There were a few caverns where the crops had been ransacked. The farmers sat on the aisles with forlorn faces. But they got up; they had families to feed.

"We’ll be rebuilding them, young lad. The blasted voidrift may have caused a fair bit of damage, but fear not, for us farmers are a resilient bunch, ye see?” The elder in charge of farming said.

It was time to leave. It had been a long day, and Yung’s mind was still on the ‘portal’. He knew he was a nobody, even with Su Nanya’s favour.

At his level of power and influence, he couldn't really delve into the mysteries of why this mortal plane was cut off from the rest of the universe, and if the nature of this 'cut' was similar to what Moira had done to sever Gaia off.

What even was the void in the first place? And why were there two types of fiends? If Yung could find a lost plane, would that be interstellar travel? Inter-planar travel?

Great shower thoughts indeed.

But he would need a shower first, and Su Nanya suggested that her queen's suite had the best in the 'village.'

The farming elder walked them up until they reached the surface. This was a different entrance than they had used when entering the underground world.

And as far as Yung was concerned, the above and underground actually were separate worlds, stacked on top of each other like poorly placed Lego blocks.

Why the city had not collapsed because of massive cave-ins, Yung had no idea. Qi was weird.

"With the sect recruitments right round the corner, the city be heating up. This old man likes it. Lively, no?" Said the farming elder.

“Won’t it bring trouble too?” Yung asked.

“The fox clan is here. Who dares to be insolent?”

“You Youjin bunch really know how to talk.” Yung sighed.

The elder smiled with half of his teeth missing. The wrinkles on his face covered his beady eyes too, giving his old face a jovial expression. “Ayo, I lived so long and only be waiting for me death now. My missus must be so lonely on the other side of the grand dao. I can’t compare to you young ones.” He watched Yung caress Su Nanya’s fur and gave a knowing nod.

Yung rolled his eyes, then made his way through the fiend butchery. Already, lines of men were carrying up tons upon tons of Wretched hornbeast corpses from the underground.

He saw a large piscina-like structure of boiling liquid on one side of the butchery. Adjacent to it were rows of stone tables seemingly nailed to the ground, with men flaying meat off bones and tossing them expertly into the bubbling concoction. From beneath the surface of the liquid, the putrid blood would rise into a vapour, as if attempting to escape, before vanishing into it as if assimilated and detoxified.

On the opposite side of the piscina, women stood with long bamboo poles, the lower end equipped with netted baskets. With adept movements, they retrieved the meat from the liquid, now displaying the healthy hues of white and pink akin to raw animal flesh.

There were multiple such pools on the western periphery of the butchery, Yung noted. These ones were for the voidfiends. The chaosfiends were processed in the eastern side, where the shape and size of the piscinas were slightly different, as were the nature of the concoction which looked far less chemical-ly, and the inscriptions on the piscina structures that seemed to glow with far less qi. As the day neared its end, the fiendhunting teams carried in the haul of the day from the nearby Warring twilight forest.

The monsters were butchered, blood-let, and skinned, then de-boned to whatever extent the butcher could.

The innards were carried elsewhere, as were the excreta. The skin was to be tanned.

The fiend butchery was manned by ren hands, no fancy industrial machines or grinders. There were artefacts here and there, such as the piscinas, but mostly it was good people making a good living, feeding their brethren in the city.

Compared to the wanton cruelty of the twenty-first-century meat factories, Yung had little to criticise. He was a meat eater, and he had no guilt feeding on flesh either in this world or his last.

But some thoughts undoubtedly used to keep him up at night, Yung admitted. Fish had the cruellest deaths, as most died of suffocation to keep the ‘freshness’. Pigs—animals often more intelligent, affectionate, and sociable than dogs and cats—were kept in a 2 cubic metre cubbyhole from birth to bacon. And chickens, the ones most often consumed, were literal babies less than six weeks old, the last two weeks of which they spent immobile because of their eugenically selected growth genes and the numerous alkaline burns on their bodies.

He walked, with Floofy and Silky in tow.

Hopefully, no one would complain if his diet consisted of murder bunnies and maniac pigs.

They entered the Dim gold citadel from the north entrance and proceeded towards the city centre. When he had left in the morning, the townsfolk had gathered with ladders and timbers, flowers and ribbons. Now, the street was almost unrecognisable, adorned with paper lanterns hanging from every roof corner and ropes embellished with paper flowers stretching across the sky.

