Fallen Tide City was looming on the horizon. It arrogantly looked down upon the shanty towns of the mortals who were unable to cultivate that surrounded it. For the most part, only wealthy mortals and cultivators held the right to live in the city. Anyone else lived on the outskirts or in its slums. Lute would’ve been no different if it was a few years ago.

But now everything was different. He held the right to enter the city as he was a cultivator, there was nothing holding him back except his own worries. And it was rightfully so that he was cautious.

In the city, there was an untold amount of dangers. Swindlers, thieves, assassins, upstart egotistical brats. There were many here who could do harm to Lute, whether physically, mentally or in some way he couldn’t think of. After all, despite his inheritances, he was still only a peak Foundational Qi cultivator that was pitifully weak.

Seren glanced at Lute, he seemed slightly apprehensive, no matter how well he hid it. After interacting with him for a few weeks, Seren gradually began to pick up on these things. It wasn’t that Lute was emotionless or had a split personality, it was actually rather simple. He was insanely adept at concealing what his emotions were in front of other people. She had no idea why he felt the need to be so masterful at this and concealing his cultivation.

Well… for cultivation it was obvious, it was like showcasing how strong you were, if you could hide it, then at the very least, for a moment someone could doubt whether they really wanted to mess with you.

Seren attempted to ease Lute’s thoughts, “Stick close to me when we enter Fallen Tide City, nothing should go wrong, we’ll get you some clothes and then it’s your lucky day, the sect actively recruits disciples once a month. And today is that day.”

For anyone else, Seren wouldn’t say very much, if at all. As she was the daughter of the second most powerful noble in the city, many wanted to curry favors with her or find a way to blackmail her. As such, she didn’t converse with many, Lute was one of the few people she actively took the initiative to chat with and drop her persona of being unapproachable.

“Uh huh”

Lute didn’t say anything else; they had approached the gates of the city finally. Upon receiving pervasive gazes from all the people loitering around the streets, Lute quickly put up his hood and held his cloak shut, preventing anyone from seeing his scarred body and fur clothes.

But alas that only made him appear more suspicious as he walked next to Seren who was well known throughout the city. After all, Lute was now over six feet tall and the majority of people on the Crimson Tide Planet rarely, if ever, made it to five foot ten inches. It also didn’t help that he had deep crimson and overgrown ragged hair peeking out from his hood. Its color stood in stark contrast to his clear sky blue eyes.

In the end, Lute stood out like a sore thumb; the majority of people had black, brown or blonde hair with brown or gray eyes and was an average of five foot five in height.

Lute didn’t feel fear, rather he felt slightly awkward at having so many gazes upon him. He would actually feel more comfortable with the eyes of a Vicious Beast looking at him with the intent to kill instead of all the questioning gazes.

As they travelled through the streets, Lute took note of all the different signs and street. There were many vendors, the ripe smell of fruits and other foods could be smelled in the air. Countless merchants were straining their voices to be louder than their competitors. It was truly a hustle and bustle place.

But Lute wasn’t paying attention to this, he wasn’t ignorant. What he saw was the darker side of this city almost immediately. While the majority of people were cultivators, many of which could casually kill him with a palm of their hand, there were some mortals, all of which were in dark alleyways. They were emaciated, bruised and smelled of fecal matter. They were the equivalent of the living dead.

Then with a casual look in another direction, Lute could see a group of cultivators beating up and stealing from a single weaker cultivator. He didn’t let this affect his mind though, in the end Lute knew he was just as despicable because he didn’t help those who were suffering or feel any guilt over it.

Maybe if he had the strength, he’d attempt to help… or maybe not, Lute didn’t know, his personality was truly warped after merging with Isla, he felt no problem with letting millions of people die even if he was the cause. If it was wrong to feel that way, he didn’t know, but there was no use dwelling on things that weren’t easily prone to change as he doubted that he’d feel any different on this predicament at any point later in time.

Gradually, as they were cutting through the main roads, a mansion appeared in the distance that was quickly approaching. It was adorned with a pointed roof, was fenced in and had many guards, all of which Lute wouldn’t want to even take one casual slap from.

“We are almost at my home; there shouldn’t be anyone there right now. My father and mother work all day and I have no siblings. There are some guards and maids, but they should let you in.” Seren said with her voice full of confidence. As she was the only one to succeed her father, she had been trained to easily command those who were her subjects.

As they approached the mansion, Lute noticed that he couldn’t read the cultivations of the guards, only if they released their full strength would he know their cultivations but if they were suppressed like his was he wouldn’t be able to see through the deception, they were out of his league…. At least they were for now.

Very slowly and almost imperceptibly, Lute muttered under his breath so Seren wouldn’t hear him. “Master, what is the cultivation of the guards? How many Great Realms are they above me?”

