“We just need money to buy winter timber. Otherwise, the younger generation in our clan won’t survive this winter.”
Ye Yang had sensed something was wrong and traced it all the way here. Of course, Little Thirteen knew why—that was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to involve Ye Yang in the first place.
But now, there was no point in hiding it anymore.
“Our territory has been blockaded. The nearby demon clans can’t trade with us. We can’t go into the forest to get timber ourselves, so we have to buy it from far away.”
“But even when we buy the timber, we have to cross the blockade to get it home. Every time we cross, if we don’t hand over most of the goods, they capture our people.”
“We really have no other choice. We’ve had to come out and earn money this way. If we make enough trips, we’ll eventually gather what we need.”
It wasn’t just Little Thirteen. Many members of the otter clan were now out working as pets, including plenty of young otters who couldn’t yet take human form.
Not every otter was as lucky as Little Thirteen. Some had been sold to zoos overseas, forced to perform every day with no freedom at all. Others had been bought by people with cruel habits, nearly tortured to death, barely escaping with their lives.
If there had been any other way, the clan never would have sent those with little or no spiritual power out to take such risks.
Ye Yang’s frown deepened. “Isn’t YCG doing anything?”
Little Thirteen’s expression dimmed. “The elders asked YCG for help immediately. But before the raccoon clan imposed the blockade, they had already bought up the management rights to all the surrounding roads.” In other words, according to demon realm law, the raccoon clan could let whoever they wanted pass—or not. YCG had no jurisdiction.
“The raccoon clan raised the tolls several times over. For the surrounding demon clans to come trade with us, the cost is too high. They have other trading partners, so they just abandoned us. Every time we go in or out, most of our goods go to paying the tolls. Otherwise, we can’t get through.”
Ye Yang sorted through the information and asked, “And that forest you mentioned—why can’t you go there anymore?”
At this, Little Thirteen grew even angrier. “That forest has been our otter clan’s territory for generations. I don’t know what tricks the marten clan used, but a few months ago, it somehow became their territory. And the city lord of Ye City approved it!”
“The elders say they’ve set their sights on our land. They’re using these dirty tactics to pressure us into leaving on our own so they can carve up our territory.”
The otter clan’s territory was in a remote part of the demon realm. While the clan governed itself, it was also subject to the authority of the nearest city, which in turn was supposed to protect them.
YCG could only influence the human and demon realms within certain limits. Aside from those who had already joined YCG, they couldn’t interfere too much with other demons without risking diplomatic incidents.
Now, the otter clan’s situation was clearly the result of the raccoon clan, the marten clan, and Ye City working together to apply pressure. But they hadn’t delivered a killing blow. The otter clan had always been weak and obscure. Other demons didn’t want to get involved, and YCG’s hands were tied. For the time being, there really was no solution.
Suddenly, Ye Yang and Little Thirteen both heard movement from the front entrance. The villa’s owner was back.
“Ye Ye, you should go.”
Ye Yang’s big eyes darted around. Then, in an instant, he vanished. Amid the pile of angled branches, a tiny sea hare now sat hidden.
He couldn’t just leave without finding a way to help Little Thirteen!
Seeing that Ye Yang had hidden himself, Little Thirteen said nothing more and returned to the pool to continue being a proper pet.
Sure enough, the villa’s owner was the wavy-haired beauty from the other day. But she wasn’t alone. Besides her, her assistant, the updo-wearing woman from before, and several others had arrived.
The backyard was far from the front gate, with semi-transparent decorations and partitions blocking the view. Ye Yang couldn’t make out the rest of the group.
“Make yourselves at home. I’ll go get everyone something to drink,” the villa owner called out before heading to the kitchen with her assistant.
As she walked, she grumbled, “Honestly. Both chefs just happened to have something come up today, and the housekeeper is off too.”
Her assistant reassured her, “It’s fine. Didn’t the neighbors say they could loan us someone? You don’t get many chances to connect with President Fu. Seizing this opportunity is what matters.”
The villa owner nodded. “True. Keep an eye on things later. We rarely get a chance like this. Can’t afford to be rude to President Fu.”
President Fu? Which Fu?
As Ye Yang was pondering this, the so-called President Fu walked toward the backyard.
“President Chen, you certainly have refined tastes. Such a large backyard, and you only keep two little animals?”
President Chen, the villa owner, hurried over with a smile. “Two? I only have this one precious little otter. Of course I want to give it the best.”
At the sight of his owner, Little Thirteen immediately switched into performance mode. He swam to the edge of the pool in a flash, scrambled onto land, and began circling his owner’s feet with high-pitched whines, utterly charming her and the other guests.
Only President Fu had a faint, amused smile at the corner of his lips. He didn’t spare Little Thirteen a single glance. Instead, his eyes stayed fixed on the spot by the pool where Ye Yang was hiding.
Ye Yang didn’t dare move among the branches. That President Fu—it was Fu Ye!
He’d definitely been spotted. And that wasn’t even mentioning the occasional wisp of demon aura Little Thirteen let slip… Ye Yang even stopped breathing.
