Chapter 207: A Visit

In the past few weeks, I’ve spent my time observing the area where Khalissi claimed the mana crystals were. I had mostly used my shadow hounds for such a task since they were more stealthy than anyone I could’ve sent. But today, I had decided to go myself.

I already had a clue of what this place would look like. It was a rather large factory located to the north of the city. Most people of high wealth lived to the north while the rest of the poorer population lived in the south.

The social hierarchy of this city was an interesting one. Majority of the wealth belonged to the top 10% of the city while the rest had to survive day to day on the little they had. Roughly 80 percent of the people in the city possessed beast-ranked blood. And since most people possessed this quality blood, its value wasn’t as high.

This was to be expected. Having a currency based on the type of blood someone possessed is bound to lead to a few problems. The market was oversaturated with beast quality blood, which makes noble quality and blessed quality blood all the more valuable and so beast quality blood didn’t have much value unless it was being traded in large volumes.

This type of society couldn’t be balanced. It was meant so that the rich were on top and the poor were at the bottom.

Of course, I wasn’t the only person who realized this. There was a prominent figure in this city who openly shared their opinion of how unfair this society was. They had built quite the following for themselves. So much so that the noble vampires were beginning to talk.

Of course, I wanted to get in touch with such a person, and as fate would have it, Kumo was actually familiar with this person. Before going to the factory where the mana crystals were, I decided to have a talk with this person and have Kumo accompany me.

I met Kumo at the exit of our bustling little settlement. The once downtrodden settlement of Grey Waste was now bustling with life. It reminded me a lot of Ryomen. The people here seemed happy. I had built a thriving settlement where everyone contributed equally to its development.

As I walked through the settlement, people stopped to gaze at me in amazement. Ghouls, vampires, and lamias alike all shared a strong admiration towards me. It wasn’t a bad feeling, being admired. It actually felt quite enjoyable.

“Darling, I’m happy you came,” Kumo said as I approached. She was dressed in a white yukata designed with beautiful rose patterns. Her hair was tied in a bun, and she wore red lipstick which further accentuated her plush lips.

“Are you ready to leave?” I asked.

She giggled and nodded like a prim and proper lady, and so the two of us went off into the bustling city of Purgatory. Of course, I had asked Khalissi to change my appearance before I went off.

“The air here feels a bit festive, don’t you think?” I asked.

There were quite a few decorations, and strangely, everyone was dressed in white. I glanced over at Kumo, and she was looking at me in bewilderment.

“Darling, have you forgotten? Today is the hungry ghost festival.”

Oh, so that’s it. It all clicked the moment she spoke.

The hungry ghost festival, otherwise known as the Zhongyuan Jie, or Yulanpen Festival, is a supernatural event that only happens once a year where a rift forms between our world and the underworld.

This rift allowed ghosts and other specters to return to the mortal realm for a short bit before they soon left. Personally, I’ve never experienced their famed festival, but I’ve heard quite a bit about it.

People would feed these ghosts that came from the rift. They would also perform special dances to entertain them and also provide offerings. They would burn joss paper, which was believed to be ghost money. They would use these papers to create models of luxuries like cars and houses. The smoke would transmit these items into the afterlife for the spirits to use.

I had zero clue whether this was true or not, but there were a lot of things in this world that were above my comprehension. I’ve personally experienced the wild hunt, so how could I say that the hungry festival wasn’t real.

There were a lot of supernatural events that took place in the world. Some of them, I wouldn’t mind experiencing and seeing for myself.

“We’ll come back to the festival after we’re done with everything,” I told Kumo, to which she smiled and nodded happily. We continued walking through the lively alley before we came upon a rather luxurious-looking building. It was actually a bar with a sign that read ’Inari’.

“How did you even find where they were?” Kumo asked, looking at me curiously.

“I had Ivy buy information from the witches using my blood.” I answered

Without wasting another second, the two of us approached the bar. Standing as guard was a minotaur. Looking at his imposing figure, I could see how he would make a great bouncer. He was at least twice my size, 300 pounds of pure muscle. Leaning on the wall beside him was a battleaxe as thick as my forearm.

“What business do the two of you have here?” he asked in a loud, gruff voice.

“We’re here to see your boss, so step aside,” Kumo said.

The minotaur was clearly unamused by this as his eyes turned sharp, and a bit of smoke puffed from his nostrils.

“Tell her the jorōgumo yokai is here to see her, and she will happily let me in,” Kumo said.

The minotaur looked at her unamused before opening the door and relaying the information to someone on the inside. After that, all we had to do was wait. A short while later, a creature that looked like a wendigo returned and whispered something to the minotaur. Of course, my sensitive ears heard what he said.

“She said to let them in.”

After receiving that message, the minotaur looked at us and grumbled something.

“Follow me.”

With those instructions, we followed the big burly monster through the bar of drunk patrons and into a back room. This room was heavily guarded as we saw creatures of all kinds standing guard. We walked past them and slipped through a curtain, and soon we were face to face with the person we had come here to see.

In front of us was a creature curled up on the sofa licking itself clean. This creature resembled an orange fox, except it had three tails instead of one.

Kumo’s lips curved upwards into an amused smile the moment she saw the creature.

“Who would’ve thought you would be here, kitsune yokai?”

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