Isla was, after all a soul at the Divine Level, Lute even speculated her soul was stronger than that before she “Died”. Only someone with soul strength at her level would be able to sense her within Lutes body, even if that action she took was simply talking to Lute, they would be able to notice. That was why she needed to hide in Lute and barely speak with him around humans, but no one had reached the Divine Path in this world, so she could take the risk to help Lute in such manners, even if it meant risking herself being exposed since the chances were in her favor.

If she was found out though, Lute would be tortured by Heavenly Emperors as their greed to learning how to enter the Divine Path would supersede any thoughts about torturing a teenager. At that point, Isla would just accept death, letting herself die with Lute, there was no way she would casually tell a Mortal Realm planets cultivators the secret to breaking through or about inheritances.

Isla responded in a serious manner, Lute was now in a place where danger was around every corner. If she was able to help out even a bit, even if it was telling him cultivation levels of others, it would increase his chances of survival.

“The ones armed to the teeth with weapons and armor are in the Earthen Practitioner Realm, the ones that are casually walking around the premises trying not to expose their strength and act weak are in the Ascension Realm, then there is one more who is hidden, she is looking at you, this person is in the Intermediate Emperor Qi Realm at the sixth level.”

Lute silently swallowed, a cold sweat starting to perspire down his back. He wasn’t afraid to die, but even he would be a liar and an idiot if he said that he didn’t feel nervous about catching the attention of someone five Great Realms above him.

Lute didn’t enjoy having problems arise unexpectedly, especially when he was too weak to do anything about them. And the notion that he was travelling with Seren would cause him to meet someone in the Emperor Qi Realm was sending off many danger signals in his mind. It suddenly felt like a much better idea to leave Seren and buy his own clothes with the money he could get for selling cores.

“Say, Seren, I think it would be better if I didn’t travel with you in the city. I’ll just sell the cores that I have and buy my own clothes. Why don’t we just meet back up in a few hours?” Lute said, trying to sound as persuasive as possible.

He really didn’t want to meet this unknown woman who would probably kill him if he even stuttered a word in her presence. It would be much safer and rational to avoid this mansion all together.

Seren eyed Lute, she was puzzled as to why he suddenly changed his mind, neither of her parents were home, and her father wouldn’t object anyway as he knew Seren’s plight of not having any friends her age.

“Why, there isn’t any problem, if you fear my father, he isn’t home right now, I already stated that.”

‘Come on, take the hint, don’t you know the strength of and how many bodyguards you have… Well I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for Master, but that’s beside the point.’

“It’s not that I am unwilling, I just don’t think I would be welcomed on the premises by your subordinates, especially the one who wants to kill me right about now.”

Lute then pointed behind Seren, he wasn’t wrong about sensing a threat to his life, and after all whom was more sensitive to others killing intent than he who used Slaughter Aura. It was blatant killing intent directed at him as well as the Emperor made no attempt to hide it.

It wasn’t the same as his where he could make others feel like they tasted and smelled blood, as well as feel like they were suffocating under the pressure, that was only something he could do because of the overbearingness that was Slaughter Aura as it was the realm after killing intent.

Instead, it was a pressure that was one level weaker than Slaughter Aura. It wasn’t nearly as suffocating but it still seemed to seep into Lutes bones. But for Lute who had directly bypassed the level of killing intent and entered the realm of Slaughter Aura, even if it was killing intent from a peak Heavenly Emperor, he wouldn’t suffer from deviations such as Qi flowing sluggishly because of fear. At the most it felt like a slightly prickling sensation that came from his bones which he felt the need to itch but couldn’t.

Walking out from the mansion gates, the Emperor had suppressed her cultivation, but it didn’t matter since Lute already knew. She was exceptionally tall, only a few inches below Lute in height. Hair as black as Isla’s and dull gray eyes that seemed full of wisdom but violence as well were locked onto Lute.

She was dressed as if she was prepared for war, with full body armor that seemed to be made from Vicious Beast scales. But what was most overbearing was the weapon she held in her hand. It was a spear with a picture of a True Dragon on its blade. The aura it was emitting seemed to add to the Emperors killing intent.

Lute stared at the spear in awe, this was a true spirit armament, a weapon with its own will. It couldn’t even be remotely compared to the mundane mortal weapons that were so common. A spirit armament was tailor made for cultivators only; there was no possible way a mortal would be able to obtain one, no matter how wealthy they were.

While Lute was staring at the spear, he momentarily forgot about the reason this Emperor even appeared from hiding in the shadows was because of how suspicious he looked. It was a testament to how vast of a chasm it was between Killing Intent and Slaughter Aura. With his mind fixated on the weapon, Lute didn’t even feel the Killing Intent anymore.

The Empress, since she was a female Emperor Qi cultivator, approached Lute and Seren outside of the mansions gates as the two had stopped due to Lute attempting to leave. All the people in the surrounding area left immediately, no one wanted to be on the receiving end of the spear of the Empress had become angry.

