Two eccentric boys stopped at the end of the forest, they looked ahead, where stretched a big city at the foot maintain range, 4 peaks pierced the clouds towered over the city. One of them was scowling looking at the other, Teemao was really indignant but he couldn't come up with a better idea so he surrendered to his fate. Majid told him they should disguise just in case, they were burned with sunbathing, especially their bald heads, and they put some black around their eyes. Majid saw how Makeup could change people but he could only afford charcoal, so he make do with it, and with his winning move he was satisfied with the result.
Majid though before of contact lens, though it was a ridiculous idea, he never let go of it. Especially his eyes as a cultivator wasn't as sensitive as his normal old body. But he even surprised himself and found a perfect solution. He does many experiments and ended up using the cornea and iris of the rabbits they hunted, he made realistic eye contacts, Teemao was left speechless when he saw his black eyes. Majid didn't let the chance to enforce his scholarly image explaining his piece of art, he was satisfied with the look of astonishment and admiration on the boy's eyes.
Qi was channeling nonstop on his channels, it became like breathing and unconscious part of his being, building his channels. Some of it applied to his eyes, keeping the eye contacts fresh, while his eyes fluid kept them moisturized.
As they got closer a tall gate towered over their heads, through which a street stretched long leading to a big mansion at the center of the city. The guards didn't stop them as they made their way inside, they only laughed their heart content.
'I thought we looked fierce,' Majid let a wary smile at the indignant stare from Teemao, well he can't help it, there was a small branch of their clan in this city, they might recognize him if he did nothing. And there are many ways to hide their bald heads anyway, so he brushed these minor worries to the side. The School ُEntrance Examination was tomorrow, he needs to understand the power dynamics so he can go under the appropriate shadow if he chooses the wrong one, he might find himself in the darkness underground again.
Majid saw a homeless man in an alley, he approached him and offered some dried meat. The man accepted it without any hesitation, Majid smiled and waited for the man to finish before he said.
"Say Mister, can you tell me a little bit about this city, you see I'm new here," Majid smiled waiting for an answer. The man rubbed his thumb in the middle of his index and smiled showing his missing teeth. You want money, Majid was taken aback by the man's attitude. It's not like he's asking for some inside information, he was just asking for common knowledge, and he already gives him something to eat. But he looked at the men's situation, poverty was indeed cruel, he decided it won't hurt to help him more.
"How much do you want?" Majid said with a kindhearted smile.
"Ten silver coin," the man smiled back deviously.
"Don't be ridiculous," Teemao jumped in, he couldn't take it anymore, it took him as a clan disciple 10 days to make that much of money, let alone a mortal. "How dare you try to rip us off, do you know-"
"Enough Teemao" Majid shook his head and pulled him away, "But young…"
"let's go"
Majid was also surprised at the man's boldness, but he remembered he was hiding his aura, the system generated a quest with a surprising reward, a way to hide his aura. Majid was hiding it to avoid attention. He could easily get what he wanted if he let it out but he refrained from doing it, I'm a civilized man after all. But that shouldn't explain the homeless audacity when he looked at himself, he realized he was no better than the man, he was in a homeless uniform as well. Why would he ask such a high price from a fellow brother. He expects us to reduce the price but such a high starting point, I got no penny on me right now.
Majid toured the city for some time and he was faced with the same situation, it was strange. Though he knew poverty leads to crimes and low morality, he had never been faced with such pettiness, even in the worst of the worst of neighborhoods. Steam came out of his ears, are these mortals fearless aren't they supposed to be subservient in from of cultivators, damn it, should I just show them who I am. Even Teemao never experienced such a thing, with his school uniform he enjoyed some prestige back in the city, no one dared to rip him off.
Majid smirked as he calmed his self, well, it looks like old times are even worse indeed, information was important for travelers, it can save their life especially in this superpowers world. He shook his head, even I started to think of this moral, immortal bullshit, this is the corruptive force of power. He learned from his life experience that power is shrouded by darkness, that's why he gave up his hope on the world. Now he experienced it first hand even at a meniscal scale he was disappointed. Indeed it's way more easy to solve all life problems with power.
