Catato Patch 

Ahh, what am I going to do about this issue surrounding my gender!

 

Truth be told, I shouldn’t blame him either. After all, the problem stemmed from my own body. However, the question then becomes, exactly what went wrong with my body that caused me to be neither a man nor a woman. Did I botch my reincarnation and ended up in a female fetus? Or did I turn into a female because of some strange reason?

 

I still don’t know the answers to these questions but I guess I’ll have to put them aside for now. What’s more important now is to stop him from calling me Lady Lust Demon!

 

And so, I decided to draw his attention to my name instead. “You can call me Mo Ke instead.”

 

With this hint, Harlow no longer harped on the issue of my gender. “Mo Ke? Your name?”

 

“That’s right. If you can call yourself Harlow, why can’t I name myself Mo Ke?” I threw him a disinterested look before focusing back on Majosha who was currently leading the way. “Your help is definitely a major boost for our cause, I’m just not sure about Manasha’s thoughts on this matter.”

 

“I’m sure she doesn’t want to rot in this maze either.” Habona chimed in. “No one is willing to be confined for their entire lives.”

 

Majosha nodded in agreement. “Mhm, I think she will agree as well.”

 

“She won’t.” Manasha abruptly turned around and broke her long kept silence. With a casual flick of her tail, she shattered the three skeletons that just came out from around the bend.

 

She slithered towards us with an expressionless look on her face, completely disregarding the remaining skeletons as she curtly said: “If you wish to assault the exit, that’s your own business. It has nothing to do with me or my sister. You’re free to get yourself killed if you wish but don’t drag my sister along with you.”

 

“Sis watch out!”

 

Making use of her momentary distraction, several skeletons launched a sneak attack on her turned back. In spite of the impending danger, her face was as unfazed as ever as her snake hair calmly reared their heads and spat out globs after globs of green fluid like a machine gun.

 

The shower of green acid tore through the skeletons, sparing no one as it swiftly dissolved their bony white bodies. Soon, there was nothing but a pile of pus lying on the floor, their soul flames nowhere to be found.

 

“I said so already, there’s no way I’ll allow her to leave with you all. If she wants to leave the maze, she can do so by herself!”

 

“But Sis, Harlow is only a three-star, if I don’t accompany him…”

 

“No buts!” She forcefully interrupted her and glared at her sister with a gaze that left no room for refusal: “This time, you WILL listen to me!”

 

Well, things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse… I had originally thought that they would be in this together and she would be more than willing to help us. Even if she wasn’t willing to, I didn’t expect her to object. Unfortunately, reality was markedly different from my expectations; she had rejected us without a shred of hesitation. On top of that, she had even forbidden her sister from accompanying us.

 

Weren’t we comrades just a second ago...what’s with the sudden change in tone…

 

“Sis, there’s no way I’m leaving Harlow alone!” In the face of her sister’s refusal, she prepared herself for battle as well. She wrapped her arms around Harlow’s arm and leaned in, clearly showing her intention to stay with him.

 

“From the moment he showed that he wasn’t afraid of me, I knew that he was the one for me. I took an oath, from that day on, wherever he went, I would by his side!”

 

“Shasha…” Harlow was deeply touched by her courageous confession. However, just as he was about to say something, his weakened body gave way under the weight of Majosha and fell to the ground, pulling her along with him…

 

Everyone: “...”

 

“Harlow...are you alright?” Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that her brother would be so...potato as to fall just from a female leaning on him…

 

She immediately rushed in to help the couple up.

 

“Look at him, he’s so weak, there’s no way he can protect you.” Manasha threw him an exasperated and disdainful look. “If you’re a man, then you should have some self-consciousness. If you really wish to leave the maze with Majosha, you can do that once you’ve reached four-star.”

 

“The only reason Harlow is so weak is because of those harpies.” Without even waiting for Harlow to respond, she stepped in to defend her boyfriend once more. “What if I insist on leaving with him?”

 

“Then I will just have to make you stay.” As those words left her mouth, she rushed at Majosha without any prior warning.

 

“Sis! Don’t take things too far!”

 

“The one who is going overboard is you!”

 

The two sisters ended up in a furious brawl at the drop of a hat. Thankfully, both of them still maintained their sense of reason. The fighting was merely limited to their claws without any poison spits on both sides.

 

“Stop fighting...stop fighting…” He was beside himself with worry but he was simply too weak to interfere in this fight between two four-stars. With no other option available to him, he decided to ask his sister for help. “Sis, help me pull those two apart…”

 

Habona assented with a nod of her head. She lowered me onto the ground before leaping right into the heated fight. With a swift grip of her claws, she grabbed onto both their heads and tossed them to the side before their snake hairs could bite her.

 

The entire sequence happened within the span of a breath. The lightning quick sneak attack gave the sisters no chance to react before she turned them into a pair of snake discuses.

 

*bang bang*

 

A couple of bangs echoed in the hallway as the sisters simultaneously crashed into the bony walls. The pair weakly slumped to the ground, their eyes glazed over from the violent crash. They laid there, stunned for several seconds before shakingly standing up. As they straightened their snake tails, they gave their head a good shake; the toss clearly had an effect on them.

 

“Sis...that’s too much…”

 

“Big Sister Ha is amazing!”

