When I ran into the old guy, Sung Wei at the Golden Spire back on Earth, he’d told me that there’d be ‘Places like this’ on every world. But I didn’t think he meant literally. Especially not by name even. But I supposed it made sense in a way. How else were star flung soldiers to find their way to the veteran’s bar no matter where they were?

Although I figured the Golden Spire here would be ten times better than the one back in Jurin, judging by what I could see of the capital city of Lu Shui Prime thus far. The street I was making my way down looked straight out of the imperial city back home.

Ornate blockwork covered every road like tile and along the sides were all manners of shops and stores, just like being in a city back in the old world on Earth. People by the thousands pushed up and down the streets, some of them driven in rickshaws, hauled by people dressed in nothing but rags.

The disparity became even more evident the further we got from the imperial palace, with cultivators of standing dressed in the finest of robes ignoring the filth-covered beggars lining the streets. I tried my best not to ignore them myself, shelling out a few coppers here and there, but after a couple of blocks, the spare Wen in my purse was completely exhausted.

I kept close to Hein, who seemed to know both exactly where he was going and who to stop and bow to and who to simply ignore. We got a few bows as well, but only from people of the lower castes it seemed.

“How do you know who to bow to?” I asked.

“Anyone who is in finer robes than you, is a good rule of thumb,” Hein said looking at me oddly. “Even you should know that. Although, I guess with what you used to wear back home, that would be everyone to you, so you probably wouldn’t know the difference.”

I just laughed, mostly because it was true.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said with [Indifference].

“You can’t be so flippant here,” Hein said. “Everyone here has status. Martial ranking. Royal family blood. You name it. So don’t be a damn chun. I don’t want to get killed today due to your mouth.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“This is not Jurin,” he said giving me a cautionary glare. “No one here will care that you are the Iron Bull or even a Graduate Legionnaire. In the core worlds, those of society, even those of low status are all High Tier Core Realm Cultivators or even greater and you can never know who might be passing you in the street. Show respect always. They won’t hesitate to kill you if you are a whelp to them.”

I grimaced at the thought. “Tough crowd. Sounds like a bunch of assholes live here.”

“You see what I mean about that mouth?”

I could only laugh again, guilty as charged.

“But it is true. It’s stifling in places like this,” he said. “Even we were nobodies here in the lower courts of the core worlds. I was glad when we moved. In the core worlds, everything rots from the top, they say.”

That made me think about him and Fia a bit and how they possibly grew up in a place like this. And then something clicked and Hein’s whole point of view became clear to me.

“So, you guys were the native scum back in the day, huh?” I said with a chuckle. “Makes sense now.”

Hein scowled at me. “What makes sense?”

“Why you were such an asshole,” I said. “You went from bottom of the barrel to top dog. And you treated us how these people treated you here.”

Anger boiled within him. “Don’t try to psychoanalyze me, you bastard.”

“Hey take it easy.” I slapped him on the back with a grin. “I said ‘were’ an asshole. You’re a lot better now.”

He slapped my hand away. “Don’t patronize me either.”

I merely laughed, but I did indeed get an insight into what growing up was possibly like for him an Fia in a place like this. It was stifling like he said. The constant reinforcing of caste and status. We couldn’t go more than ten feet without having to stop and bow to some rich-looking prick passing by in a rickshaw or being carried by servants in a sedan chair like they were Li Gong Chui.

That made me realize something else that I noticed was off.

“I thought this place was supposed to be rich,” I said as we passed another poverty ridden alley filled with people living under tents. “Why are there so many poor people here?”

“What do you mean?” Hein said. “That’s a sign of its wealth.”

“What?” I gave him a double take. “Some of this shit looks worse than the Native Housing district back home. How’s that supposed to make it look wealthy?”

“They are just the mortals of this world,” Hein said. “The princess does not care for them. They are not citizens. But as you can see. Everyone else is wealthy.”

“But why are they here?”

“The society has need of servants. That is their role.”

“And the princess lets them live like this? In the streets?”

Hein shrugged. “There is no other space for them. This is an old world. Everything is well developed. There is no place else for them to go, besides where they came from perhaps.”

“Where’s that?”

Hein smiled. “The place that we are headed. The Jiangu.”

* * *

The freaking Jiangu.

I hadn’t heard that name for a while, but I knew its meaning well.

The seedy underworld of cultivator society.

