The City of Pangu was separated into the Main Circle, where the ultra-elites of society thrive, the Inner Circle, where the elites lived, and the Outer Circle, where the commoners survive.
"Save me! Someone—Anyone, help!"
In the Outer Circle, a young woman dashed into a musky alley, her voice crying for help bouncing off the dirt-covered walls around her. In contrast to the surroundings, the woman was dressed rather wealthily. Her snow-white clothes were made of the finest silk, while glamorous jewelry adorned her slender wrists and supple neck. Her black hair was also neatly combed back while being held together by an exquisite-looking green jade hairpin in the shape of a phoenix.
With one look at her, one would have several questions pop into one's mind.
Is this young woman from the Inner Circle, or maybe even the Main Circle?
What is she doing here in the Slums?
Why is she turning off the main road and running into this suspicious-looking alleyway to cry for help?
Well, let's put those first two questions aside for now since the last question is being answered as we speak.
Following behind the young woman, a man turned into the alley chasing after her. The man had a naturally brutish air about him, but his coarse clothes and the scar under his right eye made him look even more barbaric.
The scar deformed as the man smiled wickedly at the young woman in front of him. The look in his eyes resembles a predator just before it bites into its prey.
Up ahead, the frantic young woman saw a small flight of steps that led up to a wooden door, causing her hopes to rise. However, despite having a head start, the young woman only managed to reach a few meters away from the steps before the man caught up.
Grabbing the young woman's slender wrist, the man spun her around forcefully. The young woman became unbalanced, and she tripped, with the man falling on top of her.
Backed up against the wall, the young woman's terrifying screams resounded in the alleyway as the man grabbed at her snow-white silk dress and ripped it apart to reveal her equally snow-white chest.
"No! Don't touch me, you lowly commoner!"
Having her chest exposed, the young woman's struggle intensified, her finger aiming to claw out the man's lust-filled eyes. However, the man's calloused palm clamped over her mouth and forcefully kept her at a distance, as he barked.
"Shut your mouth!"
With a crazed expression, the man then reached out and ripped apart the young woman's waist belt, exposing her corset, which he also tore from her body.
Tears flowed from the young woman's mouth as she grabbed at the man's hand that was still covering her mouth.
After fully getting rid of the young woman's clothes, the man's eyes roamed over the young woman's ample chest, pale torso, and smooth front garden.
Unable to hold back, the man used his free hand and hurriedly loosened the cloth string around his waist. Afterward, he pulled down his pants, revealing his— "Sigh..."
A sigh was heard from the side, which caused the man to pause; however, it was only for a brief moment before his actions continued right after.
The struggling young woman could not resist as the man entered her and began ravaging her like the brute he was.
By the side, a skinny middle-aged man and a lanky young man, who looked to be in his late teens, were observing the two.
The skinny middle-aged man was seated on a wooden chair, and his face held a hint of a frown as he watched both the man and the young woman with an assessing gaze. One could tell he was dissatisfied with something about them in particular.
The lanky youth was standing on top of the steps in front of the now-opened door. He was holding a desk-like object that was large enough to hide his entire chest as he held it in front of him. The front of this desk-like object was somewhat cone-shaped, and at the tip was a white, crystal-like object; meanwhile, the side facing the lanky youth was flat and smooth as jade.
As the lanky youth was holding the desk by the indented hand grooves at its side, he made sure to aim the crystal-like object at the pair on the ground next to the steps. His face flushed red, and his legs were trembling slightly as he stared at the smooth surface of the desk, which was displaying the man and the young woman.
After a few minutes with only the young woman's muffled screams echoing in the alleyway, the skinny middle-aged man grunted in disapproval as the woman's voice went from muffled struggling to moans of pleasure.
Clicking his tongue, the skinny middle-aged man waved his finger at the four small disk-shaped objects floating around the man and woman. With that motion, the desks rearranged to capture the pair from different angles.
Even though he had spent a month with these two to make sure they understood his vision before the recording, they still made several mistakes.
Just the money he spent on these mid-quality image recorders and the young woman's attire slashed his budget in half, and this didn't even include the cost of securing this production site, which he had to borrow capital to afford!
But even though he was displeased with the performance of these two, the execution of his idea can still make up for it. It will surely make waves in this market.
His idea was simple, but it was something that had never been done before in this line of business. The main image recorder will be used by his assistant to shoot from the perspective of someone stumbling upon the assault of a prominent lady by a lowly commoner. While the four smaller image recorders he controlled would shoot it from a more neutral perspective.
