PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Three days of hunting down criminals had brought many experiences for the group, both good and bad. One could see that the bad experiences had weighed heavily on the former priestess. Yet, you could also see a conviction in her eyes that wasn’t there before.

To the side of the group, in a secluded corner of the camp, a pile of assorted treasures mostly made up of spirit stones that were the hard currency in the Martial Sovereign World could be seen. These were the riches plundered from the bandits by the girls. The blood that still stained much of it was a good clue to its origin.

In addition to the wealth, the girls had gained much practical combat experience. Further, they honed their skills, which would come in handy later, as Claire and the rest had decided to participate in the martial demonstrations leading up to the expedition to the islands.

Whatever the case, Claire and the rest had achieved their goals, and it was time to head back to the Eternal War Maiden Sect. As for Xiauyue and Fei Long, both women had decided to have the equivalent of a romantic weekend. Meanwhile, Claire and the others went on their bandit hunt and arranged to meet during the auction the next day.

After the meal, the group decided to set off, each carrying a gigantic backpack filled to the brim with sheer wealth. Fortunately, there were no bandits, so the girls had no problems during their trip.

It seemed strange to have been in a territory practically infested with criminals and barely walking a couple of miles to reach civilization and safety. Still, Claire and the rest were already getting used to how capricious the world generally was.

Although no one said so, it was evident that the Eternal War Maiden Sect had more than enough power to devour all of this territory and turn it into a safe passage. Nevertheless, they simply had not done so for reasons that only the higher sect members understood.

The motives were of little importance to Claire and the rest. The only thing that mattered was not to forget that the Eternal War Maiden Sect was not necessarily a safe place filled with good people.

.....

When all was said and done, Claire and the rest had already formed a useful notion for their travels: no place was truly safe, and you always had to keep your guard up.

If Desmond knew that the girls had reached that realization, he would be very proud of their progress since this teaching was particularly useful to him where he was.

With that thought in mind, Claire, Sasha, Revna, and Cecilia entered the Eternal War Maiden Sect’s territory. As expected, there was no great change in the atmosphere. Regardless, more and more traces of civilization could be seen as the girls entered the territory.

To the surprise of Claire and the rest, even after finding a well-established path, they still had to walk nearly fifty miles before seeing the walls of the Eternal War Maiden Sect’s capital city.

As a fact to keep in mind, the Martial Sovereign World was at least a dozen times larger than the earth, so it was normal to move great distances to get from one place to another. The girls’ bewilderment came mainly because they were unaware of this information. Little did they know how absurd the distance they originally would have had to travel had it not been for Kryzsha’s help.

Approaching the city, it became apparent how dense and famous the sect was. The line of people waiting to enter stretched for nearly a mile, which put a sour expression on the girls’ faces.

A look around told the girls that at least half of the people in the place were not coming for the additional events. They probably came for the massive recruitment of female disciples that would take place in a couple of days. The sheer number of beautiful women dressed as godly warriors would make anyone with masochistic leanings tremble.

Trying to stay out of trouble, Claire and the rest kept to themselves, keeping their curiosity from being the source of a headache. Ironically, they still had a headache when it was finally their turn to go through the front door.

Upon further thought, Claire and the girls couldn’t walk through the city gate with backpacks full of blood-stained treasures. The most absurd part, however, was that after clarifying the origin of the treasures, the woman in charge of the review nodded with a smile that turned friendly at the speed of light and let them pass.

One detail worth mentioning is that Revna had to stop wearing the slave collar Desmond gave her the night they met. As expected, the Eternal War Maiden Sect had a solid and, well, bloody opinion about slavery, so it wasn’t wise to walk in the street with an item like that.

The most ironic part, perhaps, was that Revna, as silent and stoic as she was, was about to throw a tantrum. Revna didn’t want to take her Master’s necklace off, even if she was beaten to death. One could only marvel at the power of love, although many would argue that it was called Stockholm syndrome.

In the end, under the premise that Claire would help Revna with some advice on how to seduce Desmond, Revna ends up giving in and removing the necklace from her. Thanks to that, the girls could enter the city without much trouble.

Claire, Sasha, Cecilia, and Revna’s first impression of the city was a bit mixed. On the one hand, this city was more bustling and prosperous than the roaming cloud city by a wide margin. It could be seen that the eternal war maiden sect was very powerful and wealthy. On the other hand, there was an almost hostile atmosphere around the city, perhaps because of the huge number of heavily armed guards who patrolled with watchful and judging looks.

From a certain point of view, the seemingly excessive security was adequate for a city like this. Especially when many guests from other sects would be arriving, many of whom would not necessarily have cordial relations with the eternal war maiden sect. Furthermore, as a city owned by a female sect, there was a certain amount of paranoia and vigilance to avoid specific incidents.

On that same note, Claire and the rest noted that, contrary to what they had thought before, not all of the city’s population were purely female. In fact, a significant number of men were clearly locals rather than visitors. At first, this seemed strange for a female sect, but it didn’t take long for Claire and the girls to understand why.

While it is true that the Eternal War Maiden Sect is a sect made up exclusively of women, at no time had they stated that men were prohibited in their territory or their cities. Just a glance around made it clear that there were quite a few men in the city, many of whom could be seen strolling with their wives, who were wearing robes of the Eternal War Maiden Sect.

For a female sect, the Eternal War Maiden Sect was quite lax in some ways and had no restrictions on its members’ romantic relationships. The sect allowed them to marry whomever they wanted, regardless of the other person’s gender. Something that was made clear by the large number of same-sex couples who could be seen walking comfortably through the city.

In a way, for a sect that was supposed to hold extremist views, the general atmosphere in the city was quite liberal and open-minded. It wasn’t hard to see that the citizens were genuinely happy with their situation.

Of course, that peace and happiness were based on the absurd war power of the sect, and its members knew it, so they trained almost with religious devotion to guarding this paradise.

In less than half an hour, Claire, Sasha, Cecilia, and Revna got many surprises on their tour of the city, coming to have a favorable impression of the place. Perhaps, there was only one thing that stood out as strange.

It was strange since no matter where you looked, no single male child was on the streets, either alone or on their parents’ side. There were no boys but many girls; every couple in the streets with offspring had females.

By mere chance, Sasha turned out to know the reason for this phenomenon. “They use special medicinal pills.” She clarified before pausing for a second to remember all the details and continue. “It is a relatively expensive and complicated medicine to create, but it is 100% effective in ensuring that a baby is born of a certain sex. It goes without saying which sex this sect chose. The medicine was originally created to help powerful clans secure a male heir.”

Hearing Sasha’s explanation, Cecilia couldn’t help but comment. “I find it strange that they perform such a practice, but I should not judge their customs. Although I now understand the sect’s need for alchemists.”

Although somewhere in her somewhat unstable mind, Revna harbored some fantasy of her having a beautiful daughter with Desmond, she wasn’t at all interested in talking about it, so she interrupted to change the subject. “So, what is our next step?”

Sharing a similar line of thought to Revna’s, Claire responded. “Let’s go to a restaurant for a decent meal and rest. We then asked for instructions to attend tonight’s auction, and we met Fei Long and Xiauyue.”