"Thought Or Telepathy"
"Character Communication"
"Loud Speaking"
"Emphasis 'On' A Word."
Madara: A New Journey
The day went by quickly following the events earlier. Having separated himself after handling things, Madara has been watching from the sky, levitating so high that no one can see him, beyond the clouds, but with his sight, he can see those beneath him as clear as the reflection in the mirror.
Under the watchful eye of a hawk, the three men had done exactly as he asked, although in truth the only one who could feel the danger pressing down upon them like a blanket of swords covering the sky, is Daichi, the vice-protector of the other two.
Not only did Daichi ensure that they got a new carriage but he also made them help load it up. It's really fortunate that the young master seemed to know the daughter of this family, they seem friendly after patching the earlier incident, saying that it was all a big misunderstanding.
Although Daichi is still keeping his attention, that gentlemen called Kaba, he certainly didn't trust them, which made sense, they were here to take "taxes" of those under the regional lord to which he served. It just so happens this village, or no more fittingly this singular family is under the protection of a supreme martial expert.
Luckily, he carries a fair amount of authority and respect with his position under the regional lord, otherwise, he'd have to kill the other two to save his skin, if he did that then his senior protector - a real vicious bastard - would undoubtedly hunt him down and kill him.
His cultivation is poor compared to those people, he wasn't even able to get into a one-star copper sect, instead, he was forced into the life of a wandering cultivator, with minimum resources and education it's basically a pointless venture, but his talent wasn't half bad and in the mortal world his cultivation is formidable.
His senior is unimaginably strong for a wandering cultivator, he did wonder how someone can get that strong and still not join a sect. Still, his cultivation is enough to enjoy life. Who cares about the immortal world when you can more easily enjoy a fat life amongst the mortals.
Madara enjoys watching that man squirm around uncomfortably under his gaze. As his eyes sway up towards the horizon, he can already see the structures of monumental size in all directions. "I wonder which one we'll be heading towards?" He says nonchalantly as he watches the sun approaching the horizon.
When the final crate is loaded onto the carriage, the three that did all the work quickly scatter away, not wanting to suffer anymore embarrassment or meet with Madara again, they are sure to keep their mouths shut about the whole incident, which is good for everyone.
As Kaba and his mother are deciding whether to leave now or wait till tomorrow, Madara appears nearby. He's eager to leave and asks them where they are headed and when they are leaving. Kaba replies quickly. THey're leaving now, it's decided.
Madara, Hatsune, Hiroi, and Mika climb aboard the cramped carriage, while Kaba and his mother sit up-front by the horses. They'd take turns sitting in the back and being upfront, considering how most of the space is taken up by crates, it would be too cramped with all of them.
Though, they still had to leave so much behind. A final look at their home and they set off on their journey.
From listening to Kaba and Misaki talk about which route to take through the night, Madara gathers the destination to be a place called Glacier Fate City. They've been heading further north and have already entered the Land of That for two days, further away from the Land of Ancestors.
This is good news for him, Kaguya undoubtedly resides in the Land of Ancestors at this time, avoiding her, for now, would be wise.
Although the names they use for presumably the continents or countries they are heading to no longer match that of his day, which makes sense, most are named after the shinobi attribute within, but further north from the Land of That, is only the Land of Rain and the Land of Earth.
Hatsune, Hiroi, and Mika had remained in the back with him so far, although Madara hasn't said a word to either of them and instead sits cross-legged with his eyes closed and closed off from the people around him like an impenetrable wall.
Such a thing didn't matter to a child, who has been climbing over his shoulders and sitting and sleeping in his lap.
Madara still remained silent and stoic like a statue even when the little girl indulged in such behaviour over the two days and a half. He didn't eat when they pulled out food or got out to stretch when they momentarily stopped for the horses to be feed and get some rest. He's like just another object they're transporting.
Hatsune is on the other side of the carriage opposing Madara, sitting down and hugging her knees with slightly tired and sunken eyes as she watches her little sister sleep on Madara's lap. Right now, she is feeling conflicting emotions. "Did he really kill those people..."
For the first time since they left, Madara opens his eyes. His hand moves to Mika's head as he gingerly brushes her hair between his black claw-like fingernails.
