[Fa Tian.]

“Who…? Ah, Senior Gerald! You are back!”

I visited the open market to speak with the man. He had many connections, so he was the best guy to ask about things happening in the Sect.

[Yes. Thanks for the help by the way, the potions came in handy.]

“Oh, you broke through the Golden Core Realm?”

I flashed some Qi and smiled.

“Hah! I never would have guessed it if I didn’t already know! You look way too young for that Realm. Well, congratulations, Senior! We’ll have to celebrate that sometime. Not now though, I’m extremely busy.”

[Yeah, I can see that…] Fa Tian had his stall open, but instead of selling trinkets, he had a large sign saying he was hiring people. I had no idea what all that was about.

[Say, what’s going on here? Did I miss something?] I asked.

“Well… It’s going to be soon, right? Just over two weeks.”

[Two weeks? For what?]

“The summer solstice, of course. It’s time to get new recruits!” He answered enthusiastically.

[Oh, shit! It’s already been a year?! Damn, time goes fast.]

“Yes. But we still have some time to get everything ready. Now is the best time to stock the items we can sell them when they join, right? Ah, and the bets also just started, you might want to check them out.”

[Bets? You are betting on new recruits?]

“That’s right.”

These guys were crazy. I liked it. [How does that work exactly?]

“Oh, it’s simple. You just visit the gambling house and bet on whatever result you think is the most likely. There are many options. You can bet on the number of new recruits, how many will fail, their gender, talent, whether they come from east, west, north or south… Anything you can come up with, really.”

[So, as long as I have some Spirit Stones, there will be someone to gamble?]

“Exactly!”

I shook my head with a smile. You really weren’t safe in this Sect as a new guy. Either they tried to scam you first thing when you joined, or they were betting on your life. [And where is this gambling house?]

“Oh, it’s up there in the north, I think the one called the Golden Palace is the most reputable one. But feel free to visit whichever you like. I don’t have any influence there.”

No favors he could give. That was understandable. [But you know some people there?] I asked.

Fa Tian scratched the back of his head and laughed. “Hehe… A merchant has to have friends everywhere, Senior Brother.”

[Fine, fine… I’ll go take a look.] I decided to see what that place was all about. I had some money to spare anyway.

Following his instructions, I soon found a small village off to the side of the main roads, though it was still part of the Inner Sect, it was away from the rest.

It was on the complete opposite side of the Sect from the Talonfall Village, but I could travel so quickly, you would miss me if you blinked. The distance was not an obstacle anymore.

The buildings there were in surprisingly good shape, and the place was clean. Not at all what I expected from a gambling den.

Ah, but behind the nice houses at the front, were places that advertised a different kind of vice. It was the kind that mostly men would partake in, though women were still required.

[Ah, so that’s where all the degenerates are hiding. I almost thought this place was full of monks, haha!]

Well, no, not really. I just wondered where all the young and unmarried men got their release. As long as prices were right and everyone could get what they wanted, they could focus on Cultivation without distractions.

The fact that there were barely any conflicts between Cultivators proved that point. Nobody was so frustrated to become aggressive, and I have never heard of a dispute between two guys because of a girl.

“I swear on my life, if you touch her again, I’ll break your bones!”

“Hah! You think she likes you? She only sleeps with you because you keep throwing money at her. I bet if we search this place, we’ll find her in one of the rooms here. The last time she sucked me off it was in the Lusty Jasmine! Hahaha!”

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“You bastard! I’ll kill you!”

I internally sighed and cursed myself for jinxing it. I turned around and saw two guys, surrounded by a group of other youngsters grappling with each other. Spark flew and gusts of wind ruffled their robes. They were all Outer Disciples and magic of that caliber couldn’t even kill a Mortal.

They were clearly taken over by emotion and weren’t thinking straight, or their spells wouldn’t be so pathetically scattered and underpowered.

I came closer to observe the show, towering over the rest. The two already ran out of Qi in the first few seconds and were then busy exchanging punches and slaps. Bites and kicks were also thrown in whenever possible, and soon they both walked around with blackened eyes and a busted lip. I just rolled my eyes. It was so pathetic.

[Sleep.] I ordered, and the two immediately lost consciousness and fell to the ground. If they fought, at least they should do it for real and not this childish display of… whatever that was. Oh well, it wasn’t my problem.

Everybody turned to look, but I was already on my way.

“Oh, that Senior stopped the fight.” A Disciple said. He sounded disappointed. Unbelievable.

“How? He didn’t even do anything.”

“Fool, didn’t you hear him say sleep? He can beat you without lifting a finger. His Soul alone is strong enough to kill you!”

“Woah… Really?”

The other guy nodded.

“That’s amazing! I can’t wait to be strong like him!”

Then you better work hard, kid. Though, hard work might not be enough.

