[Um… H-hello. I’m-] I greeted, sounding nervous.

“Before we speak, eat this.”

The woman handed over an orange pill, which I took.

[What is it?] I stammered.

“It’s a Remember-Me-Not Pill.” Came the answer. She was a mature woman in a dark purple robe with a hood pulled over her head. I couldn’t see her entire face, but her expression was firm, as were her words.

[Is… Is it going to wipe my memory?]

“Not exactly…” She shrugged. “But it will make it difficult to consciously recall this meeting and your recent memories. Consider it like making it seem as if everything was but a fleeting dream.”

[Oh…] That didn’t sound too bad. I threw the pill into my mouth. [It’s really sweet.] Like really, really sweet. Disgustingly so.

She nodded. “We tried to make the pills more palatable for our customers.”

The woman spoke emotionlessly as if it was nothing special. “There is also the opposite, the Forget-Me-Not Pill. It makes things easier to recall and is especially useful when trying to learn new techniques. Interested?”

I shook my head and she shrugged.

“Suit yourself.”

[Is this legal? This organization.] I timidly asked, looking around the room. There wasn’t much to see, unfortunately. Only gray walls, a carpet on the floor, and a few wooden levers on the edge of her desk. Oh, and papers. She had a lot of papers.

“It’s not illegal if that’s what you are asking. We operate in a sort of gray area, but it’s best we stay vigilant anyway. Such as the pill you just consumed. There can never be enough precautions.”

[Oh...]

“Well then. We don’t do names here but you can call me Madame Purple. So, why are you here? Special items? Gear? Pills? Looking at you I can see you could make use of quite a few of our things…” She began her pitch.

[N-no… Madame, I’m looking for a friend. We got separated over a month ago and since then I can’t-]

“Find him. I get it.” Madame Purple sighed. “The price for looking for a person depends on their Cultivation. What are we talking about here?”

[Um, I believe it was just over the middle of Spirit Accumulation Realm.]

“That’s 250 Spirit Shards then. Got anything we can go by? A picture? A name?”

[Yes… I got it here.] I pulled a folded piece of paper from my pocket where I had drawn a picture of Vilya. Well, I copied a memory from my mind and imprinted it on the paper. It looked exactly like her and was extremely lifelike.

[Her name is Vilya and she used to work in-]

“Wait, it’s a woman?”

[Uh, yes? Is that a problem?]

The hooded woman sighed. “No, but women are more of a touchy subject and they rarely come up. That’s going to be 400 Spirit Shards then.”

I expressed genuine shock. [Why that much of an increase?]

“Because the operation requires more finesse. You know how things work in the Sect, you can’t just look for a woman, there could be a lot of trouble.”

[Oh...]

“As I was saying, that’s going to be 400 Spirit Shards. Take it or leave it. Now, if you have anything we could use…”

[Sure, here.]

I handed over the paper and told her everything I knew about Vilya, which wasn’t much. She wrote down most of it and then gave me a look that told me she thought many things about me. I also had to pay on the spot and no negotiations were allowed.

“Fine, fine. We should have the results by the end of next week. If we don’t manage to find her, we’ll contact you and you get half your deposit back.”

[Only half?]

Madame Purple looked at me, visibly annoyed. “Even if we don’t find the person, there was still work involved and people need to get paid. This is a business, not a charity.”

Yeah, or they could just sit on their hands and pocket the money without doing a thing. I didn’t say that, but it was what I thought about their operation.

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“We are done here, but if you wish to browse some of our other branches, we could get you an address. Mind you that the effect of the pill will run out in about an hour and this conversation will soon slip from your grasp so you might want to wait a bit.”

[What kinds of things are we talking about?]

“Forbidden pills, special weapons, cursed techniques, that kind of things…” The Madame grinned creepily. “There are also ways to alter your body in a myriad of ways. I think you would be interested.”

[I…] I pretended to be scared but at the same time also intrigued. [Where can I find this p-place?] I finally stuttered out.

Madame Purple grinned again and pulled one of the levers. Soon the door behind me opened and a younger girl entered and bowed.

“Madame?”

“Escort our guest outside. Oh, and give him the card to the Old House.”

The new girl bowed again and gestured for me to follow. We went a different way than the one I came in, entering one of the side doors along the hallway. It was a long and windy road that slowly moved upward. Eventually, we came to a set of stairs and climbed up. We came to a dead end and she pulled a lever and the wall opened. She then handed me a slip of paper and gestured me ahead. As soon as I was outside, the door closed behind me, and turning back I realized there was no trace of the tunnel left.

It was a one-way door secret, and I found myself in some kind of a run-down back alley. So much for exploring the Sect’s underworld.

