Li Yu stepped out of the First Layer of the Void about a mile from the town's main gate.

  The transition was smooth. The red lightning of the void faded and was replaced by the humid metallic air of the Obsidian Hollow outskirts. He adjusted his robes, shaking off the residual dust.

  He suppressed his aura to the level of a wandering mercenary, early Core Formation stage. Not too weak so he wouldn’t be picked on or bothered. But not too strong either to raise any kind of suspicion.

  He walked the rest of the way on the crushed stone road.

  The gates of Obsidian Hollow were impressive. They were made from the ribcage of some colossal, long dead beast, the bones reinforced with black iron bands.

  Two guards stood watch. One was an Ogre, twelve feet of green muscle and bad teeth, holding a club made from a tree trunk. The other was a Mantis Kin, a humanoid insect with four serrated arms and multifaceted eyes that twitched constantly.

  "Halt," the Ogre grunted, stepping into Li Yu's path. The ground shook slightly under his weight. "Entry fee."

  Li Yu didn't flinch. He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a low grade demonic core. It was a dull red sphere.

  He tossed it to the Ogre. The Ogre caught it, sniffed it and grinned. "Fresh. Go in."

  The Mantis Kin chittered with its mandibles clicking. "Don't cause trouble, smooth skin. Lady Kaida is in a mood today."

  "I'm just passing through," Li Yu said with a neutral voice. He walked past them and into the belly of the beast.

  Inside, the town was even louder than it had seemed from the void.

  Li Yu merged into the flow of traffic. The street was a river of diverse biology. He was bumped by the rocky shoulder of a Golem, hissed at by a Naga slithering past with a basket of eggs and nearly stepped on by a Goblin rushing to deliver a crate of ore.

  He made his way to the market district.

  Here, the nature of this world’s economy became clear immediately.

  There were no coins. No gold, no silver, no copper. In the Frostbound Dominion, spirit stones were the currency of cultivators, while precious metals served the mortals.

  Here, there was no distinction. Everyone was a cultivator of some kind, even if only by virtue of existing in this dense and violent atmosphere. Those that weren’t were long dead.

  ‘Humans here must somehow protect their kids until they are 10, when they awaken their martial spirit to cultivate. But it doesn't seem right. Perhaps human children here are born with a martial spirit? Maybe I am just thinking from the perspective of my own world. Maybe they don’t need a martial spirit at all… I will find out eventually.’ Li Yu thought to himself on the subject.

  Energy was the only money in these markets.

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  Li Yu stopped at a stall run by a Fire Sprite. A small, floating creature made of flickering embers. The Sprite was selling skewers of meat roasted over its own body heat.

  "What's the cost?" Li Yu asked as he was pointing to a skewer that smelled surprisingly good. Spicy and rich.

  "Two shards," the Sprite crackled.

  Li Yu watched a customer ahead of him. It was a hulking beastman with the head of a boar. He handed over two small fragments of a shattered beast core.

  'It's a barter system based on energy density,' Li Yu analyzed. 'Cores, shards of cores, herbs, anything that helps one grow stronger.'

  He pulled out another low grade core from his stash. He channeled a tiny bit of Qi into his finger and snapped the core in half, then broke one half into smaller pieces.

  He handed two fragments to the Sprite. The Sprite inspected them. It absorbed a tiny wisp of the energy to test the purity.

  "Good trade," the Sprite chirped while handing Li Yu a skewer.

  Li Yu took a bite.

  It was tough, chewy and exploded with flavor. It tasted like venison marinated in a spicy sauce and unfortunately metallic shavings. It was rough, unrefined and honestly... pretty good. If the metallic taste could be removed, it would have been delicious.

  He walked while he ate and was observing the culture.

  Despite the monstrous appearances, the society here wasn't alien. It was shockingly mundane.

  He saw a group of Thorn Kin sitting in a circle and gambling with dice made of bone. They laughed when one of them lost, swearing in a guttural language that sounded like branches breaking.

  He saw a Rock Golem mother holding a smaller pebble sized golem by the hand. It was scolding the smaller golem for trying to eat a piece of scrap metal off the street.

  He saw two Humans sitting on a crate, sharing a bottle of wine and complaining about their boss.

  "If the foreman pushes the quota again, I'm going to drop a pickaxe on his foot," one human grumbled.

  "Don't be stupid, Garett," the other sighed. "He's a Troll. You'd just break the pickaxe."

  Li Yu smiled faintly.

  'They eat, they gamble, they raise their kids and they hate their jobs,' Li Yu thought. 'Strip away the scales, the different appearance and environment, and this could be a market in any mortal city back home.'

  The demons weren't a hive mind of evil. They were just people living in a harsh environment. Their morality was a bit different but their daily lives followed the same rhythms of existence.

  Just like humans, some were more extreme and it all varied. Li Yu had meant humans that were much more like demons and the reverse was also true. Being here in this realm just reaffirmed his belief, it all depended on the individual. Everyone had to be judged separately.

  As Li Yu turned a corner toward the central plaza, the crowd suddenly parted. The noise of the market died down and was replaced by the heavy rhythmic thud of armored boots.

  "Make way!" A voice bellowed.

  A squad of Enforcers marched down the center of the street. They shoved people aside with the hafts of their spears and cleared a wide path. Most had already jumped out of their way.

  And there she was. Lady Kaida.

  Seeing her from the void was one thing; seeing her from five feet away was another.

  She was indeed large. Standing seven feet tall, she towered over Li Yu. Her crimson skin gleamed under the twilight sky and her white hair flowed like a banner of war behind her. Her presence was heavy, a suffocating aura of heat and aggression that pressed down on the spectating crowd.

  She didn't look like a politician. She looked like a weapon that had decided to wear armor for fun.

  Behind her trailed her harem. The massive Orc, the human bodybuilder, the Tiger man, and the Rock Golem. The minotaur that she captured was nowhere to be seen. They walked with their heads high. They were radiating the arrogance of those who belonged to the strongest person in the room.

  Li Yu stood near a stall selling dried herbs. He didn't bow but he didn't stand in the way either. He simply watched the scene, radiating the aura of a mercenary who knew his place.