In a city filled with beast-humans who had cat ears on their heads, the people here pursued various occupations. The city planning and regulations were quite orderly. All of these were knowledge that had been passed down from humans in previous eras.
Because they had both examples and lessons from history, the development of the beast-humans was exceptionally rapid. Their technology lagged behind the current world by only a few hundred years.
Here there were merchants and travelers, causing many shops to be built along both sides of the roads. The marketplace was quite bustling, especially the night-time shops that would have many customers patronizing them.
This city was located near the border, causing occasional clashes between patrol forces of both species to occur frequently. Therefore, inspections of people entering the city had to be more strict than other cities.
It was now late afternoon. At the city entrance appeared a long line of cat-eared citizens wanting to enter the city. Most of them were merchants from other cities, coming to exchange resources and then take them to make profits elsewhere.
"...Please be patient, Elder Sister."
In the middle of that very line, two young women of the cat-ear tribe were standing and waiting patiently. They wore long brown hooded cloaks that completely concealed their figures. The cat-eared young woman with pink ears turned to speak with her older sister with concern.
"I'm fine..."
The other was a black cat-eared young woman with a cold expression. She shook her head lightly. Heat like this couldn't do anything to her anyway.
It was Xie Suyao and Bai Fanxian!
They were now disguised with the cosplay outfits obtained from Wu Jia, causing both of them to have small, twitching cat ears on their heads, and at their rear ends were specially made tails attached as well.
Although Xie Suyao asked with concern, her gaze was fixed on Bai Fanxian's face and the cat ears on her head without looking away.
Elder Sister is too adorable!
Because normally Bai Fanxian was both silent and noble, but once the cat ears were added it matched surprisingly well. It turned out that it pushed the "cuteness" graph—which was normally overshadowed by her beauty—surging up to match it. Especially for Xie Suyao, who thought it had completely broken through the scale!
Bai Fanxian sighed softly. She looked at Xie Suyao who was endlessly excited before her. At first, she had suggested sneaking in quietly, but was rejected by both Wu Jia and Xie Suyao.
One gave the reason that finding information required infiltrating the city. Some information required buying, selling, or exchanging. Therefore, having a clear identity would make things more convenient.
But the other person just wanted to see her wear cat ears.
Seeing that it couldn't be helped, Bai Fanxian had to concede, ending up in the current situation.
The line that seemed long actually moved quite quickly. They only waited twenty minutes before safely reaching the checkpoint area.
"Where are you two from?"
The one asking was an official. He was a middle-aged man with cat ears on his head, dressed neatly, while also surveying them.
"Hello, these are our identification cards."
It was Xie Suyao who went forward. She knew her Elder Sister definitely wasn't skilled at this sort of thing, and handed over two cards.
These identification cards were obtained from Wu Jia. Because they were influenced by humans, there were therefore population records in this world as well. It was just that because technology wasn't yet advanced, population data wasn't connected between cities.
Wu Jia therefore arranged to borrow the "identities" of two young women residing in his village. Because they no longer needed to use these cards, he just modified them slightly and they were indistinguishable from the real thing.
They didn't know if that man was truly a "doctor," because from what they observed, he seemed capable of doing many things. Whether it was building modern wooden houses like that, making these disguise equipment himself, or even forging documents that he managed in such a short time.
"From the eastern city, huh?"
The official looked at the information on the cards and recorded it. He couldn't even detect any abnormality with these two cards.
"What are you here for?"
"We've brought goods to sell." Xie Suyao opened the bag she carried on her back to show him. It was full of various medicinal pills and herbs. These things were taken from Wu Jia's backyard garden, and the man himself could only swallow his reluctance and give them some low-tier medicinal pills to take along.
"Oh, excellent!"
The official was pleased upon seeing it was medicine, because this city was located near the border. Both healing medicines and equipment like weapons were necessary items and quite scarce. Knowing that the two had brought this type of goods in, he didn't suspect anything further.
