Chapter 68: White Cloud City
After everyone had finished talking, Jian Chen left with Chang Bai on the back of the Eagle Beast and immediately departed from Lore City.
Sitting on top of the Eagle Beast, Jian Chen stared at the receding city walls with a complicated look on his face. It’s been over 15 years since he came into this world, and he has only left the confines of the Mansion and Lore City twice.
The first time he had left Lore City was to go to Kargath Academy, but this time, the reason was no longer the same. Jian Chen understood that after leaving, he wouldn’t see his family again for a very long time, and would have to fend for himself. In this dangerous environment known as the Tian Yuan continent, Jian Chen could only rely on himself. Jian Chen personally didn’t think he would be able to see his family again, but he had read from the books that this world was dominated by the strong. The Tian Yuan continent was a lot more dangerous than his previous world, and while he had decent strength for his age, there was no guarantee for what may happen.
Chang Bai sat on the neck of the Eagle Beast and stared at Jian Chen, “Fourth master, starting from today you’ll be on your own.. Please be careful as you travel through the Tian Yuan continent.”
“I know what must be done, Chang Bai.” Jian Chen said without turning his head.
Chang Bai paused to look at Jian Chen with a curious look before sighing as he had no more to say.
The Eagle Beast flew high in the sky, thousands of meters above the ground, streaking across the sky like a ray of light . With the whistle of the wind blowing loudly, both Chang Bai and Jian Chen had their hair and clothes flapping rapidly in the wind.
The Eagle Beast soared over the walls of countless tiny villages before finally the Eagle Beast slowly came to a stop, in midair in front of the walls of a great city.
Looking down to see the city, Jian Chen asked, “Chang Bai, you should just drop me off here.”
Hearing this, Chang Bai looked down to see the tiny city before nodding his head, “If you say so!” Immediately, the Eagle Beast flew down towards the ground under his control.
Jian Chen hopped off of the magical beast before saying to Chang Bai, “Chang Bai, you should hurry on home, I’m sure the Hua Yun Sect has already arrived at the Changyang Mansion.”
Chang Bai started to ascend with his Eagle Beast, “Fourth master, please take care.”
Jian Chen waved goodbye to Chang Bai and turned around to walk towards the city in front of him.
Chang Bai hesitated as he sat on the Eagle Beast and watched Jian Chen’s back go further and further away. It was only after he had disappeared when Chang Bai said, “Fourth master, I hope we see each other soon, you’ve always surprised me after all.” The Eagle Beast started to flap its wings and flew into the sky, blowing dust everywhere. Soon, Chang Bai flew off into the air towards the direction of the Changyang Mansion.
The sun has already long since set into the horizon. With the colors of nightfall rapidly approaching, Jian Chen walked towards the small city with a group of people, however while he was walking on foot, many of them were traveling via carriages being pulled by magical beasts.
Jian Chen’s appearance had naturally made the other travelers curious and made many other mercenaries become alert. But when they realized how young Jian Chen was, they immediately lost their alertness.
Jian Chen sized up the mercenaries riding on top of the magical beasts. Some of them ranged from 20 years old to 50 years old; some wore armor, some leather, and some just wore regular clothes. When Jian Chen walked closer to them however, he could smell the scent of blood. To the experienced Jian Chen, he knew that these mercenaries had been baptized with the blood of their enemies already.
10 miles wasn’t that far for Jian Chen, and so after some time, he saw the 20 meter high city walls. Jian Chen didn’t know how old the walls were, but the constant battle with time seemed to have left it’s mark on them. Visible scars could be seen on the walls, but near the gate written with bold calligraphy were the words–White Cloud City.
“Hey, halt. What is your purpose here?”
Barring Jian Chen’s path was a guard of the city.
Jian Chen gave a small smile and handed the guard a few Gold Coins and said, “Brother, I am merely a mercenary who came to White Cloud City for a mission.”
The guard took the gold coins discretely and smiled brightly at him, “Ah, so you have a mission, then I won’t take up your precious time, go on in.”
After entering the city, Jian Chen walked three kilometers down the road, and arrived at a very busy part of the city. Although it was sunset, the street was still bustling with people rushing around from store to store and engaged in every sort of business.
The streets were paved with rocks that seemed to shine brightly. With the road so evenly paved, even if a caravan ran full speed across it, the passengers wouldn’t feel the slightest jolt.
Hungry, Jian Chen rubbed his stomach gingerly as he walked towards the nearest restaurant. It had already been a full day since he had eaten, so his stomach had already started to protest.
