I could feel a stress headache coming on from this news, but as I brought my hand up to rub my temples, it was immediately healed.

Not sure how to feel about that.

“So, what I’m hearing is… it will be difficult for me to stay low?”

“Well, yes. Though, since you already have me with you, there shouldn’t be too many issues. You had mentioned you just wanted to pass through? With that, even if some recognize you, you should be able to brush them off. If they ask me, I can confirm that you wanted to stay low.”

That’s not too bad, then. I just need to keep moving.

“Okay, that’s great to hear then. I guess we better get moving quickly.”

With this in mind, we head out of the building, back out onto the busy street. Luckily for me, it doesn’t appear much has changed.

Nodding at Shi, we head back up to the curtain with the guard, who bows to her before standing there.

Reaching out through my connection to the spider, I whistle, calling it over here. But slowly and passively, so there aren’t any issues.

The spider waddles over to us slowly and almost in a silly way. In the corner of my eye, I can see Shi holding a hand on the handle of her sword. She’s obviously wary. I can see the guard on the other side of the curtain, even more ready to strike against it.

“You guys shouldn’t need to worry. She’s fully tamed and trained. Here, watch this.”

I squat down and the spider follows suit.

I raise both of my hands; it raises two legs. Slowly, I move one hand forward towards it; while it raises its leg towards my hand at the same time.

“Ahem.

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Pat it and prick it and mark it with…”

And so, several people stopped what they were doing to watch, as a grown man squatted on a street, playing Patty Cake with a giant spider.

“…put it in the oven for baby and me!”

I can feel the emotions from this spider and it is definitely having way too much fun with this. Like, a ton of fun. Gong seems to check in from the intense emotions that the spider is having and I can practically feel her rolling laughter from far away. Quickly though, she disappears from the connection. Satisfied.

Looking over to Shi and the guard, I can see the guard still has their mouth wide open, while Shi is covering her mouth with her hand. She’s shaking. Shaking with giggles.

Well… at least I’m good at making beautiful women laugh.

She isn’t the only one having a good time. Others on the street, are laughing openly.

One child in particular just has a finger pointed in our general direction and excitedly speaking, jumping up and down. They are next to a carriage, with other adults laughing as well.

…sigh.

It’s not too bad though. The laughter seems to be more good-natured than anything. At least from Shi, that is.

“So, does that make you feel a little bit at ease, Shi?”

She’s not looking at me, but is nodding her head, her hand over her mouth.

After she regains control of herself, we reenter the curtain, with the guard waving us through. Even though, they seem more relaxed, their eyes never leave the giant spider. The street seems as busy as ever, as it appears to be only a couple of hours until noon here.

Reminds me of Vegas, a place that never sleeps.

She wraps her arm around mine and displays her yellow ring, for others to see.

As we walk toward the center of the road, more and more people while moving stare, while making way for us. It’s actually really intimidating.

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Shi, for her part, begins waving people’s attention away, assuring them everything is fine. They seem to be listening, so she has some measure of authority.

I didn’t really think of it, but how high up in the organization is Shi?

Taking a glance over at her, she seems to be in her element. Leading the way ahead of us, while holding my hand.

But then I think of something that makes a shiver crawl down my back.

Wait a second. When did Shi move ahead of me and grab my hand? She was practically entwined with my arm, but I would have noticed a shift to grab my hand.

I’ve had my scan on this whole time… so, I shouldn’t have missed it.

Rummaging through my memory and interpreting the scan, I realize that she almost instantaneously had done so. I had immediately subconsciously noticed when she had done so and saw her waving people away. That speed of movement was insane.

However, this tells me that I will be subconsciously alerted to a change with the intuitive scan. The only issue is, whether I consciously recognize it as an important change or not.

That doesn’t even include my reaction speed. I have the feeling that she is well trained, so this might be the real speed of a cultivator. The question is, what tier of cultivation is she at? Not only that, but if this them when being casual…

There are so many things I don’t know about her and I’m letting her lead me along. I’m not sure what else I can do, based on what she’s told me.

