'Again with this Imp King?' Yun Jieshi felt a dreadful sense of exasperation at the mention of this being again.
In all honesty, the instant the involvement of a stolen item reared its head into Honghuo's story, his mind spun back to Bei Jun. He hadn't dared believe that this had to do with the Imp King again though. But of course, it did!
First, the bastard had harassed Bei Jun and now he had abused an entity of heat and light like Honghuo?
What did all this mean? Was the Imp King that powerful?
'Is he – or it – of the same intelligence as the other Common Jade Imps, or is it some kind of cunning demon?'
Yun Jieshi remembered reading about beasts and demons that obtained intelligence and used it to trick humans and fellow beasts. He wasn't sure if that was as rare of a phenomenon here as he might have thought though.
'Come to think of it,' he suddenly realised and he took great whiffs of the air. His nose had grown quite sharp. It detected several distinct smells swimming in the cold air, 'I smell that foul urine from the Imps in this area. They probably rob everything that lives in areas they have marked.'
"You don't remember anything else?" Yun Jieshi asked Honghuo.
The flaming entity fell silent once again, sinking into deep thought – something he didn't appear to do very often.
"I don't have the slightest idea. The only thing I remember is that I was heavier and much bigger before the Imp King stole from me. I must have had some mighty weapon to smite the likes of this coward of the cold draughts," he said as he teased Hua Dongmei with a sharp lunge.
The fairy trembled and small icicles dropped from her hanfu.
"You dare call me a coward when it's you who is a victim of that lowly Imp King? Come! Let's duel properly right now, you arrogant spark!" she shrieked.
"STOP IT!" Yun Jieshi commanded and his voice swept outward like a hurricane. The snow, air, and trees reeled at the force in his words. He did too, but he quickly hid it as the two polar opposite entities drooped in shame. "You dare fight in my presence when I am trying to help you resolve this matter?"
"Forgive me, O S-Sage," pleaded Hua Dongmei. She was floating by Yun Jieshi's knee at this point.
Honghuo said nothing, but he was equally terrified.
"May I ask, venerated one? Who could you be? I have never heard of anything called a Sage. Or maybe I just don't remember," he said, hesitation in his voice.
Yun Jieshi lost his confidence for a moment. He didn't know what a Sage really was either despite trying to act like one. How would he even go about presenting himself? Perhaps it would be easier to lie to an amnesiac like Honghuo, but how could he do that with the seemingly knowledgeable Hua Dongmei present?
Luckily for the little monkey, he didn't have to utter a word.
Hua Dongmei drizzled all the glaze she could while introducing him.
"Of course, you're too ignorant to know," she said to Honghuo, regaining her spunk. Her nose rose high. "Sages are Immortals who have been enlightened to the Nine Great Keys of Wisdom. They walk among mortals and even beings like us, testing and rewarding as they please in the name of the Eternal Emperor." Hua Dongmei then turned her attention to Yun Jieshi. She beamed. "The symbol on your mortal vessel is meant to hint at your identity isn't it, Sage?"
The Discount Sage wore a formidable sheepish smile.
"You are truly perceptive," he commended Hua Dongmei, but deep within his mind, something that hadn't made sense to him before suddenly clicked. He touched his forehead where the simplistic icon of a flame highlighted in red was branded.
Was this what Bei Jun had meant when he thought that Yun Jieshi was testing him? The fish who was not a fish had implied that there was something more obvious on the little monkey's body painting him as a Sage – something other than his ability to consume the Shuang Fingers.
It was the symbol on his forehead!
Honghuo was almost as astounded and intrigued by the revelation as Yun Jieshi. Both of them had not the slightest clue what the Nine Great Keys of Wisdom Hua Dongmei mentioned were though. They hung onto what they could comprehend in the moment.
"If you are such a being, O Sage," said Honghuo and he drew closer to Yun Jieshi, the heat from him immediately beginning to scorch the monkey's furs, "then you must help me just as you helped this cold coward just now. Please, help me retrieve what the Imp King stole from me!"
Yun Jieshi had paused, processing what he had just learned, but he found the grace to look as though he was contemplating wisely on Honghuo's request.
'My background is a lot more complex than I imagined.' He closed his eyes and emitted a "Huuum" of the wise.
"Hua Dongmei, what do you know about the Imp King?" He turned to the fairy. He hadn't missed it when she had called Honghuo a 'victim of the lowly Imp King.'
"Yes, Sage. I know a little bit about him. He is a greedy creature, evil and cunning. He came to my home, Reed Lake, a long while ago to harass me and the other fairies, but our elders drove him and his forces back with the elements. He is especially weak to them above all else. If we had enough strength back then, we could have killed him once and for all, but we fell short."
Yun Jieshi drew a sharp breath.
"Is that so?" he said absentmindedly. Deep within him, sparks of interest lit up like candles.
'Weak to the elements, is it?'
"Then, if he is so weak that even this chilly wisp and her kind could drive him back, please, Sage. Please retrieve what he stole from me," Honghuo begged again. He was thinking along the same lines as Yun Jieshi: the Imp King was powerful, but he was not so formidable that he didn't have weaknesses.
Of course, the creature had weaknesses, right? Bei Jun claimed to have bested him.
"I see," the little monkey said. He wasn't against taking on another burden but of course…
His services required remuneration.
"What will you give me in exchange for laboring to reach the Imp King? It is quite the sizable journey to even reach him and my vessel is… mortal, as you know."
Honghuo fell silent. The fact that the Sage was more like a mercenary than a divine being come to rescue him free of charge was a great blow.
If he knew that Yun Jieshi also saw information as a nice price in exchange for his help, he wouldn't have been as hesitant though. Not that he had any to give, of course.
Hua Dongmei, on the other hand, ever-trying to appeal to Yun Jieshi's good graces, made her offer before the Discount Sage could tell her that what he had given earlier wasn't for free either.
"Well, Sage, I will offer you something first," she said proudly, and the cold from her body suddenly grew stronger, forming pretty, shiny ice globes around her. "If you come with me to Reed Lake, the elders are sure to give you something worth your time in exchange for restoring my elemental fervor."
"Oh," Yun Jieshi wasn't averse to the prospect. In fact, he was quite curious about what the rest of the fairies were like. That they were able to drive back this menace called the Imp King had already sold him on the intrigue, and now, it served to make him look forward to what they could offer him.
But while that was good and all…
"What about you, Honghuo?" Yun Jieshi asked the entity of heat and light, taking a tactful step back as the temperature grew too much to bear.
Honghuo hesitated.
"I could show the way towards some interesting sights. Like the Great Gap. Would that serve?"
"You idiot!" Hua Dongmei shrieked. "Do you think the Sage is blind? Even us mortals can see the Great Gap if we fly or climb high enough! The Sage has already seen it!"
Honghuo dimmed. This time, he had no good retort.
'Great Gap?' Yun Jieshi thought. 'Are they talking about that tre—'
He would have finished the last word in his head, if he hadn't felt his furs stand on end and his nose crinkle in disgust.
Right as Yun Jieshi reflexively jumped back, a large arrow flashed by at a horrifying speed, splitting the trunks and bulks of trees and rocks several hundred meters past where he had been standing.
…And then the Stench tickled him.
He knew at once. There were enemies about, but this time, there was something different – something unsettling.