As I close the door behind us, the muffled silence of the talisman protected carriage envelops both Jin Chin and I. Reminding me of the sensitive nature of the words I wanted to speak with her.

But before going into that, there is another, essentially important thing I wanted to say to her.

“Hey, Jin Chin. Sorry to pull you away from the group like that. I just wanted to check in with you on a few things.

“First, though, are you doing okay? I know you’re strong enough to handle the bandits, but I wanted to make sure.”

At my words, I can see her flinch before letting out a subtly aggravated breath.

“James… I had absolutely no problems with mere bandits.”

Yeah. That definitely pissed her off.

“I know you wouldn’t. I just care about you and wanted to ask.”

She takes another breath and as she releases it, I can see her shoulders relax a bit more as she responds.

“There’s no need, James. I’m okay… alright?”

Her concealed smile gives me the sign that she knows it’s just out of care. Take the step of getting a bit closer to her and the others.

Okay, now I can move on to the other issue.

“Alright. Well, regarding the other thing I wanted to talk to you about…”

Before I can say anything else, she promptly bows and speaks up.

“I’m sorry, Young Master. You need say nothing more. I knew your relationship with demihumans and this town, yet still allowed myself to let my personal feelings get ahead of me. I’ll treat them with the same respect that you do.”

…

While I’m a bit surprised that she already knew what I was going to talk with her about, I really shouldn’t be.

She is a cultivator, after all. With all the increases in cognitive function that comes with. Anyone could see my feelings on the subject from my history and action.

However, that means her previous thoughts on demihumans were strong enough that she may have subconsciously disregarded that.

I should dive into this a bit more.

“I appreciate you realizing that. That makes things a lot easier. But what exactly could have caused you to have such strong feelings about this?”

A frown crosses her face.

“I can’t help but wonder if all of them are the same underneath. Thieves and liars.”

Don’t get mad. Don’t get mad…

Pushing down my rising irritation at familiar stereotypes, I try to listen for the underlying reason.

“Back in my town, there were always a few that would wander in and take items where they could. Even those that we welcomed in and seemed nice always had an ulterior motive. Even as we were waiting here, some of them were eyeing our stuff. Probably to look for a chance to steal stuff.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

…

…

She quickly goes quiet, realizing that my silence is a form of disapproval. I consider the various ways on how I could approach this. Coming to a more personal way,

“Jin Chin. What I’m about to tell you, I don’t want you to share with anyone other than the others that came with us. And of course, in a private space like this.”

Her eyes sharpen and I can practically see her ears perk forward in curiosity.

“Where I originally came from, people viewed myself and others that looked like me, as if most of us were thieves and liars. That even if there were exceptions, in general, you couldn’t trust them. And would watch our every move.”

She doesn’t look like she comprehends it, but to her credit, I can see her thinking about it. In this world, skin color doesn't matter as much as it did on Earth.

But there’s some carryover between the worlds. With both having multi-faceted aspects.

Here, the demihumans' issue is four-fold.

Not being strong enough. Being poor. Being different. And the curse, causing an unnatural distaste towards them.

“Okay, I can see what you mean. I’ll try to work on it.”

She isn’t one to lie, not in a situation like this.

I guess this is the best I can hope for, with deep-seated biases.

“Thanks, Jin Chin. I appreciate it.

“Let’s not hold everyone else up anymore.”

With a simple nod to each other, I open the door, seeing many curious gazes watching us.

I say nothing. However, Jin Chin does something unexpected.

She walks over to the demihumans nearby and quickly apologizes, giving a slight smile as she does so.

Of course, no one holds it against her and everyone seems quite surprised. Glancing over at me, as they do so.

Dang, I should have handled that differently. Now it’s obvious it was because of my intervention that she’s changed. Though, there are some merits to that… it doesn’t give me a good feeling.

To rush things along and change the subject, I move over to Gong and say a few words.

“Hey Gong, I think it’s about time we get going. Is that okay?”

Her head snaps over to me, but her eyes flash.

“Yeah, let me show you the way out. Alright everyone, head back to work. Thanks for stopping by and entertaining our guests.”

Instantly, many of the people nearby start moving their friends and family away. Those who would linger around… have already been handled by Gong earlier.

In what way, I’ll have to check with her more on later.

Either way, she leads us down to the one of the larger tunnels, but one that I sense is familiar.

It’s the same one that we rushed through, to reach the group of demihumans being attacked by two cultivators across the city. Where Gong’s friend, Jenn, had her arm regenerated by my Little Phoenix potion.

Of course, this tunnel has been expanded to fit the increased activity.

It also tells me she doesn’t use the front entrance anymore for her place. To prevent attacks from striking the heart of her home.

Traveling within at a high pace, the pitch-black space is lit by the glowing stones Gong has handed to us just before we entered these tunnels.

What truly intrigues me, though, is that the closer we come to her underground base, the greater the abundance of webs and layered traps.

Traps ranging from poison filled pits to triggered talisman notches in the walls.

Though the talismans are of low strength, only meant to injure qi condensation experts at best. But it is the sheer number of them that makes me curious.

Filling the tunnels in every direction around it, there are at least 5 or so talismans per 30 meters of space. Adding up to a remarkable amount.

And the closer I look at these, the more familiar they seem.

Wait a second.

These are the same designs that are from our Senior Tian, the talisman expert who taught me his methods!

Scratch that, he’s definitely made these himself.

Looking closer at them shows me he put little effort into these mass-produced ones, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t effective for their purpose.

It can’t be a coincidence that these are all from him.

How long have they been working together behind the scenes?

My scan shows me that these talismans have been here, since a few days after I had brought Senior Tian into the Elder-level Contract. Meaning that, once again, Sister Nuan has been moving things around in the background to support things.

She mentioned that Big Sis Crane had reached out to her. This might be part of a larger agreement going on.

I'll need to tread lightly around her. And check back with Sister Nuan on some of these other interacti…

… Ah. If I do that, though, it will seem like I don’t trust her. There’s no conversation that would work with her, especially in this culture, that wouldn’t go wrong.

Biting my tongue a little, I close off that line of thinking. Directing it instead to the literal light at the end of this pitch-black tunnel.

And a solid gate, blocking the way between our destination and us.