In the central square, a large stage had been set up with a pedestal in the middle and an amphitheatre-style seating arrangement on three sides. Yung noticed members of Su Nanya's entourage present, not the fox yao, but the cultivators from the Twilight blood palace. They wore robes in varying shades of red, accented with black and green lines. Despite being chosen by Su Nanya, none of them had bothered to greet Yung in the past few weeks, and Yung hesitated to approach them as well.

They're supposed to be my future sect-mates, right? Shit why's that fat guy glaring?

Yung stopped staring and walked away.

The street was also filled with unfamiliar faces, grouped together with varying uniforms from various alien factions Yung had never seen before. During the sect recruitments five years ago, he could swear that there weren’t this many ‘visitors.’

Su Nanya yawned and explained, "They are lesser establishments from the local region, my dearest servant. Like scavengers of waste and carrion, they are here to pick out the leftover untalents. The aptitude test shall dutifully eliminate the failures, and our martial nephew's sect will choose the very best for the next phase, alongside the rest of the mediocre four of the Warring Twilight settlement. However, alas is your fate; we must admit that the 'best' offered by this village might not be at all worth mentioning."

“Well you found me,” Yung grinned.

"Alas is our fate; we must admit our folly!" And Su Nanya preened.

They had a moment, and then Yung inquired, "So You’re saying that even those who fail the test, their talents could be good enough for these local organisations?"

Su Nanya tilted her head and playfully raised her front paws, yelping, "You have heard the phrase, 'beggars cannot be choosers', have you not? Oh devious man with such slick a mind, why must you put mean words upon our tongue… We suppose that such low phrasing does hold true. It is difficult to understand what goes on inside the minds of the poor."

Yung asked, "Is that a good thing?"

Nanya replied with a cute jerk, "Perhaps, perhaps not. We are tired. How are our paws?"

Yung chuckled and responded, "Criminally cute."

And so he relished her cuteness, spending the entire day and well into the night with it.

***

Daybreak was just moments away, and the birds woke with soft chirps.

"You've made up your mind?" Youjin Gengxin asked. He was Chun's eldest uncle, a core formation realm cultivator from the Selenosilver Valley.

"I will not join the Malignant Moon Sword Sect," Chun answered.

"Then you will have to get in line." Youjin Gengxin replied. He was a tall man, even taller than her father. His physique reminded Chun of the Azure Deep Goldsmen, the ren tribe that ruled over the northwestern part of the Void Connecting Land Bridge under the Su Fox Clan’s commands. He had frizzled black hair that had gone unkept for years, and striking blue eyes. A magnificent moustache sat under his large nose, contrasting with his clean-shaven chin and sharp jawline that could cut steel. Youjin Gengxin's bare chest displayed curly hair, of which he was proud and made sure others knew too.

However, Chun was never a fan of such overly muscular physiques, not when the bear hugs they offered at every reunion felt like she was being ground down with sand-paper.

"I will join the line like everyone else." Chun firmly stated.

Youjin Gengxin grinned, his teeth shining like stars, and said, "Good. I was against you joining the Malignant Moon snollygosters from the start. I'm glad you've come around! Guahaha." He patted Chun's shoulder, causing her to struggle to maintain her balance. "Are you finally making things right with the Youjin Chao brat too?"

Chun paused, stammered, and finally broke into tears.

"Oh... I guess not," Youjin Gengxin awkwardly raised his palm to pat Chun's head but then withdrew it, not knowing what to do. “D-Don’t tell your father you cried, alright?”

"I-I'm sorry," Chun said through sobs. "I thought I could hold... what's a snollygoster?"

Youjin Gengxin explained, "Ay, it means a shrewd bastard."

"I'll use it too."

"Don't tell your father I taught you a bad word," Youjin Gengxin tried to make a joke, albeit a pathetic one. Nonetheless, Chun appreciated it and managed a broken smile.

"Father, that's what he said."

Youjin Liu, who stood behind Youjin Gengxin, rolled his eyes.