He decided to sell his beast core first so he can bye some presentable clothes to improve his first impression and have some change to bye necessities and information. But would they even show me the Market for free, damn it, really those cheap mf*s. As he was walking as he finally found the market, an alluring sound interrupted his chain of thoughts.
"Hey young brother, are you selling something, this big sister can help you," A woman approached him with 2 men in tow.
Majid hated these intrusive little brokers in the markets, but it never was a woman, so it was a nice change. And he just experienced it first hand, the advantage of being asked. Since they approached him first he can hold the advantage of the negotiation. Might as well try his luck, he can even extort some information as a bonus of the deal. Majid nodded his head, but when he looked at them, he didn't like them, he doesn't know why. The woman was a brunette with green eyes, wearing a tight red robe accentuating her sexy curves, and showing off a bit of cleavage. Many men fell for her with dreamy eyes. Her looks confirmed his negative judgment though, he smelled the scent of a scam. Nevertheless, he has nothing to fear, "I have some beast cores."
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The woman's eyes sparkled, "let me see them, little brother," she leaned forward letting her cleavage view widen more.
Majid shook his head, If you think that much can move me you're completely wrong, this old monk saw enough in this life. Even though women in his country were modest, but he took special training for a long time on the screen, he was a veteran. He showed her the cores but he didn't let her hold them. He hunted a few low-level beasts along their journey, so he has three level 2 neural beast cores and one of level 3. The women's eyes popped and everyone else was shocked, that was a big amount of money for mortals, but what they didn't expect was for this vagrant baldy to have them.
"How much do you offer?" Majid looked at the woman stoically as if he wasn't moved, but in reality, he was. His hormones were playing for a long time now, yet he didn't find the opportunity to relieve himself. The woman doubted her charm, but she regained her confidence when she saw Teemao blush. She tried to catch his hand to make her super move, but Majid stepped back.
"This young brother is the shy one, how about this, 2 gold coins for each level 2 ones and 5 gold coins for the other, I hope you help this big sister..." the women was displeased that such a peasant played hard to get in front of her, but she continued her cards switching between cute and charming as she tried to convince him. Majid was ready to sell them lower than the Market value as he was selling for businesses not consumers, but that was almost half the price. Those weren't some cheap goods that you can sell with that much reduction rate. But Majid wasn't in a hurry to reject, business was about negotiation after all, and he enjoyed seeing her pretension thinking he's some retarded.
"Miss, don't play with me that's not half the market value, I will give you 20 silver discount for each one, so 4 gold and 80 silver, and 9 gold and 80 silver coins for the later-" Majid was ready to go up to 50 silver discount, but he was interrupted.
"Give me those beast core right now, Mina gives him the money we offered," One of the men stepped up and let out his aura, a powerful one, it was about the 6th level. He pointed out with his finger impatiently, his high nose bridge and with jaws get along with his arrogance. Though he was wearing the same brown robe with the man behind him, Majid suspected from the start he was the leader of the group from how he carried himself. But he wasn't intimidated he experienced much more powerful auras, it was troublesome though. Most cultivators follow this path starting with their strength than toughness levels, the man in front of him would be a hard shell to crack. And a sword was hanging by his side.
"Wait big brother Dongi, let me talk to him," Mina didn't accept her failure, she never failed to deal with boys, and even mature men, few could escape her charm.
"We don't have time for this," Dongi didn't care, he was displeased by this rat who dared to negotiate with them, how laughable.
"I'm not selling, excuse me," Majid didn't want problems, but the thing he hated the most is being taken advantage of, that's why he isolated himself from society because he knew he either gonna lose his mind or do something outrageous if he suffered some injustice. And this habit turned him weak, but he has already decided to break it now. He turned walking away.