But that wasn't all, he also had smaller image recorders strapped to those two to get the perspective of the attacker and the one being attacked.
This one recording session was essentially four productions in one!
He was sure any one of these productions would sell like crazy in the Outer Circle. After all, which man in the Outer Circle hasn't imagined what it would be like to pin down a haughty daughter of an Elite Clan in the Upper Circles?
The skinny middle-aged man especially anticipated the release of the man's perspective; the demand for it was too high!
Meanwhile, the perspective of the bystander and the neutral perspective together should sell around the same amount, but a bit lower than the man's perspective.
As for the prospect of the young noble lady being attacked, he had heard rumors that some of those innocent-looking young noble ladies actually fantasized about these kinds of scenarios and even went as far as to hire servants from the Outer Circle to secretly fulfill them. It was a gamble, but he could try and find a market in the dark underground of the Inner Circle. Who knows, maybe this perspective could strike a chord with a niche community and outsell the others.
The skinny middle-aged man began to eagerly anticipate the end of this hour-long recording session.
However, just as the recording session was about to come to an end, a person appeared at the entrance of the alleyway.
Both actors paused. After glancing at the person, they looked at the skinny middle-aged man in confusion.
The skinny middle-aged man was busy glaring at the person at the entrance of the alleyway with an enraged expression.
The figure at the entrance of the alleyway paused at the sight before him, however, he eventually continued forward and acted as if he hadn't seen anything.
The skinny middle-aged man was huffing at this point, and he immediately bellowed at the person as soon as he approached.
"You damn brat! Didn't you see the sign at the entrance that says there is a production in progress?!"
The figure turns out to be a young boy. He wore plain clothes and looked unremarkable overall; however, he had one feature that stood out, and that was his frizzy black hair. It was tied into a ponytail with a cloth string but a bundle of loose strands at the front covered his face. One has to wonder how he was able to see where he was going as the bundle almost entirely obscured his eyes.
Upon hearing the skinny man's reprimand, the boy gave an apologetic bow to him before he went to walk around him. The skinny man, however, was not about to let him off the hook, and he was stopped.
"Listen here, you brat! Do you have any idea what your interference cost me? I only had the chance to do this in one take! If I were to do this a second time, it would cost a few hundred more gold coins to buy back another silk dress!"
The skinny man pointed at the young woman by the side. Even though she was covering herself with a towel, the lanky young man brought for her from inside the house, her torn silk dress was still slightly visible.
The youth glanced at the young woman, paused, then reached into his right sleeve pocket and pulled out a single gold coin. He then extended his hand towards the skinny man for him to take it; however, he only got a cold snort in return.
"Brat, do you think a single gold coin is enough? I said the silk dress costs hundreds of gold coins!"
The youth paused once more and then started glancing around. Soon, he spotted the image recorded in the lanky young man's hand. He stepped forward and stretched his hand out as if to ask for it.
The lanky young man was confused and looked at the skinny man for what he should do.
The skinny man frowned slightly and was about to curse at the youth, but the youth's hand suddenly shot out and snatched the image recorded from the lanky young man.
The skinny man almost fainted from fright when he saw this, but just as he was about to rush at the youth to take back the image recorder, he saw the youth turn it to the display side and start tracing his index finger across its jade-like surface.
Under the tip of the youth's finger, Magical symbols bloomed on the image recorder's display screen as he rewrote the Rune Inscriptions on it.
Not just the skinny man, the lanky youth, and the pair of adult actors had their eyes widened at the scene.
After about a minute or two of the youth sliding his finger across the image recorder's display screen, he finally stopped and handed it back to the lanky young man.
Instantly, the skinny man rushed up and snatched the image recorder from the lanky young man before examining it. Not long after, an excited expression bloomed on his face before he let out a hearty laugh. Turning to the youth, he nodded and said.
"You increased the recorder's quality and capacity by three times! It's almost at the level of a high-quality recorder. If I had to pay an Inscription Master to upgrade it to this level, then forget gold coins, I'd probably have to sell my arms and legs to afford it. With this, consider that your debt is paid."
The youth remained silent as he bowed and then turned to leave. However, he was stopped once again by the skinny man.
"Wait!"
The youth paused and turned back around. The skinny man carefully handed back the image recorder to the lanky young man before approaching the youth.
Looking down at the youth, whose top half of his face was covered by his hair, the skinny man went to speak but then paused, before saying not long after.