It was the place I snagged my first martial training manual back home.

I wound up paying quite a hefty price for it in the end, but it was worth it. It set me on my path for mastery of my first basic martial skills and had gotten me through the Wooden and Iron Brackets as well.

But now my advancement required far more than that.

As Hein and I walked through a more rundown part of the city, where the tall, elegant buildings became multistory warehouses and burnt-out factories, a new idea began to flow. Or perhaps it was an old idea rehashed.

I’d promised myself to try and find a Sacred Soul Realm Cultivation manual while I was here on the core world and perhaps wading into the Jiangu was my best bet to find one. As we sidestepped another group of beggars streaming from an alleyway, I rested a hand on Hein’s shoulder to drag him closer.

“Hey, brother-in-law to be,” I said. “I need your help.”

He brushed my hand away annoyed. “Help with what? And the answer is probably no, so don’t bother asking.”

“Don’t be a prick,” I said with a grin. “I need help getting a Sacred Soul Realm Cultivation manual. Can you help?”

He looked at me even more annoyed. “Why would you think that I could help you with something like that? Aren’t you a Fire Bird or some bastard derivative thereof? Go see them for one.”

“Wait… you think they have one?”

Now he looked like he wanted to punch me. “I swear you are indeed the biggest chun in the empire. How did you reach that stage of cultivation without knowing these things?”

I merely shrugged. “Well, the Fire Bird sect back home was kind of decimated. By me. So… they couldn’t really answer too many questions for me.”

Hein shook his head. “Such things are relics, Chun. Only inner sect elders would possess a copy and yes one would probably not even exist on Terra.”

“But one might exist here, right? On a core world?”

“Likely yes. The sect Patriarchs are all here on the core worlds. But don’t think I, as a Silver Leaf noble would be helping you with anything involving the Fire Birds.”

I let out a scoff.

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“Trust me, I don’t want anything to do with the Fire Birds either.”

Another odd look came from him. “Then how are you expecting to find a manual here?”

“Honestly I was hoping to get one off the black market, in the jiangu.”

Hein stopped and then started to laugh. “You truly are a chun! If there were one, do you think that you of all people would be able to obtain it? Whole sects would be slaughtering one another to obtain that kind of knowledge. And if it’s a manual outside your cultivation path, what good would it be to you anyway?”

Hein let out an exasperated sigh and then continued on down the street, leaving me standing there perplexed.

What he said was unfortunately everything I had feared to be true.

Looking for a Sacred Soul manual outside of a sect was sounding like a pipe dream.

I’d gotten as much from Chief Yora back at Du Gok Bhong, although I wasn’t as direct with my questions as I was with Hein just now. At this level, I should already know these things and perhaps be already versed in cultivation methods from my martial sect.

But no way in hell was I going to be checking in with the local chapter of the Fire Birds to do anything like that. I’d gotten everything I needed from them, which in the end was an elaborate cover under a fake fighting style—the Path of Furious Lightning.

I let out a chuckle.

I was perhaps the one expected to be writing such a manual now.

Screw my life, I thought.

I took off in a trot to catch up to Hein but stopped short when two kids ran out of an alleyway ahead of me.

“Hey!” I shouted, but the kids were too engrossed in whatever game they were playing to even notice. They looked to be only six or seven, dressed in dirty scraps of cloth that served as robes.

They were both probably the same age as most of the kids who survived the invasion back home. I wondered for a moment between the two, who actually had the better life. It was sad to think, that despite losing everything, the people of Jurin had better opportunities than the mortals here.

Who would be these people’s champion?

They weren’t even conquered.

They were just.

Mortal.

It seemed a small sin to be punished for with a lifetime of poverty and servitude. I felt the stirring of my Flame, a tinge of rebellion against a new kind of injustice. The empire not only conquered. It oppressed in a myriad of ways.

As I watched the two kids run off, they were suddenly joined by two adults who looked to be their parents chasing after them. All I could do was shake my head. Hein was right about the core worlds of the empire.

The closer you got to the top, the more it was rotten.

* * *

I caught up to Hein just as the scenery made another dressing change.

Gone were the blocky warehouses, replaced by streets lined with bars, brothels and other forms of entertainment. This was the heart of the jiangu. The street life that perhaps ran half the city from the depths of the underworld.

