Meanwhile, in the Xihai Prefecture capital — Chrysanthemum City — two young men walked side by side, ambling down a bustling street full of red flying lanterns, colorful banners, buzzing shops and inviting pleasure houses.
In the cultivation world, the ratio between the practitioner's age and their cultivation realm determined youth. So while the two seemed about the same age, decades separated them — on the surface at least.
The two youths, Qiu Chen and Zi Zuixian watched the lively streets with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the colors, music and dances, the exotic treasure shops and beauties all around, seduced their eyes. But on the other, the depraved practices, slave auctions, drugs and brothels, rattled their senses.
Immoral, corrupt and trapped in perpetual decadence, the District of Obscene Splendor had always been Chrysanthemum City's most decadent quarter. A source of extreme wealth for the local corrupt officials, and the place that most epitomized Chrysanthemum City's debauched reputation.
But following the start of the Rampaging Beast War, the Xihai Prefecture went through extreme changes. The drugs, Paradise and Ignition, spread like wildfire — almost collapsing the state.
In Xihai, gangs and sects had risen to take control of the trade, fuel their coffers with blood money, and expand their influence. After making sure that the person they were looking for wasn't in Xihai, the 29th horde took advantage of this chaos to dispatch a single elite unit led by one Holy Shadow Beast.
That unit launched a lightning war, in a flash breaking through Xihai's defenses and conquering all the districts. But by the time the mysterious beast troops installed themselves as the new masters of Xihai, a masked man waltzed into Chrysanthemum City, and with a finger snap, executed the entire beast unit.
He then set up shop in the District of Obscene Splendor — becoming its sheriff — and appointed one of his subordinates as Chrysanthemum City Lord. Later, the Xihai people would learn that that man, the Divine Tailor, was the current superstar of the Eastern Spirit Empire.
"Bolts of silk, dresses, sewed purses and scented sachets? Really? This is what pleasing girls comes down to? Second brother, how low have we fallen?" Zi Zuixian shook his head. After listening to one of his depressed rants, Qiu Chen convinced him to make a trip to the District of Obscene Splendor and buy gifts for their respective targets.
At first, the idea made perfect sense. The Divine Tailor's Silkshifter God's Abode had risen like a shooting star, in just two months becoming the number one silk shop on the Eastern Continent. Xihai was at the lowest levels of the cultivation world, yet extravagant Spiritual Arks often flew over the city, bringing women of the Spiritual Aristocracy to the District of Obscene Splendor.
The Silkshifter God's Abode aside, nothing could attract them here. And if even the Eastern Spirit Empire's wealthiest and most influential women couldn't resist the Divine Tailor's wares, then maybe Xiao Hu and Shui Haoyue would soften before them.
But no matter how attractive or helpful those wares were, the longer he walked down the district's streets, the worse Zuixian's opinion of the Divine Tailor became. After all, following his arrival, this already corrupt district rose and expanded into a haven of unprecedented depravity.
Pleasure houses just kept multiplying themselves. Entertainment took a brand-new shape. With houses of scantily-clad women carrying out salacious dance moves for intoxicated patrons who, consumed by lust, wasted their money as if their lives depended on it.
Traditional brothels tried to compete. To offer new services. But they needed time to train their girls, time that the new houses wouldn't give them.
Many of these new dancers came from the brutal Western and Northern Continents, drawn by opportunities and guarantees offered by the Divine Tailor's subordinates. In their homelands, they were the best of the best and had honed their seduction skills for years, decades, and sometimes even centuries. With just two months of training and the pressure to produce results, how could the Xihai girls compete?
Even the Albizia Heart Court, from ancient times the number one dual cultivation house of the Dongli state, was starting to lose customers, making its headmistress, Zi Huamei, take drastic measures. That woman, Zuixian's estranged mother, was the other reason why he didn't want to spend too much time in this district.
"Brother, this is without a doubt the best investment of our lives. You'll thank me for this." Qiu Meng tried to ease his sworn brother's fears.
No one knew where the Divine Tailor came from. And while following his arrival, Xihai had been getting more and more depraved, no one could deny the astronomical wealth that his various businesses brought Chrysanthemum City. The branches in the prefecture's other counties performed admirably, generating wealth that the Divine Tailor's subordinates reinvested in the lives of common folks and cultivation-war casualties alike.
For that reason, that secretive man became a divisive figure, with some praising and idolizing him as the sole ray of hope in these dark times, while others saw in him a threat worse than even the Rampaging Horde.
Aside from the Liberation Temple's folk, Qiu Meng was the only one that knew the Divine Tailor's true identity: an avatar of Xinzi.
'Regardless of timelines, certain things do not change. By now, Hengye Zhen has mastered the Dao Breath and become an existence that has absolutely no rival in the Great Desolation World. In all timelines that I know, the attack on Colorful Wing Supercity never happened, so by the time that Moxie and Shentu Shun realized who they were dealing with, it was far too late.
Let's hope that in this timeline, they can use the knowledge to cooperate with their patron early and mess up Hengye Zhen's plans. Meanwhile, I need to find a way to keep the Myriad Essence Stone from him...but how?' Now in his Qiu Meng personal, Qiu Chen asked himself.
Hengye Zhen was strong, too strong, and equipped with abilities that made all attempts at deceiving him futile. But to save the world — or at least those that he cared about — from the Hengye monarch, Qiu Chen had to find a way to be one step ahead of Hengye Zhen's Glorious Eye of Heaven.
'Lianism is the only solution. I must contact both the Golden Lotus and Black Lotus Temples, ally with them, and unite to — through the Mantra of Sacrifice — bring down Hengye Zhen's Glorious Eye of Heaven. Afterward, we can compete.
Hengye Zhen's death, Bazun's coronation, and the eternal domination of the Thousand-Faced God. All timelines end the same. But Bazun's birth is the root of all the disasters looming over this world. So long as I can prevent it, I...can change the future.'
