Fenrir's Journey : I Shall Devour The Heavens!

Donning her disguise, which gave her the look of a fierce female Mercenary, Fenrir made her way towards the entrance of the City. From her observation, she knew it was called Heavenly Moon City, affiliated with the most powerful Sect in the province, the Heavenly Moon Sect. They were located atop the massive mountain nearby, which was larger than any mountain Fenrir had ever seen in her previous world. From a glance, it seemed to have a height of more than 300km and, as there were strange forces that made flight very difficult in this world, most people had to scale it on foot.Other than the Heavenly Moon Sect, the City itself had several 'powerful' Sects, Clans, and Mercenary Groups. At the top of them all was the Outer-Branch of the Heavenly Moon Sect, with the Flowing River Sect and Flame Jade Sect constantly competing for the second strongest position. However, the group Fenrir knew to be the most cautious of was the Heavenly Moon Mercenary Guild, as they were a branch of the larger Continental Mercenary Association.The Continental Mercenary Association was part of the three strongest powers on this continent, which Fenrir had learned was called the Oyone, or 'The Western Badlands'. In this world, it was the weakest of the four continents, which were Vestaia, 'The Northern Heaven', Melkio, 'The Eastern Prairie', and Hai-Son, 'The Southern Kiln'. Vestaia and Hai-Son were supposed to be equal in strength, but Melkio and Oyone were inarguably weaker than the other two. As for the other powers within the Oyone Continent, they were the Searing Sword Palace and the Demon Beast Mountain respectively.Though the Searing Sword Palace was supposed to be the strongest force in the Oyone, it was well-known that they rarely sought trouble with the Demon Beast Mountain. The reason behind this, which had interested Fenrir, was because it was a region made up of various 'Demonic Beasts' that had managed to obtain human forms. This was the reason why so many people had called her a Demon in the past. As for why this was a 'bad' thing, it was due to the fact that many Cultivators hunted Demonic Beasts for their cores, materials, or even their souls. This practice made it impossible for Humans and Demonic Beasts to coexist together, to the point that any humanoid Demonic Beast outside of the Demon Beast Mountain would be hunted down relentlessly.Fenrir believed this was extremely stupid, even though she had also killed her fair share of Demonic Beasts by now. The ones she fought, however, also hunted each other and fought for territorial dominance. They also lacked any significant intelligence and, if they had, she would have let them be since it was 'wrong' to fight against each other for no reason. If the only reason you had was that the other 'person' was different, you were more of a monster than them. Intelligence was something that made it possible to rationalize, empathize, and work alongside each other. This allowed Fenrir to deduce that the main reason why Humans seemed to hate Demonic Beasts was because 'it was harder to steal their resources'...they just disguised their greed behind false righteousness, just like how many of their practitioners wore their pride and pettiness on their chests, putting on pretenses instead of being genuine...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'This place, these people, it's all so disingenuous...everyone just wants what other people have...')

