Its been two days since the encounter with that annoying monkey, my arm was perfectly healed after my recovery after the bottle; although it still ached slightly when moved it wasn't anything to concern myself about after all the bones in my arm had been completely shattered - any sort of recovery was a miracle, especially a full-recovery as fast as I'd had.

Hells Forests' road was slowly coming to an end, the trees were becoming more sparse and there was less forestry; there were some tree stubs along the path - clear signs of deforestation from civilization - 'My wildlife eventually has to come to an end, so be it.' I thought, in the distance, a magnificent city eventually came into view; surrounded by giant walls of stone a palace rose into the clouds.

It was on a scale that no mortal could deserve to live in regardless of their status; just the size of the building alone either cost the lives of millions of mortals or the toils of a group of cultivators over many years - regardless the sheer raw materials of this layer of the world would've been insufficient to build such a masterpiece.

I could only think of a few ways in which such a place could've been built - the most likely was that other layers of the world had been excavated for the materials; most likely this palace was built before King settled on Earth and the world was split into layers through the core - or they had access to the lower levels. 

'The Aura in this city is overwhelming, there's hundreds of Mortal Leaving Cultivators and even the aura of Core Gathering experts in the mix; how annoying," I sighed in defeat, just my battle with the monkey had been taxing enough - wanting to kill a few more Core Gathering experts would be impossible with the sheer quantity of them that are in the city.

I continued to walk along the dirt road, the city in the distance gradually became larger as I approached; the busy sounds of city streets could be heard even several miles of distance away.

Gradually small clusters of villages could be seen along the road - branching roads led outwards towards them, I was tempted to branch off and check out the different villages to see what life was like for the commoners in this place. The impression that princess had left on me was a deep one, although I was still confused about why she had no cultivation - for the royal family shouldn't they give their members at least some method to protect their life? 

'The turmoil in this place might be more chaotic than I had imagined, for a princess to be left so defenseless and her guards to be decimated by a group of bandits the mastermind behind it is probably hidden deep in the Royalty themselves; but so what? If anyone tries to stop me they'll die.' My thoughts were vicious, these thoughts I could be sure of were my own and not the influence of the daggers. 

I was done with people stopping me from achieving my goals or deciding my life for me; my thoughts flashed back to the day James forced me into this world, finding out this world was simply a game to someone stronger than me and how I had almost lost my life in the hands of the Tiger King.

Every major event in the past couple of months was flashing through my mind as I moved forward - these were the first steps to my life of freedom, before long my daydreams had me end up near the entrance of the city; the vast city gates were overshadowed by two knight statues that stood guard over the gates of the city.

A long line of people: a mix of carts, carriages, and animals stood in a mixed crowd. The guards slowly processed people into the city; checking something that looked like an identification paper, a few were kicked out of the line and taken away by the guards - I assumed something along the lines of fraud or lack of paper got them taken away.

Moving to a corner, out of the eyes of the watchful crowd - the city walls created a shadow over the line of people and gave me plenty of opportunities to blend into the shadows and sneak in undetected. "Meld." I disappeared into the shadows in an instant - I noticed that a few of the more attentive people in line were surprised to see a person disappear in front of them, although I hadn't really tried to hide my ability they didn't seem too surprised by my sudden disappearance and acted like it was normal.

Passing by the guards I felt something scan me as I walked through the gates, a cold chill went down my spine before the feeling disappeared in an instant - 'Looks like I need to be way more careful; of course the city would have a second check in case anyone managed to sneak past the guards, after all, they're only Mortal Leaving cultivators and wouldn't be able to detect cultivators at the Core Gathering realm; what surprised me was that it could even scan the Shadow Realm.' Hopefully, the gate was just a remnant defense and the cultivator who had set it up was no longer around.

Such power might even be on par with the fourth-realm, or it could just be a powerful technique made by several people... Either way, I had to be more careful, the power in this city could be more than I had estimated.

...

In the palace, high in the clouds of the Capital, a silver crystal stood on a pedestal among an empty room, the roof was a skylight and the highest point in the entire Kingdom; the crystal shimmered black before returning to its original colour; there was no one to observe the change in colour - the room was layered in dust, the doors hinges had rusted and looked like the door hadn't been opened in decades.

"Hmmmmm" A low humming sound came from the crystal as the sound continued to echo in the room; the thin layer of dust on its surface were shaken off by a low vibration that came from the crystal.

...

"Ten Gold! Ten Gold and the Horse is yours' sir!" Many street vendors were shouting on the street at people, I kept an aura contained in my immediate area; anyone that tried to come close felt an unbearable pressure on them, many people moved out of the way as I walked by giving me a clear path forward through the busy street.

"Make way!" A carriage was storming its way through the streets at a fast pace; those that didn't move out of the way were trampled or hit by the horses in front - 'What a cliche situation, still it's none of my business.' I continued to walk forward, not moving out of the way of the horse-drawn carriage I continued until it was almost in front of me; the horses in an instant hit the floor and the carriage flipped on its side and slid along the floor.

'It's none of my business but who asked you to get in my way?' I snickered at my own thoughts before walking away; the horses recovered from the pressure I had forced them to the floor with, a few cuts scattered their skin but nothing too serious - the carriage was in a worse condition, the entire frame had been destroyed by the impact but they should be alright after all I detected the aura of a Cultivator in the carriage; although they'd be severely injured by now.

It seems this capital might be slightly interesting, people with power are arrogant no matter where you go; but honestly I couldn't say I was the exception to this either...