(POV: Skyler)

Curious to see how Iris managed to train them this well, I decided to hide myself and observe for a while.

After a few months, the children are led into the palace and shown to their rooms. After the door closes, I notice a pink mist floating around. I frown. The mist would distract the children from their cultivation.

As I wonder about the purpose of the mist, I heard strange sounds from behind me. I turn around to see the children tearing off their clothes and pouncing on each other.

How beastly!

How indecent!

How inhumane!

Covering my eyes, I immediately teleport away. I greatly regret my curiosity.

A startled Iris appears in front of me.

She asks, “Who are you?”

Furious, I yell, “You don’t even recognize me anymore?”

Hearing my voice, Iris recognizes me and says apologetically, “Sorry master. But may I ask why you look just like me?”

Looking at myself, I realize that Iris has never met me in this form before. It wasn’t her fault that she didn’t recognize me. Feeling a bit guilty about yelling at her, I give her a hug and pat her head.

Confused, Iris asked, “Master, what’s this?”

I just remember that Iris has never been hugged once in her life. Now I feel even guiltier, and give her a few more headpats to make up for it.

However, this doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my purpose in coming here.

I ask Iris, “Where’s the faith energy?”

After collecting it, I return to supply the ship with faith energy.

Thinking back about the breeding den, I’m not sure why I was so upset.

Logically speaking, there’s nothing wrong with it. The strongest survive and reproduce while the weaker ones are eliminated. The pink mist merely brings light to their desire to reproduce. If they never had the desire to reproduce in the first place, then the pink mist would have no effect.

Perhaps it had to do with my memories back on Earth. On Earth, a breeding den would be absolutely unacceptable, and anyone would be horrified if they found themselves inside of one.

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After filling the ship to the brim with faith energy, I go back into seclusion.

Ten years go by, but there’s a voice in my head that keeps telling me to leave seclusion and enjoy life. Frustrated, I decided to leave seclusion and relax to get rid of that annoying voice in my mind. Spending five hundred million years was rather stressful, and maybe I’ll feel better after having some fun.

As I descend to the immortal plane, I arrive in Cyan City, which, despite its boring name, is a large city ruled by the Cyan family.

I expected to be greeted with large crowds of people, but the city is remarkably quiet. It’s only now that I remember cities here are different from cities on Earth. Most cultivators are cultivating in seclusion, though there are quite a few people doing business and working.

I search for an entertainment center, but there are none at all. While I don’t expect there to be video game arcades or anything, there should at least be something entertaining, right? Since there aren’t any entertainment centers, I’ll have to look for the next best thing, a restaurant.

Unfortunately, cultivators don’t put much emphasis on entertainment. After searching for a moment, I found a store selling something remarkably similar to ice cream.

When I go to buy the ice cream, I realize that I don’t have any money, so I create a spatial passage to the vault of the Cyan family and steal a few of their resources. It won’t affect them much anyways.

After purchasing the ice cream with stolen money, I walk onto the streets. Tasting the chocolate flavored ice cream on my tongue and basking in the sunlight truly feels great. How long has it been since I could be like this, enjoying life without a care in the world?

This makes me wonder, what do I want to do with my life? Right now, my only goal is survival. The goal of my life… should be freedom. And I don’t mean freedom with the traditional definition.

By freedom I mean to be able to do as I please, to go where I want, to kill to my heart’s content. Yes. This is the true meaning of life. The goal I work towards.

All of a sudden, I can feel my strength increase, and my mind becomes clearer. My connection to my universe grows stronger, and my comprehension towards my domains has increased greatly. After a moment of inspecting the changes in myself, my attention returns to the real world.

I seem to have bumped into someone. It is indeed my fault, and I’ll give him some cultivation resources as an apology. Any random piece of garbage I give someone should be worth quite a lot to them. However, the thought of apologizing vanishes when I hear what he is saying.

“... you bump into me! Do you know who I am? I am the nineteenth young master of the Cyan family! Do you know who my old ancestor is? He’s a Grand Unity Immortal! That's the highest stage there is! However, little girl, I see you have a nice body. I’ll be magnanimous and consider letting you off if you repay me with it.”

After a moment of being startled, I remember that my physical form still looks like Iris. Judging by his tone, it seems like he intentionally bumped into me to demand compensation. However, I’m in a good mood, so I decided to play around for a bit.

“Sorry, but I’m actually a boy.”

I watch the young master’s expression turn into shock, and one of his lackeys says, “How dare you deceive our young master! Pay with your life!”

I wonder how there can be people this dumb in the world. It probably has to do with the education he received as a child. He was most likely told that his ancestor was a Grand Unity Immortal, so he couldn’t dishonor his clan. However, his ancestor is only an early stage Grand Unity Immortal. Not bad, but not an overlord either.

At this point, it was obvious that the moron intentionally bumped into me. I feel the urge to teach him a lesson, so I tie him to the flag pole and strip him naked. Hopefully he learns a lesson.

Feeling energized, I return to seclusion and spread out my senses as far as I can, beyond the limits of my universe.

And I see something absolutely terrifying.