Shang walked on a road towards a big city in the middle of the day. The side of the road led into thick forests, which were filled with weaker beasts.
A couple of people had already passed him on his journey, but they didn't talk to him.
Shang had seen plenty of people riding on beasts. This seemed to be nothing unusual in the Spirit Spring Kingdom as even very weak merchants rode on beasts.
Eventually, Shang reached the gates of the city. The gates were made of wood, but Shang could tell that this wasn't normal wood. The wood the gates were made out of was probably as powerful as Commander Stage ore.
Several guards were checking the Space Rings of the people that wanted to enter the city, and quite a long queue had already formed.
Shang only stood at the end of the queue, not looking at anyone else.
The people around Shang threw careful glances at him.
For some reason, they didn't feel comfortable being near him.
However, they didn't want to be rude. So, they didn't comment.
Shang waited for several minutes in the queue until it was his turn.
"Space Rings," the woman on a large wolf ordered as she saw Shang.
The guards of this city were Spiriters, and they used their beasts to keep watch over everything.
Grrrr!
At that moment, the wolf the woman was riding on started to growl at Shang.
The Spiriter was quite surprised when she saw her beast's reaction and connected with it mentally.
Of course, the beasts weren't very smart, and they could only transmit primitive feelings toward their Spiriters.
Right now, the wolf was transmitting a feeling that identified Shang as an enemy.
The wolf wanted to kill Shang.
When the Spiriter felt these feelings come from her beast, her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked at Shang.
"What is your business here?" she asked with a chilly tone.
"I want to buy a map," Shang answered evenly.
The Spiriter's eyes narrowed. "What kind of map?"
"Just a general one of the Spirit Spring Kingdom," he said. "As you might have noticed, I'm not from here."
After Shang said these words, the Spiriter took a closer look at Shang.
The density of Mana around him was rather weak, but the threat she felt coming from Shang was enormous.
She quickly knew what was going on.
"You're a warrior?" she asked.
"Yes," Shang said. "I want to get back to the Skythunder Kingdom. I've been away for a long time."
The gates had a perpetual Truth Verification Magic Circle active, and the Spiriter could tell that Shang was speaking the truth.
However, her eyes only became colder.
Now, she knew why her beast saw Shang as an enemy.
"Did you kill any beasts?" she asked.
"Yes," Shang answered.
A cold gleam appeared in her eyes, and Shang could feel detest and anger radiate from the Spiriter.
For a couple of seconds, she only glared at Shang with hate.
"Space Ring," she ordered again with an icy tone.
Shang took out his Space Ring and threw it over.
When the Spiriter saw the contents of the Space Ring, she had to control herself not to destroy it and attack Shang right then and there.
Corpses.
So many beast corpses and beast parts!
The Spirit Spring Kingdom worked in harmony with the beasts. Especially the Spiriters saw beasts as humans.
To a Spiriter, seeing a Space Ring filled with beast corpses was like seeing a Space Ring filled with human corpses for others.
She gritted her teeth in anger and hatred, but she threw the Space Ring back to Shang.
"You may enter," she said with a controlled but icy voice.
Shang nodded and passed her.
At this moment, the Spiriter felt frustrated, helpless, and angry.
The people of the Spirit Spring Kingdom were forbidden from killing beasts without a good reason. After all, the humans and the beasts had to work together.
However, ever since the Skythunder Kingdom had gained its new King and joined the war, people from the Skythunder Kingdom appeared in the Spirit Spring Kingdom.
To them, killing beasts was normal.
Killing a beast was like picking up gold off the ground.
Many years of diplomacy and negotiations took place after a humongous outrage went through the Spirit Spring Kingdom's citizens due to the Skythunder Kingdom's brutality.
Eventually, the Skythunder Kingdom decided to only send warriors and Mages to the Spirit Spring Kingdom if it specifically requested them.
However, if they wanted them to be present, the warriors and Mages would be allowed to live similarly to how they lived in the Skythunder Kingdom.
That included hunting beasts for resources.
Seeing a warrior in the Spirit Spring Kingdom was unusual, but it wasn't overly rare.
However, whenever someone of the Spirit Spring Kingdom saw a warrior, they would grit their teeth with hatred.
Yes, the warriors were there to protect them from the Magic Purity Kingdom, but they also killed beasts.
To them, such a warrior or Mage could be compared to some kind of ogre that protected a village but walked into the village to eat a child from time to time.
They hated the ogre, but they needed it.
As Shang stepped into the city, he saw a ton of beasts everywhere.
There were bigger beasts that pulled carriages, smaller beasts that used their fire to cook food or melt ore, small flying beasts that delivered things from building to building, and there were even bigger beasts that patrolled the streets to keep everything in order.
While the Skythunder Kingdom used warriors to keep the public in order, the Spirit Spring Kingdom used beasts.
As Shang walked through the streets, one beast after the other looked at him with a mix of emotions.
Anger.
Enmity.
Fear.
Of course, the people noticed the beasts' actions, and they grew just as wary of Shang.
The street, which had just been lively, had now become very silent as everyone looked at Shang.
Step. Step. Step.
Shang's steps echoed throughout the silent street, only interrupted by some beast or human shuffling out of his way.
Being in such a position had a special feel to it.
If this had been a decade earlier, Shang would feel uncomfortable, but not anymore.
Over the past ten years, Shang had gotten used to this feeling of isolation.
Becoming more powerful meant killing the people around him.
He was Entropy, the enemy of everything living.
He was with the Abominations, the enemy of everything living.
Shang was isolated.
And he was used to being isolated.
Eventually, Shang found a shop that sold maps.
The clerk in the shop treated Shang very coldly and directly demanded to know what he wanted.
"A general map of the Spirit Spring Kingdom. Doesn't need to be very detailed," Shang said.
"200 gold," the clerk demanded with a cold voice.
Obviously, this price was ridiculous.
Such a map was, at most, worth one gold.
However, Shang pulled out 200 gold and put them on the counter.
When the clerk saw the gold, he sneered in disdain, pocketed it, grabbed a map, and threw it to Shang.
"Now, leave my store!" he demanded.
Shang didn't say anything else and just walked out of the store with his map.
The streets hadn't recovered their liveliness.
Shang could feel an intense feeling of rejection emanate from the entire city.
They hated him.
They wanted him gone.
After a couple of minutes, Shang walked out of the city again.
The people waiting in the queue outside whispered to each other as they saw him pass.
And then, Shang walked into the forest.
He had gotten what he had been here for.