"I was going to ask you to come work for me as my personal Inscription Master, but…"
The skinny man's words trailed off as he reached out to sweep back the youth's hair from his face while tilting his head back to get a better look at his face.
The youth's face was thus revealed, but he kept his eyes closed while the skinny man examined his face.
Almost immediately, an exclamation escaped the three people at the back when they saw the youth's face.
Eyes lightly up, the skinny man said in amazement.
"As I thought, your face is quite pleasing to look at. I could tell just by seeing your nose and lips. But…"
The skinny man looked at the youth's face with a bewildered expression as he asked.
"Brat, are you a girl or a boy?"
However, before the youth could answer, the skinny man glanced at his flat chest and said.
"From your physique, you should be a boy. But to think a person could possess such a gender-neutral face. You'll be popular with both men and women if you were to come work in the adult entertainment business!"
The skinny man removed his hand, allowing the youth's hair to cover his face, before asking one again.
"Kid, what's your name?"
The youth fixed his hair to cover his eyes as he opened his mouth for the first time and responded.
"Mister, my name is Ah Mieu."
"Ah Mieu, is it? Not a bad name, your stage name can be Mieu-Mieu. What about your age?"
"I just turned fifteen two months ago."
"Eh? You're only fifteen?"
The skinny man's expression changed when he heard that, and he looked Ah Mieu up and down, this time more closely. With this, he realized this kid truly looked young. His height was not that outstanding, as if he hadn't gone through his growth spurt yet, and his face indeed had a bit of immaturity to it. However, he had overlooked these features due to the big clothes he wore, and how surprised he was after seeing his handsome face.
Sighing regretfully, the skinny man said.
"I don't hire kids. Since you're so young, forget I asked about working as an adult actor. But my offer to become my personal Inscription Master is still valid. I might not look like someone important, but I have some connections in the Inner Circle and can get you a Master so you can learn more about Inscriptions. I guess you've only learned a trick or two; however, with a Master to guide you properly, along with the talent you've shown, you can definitely make something of yourself and leave the Outer Circle. So, how about it, kid?"
A gust of breeze suddenly swept through the alleyway as Ah Mieu smiled and responded.
"Thank you, mister, but I have to decline your offer. I was planning on killing you for touching me, but since you seem like someone with morals and chose not to hire me when you found out my age, I'll let it go this time. But hopefully, you won't carelessly touch someone else in the future."
Not only the skinny man, but the others behind him were a bit taken aback by Ah Mieu's words.
The skinny man's brows furrowed slightly before he opened his mouth to say something; however, at that moment, the breeze blowing through the alleyway slightly lifted Ah Mieu's bangs and revealed his eyes, which were strangely of a blood-red and piercing blue color.
This scene caused the words the skinny man was about to utter to change into a bewildered mutter.
"Red and blue eyes…?"
However, not even a second after he uttered those words, he recalled a piece of information some of his friends in the Inner Circle once mentioned to him regarding the Nine Desire Pavilion, and what happened nearly two years ago. Almost immediately, his pupils constricted to the size of pine needles, and out of instinct, he retreated several steps back from Ah Mieu.
With his entire body trembling like a leaf blowing in the wind, the skinny man stared at Ah Mieu with a horror-stricken face before stuttering.
"I-I apologize, Young Master Nihil. I didn't know it was you."
When the lanky young man heard his boss refer to this youth as 'Young Master Nihil', he didn't show any reaction; however, when the two adult actors heard that name, their pupils similarly constricted from shock.
As someone in their line of business, there was no way they would not know the name Young Master Nihil from the Nine Desires Pavilion. But more importantly, this name had caused every Clan and Sect from the Inner Circle, both small and big, to go to war nearly two years ago!
Even though this war had only lasted for a single day, several Clans and Sects had been destroyed in that short period. Even a top Clan that had ties to a Sect from the Main Circle was destroyed, which prompted attention from those ultra elites in the Main Circle.
Due to such big events, those from the Outer Circle refer to that day as 'A Day of War for a Lifetime of Bliss'.
Smiling, Ah Mieu shook his head and softly said.
"From today onward, I am no longer a part of the Nine Desire Pavilion. So, I've taken on my true name, which is Ah Mieu."
"Y-Yes, Young Master Ah Mieu."
"I am not a Young Master anymore either."
Ah Mieu released a chuckle before he bowed to the skinny man.
The skinny man didn't dare accept his bow and jumped out of the way before bowing himself.
With a smile still on his face, Ah Mieu said goodbye before he turned and continued down the alleyway to his destination.