Hatsune looks away, slight traces of fear in the expression she wears. "Are you scared of me?" Madara asks quietly and kindly so that Kaba and Misaki couldn't hear.
Hatsune hugs her knees tighter as he asks the question. She replies only with a small shake of her head from side to side. "So that was the first person you saw die...if it is any consolidation, they didn't feel anything, they just, ceased to exist, like going to sleep forever."
"What did you feel when you did it?" She asks so quickly one could think it was the wind.
Madara smiles slightly as his eyes smile along with a slightly devilish appearance. "If you expect me to tell you that I hated it, I'd be lying."
Her eyes widen as he continues. "Killing is as easy as breathing, I first killed someone after I learned to walk and have been ending life ever since, and the way I killed those two, was, rather humane. You should consider yourself fortunate."
It's then that Kaba comes through the front and enters the back. "We're close to a small town that we'll stop at for the coming night to resupply. How are you guys getting along so far?"
Hatsune replies with an absent-minded smile. "I've slept a bit, are you tired? I can go to the front while you get some sleep."
Kaba smiles back. "Yeah, thanks I could totally use that..."
Madara picks up Mika with his two hands, cradling her sleeping frame. "I'll head to the front, you can both stay." He hands her to Kaba before cutting through the white cloth into the front of the carriage to sit next to Misaki with a nod in her direction.
Misaki is surprised to see Madara and she notices the sword strapped to his waist as he sits down. He notices her gaze and moves the sword to holds it out in front of her. "You should hold onto this sword, it has some unique qualities." She looks at the sword, her husband's sword.
"Thanks." She replies tucked away as their hands lightly brush against each other as she pushes the blade away. "But, I don't think I can wield this, you're more suited for it."
"You showed no weakness when it valued most to protect that which you hold most cherished." Once again, he moves the blade in front of her. "A blade isn't always used to kill, it can be used to protect, it all depends on the wielder. Besides, if I truly need this in the future, I'll just borrow it from you."
She didn't know Madara thought so much of her actions or paid that much notice. She takes the blade this time with a deeper shade of red and a happy smile. The blade is certainly powerful, but Madara truly has no need to carry around such a blade, but if such a day does come, retrieving it should be a simple matter.
Suddenly a serious expression shows itself on Madara visage as he looks forward to the village.
She looks at him with a confused expression but as they enter the streets of the village the reason becomes clear. She looks to the side as a child is kicked to the ground and beaten by a beefy looking woman as she snatched a loaf of bread that was stolen from her little rickety wood stand.
Her stare drifts towards an alley between two buildings to see the dried remains of a dog being gnawed at by two boney and decayed individuals, although she's seen sights like this before, it always shocks the mind.
People are also set up on the floor, using some fabric to rest their items and food barely passable as garbage, clearly scrapping and on their last leg. The poverty of this area isn't as bad as Madara's seen it during times of war, but this certainly isn't what peaceful times look like.
As they go down twists and turns to reach further into the village the poverty decreases, building growing larger and are made from better material to protect from the elements. The people also look healthier albeit not by much, that look of oppression and hunger still displayed openly.
They soon hit a small wall about fifteen feet high with a gate in front of them. Madara looks to one of the guards on either side of the gate as he asks. "Can we pass through?" The guard only shakes his head before raising his hand to show to fingers, his message clear.
He manoeuvres the horses to head around into the busy street to leave the village, all the while taking note of the increasing amount of chatter and stares in their direction as they once again reach the poverty of the outer edges and finally leave into the open trail to the woods.
He continues travelling for ten minutes and pulls off the road into the woods before coming to a stop. Informing the others of his intentions, they agree and get out of the cart, before Kaba wakes Mika however, Madara says. "You can leave her to sleep, nothing can harm any of you while I'm here."
Kaba is hesitant as he replies. "Then why did we hide the carriage."
"Because the carriage attracts attention, an attention that will trigger the response of human desperation." He gestures towards the sleeping Mika. "If they attack out here, killing them won't attract attention, but if they start trouble in town, killing them will invite further...complications."
By complications, he meant that word would spread or he'd have to massacre the entire town, well, he'd do that regardless to prevent such a thing. Kaba seems more convinced now as they all head back to the town.