Without any hesitation in her steps, Fenrir approached the massive Heavenly Moon City gate. There were hundreds of soldiers present, each wearing similarly designed armors and holding spears. The few that looked different, generally having red armor, or the robes of a Cultivator, watched over everything from their posts, high atop the city walls. Fenrir noticed that the strongest person present seemed to be a middle-aged man with sleek black hair tied up into a long ponytail. He was greying at the sides, but his face still had a semblance of youth, even with his cold countenance that caused all the other guards to avert their eyes and lower their heads when he was near.To avoid any problems, Fenrir had waited until the middle-aged man had left his post before she made her entrance. Even so, the reaction of the guards, and those waiting for entry, was different than she expected. Everyone turned their heads to observe her as she walked up to a chubby man that was in charge of allowing people access to the city. Ignoring the gazes of others, even though they made her skin feel itchy, Fenrir turned her gaze to match the man's and said, "I want to enter the city." in an icy tone.Breaking from his stupor, the fat man wiped his palms against his trousers and produced a crooked smile as he asked, "Where did this fairy come from? You don't seem to be from around here...are you a Mercenary from another region? What is your reason for coming to Heavenly Moon City?" As he was speaking, the fat man let his eyes wander all over her body and, seeing that she only looked at him with a cold glare in return, he began to feel a little emboldened. From his perspective, Fenrir, while looking intimidating, couldn't be very strong because her cultivation seemed transient and unstable.Fenrir squinted her scarlet eyes, feeling the desire to pluck out the fat man's for looking at her in such a way. Flexing her fingers a little, a habit she had developed when her hands were still paws, Fenrir said plainly, "My origins are not your concern. My purpose is my own. This city has no restrictions about who can enter, nor are there any requirements to discuss my affairs with a simple guard. Get out of my way, or the next time you decide to eye my body, I will feed them to you..."Because of her [Absolute Obscurance], given to her by the strange voice when she entered the world, it was impossible for other people to read her Cultivation. However, even gods would feel intimidated under her gaze in the previous world, much less this fat man before her. The moment Fenrir focused her gaze upon him, he began to sweat and tremble while the people who had previously been staring at her turned away, some even going so far as to talk to people they've never met before to avoid drawing attention to themselves.Snorting through her nose, Fenrir tossed two golden coins at the man before walking through the gate without anyone obstructing her path. She had obtained the money by looting the corpses of people she had found within the forests, knowing it would be necessary to gain access to the city and procure a place to rest. As for the amount, that was something she had learned by observing those entering and exiting, which required civilians to pay 5 silver while Mercenaries had to pay 2 gold. In this world, money had denominations of copper, silver, gold, black-gold, purple-gold, and star platinum. It took 100 of the previous denomination to make up a single piece of the higher grade currency, meaning 1 star platinum would be worth ten billion copper...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'Disgusting, filthy, fat pig! How dare other people look at Fenrir's body!?')

After observing other people for a long period of time, Fenrir was confident she would be able to properly disguise herself. She actually realized there wouldn't have been much of a difference between entering the City now, or entering it without any prior knowledge. Depending on a person's occupation, they all had unique quirks and, Cultivators especially, all behaved drastically different from each other. Ultimately, it depended on a person's status, wealth, and if they had any affiliation with a certain group or Sect. Fenrir had decided to disguise herself as a lone Mercenary since, after watching all the Cultivators putting on airs, she didn't really want to be associated with them.Since the only reason she dressed in cute clothes had been to appeal to her Master, who was now heartbreakingly far away, Fenrir decided to wear relatively plain clothing. She didn't want anyone eyeing her in the possessive manner that some of the men looked at women, so Fenrir chose to try and avoid such things by covering her body and dressing like a warrior.Fenrir used her magic to create a midnight blue tunic and, since shorts didn't seem to be a thing in this world, she covered her legs in loose-fitting black trousers. Around her waist, she wore a red cincher with a white fur lining and, as it seemed popular amongst Mercenaries, Fenrir wore an overcoat with a cowl, similarly lined with white fur. As she wasn't used to it, Fenrir decided not to wear shoes and, as many people seemed to walk around barefoot, or wrapped their feet in cloth, Fenrir didn't think it would be an issue.To complete her outfit, Fenrir wore similarly red guard on her forearms and calves, giving her the appearance of a warrior who relied on her hands and feet to fight. Though her appearance was very uncommon, as females typically wore thinner fabrics, Fenrir didn't care since she wasn't trying to appeal to anyone. The only reason she wanted to enter the City was to gain information, observe how people lived within the Cities of this world, and try to obtain a proper Cultivation technique.Fenrir knew that each technique was a closely guarded secret and, seeing the number of small groups, Clans, and Sects, Fenrir knew there are 'a lot' of different techniques. There even seemed to be things called Martial Skills, Spiritual Skills, and Qi Manifestation Techniques. Fenrir had seen people throwing flames, swinging around swords with their minds, and stepping on both the air and water as if it were the ground. However, though these feats impressed many of the people that witnessed them, Fenrir found they were crude and lazily done.Even at a glance, Fenrir could see that these people put more effort into showing off, making their skills flashy and overbearing, than actually being useful. It wouldn't be difficult to emulate most of their 'skills' just using her magic power alone, even without relying on any spells. Fenrir didn't know why these people thought that performing such 'basic' feats were deserving of praise, and it just made them seem childish and ignorant in her eyes. The fact that they 'forced' weaker people to revere them for such pathetic skills made her feel nothing but contempt for each and every one of them...(Fenrir's Commentary: 'This world is just full of people who bully other people just to feel better about their own pathetic skills...disgusting...')

Chapter 31: Pretense