After reaching our destination, Gale, Astarion, Bai, and Fen all left to do whatever the hell they needed to do for their mission, and I was left to my own devices while staring at The City from afar.
Well, the term city was not enough to describe what I was seeing as I stood in the sky. A gigantic, sprawling metropolis would have been a better description.
The City stretched for as far as the eye could see, the middle of it a small mountain, way in the distance. The place was huge! It’s like the entire population of the continent was concentrated there. I could see how the houses on the outskirts were all made of wood and soil while the further in one went, the better they looked. Gray stone and fired clay soon replaced the dilapidated buildings in the slums.
Obviously, I wanted to check the place out, but first I had to take some time off. I flew away from The City, avoiding the countless other Cultivators that were flying around, with even more people going and leaving the place in all directions on foot.
After flying for some time, enough for the horizon to completely swallow The City, I landed on a patch of undisturbed forest and burrowed deep underground. It was nice and cool down there, and I had peace and quiet.
Setting up a few Formations to cloak my presence and serve as a warning signal, I got ready. All the gathered Soul Essence would finally be of use. I devoured the last remnants of the Slothrosity and then closed my eyes.
I could feel my Soul contracting, the outer Layer solidifying and merging with the others below. There was a quiet pop and a pulse of energy as the final pieces snapped into place. Golden Core Eighth Layer.
I let my Qi circulate through my body and felt the subtle changes in its form. The density was slightly increased once more, pushing it closer to the Realm of Spirit Qi.
It felt great. I enjoyed the feeling for a bit longer, and then went to sort through the memories of the Slothrosity. I discarded most of them since they were useless, especially since the beast slept for most of its life. Funny enough, those creatures had a special way of Cultivating while they slept. It was only compatible with their biology, though it could probably be adapted to work for humans too.
It could be called Sleeping Dragon Crushing Heaven, or something cool like that.
Anyway, what I really wanted to learn was better control of my energy. Sleepers were masters of energy disguise, and I wanted to copy it for personal use. I sat cross-legged and meditated, diving deep into the subconscious mind of the dead beast, trying to extract those fragments of knowledge.
It took some time but it went well. I was learning at blazing speeds, my Qi running quieter than ever even as it raged through my Meridians. Just as I was about to finish, I felt a disturbance on the surface. Someone was messing with my Formation.
I groaned and opened my eyes in annoyance. Disrupting a person during Cultivation or meditation was extremely rude! I burst out of the ground, looking around for the fool that woke me up.
“Oh! Hello…” I noticed a startled guy smiling stupidly at me. I squinted my eyes at him as I could still feel the remnant energy he used to break my Formation.
[What do you want?] I barked at him with a frown.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I disrupt something?” He said, acting clueless.
I rolled my eyes.
“Were you the one that just broke through?” He continued.
I hummed in annoyance. His eyes enlarged and a smile formed on his face.
“Golden Core Eighth Layer, correct? I thought I felt something, hehe…”
I released a smidgen of my Aura, enough to show my Realm. [What do you want?] I repeated, every word pronounced loud and clear.
“Oh, nothing, Brother, nothing… Do you by chance belong to any of the three Clans?” He pointed in the direction of The City.
I shook my head.
“Well… In that case, please empty your pockets!” He said and smiled brilliantly as a sword appeared in his hand while displaying the Aura of a Spirit Realm Second Level.
That brazen action stunned me and I blinked a few times.
[Do you belong to any of the three Clans?] I returned the question.
“Haha, of course, not.” The man laughed. He seemed extremely relaxed.
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[Oh, good.] I bent down and picked up a common branch, pointing it at him. [In that case, empty your pockets.]
We stared at each other and then the guy burst out laughing. “Brother, you can’t hide it. I know you just broke through and your Soul is still unstable. Just hand over the goods and I’ll let you go.”
[Unstable?] I squinted my eyes and stared daggers at him. [I think you are confused.]
The power of my Soul burst out, overshadowing his multiple times over as my eyes began to glow. [Your pockets, now. Do not force me to repeat myself for the third time.]
“Oh, shit!” The guy’s eyes bulged out and he turned on his heel, attempting to run. He didn’t get far.
I let Qi flow through me and then leisurely strolled forward to the frozen man. Century in a Blink. What a fantastic technique. I stopped a few meters in front of him and then pointed the stick at him. His desperate movements were laughably slow. A snail would have been faster.
I let my mind return to normal speed and watched as the man impaled himself on the stick. Well, I mean, that was what I expected to happen, but apparently even reinforced with my Qi, a normal stick was just that, a stick. It was crushed into dust, though the man then smashed into me at full speed and bounced back, groaning in pain.