It didn't take long to reach the village and for the rest to witness extreme poverty. Kaba sighs. He had no idea that this village would be in such poor condition, getting supplies for the journey to the next nearest town is a must, it's over five days away and they don't have enough to last.
Although Madara seems to know where to go as he leads them further towards the centre to a big gate. Kaba immediately understands what that meant as he runs up to the guard to ask how to get in, the guard responds the same as he did last time, holding up a few fingers.
He quickly reaches into his pouch to grab a few silver coins before handing to the guard who smiles and puts them away before signalling to the other as he steps to the door on the side of the gate to unlock it and let them in.
The other side is a completely different story, not only is the poverty gone but it looks like a capital trading town. Large buildings with large businesses running in them, weapons are being sold along with plentiful food that looks and smells fantastic.
At the centre of this new area is a large tower, easily four times higher than the other stone buildings and decorated like an esteemed church. Madara smiles as he looks towards Kaba to say. "I"ll be heading my own way, I'll find you before you leave." With that, he walks away into the crowd and disappears.
It only takes him a second to go reach the tower and enter. There are many levels inside, some normal looking people in the lower level, he also can tell that the levels go underground and he could feel a lot of people underneath, in not the best condition, but he didn't bother checking and instead goes to the top.
A young man with long brown hair is in the very centre of a room at the very top of a tower in the centre of a town he created long ago, lay cross-legged amongst a myriad of symbols on the floor connecting to six very dully glowing stones in a pentagram like formation.
The man thinks to himself at this moment with slight elation. "After 40 years of labouring over mortals, I finally amassed enough wealth to buy these six spirit stones." The formation begins to illuminate with a low glow that channels towards the centre.
"I can finally break through the bottleneck of the 5th layer of Qi Condensation. All I need to do is absorb a vast amount of spiritual energy." The spiritual energy starts entering his body and as he's about to embrace the feeling a looming pressure appears behind him. Before he can turn around in surprise, a hand grabs his head.
The youth's eyes dim and turn grey as his soul is extracted from his body. Madara pauses for a second, the body falling lifelessly to the ground as he reads through the memories. He tries to absorb the soul in the same way he did in the past, and although he succeeds, he can feel the infection tightening.
He sneers when he regains his composure. If he is to keep using that ability, it will essentially kill him by speeding up the process or make it impossible to use. But at least he managed to get some essential information from that surprisingly old youth. "Looks like these so-called immortals are rather devious."
He waves his hand to the crystals on the ground as one darts into his hand. "Spirit stones, cultivation, QI condensation." He recounts the key pieces of information. From the memory, it's broken down like this, spirit stones produce some kind of special energy that a select few humans can absorb to become cultivators.
Cultivators are broken down into different layers and levels to distinguish the difference. Qi condensation is one of these levels, within it many layers exist, and a few having certain bottlenecks to overcome into the next layer. The youth only knew of the level higher than him, that being foundation establishment.
The youth he just killed was a Qi condensation 5th layer rogue cultivator that had just purchased these spirit stones that sects had a monopoly on from his many years of governing over this town that dealt with slave trading and various underhanded means of producing wealth as quickly as possible.
The world of cultivators is broken up into many sects under a single country - to which there are many - or some embodiment of power. The weaker the sect, the lower it is rated, copper being the weakest and platinum being the strongest, with 16 different layers in each rank.
Ranks are decided in fierce competition and small scale conflicts amongst sects and their respective nations, however, large scale conflicts are outlawed by the powerhouses of the cultivation world for some reason that this youth had no idea understanding of.
An open scroll is created out of thin air as Madara touches the paper to create a symbol out of nothing. With another wave of his hand, the other spirit stones quickly fly into the newly made sealing scroll along with the corpse of the cultivator youth. "40 years for you, only a second for me, strength is all that matters."
Meanwhile with the Kaba and the rest, after Madara had so suddenly split off from them, they had no choice but to make their own way through the crowds, sticking together to buy the supplies they needed for the remainder of the travel ahead of them.
However, they immediately discovered that Madara was shielding them from the crowd by his sheer presence alone, as they split apart to avoid him for some reason, but without him here the crowd thickened and pushed right into them, making it difficult to stay together and find what they need.
