Chapter III

I left that... Establishment wondering how I could get the money needed to buy that woman and I couldn't help but recall how the whole half-elf Eldar half-Human was declared noncanon later on by the powers that be.

'So, if there was Peredhel running around then what else that was retconned is actually around? Is the Chaos God Malal, a thing here?' I thought before shuddering at the thought of another, even more crazy chaos god residing within the Warp.

For a moment I considered trying to refine a potion or some other kind of the lowest quality alchemical product in order to sell it for some money but even if I could make the magical equivalent of combat stims that could make a baseline human able to punch through steel plates even if they would die within a couple minutes of taking the stim.

I had the problem of for one I had none of the ingredients and two and more importantly I didn't have the connections to sell such a thing and not need to kill a whole gang as they would certainly think it simpler to just kill me off rather than allow such stuff to possibly seep into the other gangs.

No matter how I looked at it, I had no choice but to be a murder hobo as I would have zero resources for my cultivation unless I physically ripped them off the cold corpses of the people down here in the Underhive...

Seeing a child seemingly acting as a lookout for something I shrugged and walked up to the kid believing that even if the brat was in no way naive, they would be easier to negotiate with than the broken adults who were leaning against the metal walls of the surrounding buildings scoping out targets.

"I have ten credit chips if you are willing to give me some info," I said taking out a credit chip that I looted off the bodies of those people who wanted to eat me.

The kid looked at my credit chip and nodded, sticking out their hand in a silent order for the coin in question.

With a chuckle, I let the credit fall into the bundled-up child's hand and the child looked around furtively but as a drunk man who was watching our little interaction strolled over to us the kid pulled me into the alley they were acting.

"You deal with that man, and I will give the info you want!" The kid said in a gargled tone of voice, and I honestly couldn't even tell its gender with how thick and congested its voice was. But considering how this little city was built in a Cistern which cleaned literally hundreds of millions of people's wastewaters.

I was more surprised everyone down here hadn't died of pneumonia or other lung issues.

"Don't think you can use me as a tool brat," I said rolling my eyes but even as I kept my senses peeled on the figure behind me in case it moved to draw a weapon to stab me in the back, I waited for the man to stumble into the alley we went into.

"Hehe, I saw how generous you were in giving that kid some credits... Why don't you share some brother." The man said staggering into the alley but even as he put on a gentle tone of voice his scarred and gnarled face showed he wasn't a vegetarian and as he clearly reached behind his back for a weapon, I flicked my wrist and my Kasaya Beads stabbed through his eye socket and into his brain.

Even as people were walking past the alley no one batted an eye as I bent over and looted the man of a couple dozen more credits and seeing the homemade shiv, he had tucked into the back of his pants I didn't even bother taking it.

"Was that a throwing knife or something?" The kid asked as they backed away a bit seeing how easily I dropped the man, but I shrugged.

"Something like that... Now time to earn your credits. Where can I find a casino or a place, I can get loans or something." I asked coldly making the child realize what I was likely going to do.

They probably realized I was going to cause major trouble so rather than getting caught up in my business they quickly told me where the only casino of worth was, funny thing was how the casino literally had the equivalent of a strip mall of different loan businesses attached to their building with various rates that served the different levels of scum down here.

From the richest to the poorest they had different loan businesses for each class...

But once the kid gave their info, they quickly ran deeper into the dark alley deprived of any light and I realized it was likely a street rat orphanage or something for kids to take their own territory from the adults that would abuse them as I noticed from above me were other small shadows atop the buildings that pulled back seeing their comrade fleeing into the shadows.

"None of my business... Unless I decide to create a Sect or something and need to recruit some people." I muttered as I turned away from henceforth mentally named Orphan Alley and went towards the loan strip mall the kid mentioned as I didn't want to chance making a mess in a casino as such a huge place would have plenty of guards who would be very well armed.

I then used my cultivator-enhanced strength to swiftly jump onto one of the neighboring buildings rather than deal with the thick crowds of people walking on the roads and then seeing the mostly empty roofs I began rooftop running in the direction I needed to go.

Thankfully along with all my techniques and spells I also had movement techniques but seeing as I didn't have the time to get into a more sophisticated technique just like my Diamond Body Technique I relied on the basic Cloud Stepping Technique to allow me to swiftly travel over the rooftops and with my lightening footwork I rarely would alert the people resting atop the buildings with my swift travel.