 

So this was how the demonic werewolves stopped a fight, this one has learnt something today.

 

“Shasha are you alright?” After raising his objection to his sister, he immediately rushed to his lover’s side to comfort her: “I didn’t expect Sis to be so rough…”

 

“I’m alright.” Majosha lovingly gazed at her boyfriend’s eyes. At the side, I was nearly blinded by their dazzling love for each other.

 

Not again...this torturous display of public affection is just too much for me...if given a second chance, there’s no way I would choose to work with you lovebirds again…

 

On the other side, Manasha had recovered from her short flight as well. She unsteadily straightened herself before glaring at us. Her nails drew blood as her fists tightened in anger. Drop by drop, her anger boiled as her blood slowly dripped to the ground, dissolving the bones around her.

 

“It’s your own business if you wish to kill yourself, but can you please leave my sister out of this!” She bellowed.

 

“I had no intention of forcing anyone to come. All I wanted to do was recruit more allies. If you are so opposed to the idea then I’ll just stop mentioning it. Naturally, I don’t plan on changing Majosha’s views as well.”

 

For things to escalate to this extent wasn’t something I had expected. It had never crossed my mind that such a rift would form between comrades who had just gone through thick and thin together.

 

The scene fell silent after those words left my word. This awkward silence continued for the rest of our journey as neither of us spoke a word.

 

To be honest, her resistance was completely understandable. The exit point was truly a dangerous place. Even after countless years, there’s been no accounts of anyone below the level of four-star leaving the Prison of the Dead. To the countless inmates trapped here, the exit point was a veritable grim reaper.

 

Of course, this only applied to those below four-stars, after all, anyone who had reached that level could leave whenever they wanted to. However, this was easier said than done. The Prison of the Dead barely had enough food for its residents, let alone for someone who wanted to evolve into a four-star.

 

It’s similar to the difference between a school and a prison. Being locked up in prison wasn’t conducive for learning. After tens of years of being locked up, any inmates you release would barely be able to integrate into society. In contrast, no matter how bad a school was, going through years of education would at least produce a few talented individuals from a pool of kids.

 

The three hells outside of the maze were the schools in this analogy. Within the three hells were multiple treasures and fortuitous encounters you would usually find in a wuxia novel. Anyone fortunate enough to have an encounter would be able to change their fate and become stronger.

 

At the very least, one could become a subordinate of a powerhouse and have their evolution path significantly smoothened out. After all, any old expert in the three hells could easily trounce a four-star from this beginner village known as the Prison of the Dead.

 

This was the effect an environment had on making a man. No matter who you were, your environment would affect your life in some fashion. The Prison of the Dead was in every way a jail for us. And while the three hells weren’t schools per say, they were several times better than this prison.

 

The three hells, in comparison, were complete societies with a wide variety of residents inside them; from the lowly small imp slaves to the mighty demon kings of the three hells.

 

In actuality, all these weren’t important to Manasha. This medusa had already resolved herself to fulfilling her sister’s wish even if it meant sacrificing herself. If she didn’t feel this way, she wouldn’t have said to wait for Harlow to rise to the level of four-stars before trying to leave.

 

This stipulation had several implications. First, she didn’t object to Majosha’s pursuit of happiness on the condition that she was safe. In other words, the real reason why she objected to Majosha joining us was that she felt that ours was a lost cause.

 

The second point was a deeper one. As we all knew, the environment here was an unforgiving one. Due to the lack of food, interracial conflicts were commonplace. This was especially so for the medusas who had to kidnap males from other races in order to sustain their all female race.

 

For them, this prison was even more treacherous. In that case, having two four-stars was an important safety net for their race. Wasn’t the main reason why these four-stars stayed behind because they wanted to protect their clans? In that case, having more four-stars was definitely a boon for the clan’s safety.

 

With this in mind, one could see how much she loved her...in a sisterly way of course. Manasha not only approved of her abandoning her duty to the clan, she had even resolved herself to pick up the slack.

 

Unfortunately, her way of expressing this love was flawed and ended up causing this misunderstanding.

 

This was why I chose to stand aside and allow the two sisters to work it out by themselves. As for Harlow...I don’t think it’s my place to interfere either.

 

Because of my interjection, the two sisters had temporarily made up even though they still had their misgivings with each other over this spat.

 

And so, we set off with this awkward silence looming over us. It wasn’t long before we reached the temporary base of the demonic werewolves. As we entered the base, we were welcomed by the senior werewolf and an entourage of werewolves. Mixed within the welcoming parties were my potatoes as well. Upon seeing me, Vick and No.5 sprinted forward to greet us…

 

The both of them ended up suffering for it. Vick was instantly scared off by Habona’s claw while No.5 managed to get a hug in before being kicked away by Habona...the reason was [You actually dared to take advantage of this lady…]

 

As the grandfather met with his grandson after a close brush with death, the pair broke down into tears. A while later, the tears changed into a concerned chiding as the old werewolf beat him while giving him an earful: “As if the medusas wasn’t enough, you actually got yourself kidnapped by the harpies as well, do you wish to be a reproductive tool for the rest of your life…”

 

“Grandpa, please don’t mention those harpies again...I...I’m feeling faint…”

 

If he actually used the word [scared], he would’ve probably gotten another scolding; looks like his head wasn’t that badly damaged after all.