After some minutes of jogging at a moderate speed, they finally reached the West Gate. The city was massive, so even moving at a moderate pace, which would be like using a powerful horse for an ordinary mortal, they still took almost half an hour to reach it.
This gate was very different from the previous one. That entrance to the city was six meters tall. However, compared with the one in front of them, it was short.
The West Gate had a massive metallic door over thirty meters in height. On each side of the door, two giant humanoid creatures stood at fifteen meters tall. They had the shape of a human, but because of their size and bulky armor, they looked very imposing.
They didn't have their helmets on, so our girls could tell three of them were male while the last one was female. Their facial features were very human-like, similar to their bodies.
However, there was a difference with ordinary humans; they all had four arms instead of two.
Yasenia tried to sense their strength, and she felt their level was similar to a mid-level Mental Nourishing Realm cultivator, equivalent to a middle-level Spiritual King Body cultivator.
Kali approached slowly, and since there wasn't any queue at this door, she walked up to the guards. The four of them looked at them and released a strand of their aura, trying to intimidate Kali and the others. However, they didn't even flinch.
This made the guards frown for a second. 'They aren't simple.'
The female guard stepped forward, mainly because our group had only females. The step sounded loud because of the massive weight of the four-armed giant.
Kali stopped and smiled, her two fox tails swishing calmly. "Hello, we come from the other gate. They told us that we had to pass through here to enter with our guardian beast." Kali pointed at Sierra, who looked like a small wolf before these giants. However, Sierra still looked composed and elegant, looking at the guards coldly.
The female guard felt danger coming from Sierra. Nevertheless, she nodded. "That would be right; this is the only gate that allows creatures as big as your Wolf. Do you have the entry jades?"
Kali waved her hand and made the jades float before the female giant. The guards were surprised. However, knowing all the mystical skills in the world, they calmed right after. Kali spoke. "Here are the entry jades. Please, check for their authenticity."
The female giant crouched and grabbed the fist-sized jades with one of her hands. Kali and the others saw energy circuits dimly lighting up around the armor, and then the gauntlet shone with a green light for an instant. The female giant nodded and returned the jades to Kali.
To her surprise, Kali stepped forward and took her directly from her hand, not being afraid of her. The guard blinked twice, confused.
The source of her confusion was their lack of reaction.
After seeing only one of the nine creatures flinch because of her size, it was surprising for her. This giant female guard was, in truth, a very gentle woman. Her house's tradition was the only reason she acted as a guard. Moreover, since the population of giants was small, she didn't have any real friends besides her family.
She liked little people more than those of her size because she felt like she had to take care of them.
She had hurt small creatures without it being her intention in the past, which made her more careful when approaching others. Some looked really fragile to her, and she had strong protective feelings toward them.
Nevertheless, she would always scare those more petite than her.
In her mind, it wasn't strange for small creatures to fear her. After all, her strength was high, and her presence intimidating.
But against all odds, she found a group of small creatures that didn't only not fear her, but they also looked at her with calm eyes. Even the little lobster who flinched was calmed right after with the caresses of the tallest and brown-skinned woman between them.
Kali saw that the giant woman was still crouched, looking at them with an odd expression, and asked. "Is something wrong?"
The female guard shook her head and stood up slowly. Her figure was imposing as she became taller and taller. After she reached the gate, she turned and said. "You all are allowed to enter the city! Open the gates!"
"Open the gates!"
"Open the gates!"
"Open the gates!"
With four simultaneous shouts, all the giants moved and placed their hands on the tall gate.
Then, in an impressive show of strength, the four of them pushed, making the enormous gate rumble as it opened in the middle.
Yasenia and the others lifted their eyebrow. That gate looked much heavier than they thoughts. Ebirah was impressed and asked Andrea. "Would you be able to open it?"
Andrea rubbed her chin and then nodded. "I should be able to. They don't look much heavier than the giant doors inside the Volcano."
Ebirah clacked her pincers, "You are so strong, Andrea!"
Andrea laughed softly.
Their shout interrupted the conversation.
"The gates are open! Welcome to Koran City!"
Yasenia and the others didn't delay and walked through the gates. Kali said as they crossed the gates. "Thank you for your hard work. These are for all of you, you should eat them before they lose effectiveness."
Then, she threw one [Blood Purification leaf] at each of them. They were really nothing to Kali, and seeing the enthusiasm the minotaurs had when they took them, she thought it would be a good show of sincerity.
The guards used one of their fourth arms to catch the leaves, and after smelling the aroma, they knew it was something good. They all smiled, satisfied.
However, the weakest of them suddenly turned their attention toward the heavy gate. "What are you standing there for? Close the damn gate; it is heavy!"
The other three smiled awkwardly and began retracting their steps. The gate made another rumbling sound as it finally closed with a low and resounding boom.
The female giant saw their figures disappear and thought. 'Maybe I can get close to them. I will visit them in the future.'
Meanwhile, Yasenia and the others finally entered the city and saw very populated streets filled with all kinds of different creatures. Most had a humanoid form with beast traits, but seeing complete beasts walking about wasn't strange. There were also humanoid beasts, meaning bipedal lizards, bears, and a wide variety of creatures.