Fortunately, Fu Ye soon looked away and began making small talk with President Chen.
Little Thirteen stayed “on duty” until dark, only returning to the backyard after the entire table of guests had finished their meal.
Ye Yang had long since come out from the bushes and hidden himself somewhere more concealed. In any case, he had sneaked onto someone else’s property, so his conscience was far from clear. He could only hope that someone as busy as Fu Ye couldn’t be bothered to make an issue of it.
When Little Thirteen returned to the backyard, he assumed Ye Yang had already left—until Ye Yang came out on his own.
“Ye Ye, you’re still here? Why haven’t you left yet?”
Ye Yang was annoyed. He hopped right onto the baby otter’s head. “With your family facing such a huge crisis, you expect me to just walk away?”
Little Thirteen was speechless.
Ye Yang shifted his body and patted Little Thirteen on the head. “Alright, let’s continue. We weren’t finished earlier.”
The two little creatures chatted for a while longer. In the end, aside from continuing to make money in the human world while risking exposure to YCG, there were only two options.
The first option followed an unwritten rule of the demon realm: if the otter clan could produce a powerful warrior who could challenge the city lord of Ye City and take control of the city, the original ruling on the forest territory would become invalid, and they might be able to return to their old way of life.
“But our otter clan has never produced any powerful warriors. We’ve never had ambitions like that. We’ve always just wanted to protect our small territory and live our lives in peace.”
For centuries, the otter clan had coexisted peacefully with the raccoon and marten clans, trading goods and even supporting each other through hard times. There had even been intermarriage.
The second option was to invite both the raccoon and marten clans to sit down for formal negotiations.
Little Thirteen didn’t think this method would be very useful either. “If negotiation were possible, it would’ve happened already. Who knows what suddenly got into them? And we still can’t figure out how two demon clans that were always on our level suddenly became so wealthy that they could buy up all the roads—even Ye City probably couldn’t come up with that kind of money.”
Ye Yang suddenly thought of something. “Wait. If the raccoon clan bought up the roads, who did they buy them from?”
Little Thirteen was taken aback. “That… I don’t actually know. Ownership of the roads seems to change every few years. I have no idea which clan or which city the raccoon clan bought them from. Let me ask the elders.”
Soon, they received an unexpected answer.
All the roads near the otter clan’s territory had been owned by several different demon cities and surrounding clans just four months ago—the otters themselves even controlled one road. But within a single month, all those road rights had been purchased by Siyang City. And it wasn’t just near the otters—many roads across the demon realm, primarily in the southwest, had been bought up as well.
After that, the raccoon clan had purchased the roads around the otter territory from Siyang City. The details of the transaction couldn’t be uncovered, but the otter elders speculated that the raccoon clan had likely become a subordinate of Siyang City.
In fact, even Ye City might have become a subordinate of Siyang City by now.
“Siyang City?” Ye Yang had never even heard of the place.
“It’s normal that you don’t know—you’ve lived in the human world for so long. Nobody knows where Siyang City came from. It seems to have risen up overnight. It hasn’t been around long—maybe just a few decades—but it’s incredibly powerful, both in wealth and military strength.”
“If it’s such a powerful demon city, why target your otter clan? Did you offend Siyang City somehow?”
Little Thirteen was stumped again. “…Let me ask the elders.”
After a long while, Little Thirteen finally got a reply from the elders.
“The elders say our territory is blockaded now, so gathering intelligence is difficult. But they did find out that it seems our otter clan isn’t the only one facing this. All over the southwest, the same thing is happening to many demon clans.”
Ye Yang nodded. “So it’s not targeted at the otter clan specifically. It’s aimed at all the demon clans in the southwest that haven’t submitted to Siyang City. What they want is the land itself.”
Little Thirteen suddenly remembered something. “Now that you mention it, I think something did happen. Right before the roads were completely blocked, it seems some kind of envoy came to our territory. But I wasn’t home at the time, so I don’t know the details. The elder was out playing with me, so the only one home who could make decisions was my third uncle.”
“Third uncle isn’t very educated, and at the time he was busy chasing his new wife. He didn’t really understand what the envoy was saying, so he just brushed him off… Now that I think about it, that envoy probably came from Siyang City.”
“…” So your otter clan got screwed over by bad luck.
Ye Yang didn’t know what to say. He could only comfort Little Thirteen. “Maybe this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The way Siyang City acts, so arrogant—they don’t seem like good demons to me.”
But Little Thirteen said, “It’s not that bad. The demon realm respects strength above all. If they have the power, they can do this.”
Ye Yang was truly at a loss for words. No wonder no demon had stepped up to stop Siyang City. Was this really considered normal in the demon realm?!
“So you’re just going to keep going like this? You can’t even scrape together a hundred thousand, let alone get permits to do business in the human world?”
Little Thirteen’s face fell. Of course he knew what they were doing now was essentially smuggling. They’d get caught sooner or later, and YCG might even fine them. But what other choice did he have?
He had actually started thinking seriously: “I wonder if it’s too late to contact Siyang City and say we’re willing to surrender…”
Ye Yang was horrified. “You can’t do that!”
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