Evidence of that was found in the form of finely dressed men and women being driven around in rickshaws. They had clearly just come from the nicer part of town and were looking to dip their toes in the seedy decadence and debauchery that only the bad parts of town could provide.

What looked like enforcers also patrolled the streets. Martial thugs armed with bamboo clubs, but they didn’t look hired by the empire. Hein kicked in with the bow routine again as we passed a couple of stately dressed cultivators who looked plastered out of their minds.

It wasn’t even dark yet, but I guessed that wasn’t stopping them from starting the night early. And I couldn’t blame them. I was itching for a drink myself.

“How much further to this place?” I asked.

Hein pointed to the end of the block. “Just on that corner. We should have splurged to buy a rickshaw. I bet half the battalion is already in there and getting drunk alrea—”

A shrill scream rang out, stopping Hein mid-sentence.

Across the street, I spotted the same two little kids, only now one of them was being held in the air at the wrist by a man with a thick beard and wide chest. The other child with him was the one who had screamed, now crying “Baba! Baba!” as he sat on the ground.

“Little shits!” the man cursed. “Dare run into me without apologizing?”

The man grabbed the other child about the neck, cutting off his cries while he threw the other to the ground. He put his foot on the boy’s chest, and I instantly saw red.

I was about to charge forward when Hein caught me by the sleeve. “Leave it be. It’s none of our concern.”

I looked back at him incredulously. “What?”

The boys’ parents then appeared, running and out of breath.

They instantly fell to the ground in a kowtow before the man.

“Please, honored master!” the father cried. “Kill but one of them as a lesson for the other. We beg of you. They are the only two children that we have.”

“Be merciful dear lord!” the mother echoed him. “Kill but one!”

The kids cried out in terror and I nearly lost my shit.

The man eased his foot off the one on the ground. “Perhaps I will be merciful.”

Merciful my ass, I thought. I wasn’t going to wait to find out.

I stepped forward and Hein pulled me back.

“Chun, don’t do it,” he whispered through clenched teeth as he gripped my arm. “Stay out of this. You have no idea who that man might be.”

“You’re right. I don’t know who he is, but I know plenty about what he is,” I said as my Flame roared. “He’s a piece of shit. And he’s about to find out just what the hell I am as well.”

I threw off Hein’s arm.

“This is the one that ran into me,” the man said, tightening his grip about the boy’s neck with murder in his eyes. “He shall pay. Witness now the price of your disrespect.”

“Son of a…”

I took off.

“Chun, don’t do it!” Hein cried from behind me. “Shit! Damn it, Chun!”

But I was already ignoring him and halfway across the street.

I laid into the big bastard with a swift kick to his ass.

He cried out, more from shock than pain and as he let go of the child, I pulled the kid away from him.

“Take your sons,” I said, pushing the children to their parents.

But to my surprise, instead of instantly running away, the parents pressed their foreheads to the ground again.

“Honored master!” the father yelled. “Please! We do not know who this man is. We would never seek to interfere with your justice.”

“Take him!” the mother cried and pushed her son back towards the man. “Spare the other!”

What the hell?

I was so shocked that I didn’t see the man’s blade until all but the last second.

I leapt in front of the kid and took the blow meant for him.

The cutlass hit my bare skin but I didn’t feel anything at all.

Maybe he hadn’t gone all out on a killing blow meant for a kid, but either way, I pegged his strength for what it was. A Mid-tier Core Realm Cultivator at best. I pushed his blade aside with [Fear the Flame] as I cycled my Frenzy.

“That’s the only free hit you’re gonna get today, asshole,” I said as I brandished my axe. “I suggest you take it and piss off before it’s [my turn] to give you a taste of the same.”

The man squared up on me, with a bit of fear mixing with the bravado of his soul.

“You think I’m afraid of that uniform?” he said and then spat on the ground. “Glorified prisoner scum is all you legionnaires are.”

“Nice,” I said.

“And how dare you interfere with my justice.”

“Justice?” I nearly laughed. “Against a six your old, bro? Are your balls really that small?”

I sensed [Everyone’s Fear] pop up all around me and I realized half the neighborhood of street dwellers had now gathered to watch. The parents were still groveling on the ground and crying for the man to take their son’s life as payment for the offense.

How jacked up was this world to form that kind of mentality? I thought.

I didn’t need to understand it to know it was real though.

What I had prevented from happening was clearly what should have happened in all of their eyes.