Once I arrived at the loan center attached to the massive casino adorned with a few neon lights in stark contrast to the dull surrounding I realized this casino was a place of influence as few of the buildings around here actually had power, let alone something as wasteful as neon flashing lights to gather attention. So, they obviously were spending a great deal of resources to get power sent from the lower hive above us down here in order to power that casino.

I shook my head in order to clear my head as I put on a cold poker face and I walked into the loan business in order to get the money I needed.

As I walked into the loan business, I instantly dropped my ideas of straight up robbing this place as each of the four corners of the place had auto turrets with laser pointers that locked onto me as I walked inside with a sign placed on a stand in the middle of the room very bluntly stated the following. 'Credits for Bullets, does business trading weapons, food, and clean water in return for credits, all weapons are to be sheathed or otherwise holstered or you will be shot dead on the spot and promptly your warm corpse fed to the spider domain.'

Spider Domain must refer to that other broken-down cistern that was on the right direction of the tunnel my vault was in and completely infested with mutated insects.

I guess just getting a loan on faith wouldn't be a thing here... I needed to barter for the loan basically. But wouldn't that just be selling?' I thought in confusion before I carefully walked forward to the clean and halfway-dressed woman that was obviously placed here as eye candy.

"What's the going rate for clean water to credits?" I asked as although I could certainly get food from hunting the massive spiders and such in the Spider Domain I didn't want to chance having a massive scorpion that killed that other hunting party I saw jump me.

However clean water was ridiculously easy for me to get as even with my meager spiritual strength with my level three elemental realm I could easily pull out the filth in dirt water without needing to deal with boiling it or something.

But down here in the Under hive, clean water was a luxury, to say the least from what I expected.

The woman looked down at a data slate tablet and the action made her barely held breasts almost escape their bindings as the thin fabric visibly hugged her nipples.

"For the next week, the universal price of distilled water is twenty-five credits per gallon. Do you also want to know the rates for weapons and food?" The woman asked me blandly and I realized with how blank her eyes were that she was likely another mentally broken toy that was only trusted to handle money with how she was already mentally a vegetable only able to count some money.

Just to test my theory I asked a question that would be out of the ranges of here is so and so much amount of weapons/food/water. "Where can I get a high-quality sword?"

The woman froze not responding and looked like she had mentally shut down, so I shrugged and before I slowly turned around to leave to begin collecting some water to trade for the credits I wanted, I heard the woman pull out a slip of paper and begin speaking in her monotone again "The Dead-End Casino has a set of commissar swords that were looted from a patrol that got down too deep for sale at one hundred credits a piece."

I smiled as such a sword so long as it wasn't one of those dumb chainsaw swords would work perfectly as a Birth Dharma Treasure that I could nurture similar to my Kasaya Beads except only using my spiritual energy rather than my own and enemies' blood like my Kasaya Beads.

"Alright, I will be back with the water then," I said before leaving the building to return back to my vault as I already had several large metal drums that I could simply refuel with the cistern water from the Spider Domain side clean it, and then bring it here.

So long as they didn't have a purchase limit I could easily sell one of my large barrels filled with clean water and be set on credits for a while.

I swiftly made my way back to my vault and with how I was walking with such purpose, people didn't bother to accost me and I only briefly got lost like a half dozen times before I found my way to my tunnel's entrance.

For a moment I considered just resting for a while but remembering how that not-so-hidden gene stealer cult was sitting on that woman I wanted to make into a cultivation aid and not wanting her mutated or otherwise ruined I gamely dragged one of the large black metal barrels down the right side of the tunnel towards the Spider Domain.

But once I got closer and the lights got stronger, I saw lying in wait with its backside to me was a van-thick centipede that seemed to extend for a solid twenty maybe even twenty-five meters as it lay in wait in front of the tunnels exit to the cistern.

For a moment I considered just turning around and saying screw it but then I looked at the large metal barrel with a large hole for a hose to go into its top lid and I grinned and then very carefully got into the metal barrel with the hose hole open and then sent out my Kasaya Beads out of the hose hole.

My Kasaya Beads helplessly crashed into the massive centipede's exoskeleton several times and it was only as the irritated mutated insect violently rolled around to try to entangle the beads that one of its hundred legs got ripped off as my weapon got pulled taunt and with the creatures own frantic strength and weight working against it spelled the legs loss.

But now with the insect's vile blood now being split my Kasaya beads quickly found a target of entry and gleefully burrowed its way into the centipede's stump and begin sucking out the lifeblood of the insect as I desperately held in my vomit at being thrown around the tunnel in my barrel.

"Never again..." I cursed as my head met the cool walls of the slightly dented metal walls of the barrel and tried to shake off my sense of nausea.