"Alright, entry fee paid. Welcome."
The official returned the identification cards. After receiving five copper coins from each person, he let both of them enter the city easily.
"Let's go, Elder Sister."
Xie Suyao pulled Bai Fanxian along. It was as she had seen from the sky earlier—this city had quite a "western" atmosphere. Both the streets paved well with stone and brick, and the houses still orderly like this, made her able to imagine those tourist city photographs from the internet.
The difference was that around the city were high walls used to defend against enemies and some monster beasts attacking, making it completely block the beautiful view.
The two of them walking together naturally attracted others' gazes. Xie Suyao, aware of this, sent out slightly threatening looks before pulling the hoods of both herself and her Elder Sister to cover their faces.
But it seemed to be too late already, because the matter of beautiful young women appearing in the city became a quiet rumor spreading by word of mouth continuously.
"Can you sense anything, Elder Sister?"
Xie Suyao knew well that Bai Fanxian's Heaven Sense was broader than hers, so she turned to ask when the two of them had traveled until reaching the city center where people were most crowded.
Bai Fanxian shook her head. She couldn't sense any familiar presence in this city at all.
"It's alright... Wu Jia already told us this land is quite vast." Xie Suyao consoled her. Just the fact that they coincidentally appeared in nearby areas like this was already surprising.
Because just the cat-ear tribe's cities alone numbered more than ten. So to find others here—if they were truly here—Bai Fanxian would have sensed them long ago.
"We'll search for them gradually."
This was what Bai Fanxian decided in the end. She assessed the danger level of this dimension from observation and concluded.
She didn't need to rush.
How could her people be that weak? She thought this was merely a small test that came suddenly. Moreover, even though they were children, those children had her qi and Intent protecting them. Even attacks from the Sage level still couldn't do anything. What more did she need to worry about?
Don't forget that before this, Hui'er had even lived beside a garbage heap.
She believed that after passing through this matter, her people would grow greatly. They needed to have their own way of life to some extent. It wouldn't be good if they just followed her around all the time.
These were her conclusions after calming down.
"If so, should we find lodging first? We were planning to stay in this city tonight anyway." Xie Suyao smiled after sensing her Elder Sister's decision. They planned to stay in this city for two or three days. After all, it hadn't even been a full day since they'd broken through dimensions to appear here. News of the others surely wouldn't travel that quickly.
"Do as you say..."
Bai Fanxian didn't object, causing them to go straight to stay at a hotel that looked quite good. The lower floor of the hotel was a restaurant and would become a bar at night, making it even more suitable for finding information.
Additionally, the hotel owner was an auntie who seemed kind. When she saw that those staying were two young women traveling together, she arranged to give them a corner room far from people, and even warned them to take care of themselves with concern.
They spent the afternoon period understanding this world. The culture and way of life were mostly similar to their world. Some medicinal pills and herbs brought along were taken by Xie Suyao to sell to a medicine shop to use as expenses during this period.
Nighttime arrived quickly. What surprised them were strange stones that didn't exist in their world, which were used to provide light. They were installed at various points throughout the city, causing the nighttime to remain brightly lit.
People who had worked all day naturally needed to socialize as usual, causing restaurants and bars that opened at night to receive popularity until customers sat packed together.
The lower floor of the hotel where they stayed was the same. When mealtime arrived, the two young women walked down from their room. Only this time, the customers in the shop all turned to stare at them strangely.
They weren't wearing cloaks!
This caused the figures and beautiful faces of the young women to be completely revealed. For a border city like this, the opportunity to see such drop-dead gorgeous beauties had never existed before. Therefore, whether men or women, all had to freeze in shock at the sight.
Many of them were confident that these two must be the young women from the afternoon rumors.
At first, Xie Suyao frowned in displeasure, but was stopped by Bai Fanxian raising her hand first.
"...Perhaps this way might be better."
Bai Fanxian explained to Xie Suyao.
"If we can't find them, then go to a spot where they can easily see us."
