About a week later, Mira had come across her first city. She was still in the Ancient Beast Mountain Range, only now she was on the outskirts.
She knew this because the average strength of the beasts she killed significantly dropped. Instead of constantly running into Rank 7 beasts, now she saw mostly Rank 6 and even Rank 5 beasts.
During this last week, she had seen more and more beastmen the further North she traveled. It wasn't just one race of beastmen either, but many. However, what stood out to Mira was that most beastmen hardly had any 'beast-like' features.
For example, Mira never saw a random beastmen who had beast-like ears. Tails were a bit more common, but even then, they were few and far between.
Most beastmen she came across actually looked like normal humans and could barely be called 'beastmen'.
They had no distinct features that made one think they were beastmen. However, Mira could tell because of several reasons.
For one, their vitality and bodies were slightly higher than regular humans at the same cultivation.
Two, Mira could detect a very, very faint bloodline hidden within them. It was just that this bloodline was so faint and diluted that it was almost like it didn't exist in the first place.
Other than that, there wasn't much of a difference between them and normal people, at least not from what Mira could.
So, from her short time observing beastmen, Mira hypothesized that those who have more beast-like features, the stronger their bloodline is. However, she seriously doubted this didn't come with drawbacks.
This is because, for beasts, their bloodline determines their talent and potential.
Therefore, Mira assumed that, for beastmen, this probably wasn't that different. Their bloodline is both the stimulant they need to reach new heights while simultaneously being their shackle.
However, Mira felt things were probably a bit more complicated. A human's talent doesn't come from one's bloodline or ancestry but from a combination of factors that they may or may not have control over.
Thus, Mira felt like a beastman's talent was determined by a combination of what bloodline they have, the purity of said bloodline, and their talent as a human.
This revelation caused Mira to think about her own situation as someone who is both human and beast, yet neither at the same time.
Is her bloodline also her shackle? What is her potential? How does she differ from beastmen? How is she like them? Can she even be considered one?
Ultimately, Mira didn't have an answer to these questions and could only save them for later as she was approaching the city.
Over the last week, Mira had already figured out a way to conceal her tails so Azaar or his family wouldn't immediately discover her.
For this, she actually used a tail that she has basically never used except for a single time when she tested out all her tails' abilities. This was her pinkish-blue tail, the illusion tail!
What she did was very simple. She cast an illusion over all her tails to make them the same color: black.
Then, she clumped all her tails together, so they only looked like a single giant black tail instead of 9 tails.
Of course, Mira couldn't keep this up indefinitely, but luckily slightly changing the colors of her tails didn't cost all that much Qi, so she could at most keep it active for an hour if she used it sparingly and only needed to fool those around the same strength as her.
This time decreased exponentially for those stronger than her.
She might be able to keep it active for a full day if she only needed to fool those weaker than her, but then it'd be pretty much useless if someone at the same cultivation or stronger looked at her.
Luckily, the guards stationed in front of the City were only in the 2nd Stage of the Core Formation Realm, so Mira could easily fool them with her shoddy illusions.
With her face covered with an ice mask and her aura withdrawn, she approached the entrance of the city.
"Halt! Please show us some form of identification before you enter!" One of the guards, a beastman with a red cat-like tail, yelled.
With Mira's aura completely withdrawn, these guards were naturally unable to sense Mira's strength and bloodline, so her entrance into the city shouldn't cause any suspicions.
"Would a Mercenary Association badge work?" Mira asked with an indifferent voice.
The two guards nodded, and Mira took out her Bronze Rank Mercenary Badge and handed it over.
Slight disdain appeared on the guard's faces seeing the Bronze Badge, but they didn't say anything and just inspected it. After inspecting it, he wrote something down, then returned it to Mira.
After a few minutes, they nodded, and the cat-tail guard said, "Thank you for your cooperation, Mercenary Mira. Please enjoy your stay here at Brightclipse City!"
Mira nodded, stored the Bronze Rank badge, then entered the city.
From the outside, this city looked massive and well-kept. It had large walls made out of a mixture of Late and Peak-Stage Mortal Grade stones and Low-Stage Earth Grade stones.
However, what appeared in front of her was nothing like she expected! Instead, it was a total shithole!
Everywhere she looked were rundown houses, people who looked like they were starving, the roads weren't well-kept, and the whole place smelled musky.
Not only that, but the place was full of weaklings! Nobody around her had even entered the Core Formation Realm!
The residents of the place eyed Mira wearily, but Mira could tell they seemed to be just waiting to pounce on her.
However, Mira couldn't even be bothered to glance at these ants. If they dared to approach her with ill intentions, she'd just 'lightly' slap them away.
Instead, her focus was elsewhere.
'Hmmm… If I were to make a guess, I'd say Brightclipse is probably separated into three tiers or rings. The Outer Tier or Ring is where the weaklings and commoners reside. The Middle Tier or Ring is probably where those who hold a little bit of strength stay. Then, there's the Inner Ring, where the rulers of this city stay.' Mira thought to herself.
She's seen this kind of setup too many times in her past lives, and it makes sense to have this layout in places like the Ancient Beast Mountain Range.
Brightclipse City most likely faces beast tides quite often, so this Outer Ring will act as a buffer for the rest of the City. Since it's only full of weaklings and commoners, nobody will care too much if it gets destroyed.
Even if those in the Middle and Inner Rings come over to defend the city, they don't have to worry about the damage since the Outer Ring is only full of commoners.
Meanwhile, the Middle and Inner Rings are where all the business is done and where those powerful families or clans reside.
Although it's a very elitist way to create a City, the Cultivation World is a very elitist kind of world. The weak can only be slaves to the strong, and there's nothing they can do.
To be honest, Mira didn't care about all this. She was just slightly annoyed that she had to walk through this shit hole in order to enter the Inner Ring. She also guessed that she might run into some trouble when trying to enter the Middle Ring.
'On second thought, maybe this isn't too bad. I might be able to gather information in the Outer Ring about this City, Hana, and Azaar without arousing any suspicion. I can't keep my disguise up indefinitely, and someone in the Middle Ring might see my real appearance. I don't know if Azaar and Hana are actually here, but if they are, then someone seeing my 9 tails would only bring me trouble.' Mira thought to herself.
From experience, Mira found that oftentimes, the best place to gather information is in rundown places like this.
Now, all she has to do is wait for an opportunity…
'Ah! Speak of the devil…' Mira smiled as she sensed a group of 5 people approach her with knives.
These people were barely in the Qi Condensation Realm and could be considered ants in front of Mira. Most people would feel uncomfortable at the thought of killing someone so weak, but Mira didn't care.
One of the men approached Mira and was about to say something, but…
*Slap!*
*Splat!*
Mira bitch slapped the man in the face, causing his head to blow up like a balloon. The remaining 4 all stepped back with terrified expressions. They wanted to run, but they soon felt an overwhelmingly powerful force come crashing onto them, preventing them from moving.
"Would you be so kind as to take me to your leader? You do have a leader, right?" Mira asked.
'You just killed him, you psycho!' The four shouted in their minds, but they didn't dare to speak up.
"Well, it's fine even if you don't have a leader. Just take me to the strongest person in this shit hole. If you don't feel like it…" Mira didn't need to finish that sentence for them to understand, so they quickly nodded their heads.
"Good! Alright, lead the way!" Mira clapped and removed the pressure off of them.