“Welcome, guest!”
Under the enthusiastic welcome of a waiter, Jian Chen walked towards an empty table and sat down.
“Honored guest, are you here for a meal or to stay for the night?” The waiter was a young man in his 20s, and had a cordial smile on his face.
Jian Chen looked at the other rowdy mercenaries within the restaurant and said, “Even those who are staying for the night require a meal, what is there to eat here?”
The waiter smiled and introduced Jian Chen to a wide variety of dishes, however every single one of the dishes mentioned were all the most expensive dishes. The waiter had long since noticed Jian Chen was wearing quite luxurious clothes and thought him out to be the son of a wealthy clan.
But Jian Chen didn’t care for the prices of the dishes and instead lazily chose one out to eat.
After eating his fill, Jian Chen paid for a medium sized room for the night and immediately entered his room to rest.
The restaurant was not a very high quality one, so the medium sized room was not too luxurious. Compared to the Changyang Mansion, the difference was like comparing the heavens to the earth. The room offered a hardwood bed with a single table and a few chairs, but apart from that, there was nothing more. On a side note, the room had been cleaned nicely.
Jian Chen had never been picky, and so this room had already satisfied him enough.
After closing his door, Jian Chen walked towards his bed and took out the Space Ring his father had given him before leaving and looked at the contents.
The Space Ring deserved to be called a high quality treasure as there were many objects within it. With an internal storage of up to a hundred cubic meters, there were a pile of items stacked in the middle of it. While the ring wasn’t full, almost every inch of the floor had been covered by items.
Amongst a pile of items, there were a thousand Purple Coins that sparkled dazzlingly along with another few thousand Gold Coins stacked in another pile. There were even small piles of monster cores, around 40 of them were Class 2 Monster Cores, 10 of them were Class 3 Monster Cores, and only 1 of them was a Class 4 Monster Core.
Seeing how many items were stored inside the Space Ring, Jian Chen felt very warm inside. Although it wasn’t by any means a large amount of items, they all served a practical use for Jian Chen’s needs. With this much, it truly showed how much Changyang Ba cared for his son.
Stuffing the Space Ring back into his bosom, Jian Chen clearly remembered the words of his father. Until he was strong enough, he didn’t dare to reveal his ring to anyone since it was such a precious item on the Tian Yuan continent. Although there weren’t a small amount of people who had a Space Ring, they were all strong members of influential and wealthy clans and could easily protect themselves from danger.
Climbing onto the bed, Jian Chen took a few monster cores from within the Space Ring and closed his eyes as he started to cultivate using the energy from within the monster cores.
As usual, Jian Chen started to absorb the energy within the monster core at a frightening rate. If anyone were to see him now, then they would see the monster core emit a weak amount of light as the energy within started to flow into him like a thick stream. To the naked eye, the energy was surrounding Jian Chen’s body while the monster core was rapidly shrinking in Jian Chen’s hands.
Ever since Jian Chen had broken through to become a Saint, there was an unfathomable mystery in his dantian in the form of an azure and violet glow. Because of that, his path of cultivation had become much more difficult than before, and although his absorption rate of the World Essence was several times faster than before, he could only absorb a pathetic 1% of it all, the rest of it was being taken by his dantian. So for now he would have to absorb the energy from the monster cores, but if he kept this up, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the consumption rate.
After 2 hours, Jian Chen had already absorbed a lot of the energy within the monster cores, but Jian Chen continued to take monster core after monster core out of his Space Ring and continued to cultivate. He still had plenty of Class 1 Monster cores and a few Class 2 Monster Cores which would last him a couple of days at the very least. Fortunately, his father had also gave him 10 Class 3 Monster Cores and a single Class 4 Monster Core.
On the second day, the sun had already reached a high point in the sky before Jian Chen finally finished cultivating. By this point, all of his Class 1 Monster Cores were essentially gone.
“Ai…” After realizing the dwindling amount of monster cores in his Space Belt, Jian Chen gave a long sigh of hopelessness. The two glows within his dantian had really made him feel quite distressed.
Calming himself, Jian Chen departed from both his room and the restaurant to mingle with the crowded streets.
The morning sky was quite clear, and the fiery sun had not yet started to increase the temperature of the weather by a large amount. With a warm ray of light, everyone felt quite comfortable instead. On the busy streets, a few mercenaries were hurrying along while a few peddlers were slowly cruising along.
Jian Chen eventually arrived at the Mercenary Union. He had already put in some thought about which job he wanted to take, so he would first need to become a mercenary.