Like being famous and well-known, for instance.
Although it was quite annoying for Bai Fanxian, there was no choice. Even if she wasn't in a hurry, she still wanted to find her followers. Or else have them come find her. At least it should be better than flying around searching aimlessly forever.
She therefore needed an effective intelligence network and to make herself known. Xie Suyao, hearing what her Elder Sister thought, nodded firmly in agreement.
Even though actions like this often unintentionally attracted some problems.
Like right now.
"Hey there, young ladies. Interested in sitting at the same table with us?" The person who approached them was a large-bodied man with a drunken demeanor. In his hands he still held a large glass he wouldn't let go.
Xie Suyao glanced with the corner of her eye. Over there was a group of people who seemed to be this man's friends, looking over while laughing loudly and noisily.
They chose to ignore it and went to sit by themselves. But that attitude caused people to keep coming to bother them.
"Hey, two young ladies traveling is dangerous, you know?"
"That's right, want to stay with us big brothers?"
"We'll take good care of both of you. Won't let you have to go out and struggle at all."
More and more people began crowding around their table. The shop owner auntie frowned and went to help, but Bai Fanxian's voice calmly rose first.
"Don't be too violent... We don't know the rules of this world very well yet."
"...Yes, Elder Sister."
"Ahhh!!"
After the conversation between the two young women, the rowdy men who had surrounded the table suddenly scattered apart. Many of them lost consciousness, while some bodies began showing purple bruises that could make them lie writhing on the floor immediately!
Everyone on the outer ring was shocked. They didn't see how the two young women attacked. They just sat still and six or seven men went down in a pile on the floor!
"What did you do to the boss!"
It seemed that large-bodied man was the leader of many people in this shop. Seeing that he was one of the people writhing on the floor from pain, they looked alarmed and ran to surround them.
"What are you doing? We were just sitting quietly." Xie Suyao raised her eyebrows innocently as if these matters had nothing to do with them.
And several people in the shop who still had some sense began speaking to help.
"That's right... Those two young ladies were just sitting quietly. I can testify." An old man with cat ears on his head stood up. He walked to confront that group of people without fear. It became them instead who seemed slightly afraid of this old man.
Besides him, there were several others in the shop who spoke in unison. They were quite displeased with this group already, so gladly joined the fray. Even though in their hearts they knew well that the ones who acted must definitely be those two.
But there was no evidence. No one saw how they attacked. They didn't even move their hands at all. So how could anyone hold them accountable?
Finally, several officials who were government people came in. They were surprised at the condition of the group writhing on the floor, but when they went to help, those people didn't show any wounds on their bodies—not even a single spot.
Even those purple bruises had vanished without a trace.
After hearing from the witnesses' mouths, they concluded that these people must have wanted to put on a performance to demand compensation from travelers like those two young women.
"Am I skilled, Elder Sister?"
Xie Suyao smiled as she turned to ask Bai Fanxian for praise. She could control the poison in her body much better now. Both the type and severity could be determined at will, and she could even easily withdraw her own poison from the target's body like this.
Bai Fanxian only smiled faintly in response, but just that was enough to make Xie Suyao happy to have helped her Elder Sister.
While the two young women were about to begin enjoying the dinner that the hotel owner auntie brought to serve—even giving them extra as a special treat—rumors about the "two sisters" who were both beautiful and dangerous at the same time began spreading through the city's underground channels quietly.
Because both that large-bodied man and his group of underlings were one of the city's big players. The matter of them being thoroughly played by these two sisters without being able to find evidence to hold them accountable became something people started talking about.
The story was proceeding according to Bai Fanxian's wishes. She could only hope it would reach her people's ears someday...
She merely needed to find an information source where she could obtain information from outside this city.
At that very moment, the old man who was the first person to speak up and help them walked over.
"Greetings... I'm Ethan, the head of this city's Travelers' Association. Where are you two from?"
...It seemed she would find an information source faster than expected.