues thanks in part to their specialization in aether beast care and butchering.
As for the few members that were affected...well...let’s just say it’s a good thing he had a private place to vent in.
_____________________________________________
=Too embarrassed to think about it?=
"Okay, can we please get back to focusing on what you described as my vices personified before I die from shame, please?"
Despite having a romantic relationship with Jin Fang, and slowly developing one with Rianna, Zhen Liu couldn’t help but feel overwhelmingly embarrassed about the events that had occurred the night before.
While there wasn’t anything actually stopping him from doing the do with them, societal rules in another world be funny like that, he didn’t want the reason for such an event to occur to be the accidental consumption of a potent aphrodisiac.
On top of that, if they were going to do anything intimate, it should at least be in a bed in a private chamber, and not about twenty feet from the nearest family member.
Evidently, this particular issue didn’t dawn on the three of them the night they had eaten the hotpot, but it came crashing down on them the next day when they woke up and realize that they were significantly closer to the other campsites than they had thought they were.
As such, they agreed that for the next six hours or so, they would try to be as far away from each other as possible, due to sheer embarrassment.
It was also for this reason that when Pathos and Logos contacted Zhen Liu about an issue at the library, that the latter took the opportunity to hide on another plane of existence entirely.
Granted, he didn’t expect that the issue on-site was related to his incident the night before.
As Zhen Liu walked with Logos and Pathos, in order to get a firsthand look at this so-called "parasinner", he discussed with them the origins of this strange being.
"So...lemme get this straight. You two think that the remnant thingie that developed in my head after eating the Marquis de Howlite’s desire core, somehow merged together with that mechanical parasite we picked up from a cyborg rat corpse, into what you guys described me as a walking texture crash that decided on the label of...parasinner?"
=Not "think", milord. We know for certain that’s the case. After we managed to secure the parasinner, I ran some scans and confirmed the energy signatures of the remnant and the parasite. Making matters stranger, it shows you having a faint connection similar to how you and the kaijin are. Albeit...a bit differently.=
"Huh... how’d you manage to secure it?"
Pathos introduced with a flourish as he gestured to a giant, multi-lock steel door that looked more at home on a vault than a hallway.
If Zhen Liu didn’t have other things on his mind at the moment, he would’ve had a look of shock and disbelief on his face upon staring at the door.
"So...any particular reason why y’all need to make a whole ass prison for one prisoner?"
=We had a feeling we’d be needing a more...permanent enclosure in the near future, if you’re habit of kidnapping people is anything to go off of. Plus, none of the kaijin wanted to stand guard on this particular prisoner due to their instinctual fear of her.=
"That...you know what, fair enough."
<=Now then, let’s open this thing, shall we?=>
Zhen Liu watched as Logos and Pathos undid the locks to the new prison section of the library, watching as the oh-so elaborate mechanisms that made it up, click, turn and spin out of the way.
A part of him wondered if all of these locks were necessary or if it was just Pathos being extra again.
As the last of the mechanisms made way, the vault door opened and Zhen Liu was immediately buffeted by a strange aura that made him feel...uncomfortable.
Then again, it probably didn’t help that the aura in question was accompanied by this particular line.
"Oh, finally! Is daddy coming to punish me for being the bad girl that I am?!," an artificially feminine voice called out.
Zhen Liu looked at the two curator spirits with bewilderment as soon as he heard that declaration.
"I...I didn’t even want to know what that means."
"Can y’all stop teasing me already? I want to see my daddy in person please!"
"Stop calling me that."
Sensing that this could go on forever with increasingly more unnecessary innuendos, Zhen Liu took a deep breath and just made his way into the prison.
’Alright, I accidentally brought you into this world...might as well look into making sure you don’t do anything too drastic to it.’
_____________________________________________
The rest of the trip to the Blossoming Scales Kingdom was...surprisingly quiet.
There were no bandit ambushes, there were no unexpected weather phenomenon and there were no aether beast attacks either.
Was this good fortune due to the aether beast hippos serving as the vanguard, therefore scaring off most other aether beasts?
The possibility that scouts for would-be raiders confirmed the presence of an Aether Lord and as such decided against attacking this particular caravan?
Did Zhen Liu send out the kaijin ahead of time to get rid of such obstacles?
Nobody knew for certain, especially that last possibility.
What people did know, however, was that the rest of the trip felt as if all of the misfortune that could’ve hit the caravan during was all piled up on that first day involving those murderous Ravager Otters and their more murderous, dragon-blooded leader.
Speaking of, the Thunderscale Dragon Otter that had almost devastated the caravan had somehow manage to survive being turned into an otter popsicle, alongside several members of its pack.
At some point during the trip, the otters managed to thaw themselves out of their icy prisons, but that turned out to be for naught.
Foreseeing the possibilities of these murderous rodents somehow freeing themselves due to their innate tenacity and viciousness, Patriarch Zhen Shi worked overtime to create specially designed cages for containing them.
They had initially plan on slaughtering the frozen bastards and then sell whatever they butchered to whomever wanted otter meat, otter pelts and the possibility of a magic core, but they changed their minds when they realized how much they would have to delay their trip in order to perform such activities.
That and nobody wanted to gamble on the possibility of the Thunderscale Dragon Otter having any tricks in its fur that would activate upon its death.
There were a lot of stories of vengeful dragons self-destructing out of spite...
Regardless, at the pace the caravan was going now, they would make it to the main Zhen Clan headquarters in the estimated timeframe, just in time for lunch.
"Y’all think we’ll have to wait in line to get into the city?," a clerk from the Skyscales company asked his companions, "because I remember the last time we went here that we had to wait like six hours before we could get into the city."
"Well last time, we didn’t have Zhen Clan people with us. I imagine we’ll be processed much faster."
"Whatever the case may be, look alive, city on the horizon."
As the carvan continued to float along the river, massive shadows began to overcast their heads.
When they looked up to see what was casting them, they could see massive spires looming in the distance.
To some members, it was an astounding sight.
To others, it was nothing new.
To one man in particular though, it was a moment of nostalgia.
’Huh...Bai Hua would’ve loved to see this...’
In the first time in over several decades, Zhen Shi was "home", granted, it didn’t really feel like it.
’Well...I came this far...just a little further...’