Soon Kaba and Hatsune ended up split apart from Misaki and Hiroi. Although they split from each other, each of them still feels relatively safe, like a warm blanket is pressing down on them to shield them from all harm.
Kaba remembers what Madara told him, that Mika would be safe, that likely extended to them as well, and so he put his worry behind him and took Hatsune by the hand to drag her through the crowds to find the supplies.
Misaki and Hiroi come across a clearing in the road to see everyone gathering into a large side area with a wooden stage that stands above the crowd at the end. "Let's go get a closer look!" Hiroi says rather giddy as he drags his mom along.
As they pierce through the crowd into the centre, they see rows of benches sat all around the wooden stage similar to a church aisle and a sermon. A singular well-dressed man whispers into the ear of another at the edge of the stage before stepping up on stage to face everyone gathered.
The man addresses everyone sitting in a loud and confident voice so to gather everyone's attention, not that a single soul wasn't already as everyone looks on with eager, someone evil, and shady eyes. "Everyone! Thank you for gathering here today, it is my honour to welcome our visitors from afar on such a special occasion!"
Hiroi looks on in awe and the scene unfolding before him as everyone stands up and cheers in applause. Misaki looks around with slight confusion as she glances at her son's excitement a little smiles makes its way on her expression.
The man continues as everyone takes their seats again. "Today we will be holding an auction for some very special merchandise. As degreed by the city lord, for those that successfully purchase the most items, will receive a special reward. A total of five people will receive rewards based on the number of products purchased."
Hiroi becomes even more excited as he says. "Can we bid on something?!"
Masaki frowns slightly. "Maybe..." She says this apprehensively as they watch on. The man waves his hand towards a fairly attractive and busty woman dressed in a red dress with split sides to show off her long legs.
This woman carries an object in her hand covered by a simple cloth and quickly sets it atop a pedestal to the right of the man. "The first item of the day..." He removes the cloth to reveal a small silver orb that releases a pleasant scent into the air. "Is this silver rebirth pill, that can save a life despite fatal wounds."
"The bidding will start at 1,000 gold." As soon as he finishes discussion bursts forth from the crowd and some hearing the price immediately get up and leave. A thousand gold is enough to last several extremely comfortable years so it's no surprise people would leave, this certainly shocks Misaki.
"1,010!" The bidding starts. "1,050!" And some clearly came knowing the prices. "1,200!"
Hiroi tugs on his mother's clothes. "We should bid, we have a lot more!"
"1,550!"
Another bid goes out as she shakes her head. Although what Hiroi says is true, they have nearly seventy thousand gold but that was given to them by Madara, it would only be right that they'd ask him before doing something like that.
The bidding goes on and eventually settles on nineteen thousand and one gold because one evil-looking woman who bid said that if someone dares bid more then her on this that she'd not bid further as it was not worth it, and someone simply bid one gold, no one wanted to bid further.
The man who won slinked off with a grief-stricken expression, not wanting to pay that much but needing the pill no matter what. More items appeared following that and the cycle repeats with bids and arguments, only one object was not bid on, a dagger that had a crazy price of three hundred thousand gold.
The auctioneer sneered in his heart when he put the object away as he had thought to himself. "He was crazy to think someone here would realize it's true worth."
Misaki actually bid on something, a small necklace that was three hundred gold, but she did so with a noticeably amount of ashamed as some people up front looked at her and laughed, letting her have the useless trinket as the auctioneer had said it was only for looks with no special properties.
Hiroi, of course, called his mother out on this and she softly said. "We can each bid on one thing, just not too expensive okay?" However, nothing has caught his attention thus far.
After another item is sold for five thousand gold. The auctioneer again approaches the front. "That concludes the object portion of this auction, actually there is, one other object we have for you today." The man gestures to the side and to the heart-sinking horror of Misaki and Hiroi, a girl about 10 years of age is brought out.
Applause and whistles are expelled from the crowd as they glamour at the elegant beauty of the young girl. "The object in question here is of royal blood captured" He grabs the girl's hair as she releases a yelp with her hands trying to hide her face. The tears freely falling down muddy dirty exterior.