She seemingly notices my growing apprehension and looks back at me worried.

Her red hair trickles in front of her face, which she quickly brushes back. Adding a slight twirl to it in her fingers.

I can’t help, but relax a little, giving a smile to her. She smiles back and returns her eyes to the front.

I’ll just stick with this as we go along. Based off my scan, we have quite a distance to go.

Surprisingly quickly, we break through to the other side of this setup, with no real issues. She begins jogging at a fast pace and I join her. It looks like to get there in a normal amount of time, requires fast movement. Luckily, I’m in absurd shape due to the healing constitution.

I send out a feeler to the spider and it looks like it will be okay with sprints and long-distance journeys.

I’m honestly surprised by how versatile these spiders are. They look pretty different from each other, but share similar characteristics and abilities. All of which are honestly, frightening.

Pushing the horrifying army Gong has at her disposal into the back of my mind, we move into the next setup, and the next, and the next.

It eventually becomes a pattern between areas of jogging/sprinting, to slowing down to push through crowds.

It appears that the fact that a client and a giant spider are being escorted through the back areas, has reached ahead of us, through information runners.

We begin seeing more curious people in the groups, rather than annoyed ones at being disturbed. My scan catches some obviously shady women watching, but they seem to be doing little else.

With my scan on and strong, I manage to catch the edges of certain conversations. Ones which I definitely didn’t want to hear as an ignorant, modern man. It looks like hygiene habits are important here, as well, for this profession.

It also explains the countless bathrooms and massive water tanks I’ve been seeing around. There are even cup washing and giving stations, where they are just continuously handing out water.

The logistics and cost for all of this must be insane.

However, as I pass through yet another section, I can overhear one woman complaining about pain. Pain from being roughly abused. And the abuser being ‘taken care of’. It looks like they have it handled, so I keep moving.

Unfortunately, it’s not the only time I’ve heard this, going through these crowds.

I keep hearing it. Over and over again.

Something is going on here.

Just as we come out of the crowd, I pull Shi to the side and stop her from continuing forward.

“Do you mind if we pause here? I’d like to take a quick look at what’s going on.”

She hesitates.

“Are you thinking of helping the women here? Excuse me if this comes off disrespectful, but If you get involved in this, you’ll be revealed to everyone around here. They won’t stop hounding you, after today. Being who you are and who you represent, will only make it more tedious to use this route in the future. Which will go against what you wanted today.”

I can feel myself gulp in a different way this time. I’m not a fan of crowds of people, let alone people who all want something from me.

Back on Earth, I was privileged enough to be able to stand apart from things, without seeing it in front of my eyes.

However, with it being up in my face now? …Frankly, it really makes me want to not deal with this even more.

I’m no saint.

I just see something that I can help to fix and try to do it as discreetly as possible. Mostly, so I’m not inconvenienced and to make myself feel better. It’s similar to giving money to a charity… when you know they need volunteers and your time even more.

You know the money will help to solve many of their issues… but the deep and empathetic change that many people and projects actually need?

Money can’t solve that, but it’s definitely still convenient!

…I don’t feel good about thinking that way.

I wish I could just heal them discreetly, but with my cover and being the most obviously different person here, I’d be quickly uncovered.

Not to mention the fact there are likely many cultivators here. Just like Shi.

So, it would be so much easier to just keep walking. Maybe… probably… definitely smarter to do so.

But I can’t do that.

Even if this is going to be uncomfortable as hell.

I’m not even sure why, myself. It’s could be that subconsciously, these are beautiful women that are in pain and I can’t help but want to help.

Now that I think about it, the only people I’ve personally healed all out, have been people I find attractive or little kids, which anyone would want to help.

What if this was a bunch of cranky, old men?

Shit. That definitely isn’t as exciting. That makes me feel pretty guilty. That’s my bias.

Ah, shoot. I’ve just been standing here staring off in the distance. Shi has a confused look on.

I should talk to Shi, let her know that I’m doing this. I’ll figure out my emotions later.

There’s work to be done.