The man slammed the door behind me and locked it with magic. He then gestured for me to follow.

“Just do what you are told, sell your stuff, take the money, and leave. No funny business, understand?” His voice was hoarse, but the speech was clearly a routine for him. I just nodded and followed without a word.

I noticed many guards in the shadows, most of which were likely in the early levels of Spirit Realm. I couldn’t exactly examine them directly, but their Souls sure felt like it. Knowing that gave me some comfort. I didn’t expect there to be a fight, but if there was, I was confident I could take them.

I was led into an underground room where a group of people were gathered. Many were armed guards, but some seemed to be bulk sellers, like me.

A large scale was there, and on it, burlap sacks slowly getting filled with Spirit Beast Core Dust. The man there, quite small for his advanced age, was carefully summoning a stream of the sparkling goods, careful not to spill any.

I waited until he was done, and then a slightly rotund man dressed in a quality dark green robe handed over a small leather pouch. His expression was aloof with a pinch of annoyance and as workers took the sacks and moved them off the scale, he waved me to step forward.

“Core dust?” He asked in a cold tone. I nodded firmly.

He gestured to one of the servants there and they brought a pile of new empty burlap sacks. They all had the same clear mark which I didn’t recognize.

“Fill them up.” The man, clearly the boss of that place, said.

I nodded again and began filling them up. The boss was staring intensely as I kept pouring the dust into the sack. As the first one was filled, he reached in and brought a handful of it closer to his face. His eyes expanded and the permanent scowl he had on his face disappeared.

He took a pinch and put it on his tongue.

“Hmm! That’s some good stuff!” He exclaimed. “Much better than that barely passable garbage.” He turned to his previous customer and gave him an anxiety-inducing side-eye. The man in question lowered his head with clear unease and hastened his steps as he left the premises.

“Alright, I’ll give you 22.5 stones per sack of this quality. How many do you have?” The boss said.

I made a quick calculation in my head and figured I was actually getting a pretty good price. For bulk sales, that is.

They could easily get five times that if they knew the right people, but with the effort required to distribute it all, I wanted to have nothing to do with it. The dust was used in small amounts by artisans, and it would take me years to get rid of it all.

[I have a few more…] I answered vaguely.

“Get on with it then.” The boss said and gestured for his workers to help. They held the sacks open and I kept filling them up with dust. The boss kept careful watch the entire time, examining the product closely as time went on.

In fact, he was starting to get suspicious as I crossed the ten-sacks mark and required more time to examine it all. However, no matter how he looked, the quality was always there, sometimes even above what it was at first. No matter how he looked or what techniques and tools he used, the result was the same. What I had was quality beast core dust. Because that’s exactly what it was!

By the time I ran out, 31 sacks were filled and packed tight. The boss had a funny expression, something between happiness, surprise, and shock.

He reluctantly handed over a large money bag, and with a quick scan of my sense, I confirmed the amount was right. In fact, the amount was rounded up, so it came to 698 Spirit Stones. Perfect for my needs.

I said my goodbyes and left with my head held high and a smile on my face. I had no doubt some wanted to beat me up and rob me there and then, but under the watchful eyes of the boss, none dared to move. Even the man himself was displaying some subtle signs of greed, but considering how his business operated, a thousand Spirit Stones going through his hands every week probably wasn’t unheard of. He got a once-in-a-lifetime deal from me and that was definitely worth some respect.

I left the walled-off compound and instead of returning to the main road, continued wandering the back streets. The reason was simple. If there was anyone stupid enough to follow me they would have a really bad day.

I even walked slowly, purposely acting clueless and lost, so that if anyone was on my tail they would think I was an easy target. Sadly, none came, even after hours of wasting time.

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As day turned to night, I found myself in an especially dark alley. The buildings were close to each other, some of them completely touching, creating long corridors devoid of light. The construction was tall, some of the buildings were even built on top of older structures, like proper slums, with smelly water running by the wayside.

I could feel the gazes of people inside the dilapidated buildings, some even coming from up high, with large men seemingly loitering at obvious chokepoints.

After passing a few groups of those, I came to a group of three sitting on some stone steps, when they suddenly stood up and blocked my path.

“Hey buddy… Whatcha doin’ here, hmm?” The smallest of them said, trying to act tough. He was slightly taller than me at just over three meters. The two behind him were even larger, the tallest one reaching probably close to four meters.

[Just passing through. Don’t mind me.] I answered.

“Ah… Just passing through he says…” The guy snickered. “Heard it boys? He’s just passing through. No problems here, hehe.”

He then got into my face, close enough I could smell his breath. “Listen here, buddy. Not just anyone can come strolling through here. There’s a toll to pay. Ten Stones, nothing much. Hand them over and we’ll let you go on your way in one piece.”