Misaki looks around only to see the people around them being ignorant to the clear anguish the girl is going through, but that is not actually the case, they simply didn't care, this place is founded on slavery of all kinds, dealings like this are nothing new around here.
"This object has stunning features and is guaranteed to be a real beauty unlike any other, but I know what you're all thinking, normally we wouldn't sell this kind of merchandise on such a grand stage, but not only is this a rare beauty with virginity intact but also has the unique bloodline. 20,000 starting price!" He finishes.
Debate and discussion scatter around as most of the people leave with a shake of the head. Only four remain, including Hiroi and Misaki. They each take a glance at their competition, only for the two other people to grow confused expressions at the fact that a kid and a woman are competing.
"20,000!" The bidding is started by an old man with a foul smell as he rubs his hands together with a greedy expression, this is the man that had bought most of the treasures here, winning the extra treasure is in the bag for him regardless.
The other man bids out and this goes back in forth. Misaki looks at the little girl on the stage, brutally alone, unloved, and exposed to all manners of horrors. She can't help but put herself on that stage and feel the despair in her heart, she has to save this girl. "40,000!" She bids out with determination.
The other look at her with sneers in their heart, that bid was a full 5,000 jump from the last bid. As the bidding continues the little girl for the first time raises her head to look at the woman in the back that just bid for her again, a small part deep within cries for that woman to win.
"60,000!" The old man viscously shouts out behind clenched teeth as he eyes the girl with hate in his heart. The other guy spits on the ground and leaves once the price reaches beyond his capabilities.
Misaki's heart sank, she didn't think that the price would continue to rise, she only has 70,000 gold, if it continues to rise like this, then this innocent girl will be taken by this evil old man but she hid the panic as she says as calmly as possible. "65,000." She says it so passively like the amount is nothing.
"66,00..."
"68,000!" Misaki quickly cuts out the old-man from bidding again as she raises it again. The old man looks pained as he licks his lips before settling into his seat with a long sigh.
The old man gets up and sends Misaki another look. "If you are willing to spend so much for one insignificant girl then so be it, she's yours but the extra treasure is mine!"
The old man smiles but the auctioneer's words cut into his ears. "This concludes the auction, unfortunately, the extra item goes to the one who bought this girl."
The old man turns furious. "What? That wasn't what you mentioned earlier!". A wave of cold air suddenly blows into his soul
The auctioneer stares at the man with a cold viper-like gaze "I lied." He finishes with a cold smile to suit the gaze. The old man quickly recovers and leaves in a hurry with a pale face.
Misaki let out a breath of relief before the realization that she just bought a person appears within her. She looks up at the auctioneer that stares solely at her. "I guess luck travels in your favour, you have different intentions with this girl then the others did, your good heart leads you to good fortune, this time."
With a snap of his fingers, the area clears and everyone leaves in a hurry, all but a few remain. Another snap and the girl is brought before Misaki who grabs hold of the child and brings her close to her belly with her arms dropping over the child's back, comforting the little helpless girl.
A smile forms, the man reaches behind his back with his right hand before pulling out a small gold ring that has engraving on the side made up of mysterious symbols. "This is the reward for purchasing that child, it belongs to her family, the use of it is unknown, but it was highly valued by said family."
After those words left his mouth he quickly turns around. "Payment will be received before the end of the day." He walks away leaving the three standing alone in this large area that turned from populated to desolate. The three remain there for a moment, completely in a stupor at the strange events.
Hiroi turns to look at the girl in his mother's arm and sense his stare Misaki turns to look at him as well, both are thinking the same thought. "What are we going to do now?"
At this moment, a breeze blows by them snapping them from the stupor. Misaki sighs as she separates from the child and leans down. "What is your name?" She asks kindly and with a motherly aura, she already bought the girl, there is no going back now, it looks like she's gained another daughter.
The girl rubs her eyes and softly says her name. "Ruby"
Misaki smiles. "Then, Ruby, do you want to become my daughter?" The girl's eyes widen with surprise, her family was slaughtered during her capture, she knows that there is likely nothing left of her old life, her mom, dad, uncle, brother, and cousins are all dead or captured. She nods with tears appearing.