“Young Mistress, where have you been for the past half a month? Shouldn’t you be at the Fallen Tide Hall and furthering your studies?” The Empress asked with her tone that was full of respect for Seren; after all she was the Patriarch’s successor and only child.

However she didn’t take her eye off Lute as she spoke to Seren, this child seemed suspicious and dangerous, a person Seren shouldn’t associate with even if she had no friends and wanted one.

With just one look at him, she knew that he wasn’t someone that Seren would normally even put in her eyes. He was covered in a bloodstained cloak, hiding his body from her sight, which made her even more suspicious. But most of all, she felt the air about him was different, most people would shiver underneath her Killing Intent, but he didn’t even twitch.

Seren looked at her subordinate and it all clicked in her mind.

‘No wonder Lute wanted to leave on his own, Alda was thinking of killing him, and with how she is, there is no doubt she made it known to Lute the moment she spotted him with me’

Now that she understood the situation, Seren intended to resolve it. It wouldn’t do to fail after this far and convincing Lute to come with her. He was a talent that quite possibly would surpass the Soul Opening Realm if he lived long enough, and that was something the Fallen Tide Hall needed. No sect in the New Dawn Kingdom had successfully raised a Qi Overlord or Heavenly Emperor.

The New Dawn Kingdom had more natural resources to raise even a Heavenly Emperor than most countries, but with how the power of the world worked, because they had resources but nobody with the strength to protect those resources, all the other countries and more powerful sects took them for their own, leaving only scraps for the New Dawn Kingdom. They were only a kingdom in name; all the sects were weak and were constantly shoved around by others that had even one Qi Overlord.

The only reason all the sects hadn’t been destroyed and all of the New Dawn Kingdom hadn’t been taken over was because they had so many valuable resources such as Spirit Gem mines. If one country tried or even one of the Primordial Sects attempted to take this vast sum of wealth for themselves, then all the sects and countries would immediately attack them and wipe them out, once again returning to the predicament the New Dawn Kingdom was currently in.

No matter how powerful one of the Primordial Sects were, if for example the Eternal Sword Sect which on the surface was considered the strongest due to having the most Heavenly Emperors, most of which were late stage as well, had attempted to take all of the Spirit Gem Mines of the New Dawn Kingdom. Even they wouldn’t survive under the onslaught of the other Primordial Sects, the Elemental Sects and the Craftsmen Sects, as well as the hundreds of other sects on the continent, some of which were closing in on the title of being a considered a Primordial Sect.

There were numerous peak Soul Opening Realm cultivators, such as Seren’s father, but they had reached the limit of their talent and wouldn’t advance anymore, they instead chose to involve themselves with helping the younger generations or deal with politics over seriously cultivating. This was why Lute was so important, he could fight Vicious Beasts without using any Arts or Techniques and only had Martial Arts, and this was unprecedented. Seren couldn’t let him go to another nation or sect that already had Qi Overlords or Heavenly Emperors.

Seren turned to Alda, her atmosphere was once again that of a noble. It was no longer gentle like it had been for the past few weeks. With Lute she learned to cast off this aura and act like any other cultivator would who wasn’t of the nobility. At first glance she wouldn’t have been seen as noble because she learned to hide it so thoroughly. But now that she was around Alda, she once again had to act like a person befitting her station.

The only difference between this commanding atmosphere from before she met Lute and after she met Lute was the fact that Seren no longer had a snobbish attitude, her pride had been stepped on by Lute too much, he had shattered her reality of being invincible as long as she mentioned her family name.

The personality of a snobbish and arrogant noble who thought they were invincible had been replaced by someone who actually seemed as if they deserved respect, and not just because of their family bloodline, but instead it was because they Seren actually deserved it.

“Alda, I had taken a request to go to the Crimson Tide Mountain Range. As you can see I have returned. This was my companion that aided me in my travels. His name is Lute Ravenshadow; he is covered in the cloak because he stands out too much.”

Seren had a commanding tone in her voice, clearly emphasizing that Lute was her companion and someone that could be trusted. She didn’t want Lute to go through any hassle because of how he looked. It was understandable he would hide his body due to abnormal eye color and hair color, his clothes, and all of the scars on his body.

He truly did stand out, as his features, although there were people with blue eyes and red hair, it wasn’t typically seen. And Lutes eyes were the clearest of blue and not cloudy like most, and his hair wasn’t red but instead a deep crimson, making him even more of an abnormality.

Alda kept gazing at Lute, even though the Young Mistress phrased her words in a way that now she couldn’t kill the boy, she still couldn’t shake a feeling of suspicion. She had released her Killing Intent at its peak strength. Lute should’ve been pissing in his pants as it was all centered upon him, and he was only at the peak of the Foundational Qi Realm, yet he wasn’t even trembling in fear.

Alda narrowed her eyes, “Well forgive me Young Mistress, but I still need to see what secret this young child is hiding.”

Alda didn’t wait for a reply; suddenly she struck out with her spear towards Lute.