But I wasn’t settling for that crap.

Not on my frigging watch.

“No way is someone killing a kid in front of me,” I said.

“You’re a fool,” the man said. “You’ve chosen death to save a useless mortal child? They are destined for death anyway. And don’t you know they’ll simply breed more?”

He let out a belly laugh then, roaring with delight at what he clearly thought was the most ridiculous thing in the world. And by the way Hein was now holding his head in his hands, he probably agreed.

But to hell with them.

“You just try and touch me,” the man said. “And you’ll see what will become of you and your entire monkey troop of prisoner assholes.”

“I ain’t got to do shit, mate,” I said. “It’s your move, asshole. You either piss off or take another swing. So, which is it going to be?”

The fear within him doubled as I laid on a shit-eating grin.

“Better make sure you kill me too,” I said. “Cause you won’t like my comeback.”

His fear and anger peaked, and he let out a yell. “Arrogant bastard! You’ve earned my ultimate technique. [Crow Storms the Hell’s Gate]!”

Black flames emerged from his cutlass as he spun in a wild swing. It would have been easy to dodge, but I met it with [Steel Lightning] instead. His weapon hit my lightning-rippled skin and shattered. He cried out in shock and pain but I grabbed him by the collar, to prevent him from being blown back by the exploding steel.

I grinned in his face. “I was hoping you’d choose violence. Now it’s [My Turn] bitch!”

I pushed him back and then spun with a spinning uppercut straight to his stomach.

“[Struggler’s Fist of Fury]!”

My red-hued [Spectral Body] emerged just as I slammed him in the gut and his eyes went wide with pain as I launched him into the air. I followed through with a hatchet kick to the shoulder that brought him back down to earth again, cracking the pavement in the process.

He was stunned for a second, but then slowly he struggled to his knees, coughing and sputtering as he clutched his stomach in pain. He gasped for air like a drowning man, and then finally he managed to get some words out.

“Y-you.. What did you do?”

“I decided to be merciful as well,” I said. “I spared your life, but crippled your Dantian. If you’re lucky it might recover. But either way, you’re going to have a chance to live just like these mortals you despise for a while.”

“W-what? Y-you!”

“And if you even think about taking revenge on that little kid, your destined death will be assured. You got that?”

The fear in him was absolute.

I’d broken more than just his core.

I’d broken his very soul.

“Y-yes,” he said. “Please, I-I did not know—”

I belted him across the temple, knocking him out before he could even finish his pathetic plead for mercy. As his body hit the ground unconscious, the crowd around me bolted like I’d just pulled a fire alarm. I looked back and saw the couple now holding their two kids as well.

The expression on their faces was unreadable.

Disbelief. Shock. Fear. Awe.

But the lemonade in their souls told me they were grateful to have both their sons tonight.

“Take yourselves far from here,” I said and tossed them a couple of 5 tael coins from my purse. “Go now and don’t look back.”

The father collected the coins with tears streaming from his eyes.

It was perhaps more money than he’d held in his life.

I know it was for me the first time I held one.

They both kowtowed again, pulling their kids to the ground with them.

“You are a saint from the heavens,” the father said. “It is no wonder you are a legionnaire. No demon of Hell could stand against you!”

I gave them a nod of thanks and they took off running.

As I cultivated the residual lemonade in the air, I sensed Hein approach from behind me.

“You’ve got to be the stupidest man alive,” he said as he stepped next to me and then looked down at the man. “But you do pack a powerful punch.”

“Thanks,” I said. “And you’re probably right about the stupid part, but I don’t really give a shit.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious,” he said glancing about. “Look we need to get out of here. We can hide back at the palace.”

“What are you freaking out about?” I said. “This wasn’t some high society prick. He was just some thug. And trust me. He’s too chicken shit now to do anything.”

“Thugs have friends, Chun.”

“So do we.” I shrugged. “If these street scum think they can take on a platoon of legionnaires let them come and try.”

With that I got stepping towards the Golden Spire.

Hein hesitated a moment and then followed after me.

I smiled as he caught up. “Glad to see you’ve grown a pair.”

“It’s not balls I’ve grown but brains.”

“Eh?”

“You’re actually right Chun,” he said. “When they come looking for us, no one would think we’d be stupid enough to hang around and grab a drink. The Golden Spire will be the perfect place to hide for now.”