Madara appears on a nearby rooftop and immediately glances at the gold ring and necklace that Misaki is wearing, his gaze contained nothing but as he sweeps past the girl, his eyes narrow. "Cultivators are really foul creatures, this one's schemes ran deep, but he will never see them fulfilled."
He certainly noticed the strange coincidence that the items that little cultivator plotted with would end up in the hands of the mortal he's traveling with, but the scheming of someone so beneath him was no different to him than the greatest scheme of an ant.
After seeing them, he went off to gather Kaba and Hatsune, he finds them in a nearby shopping area, with a wagon full of items, mostly food for the travel ahead. His senses tell him that Misaki decided to head back to the carriage so the girl can get some sleep.
With that, the three of them walk out of the town in mild conversation and at a turtles pace, which at this point is starting to drive Madara insane, not that it showed outwardly.
Although the pace is slow, they quickly leave the town behind and meet up with Misaki, Kaba, and the new addition to their family. The news shocks Hatsune and Kaba, but it isn't an unpleasant shock but it did contain slight pity, seeing such a cute girl going through something so harsh places a needle in their heart.'
Hatsune immediately took to the new girl with a big hug, the girl seems to be the same age as her younger sister Mika, the thought of having two little sisters causes a well of excitement to explode forth.
Likewise, Kaba has taken to the girl as well, although Ruby didn't say anything to any of them, Kaba has always been a protective individual, so in a way, his sense of parently duty has kicked in once again, but for now, he is keeping a small distance between them.
What worries them all, is that Madara has said nothing, even as they approach the carriage, his pasture gives nothing to be read and he doesn't even so much as glance at the little girl, or acknowledge that they've even picked up an extra person.
In truth, however, Madara took a single glance at the girl, but unlike the others who look at the exterior, Madara's gaze contains far more meaning, he can see the hatred that the girl is feeling right now, and it's suffocating, but it isn't towards them, but the people who killed her family.
Beneath the hatred is also various other emotions, joy, and relief being the two most prevalent. Ruby feels grateful to be taken in by this family, although she can't be too sure about them yet, they certainly seem better then that old guy seemed to have bad intentions, although she didn't know what.
Ruby pears out from her hair and falls on the two figures in front of her. Madara walks with a strong and imposing figure, Kaba walks beside him and although his back is straight, he is simply too puny next to the much larger frame, the masculinity of a mature man couldn't compare between these two.
His pressure releases into the air and has a calming effect on Ruby as she relaxes to this feeling, despite Madara not saying a word to her and vis-versa, something about him brings the connection of dominating familiarity. In her eyes, Madara is the father of this family, and therefore, her new father!
They make their way back the carriage and introduce Ruby to Mika, and for the first time, Ruby speaks with a low and small. "Hi." Everyone settles into the cart with Misaki and Madara at the front and everyone else in the back. There is a slight smell in the air, the smell can't be exactly pinpointed but it smells foul.
The only one who knows what that smell came from is Madara. In the nearby forests, if one looked closely, they'd stumble upon seven corpses, the auctioneer from earlier being one of them. Misaki questions why they never came for the gold as they quickly leave, a long journey remains ahead of them.
Two weeks pass, few things happened along the way, a few stops here and there, but most importantly, Ruby has opened up to them, if first started small but soon built into some semblance of trust as they along more and more, each one growing more excited to become family.
Madara found this a little strange, but he also exchanged a few words with Ruby. They were brief signs of acknowledgement and nothing more, but the little girl seemed to respect him greatly and listened to everything he'd say.
On this day they reach the place known as Glacier Fate City. A place so large with structures so high, they can be seen from over the horizon long before you actually reach the gate entering into the city.
And what a gate it is, they approach it and towers over them, it has to be nearly six hundred feet high, decorated with jewels and plated in gold. On the front, the pure gold lettering spells out "Glacier Fate City". The sight is so shocking to them they can barely contain their jaws from hitting the ground.
The city is incredibly large, comparing it to the village hidden in the leaf would make this place a hundred thousands times larger in every direction, making it many hundreds of thousands of times larger, and the city gate is only the beginning, the amount of expensive material to make up this city is unfathomable.
