Chapter 204: Walking in the Cold Wind (2/2)

Now, that she was done explaining their circumstances, Sinmosa proceeded onto a more detailed introduction of this land, the remnants of Sable Radiance.

As mentioned before, the north belonged to the Purgatory Warhorses; that area was off-limits for now. The east belonged to the hellhounds and even further east was the territory of the Purgatory Shadowcats.

The Purgatory Shadowcats were solitary creatures that could be identified by their mostly black fur, riddled with crimson streaks. Compared to the hellhounds, they had a smaller frame but were more agile, and they specialized in shadow magic instead of fire.

For the most part, the relation between the two of them was lukewarm at best, neither too bad nor too good. There were barely any interactions between the two races except for a scuffle that happened several decades ago. In the end, neither side managed to make any significant gains so they ended up signing a truce in which both sides were forbidden from entering the other’s territory freely.

The Purgatory Shadowcats were a race famous for their wealth of strange knowledge. The elderly amongst them were renowned scholars despite being basically a bunch of shut-ins who rarely left their homes other than to forage for food. All that was only made possible by a unique ability of theirs:

The ability to traverse the realm of dreams.

Their Dreamwalking ability took effect only after they went to sleep. Their souls would enter a mysterious state of consciousness that was difficult to describe with words. Simply put, the Purgatory Shadowcats were able to penetrate dimensional barriers in their soul state. While they might not be able to affect reality in such a state, this Dreamwalking ability of theirs allowed them to gather a ton of useful and useless information.

The Purgatory Shadowcats were originally creatures of Abaddon and were known simply as Shadowcats back then. Unlike their Purgatory cousins, Shadowcats in Abaddon were purely black and didn’t possess crimson streaks in their fur. The streaks came about a long time ago when the first batch of Shadowcats entered Purgatory. Upon acclimatizing themselves to the climate of Purgatory, their bodies began to change into the what we knew today as Purgatory Shadowcats. The streaks were essentially formed to absorb energy from the heat.

In actuality, there was not much difference between the two races except that the Purgatory variant was more resistant to heat and weaker to cold.

As for news about entering Abaddon, Sinmosa and Sasani weren’t able to provide much details on that matter. Thus, they gave me a suggestion instead: go ask the Purgatory Shadowcats.

Of all the races here, they possessed the greatest wealth of knowledge thanks to their Dreamwalking. However, their personalities were a little on the eccentric side so requesting aid from them wasn’t going to be easy.

Still, in order to find the Purgatory Shadowcats, we first had to pass through the territory of the hellhounds. With regards to that prospect, the looks on a certain Cerberus couple’s faces immediately turned unnatural. Judging by that look, they didn’t seem to have much fond memories of their clan. As for the reason for that…naturally it was because of their controversial choice.

“If you don’t want to go back, we can always circle around that area instead.”

To me, Sinmosa and Sasani were both experts, being at Five-stars and all. With them as my bodyguards, I felt a lot safer travelling through Purgatory. While Five-stars wasn’t really that powerful in the grand scheme of things, it was sufficient for most situations. After all, those above Five-stars rarely travelled alone so even if we met such a grouping, we would have to run away anyway.

“There’s no need for that, we’re just passing through. All we have to do is let them know that the child is fine.” Sinmosa threw me another grateful look before continuing: “Truth be told, the odds of a disorder occurring in inbred hellhound children is a lot higher than the other races. Thankfully, after a round of checkups, I found that our child was born perfectly healthy…no doubt that was thanks to your efforts…as long as we let them know the child is fine…”

As she said that, she abruptly stopped. Seeing her eyes quiver, I could tell she held a strong attachment to the clan. It was after all, the place she grew up in; it would’ve been weirder if she wasn’t so attached to it.

Another problem worth mentioning was the child’s socialization. Being away from the clan meant that it wouldn’t have any peers for the most of its childhood.

Also, even though their child was born healthy, Sinmosa and Sasani still couldn’t return to the clan because their existence was a rather unique one in the clan.

To be exact, their punishment had to remain lest someone tried to mimic their actions upon seeing their punishment revoked so easily. For the clan as a whole, what Sinmosa and Sasani did was a major infraction of the clan’s rules so punishment was an absolute necessity.

Like what Sinmosa mentioned, the hellhounds were more prone to disorders appearing during inbreeding. In light of that, what they did was even more egregious and an example had to be made of them.

However, the fact remained that being alienated from the clan would have a negative impact on their child. Without playmates at its age, it would grow up to be insociable. After all, hellhounds were a communal species. While a family might have been enough for other races, a family unit simply wasn’t enough to perform the functions of a clan. Notably, once the little puppy grew up, it would be hard for it to find a significant other…

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‘Come to think of it, I still don’t know what its gender was…’