"Seriously, what were you hoping for, trying to set the serpent on me? I managed to kill Master Bey in a fair fight, who had several High-level mage deaths on his record. And the Totem Serpent now, though peak, is just a Commander-in-Chief, not a Warlord! And what if I accidentally killed it?!" Rubbing my face, I cast a tired glance at the abashed Tang Yue.
"Yeah, I get it now! And anyway, I thought you'd be scared of the Big Serpent's size and beg for mercy, not decide to seriously fight Hangzhou's guardian." Tang Yue clapped her hands for a second, then continued stroking the over-nervous serpent's muzzle. After all, during the molting period, all High-level and above creatures trigger a sense of threat in it, and here three of them appeared before it at once. Tang Yue naturally didn't count; as its guardian, she didn't cause it any concern.
"Pff, you hoped to scare me with a kilometer-long serpent? I trampled the corpse of China's strongest Totem – Qinglong – with my feet! And its length, by the way, is over nine thousand kilometers! Thousands of Hangzhou guardians could fit there." I brushed the dust off my shoulder with the expression of someone talking about the weather. Tang Yue's jaw nearly dropped to the ground from my statement, while the Serpent disapprovingly shook its huge muzzle. It didn't like my attitude toward the Totems' leader.
"You're lying! There are no such huge monsters! That's twice the length of all of China! And I'm counting from edge to edge without breaks! I didn't account for monster-occupied territories!" The girl pulled herself together and stared at me condescendingly. After all my jokes, she had developed a pathological distrust of my shocking statements.
"Heh, girl, you're still too little, go sleep it off! Look, your big friend isn't refuting me; it's clear he saw it with his own eyes!" I pointed at the Serpent, completely unimpressed by my statement.
"Big guy, is it true? Is the Totems' leader really that big?" Tang Yue glanced skeptically at the Serpent. It just nodded its muzzle, looking at her with the gaze of an elder lecturing a cub.
"But how is that possible? Where could such a creature even live? And what does it eat?" Tang Yue began muttering stunnedly. If she had objective doubts about my claims, she was 100% confident in the Serpent.
"A form over nine thousand kilometers long is indeed a bit cumbersome and not very suitable for battle. But at the level the Totems' leader is at, all creatures have partially become energy-based, so they can regulate their size to some extent. For example, the same Qinglong can shrink to battle form to a mere hundred kilometers or even less. That way, its energy is most concentrated, making attacks and defense stronger." I explained to Tang Yue the principles of existence for Emperors above false level.
"But where did it live before it died? And where's its corpse if you walked on it? And what level is Qinglong at, above Warlord?" Tang Yue decided to pry more information from me, since the Serpent nearby could confirm its accuracy. Eh, you can immediately tell she hasn't read all her clan's secret documents! Or maybe she has... They actually don't have a strict monster classification. In ancient times, their power was often compared to natural disasters: heaven and earth. That way, it's hard to make a comparative analysis. It's only clear that the four main Totems were many times stronger than their other kin.
"Qinglong emerged from the Kunlun Mountains, like the other Totems. And before you say they can't contain such a giant, I'll answer that it only seems that way from outside. The inner part of the mountains is a huge dimension tied to the Mortal Plane, created by the Kunlun Emperor. People unfairly ranked the monster empire he led only seventh in the world by strength due to ignorance. In reality, the Kunlun Mountains are in the top three, yielding only to the united sea Empire and the Southern Empire. And that's just talking about the strength and numbers of monsters there. I didn't factor in their rulers' power." I answered her first question and even supplemented it a bit, revealing some info about the world situation. I hadn't told even my girls this in such detail, but here I couldn't resist. I love seeing Tang Yue's shocked face too much.
"...And where's its corpse?" Turning to the Serpent and getting its nods in response, Tang Yue asked a bit sluggishly.
"Qin Shi Huangdi turned its dead body into the Great Wall of China to hold back monsters and give his lands a solid defensive line. You didn't think he built it from plain earth with spells like the textbooks say, did you?" I smirked.
"As for the level above Warlord, it's called Emperor level. It divides into false Emperor, Low-class Emperor, Middle-class, and High-class. Each class after false can be split into three subclasses – initial, middle, and high. Qinglong's power in life was at high Low-class, on the verge of transitioning to middle. Middle-level Emperors are already powerhouses in the world and have the right to found their own monster Empire. Each such creature could wipe out all mankind alone. Well, at the moment. Earlier, our race had Middle-class Emperors too, but they died, and the forces they founded now hold the top positions in human hierarchy. I think you can guess who I mean." I answered her third question.
"Holy City and Parthenon?" Tang Yue ventured a guess.
"Correct. How did you figure that out?" I was even curious.
"The Holy City publicly calls its founder the strongest mage of all time, and Parthenon its foundress a Goddess. I think such grandiose titles would suit exactly the people who reached the power levels you described." The Magical Court member decided to show off her deduction. Though against my jokes, it doesn't help her for some reason.
"But, Mu Bai, where do you know all this from? I doubt even the Mu clan has this info, since all mankind, by your words, errs in ranking the Kunlun Empire. What makes you so different from other people that you know what others don't?" The girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
I have my own sources. Naturally, I won't reveal them. Don't worry about that right now—instead, let's think about how to protect the Serpent during this molting period, or make him finish this molting faster. I have a bad feeling about my stay in Hangzhou. And you know my sixth sense rarely lies," I tactfully changed the topic, and Tang Yue, as my good friend, didn't press further.
From the outside, it might seem like we have strained relations and are ready to poke at each other at any moment, but that's only partly true. Through such jabs, we get to know each other better. Over time spent bickering, we've formed an unbreakable bond. But that doesn't stop us from continuing to try to sting each other.