This was another trick to avoid the merchant’s hounds — they were tracking me by my aura, and the cloth that I was wearing was sufficiently drenched in sweat that practically radiated my Qi.

I slid off the tarp and rushed down the alley. Behind me I heard the growl and hiss, the beginning of a phantom-hound fight. Animal ghosts were dangerous, but they weren’t very clever.

I emerged from the alley feeling particularly victorious. I could practically taste the melon now. I turned my head for an instant to check whether the hounds would follow.

It was at that point that I collided with a geisha.

It wasn’t often that I accidentally collided with people, but when I did, I made sure to take full advantage of the situation. The melon knocked the wind out of her, and my hands instantly reached into the pouch on her waist. Success.

Wait, this doesn’t feel like money. This is… No, it can’t be. This is a beast core! This is a lot better than money!

Yes!

I abandoned the melon entirely in favor of the beast core. It was clearly a high-level core too, one able to do a lot of incredible things, or so I’d overheard from a merchant conversation once. The core practically glowed, shimmering with power, casting light right through my skinny fist.

“No! Please! I need it!” I heard the weak cry of the geisha from behind me.

Finders keepers, losers weepers!

A tasty melon for a beast core was a fair trade, a perfectly reasonable transaction, I assured myself as I swiftly made my way into another descending alley.

I didn’t hear an incantation of any names behind me, so it was safe to assume that the geisha didn’t have a hunter on her.

Phew. I got to keep my undershirt this time. Good undershirts were hard to steal, and I’d stolen this one from a lovely skeleton.

Okay, memory. How do these magical glowing balls work? I tried to recall the exact conversation that I’d overheard long ago.

If I was remembering things right, the merchant said something about pushing the core into primordial bones and then breathing the produced fumes to harness the power contained within.

Eh, good enough for me. There were plenty of old, unguarded bones beneath the Gold City. Everything was ancient down there.

I rapidly made my way to the outskirts of the city, slid down a series of pipes, and rushed down a rope that nearly reached the surface. The ropes haven’t been maintained in decades. This one sort of ended about three hundred meters above the ground.

As annoying as that was, I didn’t have the energy to find another rope. So I simply held onto the metal sphere hanging from the last knot, waiting until this bit of Lord-Boundless-Yellow-Butt passed over one of the ancient towers.

My stomach growled, begging for sustenance.

“We’ll yum a shiny spirit now and eat real food later,” I told it.

I had no idea what sort of power the orb would fill me with, but hopefully, it would be the one that allowed me to eat less. Stealing food was a hassle.

The view of the ravaged lands beneath the feet of the Boundless Lord was generally of some sort of ruins.

From what I understood, our Lord preferred to roam over places of the long dead because he enjoyed the flavor of memories, aka souls. Yummy, yummy souls.

Interestingly enough, he didn’t bother the jungle that was also eating away at the ruined city. Maybe the trees didn’t have souls?

“To a most successful breakfast.” I waved at the gargantuan, star-filled, semi-transparent, yellow, star-tipped tentacles that descended from Lord Boundless and caressed the remnants of the ancient civilization hundreds of elbows beneath us.

I didn’t enjoy the architecture of the Ancients. Everything was either metal or concrete down there and had far too many floors for my liking.

A multitude of concrete boxes were tipped against each other in a jumble of destruction, partially covered up by wild jungle growth.

The god of the Gold City steadily stepped through the ruins, his numerous, absurdly long legs composed of countless yellow strands steadily moving him onward.

The city of the dead beneath us was silent. Maws of empty windows with glittering frames of shattered glass stared up at me. I waited. The wind picked up, swinging the rope precariously. I tried not to inhale the cursed dust that flew from the time-worn ruins.

“Give me back my core, girl!” a voice barked at me from above. It was the geisha.

How in ninety-nine thousand hells did she…?

I looked up at her. On her shoulder was a ghostly… ferret?

Damnation! People didn’t usually track me personally—they sent the ghosts. Ghosts were stupid, easy to bamboozle… but people were a whole other breed. People were clever.

The damn geisha clearly had nothing better to do with her life than to chase me herself. She didn’t even have the melon.

Who abandons a perfectly good melon, honestly?

I swung the rope with my entire body weight.

“What are you…?!” the geisha yelped from above.

I swung the rope harder, aiming for one of the ruined towers. As it passed near one of the dilapidated concrete balconies, I leapt.

I was generally pretty good at leaping, but then I didn’t always carry beast cores in one of my hands. I landed poorly, rolling and skidding across concrete rubble.

Eh, what’s a few bruises and scratches when you’re about to gain such incredible power?

I glanced back at the worried, pale face of the geisha. She saw that I still had the beast core and sent a death glare at me from the swinging rope.

I gave her a quick, courteous bow and rushed into the depths of the ancient structure.

Stairwells of the Ancients had far too many steps for my liking. So many floors. Too many if you ask me.

How did they even get around? Did they cultivate powerful leg muscles to climb all of these stairs? Soon enough, I would know the answer.

I glanced into the open rooms that I was running by. They were empty, devoid of bones. Lord Boundless must have already sucked everything up around here.

“Pleaaaseee... ssstop!” The geisha’s howl resonated from above, echoing in the empty space of the desolate stairwell. She must have made the leap as well on the next swing of the rope.

I didn’t respond. Yelling things was a waste of breath. Damn persistent woman!

In a few hundred heartbeats, I reached the ground level and rushed out of the building.

Primordial bones… primordial bones… where are you hiding? Aha!

I noticed a metal derelict of a primordial device. Something white sat inside. Yes!

I leaped into the rusted derelict and poured my Qi into the beast core. Mixed with a desire to gain wisdom and power, I smashed it on the weather-whitened, grinning skull of an ancient human.

The skull flashed in a multitude of colors. Smokey, shimmering fumes shaped like a ghostly figure materialized on the mold-covered seat. I inhaled them with all my might.

The geisha, having finally reached me, grabbed my shirt. She was far too late. The power was mine! I was going to be a cultivator. I was going to be unstoppable!

The geisha shook me with impotent rage. “What have you done, idiot girl?!” she yelled. “Why in the high heavens would you—?”

“Behold! I have the strength of the Ancients now!” I slurred as something blossomed within me. I tried to sound like an Immortal. “I’m the Alpha and Omega! Unhand me, pitiful woman, or I shall...”

I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do.

I didn’t want to strike her down with my newfound incredible power. There were tears in her eyes.

“Shhhh. No tears. Only dreams now,” I drunkenly flapped a hand at her neck, trying to put her to sleep with a mighty neck pinch. It didn’t work.

Hello? Incredible power? Where are you? Now would be a good time to turn into a super-human!