N’hitan, the God King of Inauspiciousness and part-time historian, was inflicted with great bafflement by 'the key', as he called him. After following him for a few weeks, they finally approached the apparent solution to all his problems. However, being a creature of the abyss, he'd be suppressed by the universe to such degrees that his life could be in danger if not careful. N’hitan thus needed to face a choice: follow the certain uniqueness, 'the key', or scour all secrets available in this crib of monsters. Upon not much reflection, he opted for the former.

‘The key’ had such a purpose in his path N’hitan was certain his decision was the correct one. Traveling across the entirety of the universe through wormholes and natural teleportation formations, ‘the key’ wormed his way towards his target. The sense of duty, of responsibility, of sadness in his strides was convincing and overwhelming enough that N’hitan’s heart trembled in resonance. He too suffered at the hands of expectation and duty. He too was bound by the threads of fate; puppeteered by forces and circumstances transcending his capabilities. Today he finally understood the meaning of camaraderie. Or so he thought. Here is where the bafflement part comes into play.

Upon finding an ordinary planet populated by weaklings, ‘the key’ teleported towards an unremarkable part of barren forest. Almost as if rehearsed countless times, ‘the key’ delivered a… badass line? “In your next life, don’t deceive the ones you pray to,” is what he said. N’hitan was forced to admit the performance was quite compelling, but who was it for? Certainly not the person he just mercilessly killed seemingly without reason. Then who? There was only ‘the key’ left. The situation was simply inconceivable.

However, N’hitan’s confusion did not end there, as something stranger occurred much too quickly after. Upon spotting the magnificent, surprisingly bloodless, robe the corpse was wearing, ‘the key’ began to, with bone-chilling and practiced sensualism, undress it. For well over a minute, this… erotic situation continued. When the corpse was nothing but a headless nude carcass with neither clothes nor adornments, ‘the key’ then proceeded to undress himself, before slipping into the newly acquired garment. Clothes should not transfer skin with such velocity! Granted, the robe truly was astonishing. The detailed dragons almost came alive due to the excellent craftsmanship. The fine runes adorning the sleeves, the perfectly balanced green jade belt, and finally the seams that were similar to broken chains of oppression, all resulted in the best darn robe he'd ever seen. Upon further introspection, he found total reasonability within his choice of action. Perhaps when ‘the key’ goes to meditate or sleep, he can gently borrow it from him. No. Or maybe? He’ll deal with it when the situation arises. For now, he needed to understand what was happening, and why. He must continue his observations in serene silence.

…

Happiness blinds you to your reality. Upon witnessing his depraved worshiper’s foul corpse, Samuel discovered the mightiest, most pristine, and arrogant robe imaginable. How can a corpse be dressed more finely than him? It was beyond unacceptable and needed immediate rectification. Samuel thus threw all concerns out of his mind, forgetting about his mystery stalker watching his every move, and walking down a strange path. He was both desecrating a corpse and undressing himself outdoors with strangers around. In no fathomable universe, dimension, layer of reality or whatever, is this normal or fine. It is disturbing. Something he realized after completing the sinful deed.

“What the fuck am I doing?” A question seemingly without answers. Samuel encountered a wall in his intellect trying to unravel this complete mystery. It truly is strange how offending superior beings never lead to consequences. Anyway, with his dishing of justice all wrapped up, Samuel headed towards the nearest town in search of lodging. Staying in a cave once was more than sufficient. Maybe after another few thousand years he’ll get the urge, but before that, beds and rooms will be his targets.

He chose to walk towards the quaint town in similar fashion to mortals; with his legs. Revolutionary! It was something he'd not done for quite some time and would impose his guise of regularity onto his stalker, perhaps averting it altogether. Slowly but surely he approached the city gate. It was nothing grand or remarkable, but still felt quite novel to Samuel. Even though he was an ancient monster capable of living beyond the restructuring of time, he was mostly cooped up in solitude for his transmigration. He never really explored or ventured into anything not of immediate threat or importance. Consequently, sights such as these remained new and intriguing to him.

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There was a modest line of people looking to enter the city, holding perhaps close to 200 people of all ages. There were old grumpy men, newlyweds, and even infants. It was quite diverse in that regard, in others, not as much. Let’s just say he stuck out as a sore thumb in the crowd. No, as a white thumb. If the color scheme were to be described, a word to truly explain Samuel’s addition would be fox-tail. No matter. The crowd did not care, and neither did Samuel.

Standing directly ahead of him was a suspicious individual. On the surface, he looked like a nice grandfather, tending to his grandson, but something about the situation was foul. Samuel noticed a disturbing scent emanating from the old man. Normally, he'd attribute this to his advanced age and an accident in the nether regions, but this was different. The scent warned of evil. The people of this planet were all cultivators, granted their levels were less developed. Samuel was thus restricted with his spirit sense. He could not just search the old man willy-nilly, as it would be discovered instantly.

Samuel was obviously ridiculously powerful, far beyond his cultivation, but some things were capped at their stages. Spirit sense was one of them. Perhaps that would no longer apply upon reaching the Enlightenment stage, but it did for now. The only reason he was even able to perceive things with such precision and certainty was due to his improved body’s capabilities. It warned of the old man, not his spirit sense. A conundrum was therefore created; should he act against the man or not? “Better not unjustifiably act. I would much rather be ignorant of his evils and part ways than wrongfully accuse him. He’s not like the clown in the forest; I have no evidence.” Is knowing of potential evil and not preventing it evil? Nearly all creatures, with the exception of certain almighty god figures, have the potential of doing evil. So, should he act against them as well? The answer is clearly no, and this is the phenomenal and infallible logic utilized by Samuel in situations like these. It’s how he justifies much of what he does.

When he wants to ignore something, then there is nothing and no one capable of reminding Samuel of it. Hence, time continued to pass while he planned how to uncover his own secrets without exposing them all to the stalker. Thoughts were wreaking havoc in his usually serene mind as nothing appeared plausible. The mysterious watcher was simply beyond his abilities. Hell, the guy might know all of his secrets, hence his stalking. However, he was not willing to bear that risk. When it came to life and death, simply brushing the matter off to plausibility was not sufficient. Upon exiting his trance, he found himself next in line to enter the city, and another problem dawned on him.

“I don’t have any money to pay the entrance fee.” He did not have money back in the Shattered Realm, much less here. The old man was about done with the transaction as well; there was no time! Samuel assumed the guards would not take a liking to him due to his strapping appearance, so how could he get in? No money, no status, and a silly appearance that no longer looked dangerous. There were simply no avenues left except for either borrowing money from the greedy hands of fellow cultivators or showcasing his amazing might to gain free access. The former felt embarrassing, and the latter was annoying, despicable, and cruel. But so is life. Samuel therefore decided on brute-forcing the situation as always.

For some bizarre reason, Samuel has forgotten about his ability to manipulate minds that he was flexing just a few weeks ago, rather choosing to abandon his morals in pursuit of something so trivial. He could teleport inside, or fly, or burrow; he could do virtually anything except threaten himself in, yet that was his only real choice. What. The. Fuck. It doesn’t matter if N’hitan is watching him as the techniques are not out of this world. Hell, Samuel just opened wormholes to reach this place, yet now he was averse to it. It is much too illogical. It’s almost as if some greater power is affecting his actions… oh. Guess he shouldn’t have made those snarky, greedy, and annoying remarks about not receiving all his rewards earlier.