"Fire is not beyond this venerable one," he replied and reached out to touch Red on the shoulder. Rather than actually light anything on fire, however, he simply allowed his own internal heat to increase enough to warm them both to the point that they began to dry without overheating the cat-beast in the process.

After several quiet minutes, Daqiang murmured very quietly, "You saved his venerable one's life."

It was an unfortunate truth that he had to acknowledge and face. And he was not one to shy away from the truth. However inconvenient it was.

"Why?"