Kapitel 77: Chapter 34 Train an army for a thousand days to use it for an hour.

yǎng bīng qiān rì , yòng bīng yī shí

lit. Train an army for a thousand days to use it for an hour.

fig. extensive preparation eventually pays off

"How... you managed to keep your skin this time round," the winged fox, PiXiu, slyly observed SheLin, who had just returned.

"Stop using this cute guise of yours, it's truly disturbing!" SheLin snidely told off the winged fox.

"Hehe ... no need to be jealous. And as I said before, this is not a guise but how my human form came out to be," PiXiu batted his eyelashes, looking cutely innocent, while twirling his fox tails.

PiXiu was one of kind, a hybrid of the multi tailed demon tribe and a winged demon tribe. The multi headed or tailed demon tribes all had scary powerful powers, such as those Nine Headed Snake, Nine Headed Phoenix, and Nine Tailed Fox.

However, instead of looking majestic like other hybrid demons, PiXiu, could only be adorable. His beast form was small, his human form was dangerously cute, and even his fangs were small and cute, making him look harmless.

This was also the main reason why PiXiu was previously assigned by their lord to watch the little young miss at the island, other than their age being similar. It was also this assignment which the little winged fox horridly failed and let the blame fall on his elder comrade brothers shoulders.

"Why do you think the lord doesn't send me instead to guard the little young miss but send that ridiculous QiongQi? It's so boring to be keep battling these endless brainless horde of demons," PiXiu pouted.

"The lord wants to hone your skills," NiuBa told the young PiXiu, Hans reaching out to ruffle the winged fox fluffy hair, and PiXiu evading that large hand on his head.

They found when PiXiu was a mere infant demon, an unborn demon, in the bleakness if Endless Suffering realm. For such an infant to survive through it was already miraculous, but the again, it was their lord who had saved him.

During their return from of their assignment in the lowest realm of Hell - Abyss of Nothingness, before they could return to their base, they had enter Endless Suffering realm first. The realm of Endless or Suffering was an extremely hot and unlivable realm was designated for those demons, devils, ghouls and other evil creatures who had sinned and convicted of horrendous crimes.

These rejected creatures, struggled to live in the fringes of the constant suffering in the realm, had been reduced to senseless and crazed creatures, shadow of their past selves. There's only one entrance but not exit, so once sentenced to be thrown into this realm, there was no escape.

The only way out was by Court of Judgement retracting their punishment and for the Hell's special guards with the seal of King or Hell, could the innocent be saved. Hardly those who were sent to Realm of Endless Suffering were innocent, so in the history since the creation of Endless Suffering, only a handful had to be retracted.

PiXiu's mother was one of these rare cases. She was plotted by her enemies, turned berserk, created chaos and was sent down into the Realm of Endless Suffering. The lord's army was fighting through their way to the entrance when they encountered a scene of crazed demons attacking a heavily pregnant demoness.

Crazed evil creatures had always been drawn to eating the flesh and drinking the blood of innocents. It had been too late before they could intervene and the crazed creatures had ripped open the pregnant demoness's stomach.

The lord was already there to blast the crazed creatures away from the dying demoness, who had tried to take out unborn child by pulling its umbilical cord. The lord threw his sword, which cleanly sliced the crazed demon's head from his neck, and let the sleeping infant fall on a wind cloud.

Attracted by the smell of the new blood, mindless creatures rushed forth. A magical shield encased the infant and the lord sent it safely to NiuBa's direction. He pointed the demoness corpse to another soldier, for him to take her with them.

It was impossible for others to escape the Realm of Endless Suffering, but not for the lord's army. The lord created a portal, and his army flew inside it, before the portal closure, the lord breathed his fire, Soul Fire, down to the damned creatures. Those who were aimed at were killed instantaneously and those weaker creatures who were even grazed by the Soul Fire would also perish.

The Soul Fire was one of the Lord's powerful magic, and it was also used to purify PiXiu's mother's soul upon her death. It was upon their arrival to the higher realms of Hell, when the infant opened his eyes. His first sight was to witness the scattering of his mother's ashes in the sky.

After that, the lord gave the burden to rear up the infant to the demons in upper realm, entrusting PiXiu to a couple who were childless. However over the centuries, the largest of the lord's commanders and the gentlest, NiuBa, had occasionally checked on PiXiu and found out one day that PiXiu had followed him back to their secret lair. The lord had not minded about PiXiu and only told NiuBa that since PiXiu had an affinity with NiuBa, NiuBa should be responsible for PiXiu.

Hence it was then, NiuBa became a father figure to the small PiXiu, making sure that he survived through their assignments and endless battles.

"Keep honing and I will keep accumulating my tails," PiXiu sighed, his tails drooped low to sweep the floor.

"You seem to lament what others horribly want," SheLin squinted his reptilian eyes on this ignorant child.

All the multi headed and tailed demon tribes strived to achieve the highest level, the acquisition of the complete 9 tails or heads, and this brat was complaining when he had already gotten 3 tails in his young age. He has to work harder himself and not to lose out to this young brat in future!

"So to repeat: whats so good about QiongQi to follow the lord to mortal realm? His tracking skills?" PiXiu looked innocently at SheLin, raising his ire.

SheLin's tracking skills had always seem to be impugned ever since he was discovered by Yuan LeiFeng. That incident had truly been a blight in his life!

SheLin eyed NiuBa : One day, when this big bull is not around, he's gonna clip this darned winged fox's tails!