"How dare you, stop right there" the slim lackey with a long face puffed his chest as he strode from behind Dongi, his aura radiated. With a rough estimation, Majid could tell he was a 4th level of the body tempering. The man rushed toward him without even drawing his sword, his bones cracked as his clenched his hand and threw a powerful punch, though he didn't use all his power, the boys face is gonna be disfigured, but to his surprise, his hand continued past him, as the latter tilted his head to the side.
The lackey speed was laughable to Majid. The thing he focused on the most other than his meridians, were his senses, he tried many ways to improve them, he gave his back to Teemao and Foxy and kept trying to make a clear visual appearance of them with the sound and air vibrations on his skin, or using his eyes to follow their fast movement in the dark. He kept training his soul's control, he does many experiments, day and night observing his progress with the system.
The Men's movement was like a child's play, he bent his legs and channeled Qi throughout his body in a breath, his punch caught on fire as it hit the man on his chest sending him tumbling away. He used a bit of his power as his qi power increased a lot, so he didn't know the extent of his power, he didn't want to deliver a fatal blow after all. But he was surprised as he heard the bone-cracking sound and the pig cry. Heck, the qualitative change made such a powerful difference.
"How dare you, do you want to defy the Sword Gang," the man was shocked by the boy's power but he was in their territory, and he was powerful himself. Majid wasn't afraid either, he gained more confidence in his power, even if the man trained his toughness levels, he could break it with his Qi. But he opted for another way, he let out his aura as well, he was sure he could bluff his way out of trouble with his powerful Qi aura. The man shrank back as expected, even the squirming man's pain stopped, as his breaths stopped, he realized he knocked on the reapers doors.
No this more than expected, what's up with these guys, majid could see the shock on everyone's eyes.
"A Core Expert at this age," this kind of talent was unprecedented in this city, even the genius of the city was at the initial stage of the 7th level at this boy's age. Since the mortals were able to temper their body, even though the cultivator were more powerful at the same level but the core building level was the real separator between the mortals and cultivators. The man immediately retreated, Min Na collected the lying man, and followed Dongi.
Holly shit, I should control how much I let out from now on. A smile couldn't help escape his mouth though, with this much aura he can attract the attention of a master. But he didn't think he already gives off a core realm cultivator aura. He worked hard on building his meridians, and his soul control grows a lot allowing him to cultivate many channels at the same time. But he was only at 48% progress, he knew it would be much more than normal but he didn't know it would be to this extent. Majid's plan was simple, finish the meridians as soon as possible so he could make a shortcut in his cultivation like the beasts. Build both his core and temper his body at the same time. Though he would need a lot of medicines, it was worth it using the core advantage, he would take his time to build a stronger body. He even received unexpected rewards like the qualitative change in his body and the system quest, further encouraged his plan.
Majid looked around, many mortals avoided his gaze, from the corner he could see the homeless man. It wasn't my intention but since you followed me up until here you deserve a punishment. Majid was pissed off, that homeless ate his meat and didn't even have the decency to share some common information, yet he dares hold some bad intention toward him. He went straight to him, he feared that the man might piss his pants, so he calmed himself.
"Don't worry just tell me about this city" the man hurriedly spilled the beans. The city has four gates with four main streets that led to the center where the city lord's mansion, the school and most of the cultivators residences, the streets cut the city into four parts each under the control of a powerful sect, at the east The Divine Lotus to the north, and Blazing Sword to the south. As for the west, the Divine Hammer was facing Divine Lotus, and finally Iron Tortoise. While the outer ring was under the control of four gangs under the control of the sects, though everyone knew they didn't acknowledge it publicly to keep their reputation. After all these gangs extort protection fees from the mortals. Most importantly he was in the territory of the Sword gang, even worse the gang was under Blazing Sword Sect, the overlord of his clan. So he sold one of level 2 beast core for 5 gold and 60 silver coins and rushed away before things escalate out of control.
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Xugao looked at the Devine Lotus city, it wasn't hot near the mountain even at the end of summer. It wasn't cold either especially for cultivators, yet he was wearing the elegant fur cape on top of his robe, as he swaggered his way toward a group of people waiting by the gate of the city.