However, Yasenia and the others also realized that most of the beast humans were from the Wolf clan. Maybe, out of one hundred beast-humans, there were ten wolf beast-humans.
The buildings were tall and small. There were layers, with the shortest structures at the front. They could also spot some of them with enormous doors, probably to allow giant races to enter.
The streets were also over two hundred meters in width.
In the middle were carriages, motorized vehicles, and even people moving on flying swords.
In short, it was a pretty diverse and populated area with exotic architecture. Tatyana lifted an eyebrow and commented. "They actually rely a lot on [Living Dirt] this much? This can become really dangerous real fast."
Yasenia and the others nodded.
However, there was another detail they caught right away. It was quite glaring for them, after all.
"Where are the humans?" Evelyn asked. The others also felt the absence of the race they thought was the most widespread.
Even after looking around, they didn't spot many humans and those they spotted...
Andrea pointed in one direction with a strange face. "There are some over there."
Following Andrea's finger, they saw two male and female humans tied in chains and naked, posing on the streets. There was a female fox kin with a whip speaking with passing people, "Human slaves for just one hundred and fifty flawed Parus! They are well-trained and very obedient. Do not miss the discount we are making today!"
Yasenia and the others couldn't help but feel surprised. Tatyana thought to herself. 'This is what they call an uno-reverse-card, I guess.'
The fourth-wall-breaking Empress turned her head and saw their confused expressions. She laughed softly and asked. "What? Did you think that beast humans wouldn't treat humans as such? No matter which side of the coin, we are all quite similar at the end of the day."
Yasenia asked, her tone inquiring. "Even Demons?"
Tatyana easily nodded. "Even Demons and Divines. They are just more liberated in some aspects, with fewer moral restraints. But in the end, every race fears the other race getting control, and they oppress them until they can't even lift their heads. It is rare to find Worlds with different groups that coexist with each other."
Cecile commented coldly. "Foolish. This only creates a vicious circle of revenge. If humans are allowed to escape their bindings, the world will be set aflame by them."
Tatyana laughed, "You've perfectly defined the whole world, Cecile."
Tatyana said slowly. "As the cultivators search for immortality, they are stopped by others, giving birth to resentment. A person can maybe endure others pushing them from their goals once or twice. Still, after a while, the resentment accumulates and grows inside a person bigger than what they can handle. This creates one feeling: thirst for revenge."
Tatyana shook her head. "After one is blinded by revenge, the resentment transforms into unconditional hate and leads us to commit atrocities. Of course, the other side retaliates, creating more trouble and leading those involved into a cycle of revenge until one side is exterminated. Few conflicts are resolved without that happening."
Tatyana sighed. "Moreover, this is only one reason creatures and races fight with each other. There are plenty of them that gives us an excuse to act before they do, even if we don't know if they had the intention to harm us. All of you have done things like this more than once."
They couldn't refute it, so they looked at her, waiting to hear the rest. Tatyana continued. "However, we don't live in a World where words can resolve every conflict. We live in a World where the bigger fist is correct, and the weaker one can only lament at their feebleness. Therefore, you don't have to feel guilty. Why should you hold your ideals by following rules set by someone else?"
Tatyana sneered. "We just have to become stronger without alarming the people trying to suppress us. Once we are strong enough, they'll be the ones listening to us, and we'll be the ones making the rules."
Tatyana looked at them, her red eyes burning their souls with renewed determination. "Therefore, you have to gain strength. Without strength, others will repress your ideals, no matter how morally upright you want to be, how much of a good person or a devil you want to become."
"Remember, children. The Cultivation World is about strength and nothing more."
They nodded and took a deep breath. 'Strength! Without it, we'll just be thrown around by others, never able to create our own future.'
After her small speech, Tatyana motioned them to move forward. Kali and Cecile guided them, wanting to go to the inn the minotaurs recommended.
However, as they walked, that slave-owner fox-woman spotted them. Kali's presence made her eyes gravitate toward them because a two-tailed fox was a rarity.
She approached with a smile and spoke to Kali. "Miss, I see that behind you there are some humans. How about selling them to me? We can even exchange slaves if you find any of these likable."
Kali and the others turned. The red-furred fox woman was dragging the four human slaves by the chains around their necks.
Since they were naked, Angel and the others landed their eyes on a bare, living male for the first time. Evelyn whispered, "So small. Did they cut a part of it?"
Angel giggled, "So cute."
Andrea smirked. "I always felt I was small, but it seems that comparing myself with Yasenia or the monster dildos Tatyana uses was like shooting myself in the foot."
The slave owner woman turned her head and looked down. 'Well, they aren't the biggest, but they aren't small either... What kind of things are these humans used to?'
Yasenia's eyebrow twitched, and she used her wing to cover their eyes. Then, she transmitted mentally. 'No looking so intently! A glance, I don't mind, but do not let your eyes wander too much.'
Their lips instantly quirked. 'She is so cute when she is jealous~.'
Kali shook her head while hearing their banter. Then, she turned toward the woman and said...