When he finally opened his eyes and saw me looming over him, he scrambled back in fear. Trying to defend himself by flailing around, he screamed. “Wait, wait! I- I was just joking! Please, Brother, it was just a joke!”
[I’m not your Brother.]I slapped his hand away. [And I wasn’t joking.] I extended my right hand and gestured for him to hand the goods over.
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That’s the story of how I gained another Spirit Sword for my collection as well as a handful of Spirit Stones. Honestly, the guy was so poor I almost felt bad for robbing him. Like, who does that? Trying to extort a total stranger? He was lucky I didn’t feel like killing him. He was so pathetic in fact, that he began sobbing as I left. Apparently, I took everything he had. Served him right for trying to steal.
I returned to the outskirts of The City and dropped to the ground to not attract too much attention.
Thousand of people walked along paved roads, some of them pulling wagons by hand, others riding on donkeys and oxen, most of them below even the Nascent Realm, though I did notice a few carriages with slightly stronger people inside. Late stages of Nascent Soul early stages of Golden Core. They seemed slightly more important than the rabble walking on foot.
I walked slowly, taking it all in. Despite being quite tall at three meters, I was not the largest guy around, and walking on foot while dressed in some simple robes, I didn’t attract any attention at all. Especially since my power was completely hidden. If anyone looked at me I would appear no different than a Mortal in their eyes. A very large Mortal.
The bustling sound of commerce entered my ears as I neared the first shabby buildings. That’s also when the smell hit me. A pungent, rotting smell. Not far from the road ran a lazy river, and beside it was a large tannery. Giant vats of chemicals and soaking skins glistened in the sun, dozens of workers moving the hides, scraping off the fat, and stretching the skins for them to dry. Good thing I didn’t need to breathe because the smell was just as bad as the swamp itself.
Worse yet, the tannery wasn’t the only one. As I moved further in, I also noticed a butchery, a slaughterhouse on the other side of the road, as well as a blazing forge where they burned excess trash. Black smoke was billowing out of the massive stone chimney, clouding the sky. People there looked malnourished, sick, and feeble, yet they worked without stopping.
Coal and wood were being dumped out in the open near a refinery where they melted animal fat and turned it into grease that was then packed into barrels and moved further into The City.
The slums outside were clearly part of a basic industry where raw resources were processed to be used by craftsmen and artisans further inward.
As I moved along the road people gradually became better looking, healthier, and dressed in better clothes. What I could only assume were merchants with their caravans, were bartering with the workers by the side of the road, loading or unloading large boxes of goods. Further still, structures were made out of stone and with carved ornaments or simple geometric designs. Side alleys branched from the main road, they too paved with stone unlike the dirt paths between the houses out in the slums.
By all means, that looked like a district for artisans and skilled workers. I could hear the sound of hammers, people discussing loudly, bartering among the people in the market I was just going through, and a man loudly advertising his food stall by the side of the road.
Many were gathered around, and I placed an order as well, if nothing else just to see what all the excitement was about. I soon got my order, fried meat on a stick, and paid with a pinch of Spirit Stone Shards.
The meat was juicy and soft, a bit too soft for my tastes, but the spices were strong and the flavor was nice. Definitely a good meal for a common man, but it didn’t do it for me.
As I walked further in still, the atmosphere changed again and the air actually became much better. I could feel many large Formations working beneath the streets to keep the place clean, and I even had to pay a fee of one Spirit Stone to enter the inner city. Definitely out of reach for the common folk. But it was totally worth it. The buildings there were large, opulent, and each with its own plot of land, even if it was small. It was much better than the outer parts where houses were squished together like sardines in a can.
Shops there had windows made out of colorful crystal and I could feel traces of rare ores in the stones of their walls. Various treasures and relics were there on display, together with pills, lavish silken clothes, weapons, armor, and all kinds of elixirs for every occasion.
The cheapest Spirit Fruit Wine there was nearly 10 Spirit Stones per bottle. It was the very definition of high-class opulent luxury.
People there lived large, both in stature and wealth. Yet that was still not the middle of the metropolis as a tall mountain was further in, rising into the sky, probably where the three Clans had their seat. I could see the top was actually split and had three, roughly equal peaks. Spiritual energy ran through the ground and the Spirit Veins beneath it, flowing constantly towards the top.
As I made my way through the streets, I felt a pull from my Soul. I stopped in front of a shop, looked at the things on display, and instantly realized what was that I felt.
Silently, I wondered, would it be possible to just buy Cultivation?