To Madara - who can make matter from nothing with the power of the Truth-Seeking Orb - it simply fails to impress. If he were to put his full power behind expanding a single Truth-Seeking Orb, making the Expansive Truth-Seeking Orb, he could even engulf the entire solar system given time.
It was in that technique that Kaguya could create entire space-time dimensions, however, the time it took for that to become complete wasn't too long, but wasn't short by any means, at least not to him who has only been around a little over a century. Kaguya existed long before and far longer than him.
The city contains many large structures, evenly spaced out between each other, in total there were one hundred and sixty-four structures that stuck out compared to the rest and amongst those, there are varying degrees of size, but only five exceeded the rest by a great deal.
These are the sects of the city. From the memory of that cultivator, this city is out of reach for most cultivators, although mortals are allowed to enter and live at will, given they can afford the prices of existing here, to be a cultivator here, means being apart of the Glacier Fate Cultivation Alliance.
Even among Qi condensation rogue cultivators, the name "Glacier Fate Cultivation Alliance" is known world-wide because they are one of the three main powerhouses on this planet, and offending them is an absolute sin for any cultivator that likes and enjoys life, so it is hard not to hear whispers on them.
The carriage continues into the city. The first thing for them to do is find a dwelling for them to live in for the time being. Madara let them choose. After this is all said and done he plans to separate from them or at the least distance himself.
Not long passes, Kaba had to step out to ask around for a place that offers shelter, eventually, they discover a suitable establishment that owns various properties, although the monthly rent is astronomical at 4000 gold for a suitable home, the cost to outright buy is far beyond that, they begrudgingly accept it.
After paying the establishment and leaving with the directions in hand, it takes the entire rest of the day to reach the place they rented and move in all their stuff.
The place is a two-story house made from exquisite and solid material with ten rooms and many amenities they simply never had or even knew existed, the price suddenly starts to make sense the more they see, not to mention the protection from living in such a city.
Taking a collective sigh, the strain from travel sets in, and despite being in a new home, in a new city, countless miles from home, not a single soul didn't immediately collapse into a deep sleep, none more so than Ruby who sleeps in between Misaki and Mika, a tear running down her cheek with a smile on her face.
Madara was given the master bedroom and as he sits on the bed in the dead of night, a fan of stupor washes over him, sleep having lost most of its purpose to him, he has no intention of drifting off anytime soon. Kaba had told him that in the morning, they'd search for a healer, he has his doubts, however.
The more he learns about this infection and of these cultivators, the more he understands that these healers are extremely limited, if he or his "ally" cannot heal him, then there is no way in hell that cultivators can, at least not from the memory of that one cultivator.
It's then that a foul and malicious aura filled with killing intent leaks from his body, slipping past his god-armour and covering the entire city in an instant. At the same time, he connects with nature and spreads his sense throughout the city as well.
The idea behind this is simple, it's a message, a threat so to say and it read something like, "I'm here and I mean trouble! I dare you to do something about it!". The response is immediate and concise, millions of battle intents flash in the air at the arrival of his own.
On this day, all the mortals not sleeping already, pass out on the floor as the waves of pressure descend on the mortals, like a battlefield with no physical presence the killing and battle intents in the area combat each other, but many discover that this killing intent is monstrous and bizarre from anything they've felt before.
In this silent cold-war-like ragging storm loud bangs appear as far larger intents reveal themselves from various areas in the city. From inside his room, Madara reveals a smile as he opens his eyes and the aura disappears, although they couldn't trace him from the intent he leaked, he could with theirs.
Once his intent retracted as quickly as it came, the millions of other intents continue as if he starred up some sort of turf war, but then a loud snort enters his and presumably everyone's ears and the night goes dead once again after a few larger intents remain for a bit longer before vanishing as well.
He couldn't pinpoint the location of that snort or some of the larger intents, but he is able to at least get a rough number of the cultivators in this city, roughly around 235 million participated in that little exchange from various areas in the city.
He develops a slight headache, although in truth he's been suppressing the pain for a long time since he devoured the soul of that little cultivator. The night passes slowly and the headache disappears after he embraces the pain in full.
The mortals wake up the next morning not knowing any better as to what happened during the night.
Madara: A New Journey