This Selenosilver Valley Elder had returned to his home clan for phase one, along with other clan members affiliated with various sects. He was at the houtian 3rd realm, a true and blue brute. Twelve were at the 2nd realm, doubling the clan's total power. Youjin Gengxin was also aware of their agreement with Ziyou Yung and had agreed to stay behind to address the Foxmoth problem with the Dark Star Mercenaries.

"Chun'er, you know you have the option not to do this," Youjin Liu said.

"I will follow Elder Brother Chao, whichever sect he chooses," Chun shook her head.

"Sect life isn't all that great, though. There's a lot of infighting and backstabbing. It's like putting all rival clans in one big basket, alongside talented commoners who want to seize our resources," Youjin Gengxin remarked. "Honestly, it ain't worth it before you’re an elder, and even then..."

"I have made up my mind."

"Well, okay, fine, whatever you want," Youjin Gengxin said, shaking his hand as though annoyed. "Let's get going. I can already hear the noise from all the way out here. It should be starting in less than an hour, yeah?"

Chun freshened up her appearance, applying lustre rouge to hide her sunken eyes. She had cried to her heart's content the previous night, but the emotions kept surging up. She followed her father, uncle, and the clan elders all the way to the market square on clan chariots, intricately designed carriages pulled by houtian realm Windhorses.

Even though the sun had barely risen, the city was bustling with excitement. It was that magical time when twilight met daylight, and the streets felt alive, reminiscent of New Year's night markets. Thousands of stalls were set up along the roadside, showcasing various products. Parents patiently stood in long lines with their children, offering encouraging words. Both the lesser noble clans in their chariots and commoners on foot could be seen. Since the upper age limit was twenty-five, many youths and maidens also followed, hoping to catch the attention of a sect in the surrounding areas, if not the Big Five.

If not a sect, then at least a clan to be cultivated as a warrior or even marry in, or a merchant company to be nurtured as a powerful guard. Stone-faced mercenaries, fiendhunters, and sellswords also mingled in the crowd, perhaps tired of their current life or harbouring grand ambitions.

Chun observed it all with a gentle gaze. Then she noticed the madlanders, their nervousness evident as they exchanged fidgety glances with the "proper" citizens, who responded in kind. However, the strange fortune fox totem plastered on the walls prevented any hasty actions. Well, at least not too hasty, as insults were still exchanged from both sides.

"I don't like this. That fiendfogger Maque has taken over White Town," Youjin Gengxin expressed his concerns.

"Perhaps you should talk to Ziyou Yung about it. He's been introducing people to strange ideas," Chun suggested.

"Like what?"

"Something he calls ‘equality of opportunity.’"

"Foolish," Youjin Gengxin remarked, and Chun agreed. "What are the Su Fox Clan planning? Does the Azure Deep Island know about this?" The northwestern overlords might already be aware, but the blood spirit contract couldn't be changed, and the Azure Deep Goldsmen were as much servants to the Su Fox Clan as anyone else breathing on the land bridge.

Chun stated as much.

"Either way, the contract is worth it in the long run, even if we have to accommodate some barbarians," Chun concurred. The Duan and Baishui Clans no longer made any demands, which was one good thing that came out of Ziyou Yung’s utter humiliation of tradition.

They reached the venue soon, the sea of ren parting in awe like receding tides as the Youjin chariots approached.

The central stage area was not as crowded as the rest of the city, including the very near surroundings. The amphitheatre was reserved for the sect representatives, with the lesser-ranked local and semi-local sects occupying the lower platforms. The Dark Star Mercenaries and the Free Sparrow Gang were also present, though they weren't sects. They, too, sought new recruits, and used their ties with Ziyou Yung to full effect.

Ridiculous… Chun thought, and she saw her uncle’s eyes turn grim.

"So Maque plans to take in non-madlanders?" Youjin Gengxin commented with an undertone of dissatisfaction. "Well, no matter. Take care, Chun'er. I have to sit with the guys over there. See them glaring?"

The towering man ascended the amphitheatre as though he owned the place, causing the mid-level powers like the Westmoon Kingdom and Duan clan sitting on the middle platforms to give him a wide berth. The Youjin clan, despite being the host clan, also occupied seats on the intermediate level.

Chun sighed, then looked at the highest platform where her uncle had taken a seat. There, the Big Five perched, looking at all with the solemn disregard they so dutifully cultivated.