I didn’t react and instead glanced behind me. The guys at previous checkpoints were all slowly making their way toward us. Looking over the shoulder of the first guy, I noticed a few extra thugs looking in our direction, snickering.

There were solid stone walls on my left and right, as well as people looking down on me from the roof. I was completely surrounded. And then I got an idea.

[Just ten?] I said, taking out the large pouch of Spirit Stones. I opened it wide, revealing its contents, and slowly counted out ten Stones, before handing him over to the guy.

[There you go, ten Spirit Stones. Actually, here, have another one. Buy yourself something nice.] I gave him a warm smile and then stored the pouch away, intent on continuing my walk.

The guy started at the Stones in his hand for a moment, seemingly in shock, but then he quickly pocketed them and jumped back in front of me.

“Hehe, wait, wait… Did I say ten? I was supposed to say one hundred, Brother! Sorry, sorry, hehe. I have such a bad memory, you know. You won’t mind giving out a few more, right? No hard feelings.”

[Oh? I see… So that’s how it is?] I acted surprised.

“That’s how it is, Brother. It costs a lot of money to keep the road here in such a good shape.”

The road, the stone paved sorry excuse for a dirt path. I bet they took really good care of it. Spilling blood and whatnot. I smiled at the guy and he smiled back, his greedy eyes betraying his wicked intentions. The thugs around were already coming close, their mouths salivating at the thought of money.

[Alright then. Let’s count together then, shall we?] I placed my hand on his shoulder and smiled.

“Heh, of course!” He smiled as well.

[One.] I squeezed my hand and crushed his arm. The sound of breaking bones was so loud in the quiet alley. A split-second later the scream echoed between the walls, loud enough to be heard kilometers away as it was powered by a Cultivator’s power.

[Two.] I flicked my finger and struck the man in the sternum. His body was blasted back and folded in half, before he crashed into the wall of a nearby house and bounced off it, rolling down the alley.

“Hey!” The tall guy behind him shouted and threw a jab at me. I expertly blocked it with my face, breaking his fingers. He screamed. I flicked his sternum.

[Three.] Air left his lungs, together with blood and pieces of flesh.

That’s when the rest of them, about a thirty or so, jumped me. Some of them had swords, daggers, or just naked fists. Some guy even attacked me with an iron pipe. It did exactly what you would expect. It shattered upon collision with the back of my head.

Disregarding the assault, I continued to count.

Considering none of them were in the Spirit Realm yet they dared to extort me, I decided to be merciful. I fought back with gentle slaps, finger jabs, and quick flicks to various parts of the body.

None of my strikes were lethal, but many would leave permanent damage. Imbuing my attacks with just a smidgen of my energy, I could curse people, twisting their form and breaking the patterns of their energy. Their form was so hopelessly weak that it was actually harder not to permanently damage them than to purposefully do so.

Time slowed down as I walked among them, tapping here, flicking there… I came to a big guy, his face an expression of pure rage as his body was frozen in the middle of a swing with a cleaver. I tapped his cheek and then pulled back, watching with interest as his skin began to ripple in slow motion, before breaking apart where I had touched him, liquefying, the wound expanding and caving in his face. I watched with wide eyes. That single tap was too much power? How weak were they?!

Compared to the Spirit Beasts I fought, I had to hold back about 99% of my power not to obliterate them and the city around them with a single strike. It was so damn annoying!

Considering I was still new in The City, I preferred not to step on any toes just yet, not until I at least knew who I was dealing with. If they were just a simple gang, making them disappear would be no issue. However, if they had backing, as people like these often had, then messing them up too much could bring all sorts of unnecessary trouble.

Oh, and also their Souls weren’t strong enough for me to bother devouring. All of them combined would do as much good as one broken Spirit Beast core. Talk about useless.

Before I knew it, no opponents remained. I noticed the groaning bodies on the floor counted less than what I thought there should be. A few of them must have escaped, not that I really cared. I collected their weapons and any money I could find. They were so poor they didn’t even have any storage treasures on them. The swords and daggers, also, were the lowest quality possible. I almost didn’t even want to take them, for they would taint my collection, but trophies were trophies, even if they weren’t the nicest ones.

After thoroughly looting everything of value, I gracefully stepped over the fallen, careful not to break them even more, and went back on my way. It seemed that nobody was following me after all that time, so I returned to the main road and began walking. I had no destination in mind, I was just stretching my legs.

The thing was, I had money, I just had to find some broken cores to buy. I was so close to the Ninth Layer. One hundred broken Souls. That’s all I needed. Even if it took me days, weeks, I would find them.

I was not one to give up so easily, though I was prone to distractions. And would you believe it, I found the biggest distraction yet!