The pill they fed me had absolutely no effect on me, if anything, the sweet taste made me hungrier. The medicinal effects I already purged from my system so I was not forgetting the conversation any time soon.

Madame Purple. I mentally wished her good luck in finding Vilya, and then looked at the instructions on the paper. They were cryptic, but I guessed I would understand them better after taking a stroll through the Sect. So I did just that.

It was funny how I saw the streets in a completely different way after getting the instructions. I saw so many subtle guide marks I would have previously mistaken for part of the décor.

Context was key like always.

Obviously, I wanted to be subtle as well so I just wandered around for about two hours, pretending to look for something but never really finding it. I walked the same path many times, appearing lost and clueless.

Finally, I stopped before an unassuming-looking building with the sign of a house hanging by the door. The Old House. Supposedly it used to be the home of an architect, but that had long since changed.

Reading the instructions again, I pressed the carved symbols on the door and they could be pushed inside slightly. After pressing the last one, there was a click and the door came ajar. I pushed them open fully, stepped inside, and the entrance closed itself behind me with a click. Locked.

I didn’t see any way to open them again so I made my way deeper. I soon came across a front desk with a young woman behind it. I would have guessed she was in her mid-twenties, but with Cultivation it was hard to tell. I didn’t scan her in case she noticed and sounded the alarm. She scanned me though, and I could tell she was weak. Compared to me at least.

“Welcome.” She said and a small comforting smile bloomed on her face. “Welcome to the Old House Auction House. How can I help you?”

[I… was told to visit this place for special items?]

“Ah, of course! Anything specific you are interested in?”

[I’m not sure… This is an auction house?] I asked.

“Yes. Actions are held here once a week, but you just missed the last one. There are all kinds of things sold here, and even if we don’t have something, for the right price, anything can be purchased.” The lady explained.

I stayed silent for a bit, thinking about what I might need. What did I need? Something to help with Body Cultivation would come in handy, but I didn’t know what that might be. The Cultivators I killed were all focused on Soul Cultivation. And on the attacking portion of it as well. Rarely would a Cultivator go for defense. It was hard to train and it would take a lot of time, effort, and pain, as I had discovered.

Blocking a hit was good, but deflecting it was better. Avoiding the attack was even better still, and ending the fight without ever being attacked was the best. That was the philosophy of most Cultivators. If the opponent didn’t even get the chance to attack, what purpose did defense serve? It didn’t. Genius.

It was a brilliant idea, of course, if you were brain-dead.

What beast died in one hit even if you were the best fighter in the world? What if you had two Cultivators equally strong, who would win? The one that could take a hit, obviously.

Focusing solely on the attack was for assassins and for those bullying people weaker than them. I liked to bully those stronger. It was way more satisfying.

In a world where Cultivators focused on attack and wild beasts Cultivated vitality, no wonder every fight was so difficult. When your bones could snap with one light slap, making a single mistake was a death sentence. And since perfection was something only a god could achieve, dying horribly in a fight was only a matter of time.

Everybody thought themselves special. Everybody was unique. And they died all the same. Thousands, millions, never learning the lesson from their Seniors.

Become indestructible. Become an unstoppable juggernaut. That was what I wanted to be. A never-ending natural disaster that just kept coming. What then? What would they do if there was nobody strong enough to hurt me? They only need to make one mistake. I could make infinity.

Still didn’t know what to ask for though.

[Uh, could I see the things you have?]

“Oh, fancy a guide?”

[Erm… Sure...]

Another young girl came and bowed her head slightly to the first one. She was dressed in a nice long red silk dress and had her black hair neatly combed down to her shoulders.

“This is Crimson Poppy, she will be your guide. If something interests you, don’t be afraid to ask. She knows everything there is to know about the items we have in here.” Said the receptionist.

[Oh.] I nodded.

“This way.” Crimson Poppy gestured me to follow her and so I did. Still kept my timid and nervous facade though.

We descended down a spiral stone staircase and since the entrance was on the ground floor, we went at least ten meters below it, probably more. It wasn’t easy keeping track of the orientation or distance with so many steps that spiraled downward.

Of course, it would be easy to guess my exact position if I just used my Arcane Eyes, but I refrained from doing that. I was just a weak newbie with too much money to spend.

Finally, we came to the end of the stairs and then walked down one of the many hallways to a grand gallery. We crossed a boundary and entered a restricted space with many guards standing on alert at the entrance of the hall and then further in as well.

My eyes opened wide as I took a deep breath. It was such a nice, refreshing smell. And I wasn’t talking about the perfume of the cutie by my side. The air inside was thick with Qi! Thicker than that of the Core Sect for sure! But that was not all. The hall was filled with glass displays and stands with all kinds of things.

I subconsciously gasped. And Poppy beside me giggled.

“Welcome to the real Old House, sir.”