Listening to them was so funny. I sat on a bench not far away and closed my eyes to relax.

“Forget that! Why did these two idiots even fight over Hazel? She’s nothing special.”

“Yeah! At least fight over Iris, she’s a good one.”

“You guys have no clue what you are talking about. Ivy from The Heavenly Peach is the real deal. I heard she is so good, she can suck your Soul out!”

My ears perked up.

“Bullshit! How could she be so good? That’s obviously just a stupid rumor to get more patrons.”

“No, I heard it too. My cousin went to meet her once, and he hasn’t been the same since. He’s always talking about her and how he can’t forget her lush lips. But he spent all his money on her, and now he’s broke. He doesn’t even care about Cultivation anymore.”

“Ah, she became his Heart Demon!”

Demons?! Ah, probably just an expression.

“How can he lose his mind because of one girl? Is she really that good?”

“Damn! Now I’m getting curious. How much is she? I saved some money…”

“I heard it’s 100 SSS to get her, and then 50 SSS each hour after the first one.”

“What?! That’s bullshit! No way in hell that’s a fair price! What can she even do? Fly? Suck you off with her nose? Prepare a meal with her feet?”

“Heck, even if she could do that, I wouldn’t take it.”

“Yeah… Forget that, we aren’t getting her. How about we go and gamble on the new arrivals? I heard they opened the betting booth yesterday and…”

I completely zoned out and wasn’t listening anymore. To be fair, it had been quite a while since I felt a woman’s warmth. More than a year, actually. No wonder I felt so lonely recently.

[The Heavenly Peach, huh?]

I got up and stretched. Looking around I didn’t see any sign with that name. But finding the good stuff was often not that easy, so I decided to explore a little. And by explore I meant speeding across the small village at high speed until I found it.

Took me almost a minute.

[Ah, here it is.]

The Heavenly Peach was a building made out of white limestone and decorated with murals of flowers. A few ladies, judging by their appearance, were quite young, certainly less than 30, and stood at the entrance, urging guests to step in with a smile.

“Senior, would you like to have a good time? We’ll take care of you! Join us!” They hollered seductively.

[Well, don’t mind if I do. It has been-]

I suddenly swiftly turned around, ready for a fight.

Once again I felt a sharp gaze on the back of my neck, just this time it felt… deadly. However, as I looked at the street behind me, I could detect nobody that could make me feel that way. There were many Inner and Outer Disciples, yet none of them spared me more than a glance. And obviously, the feeling I got was already gone.

I secretly scanned the place with Arcane Eyes but could detect nothing.

“Senior? Is everything alright?”

[Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s nothing. Must have been the wind.] I decided to test an idea. I took another step with the intent of entering the Heavenly Peach. That feeling came back, stronger than before. It was like a threat. “Take one more step and you are dead.”

That’s what it felt like.

I growled quietly and turned around. Nobody. Anywhere. Pieces of shit preventing me from having fun.

“Senior?”

[Another time, maybe. Something just came up.]

I walked away from the village in a bad mood. I was certain, someone was trailing me. Whoever it was, they were good at hiding their presence. Unless they were angry. Or maybe they let it leak on purpose.

Either way, detecting them with my Spirit Senses was not going to work. But there were other ways of finding invisible perverts. I would bet a hand they didn’t know about infrared light. If the cloaking was only in the visible light spectrum as well as in the Qi/Aura sense, there would be leaking heat.

I just needed to be able to see heat and I could probably find it. It was something I wanted to do for a long time already anyway.

So, back to the base I went. Back to boring meditation and self-discovery.

I entered my room and sat on the bed after turning off the lights. Well, they were glowing crystals that worked with ambient Qi, but they could be disabled.

It was dark—complete pitch-black darkness. I opened my eyes and could see nothing. I then focused on my eyes and began sending tiny pulses of Qi to bounce through them. Like a sonar, I tried to feel every tiny detail of my eyes. I even used my Arcane Eyes to observe them, though that was a bit difficult.

If I was going to mess with my sight, I wanted to be 100% sure I remembered every detail so I could reverse it if anything went wrong. It was not a fast process, and it took me most of the day to be able to completely recreate my eye from memory.

That’s when I began my experiment. I first began by using my Qi as a tool to alter my photoreceptors, both rods, and cones, and tried to heighten their sensitivity so I could detect light in the darkness, and so my visible spectrum could expand. I didn’t care if that would make it so normal light could damage my eyes. If it did, I would just heal it instantly.

Sometime later, I stopped, and sat on the ground, ready to give it a try. I began pushing Golden Qi through my hand, and though I couldn’t see anything, I didn’t give up. I began heating up the ground, but not all that much. Maybe the heat was enough to boil water, but probably not.

After removing my hand, my cheeks stretched in the darkness, forming a smile.

The stone had a barely visible, gray, glowing imprint of my hand.