Traversing the long winding path that led to the city from the sect was an arduous task for even most essence refiners but for a foundation realm cultivator with as much power as himself, it felt like more of a leisurely stroll. The distance was just over 100 miles. Now one might ask why was not the sect closer to the center of commerce? To make a long complicated story short, politics.

Other people both mortals and cultivators walked the sane path and to them, his pace was the stuff of myth and some only wanted to leer at the absurdly attractive cultivator. Most of the sect elders would bleed tears if they heard going faster than even well-bred mounts was considered a stroll. It is not that the elders could not, simply that it would not be so effortless and they were at the essence condensation stage which was considered to be the pinnacle of the lower realms.

The man who sparked such awe did not have the presence of mind to acknowledge all the attention. He was lost in his own little fantasy. The man you see was very introverted in nature. As much as he liked women and he liked Bai Qing, even more, he also liked his private time. Bai Qing, however, was like a clingy cat and acted like she would die if he left her side for more than a few minutes regardless of the fact that she was one of the powerhouses of the sect in her own right. Outside of the elders very few could be considered her equal but the way she acted would make most think she was a helpless damsel.

His own sensibilities did him no favors. He had dominant sexual fantasies like any other hot-blooded dude and to own a person was the ultimate iteration of that fantasy. The problem was he could not bring himself to treat a person as an object for combat and dual cultivation. He was rewarded with one of the sweetest girls he met in both lives combined and in a world where the culture made people very self-serving, it was very welcome. It was just that she was a bit too overbearing, she invaded every aspect of his life. Thank god cultivators did not need to eject, he was horrified to think her present even in those moments. He had pushed for some distance once. The fallout, she became depressed to the point she could not properly dual cultivate. That scared him half to death and he succumbed to most of her demands ever since. Not that they were hard to follow, he was the center of her universe and she just wanted to worship every waking moment, his private time sadly was the price.

However, he had managed to convince her to let him go on his own with the bullshit reason that one of them needed to stay and protect the house. He could afford a spatial ring and most of their valuables were put there but the girl accepted it quite easily. For the first time in months, he had his time to himself. What Simon did not realize is that in the future the word private time would become anathema to him, even now he was going to get another unloved girl and give her the world, what did he expect with his cultivator's path?

But that story for another time. For now, let the man find joy in his ignorance.

He arrived in the city in a few minutes and was greeted by the city guards both of whom were female. Another thing that was so very different was that women were more numerous than men in cultivation. Essence did not care if you are a man, woman, or monster it was treated all equally. The big weakness, pregnancy, was in fact liked by most female cultivators as having two souls in one body, especially one that was still forming boosted one's cultivation speed massively. It was not so bad but generally, for every man, there were three women who mothered countless orphans, their cultivator's body keeping them in perfect shape.

Both of them whistled as he neared the entrance but none dared to stop him. Even if men were the weaker sex nothing spoke louder than one's cultivation and there were very little two essence refiners could do to someone at the peak of foundation. This, however, did not stop people from staring. At first, Simon was very uncomfortable being in public, especially after a few very bad encounters which he would not have survived if not for his gift. But now, as strong as he was, very few dared act openly even more so now that he was the champion of the last sect competition.

He now walked at normal speed due to the sheer human traffic in the busy streets of the city. His clothes, looks, and aura had identified him as an elite and most people gave him a wide birth. He walked past multitudes of stalls and even stores catering to cultivators and unlike the mortal shops they only accepted essence stones.

Deciding to enjoy his temporary freedom he started to enjoy just window shopping. From talismans to pills to artifacts to pets Starpyrite city catered to everyone. As the only city of this lower realm, it was the largest concentration of goods so if it could be found it would be found here. After a bit of pointless window-shopping, his eyes fell on the purpose of his visit. A very large and respectable-looking shop. It sold a variety of things but the line on the front build board that caught his attention, it said in large bold letters "This shop sells quality human cauldrons".

Not that he expected much from a cultivator who bought and sold people but the man acted so pleasantly. He had genuinely thought the slaves would not be treated as badly as in the low-end shop where he had bought the broken Bai Qing. His hopes were completely dashed when instead of two cells dividing the starving boys and girls; every boy or girl had one small cage all to themselves.

They had all the common pains mortals owned by a cultivator suffered. They were all thin to the point of being bony, cultivators fed slaves usually when they ate or remembered, the problem was cultivators did not eat for days on end and they often meditated for much longer. Excess essence was bad for mortals and keeping close to so many essence-rich materials caused havoc on their bodies. The end result, starving slaves that were very close to dying but most cultivator's did not care, the only thing that mattered was that each of them had a unique gift that these people can harvest through dual cultivation and use to boost their own. Consuming a soul even that of mortals was very beneficial to cultivation and if it were not for the fact there were a lot of drawbacks to consuming a soul the practice would be even more common.

Simon sighed, this scene was why Bai Qing, his sweet little treasure was so broken. Slavery and absolute servitude should begin and end with the bedroom in his opinion but the reality was so much more. He knew he could not change all the billions upon billions of realms in the heaven's myriad tapestry. If anything he was helping perpetuate this travesty by giving business to these monsters in human skin.

He reminded himself that he could not and did not want to save everyone, the fact he was even here was proof enough. He, however, wanted to help the people suffering right in front of him. The only thing that stayed his hand was Bai Qing's smile if he did something stupid she would suffer with him and that could not happen, he might be taking advantage of her but it would be a cold day in hell before he let anything hurt that little bit of bliss that kept all the horrors at bay. What he could do though is give another girl something different, he did not say that life with him was better, the way he took advantage of their vulnerability made him no better than any other cultivator. What he could promise though and what he promised to himself the first time when he saw Bai Qing's first genuine smile was that he would make sure all his cauldrons could smile like that and he would do all in his power to protect that smile.