Chapter 142: Divine Capital
Dozens of near-horned beasts, led by Zhang Tan, galloped through the vast wilderness.
The number of Jin Long Wei troops that had come to Cloud Wilderness numbered ten thousand. The team led by Zhang Tan was just one of them.
Yi Yun also knew the reason behind the Jin Long Wei’s foray into the Cloud Wilderness. It was due to the Purple Clouds’ Birth that had happened a few months ago. It had alarmed the Tai Ah Kingdom, causing it to send the Jin Long Wei to search the vast wilderness for any treasures.
In the end, no treasure was found, but an ancient mystic realm was found.
Marquis Wenyun came to the Cloud Wilderness personally to search the mystic realm. Due to an array of the mystic realm that they could not resolve, they had to seek the help of Su Jie.
That mystic realm was very big, so Marquis Wenyun and company would take a long while to get out.
Added with the fact that the treasure was not found even after months of searching, the Jin Long Wei no longer had any reason to stay in the Cloud Wilderness.
So from yesterday, the ten thousand Jin Long Wei troops were ordered to leave the Cloud Wilderness. Zhang Tan’s team was the first batch to leave.
…
The vast wilderness was a great expanse. Within it, there were high mountains that stretched tens of thousands of meters into the sky. The peaks were covered with snow from years of accumulation. Glaciers blotted out the sky and covered up the earth!
Past the glaciers were canyons with raging rivers as vast as the sea!
Yi Yun followed the Jin Long Wei team and on this journey, he saw the magnificent scenery of the vast wilderness. It was rough but grand, which amazed him.
Without the army accompanying him, and without the special mount, it would be too difficult to traverse the vast wilderness.
There was a legend that long time ago, a glorious divine kingdom stood in the the Cloud Wilderness. It slowly declined and many martial arts heritage were lost, leaving a few small surviving tribes.
They traveled for more than a month.
Even while traveling, Yi Yun did not show any negligence to his cultivation.
Yi Yun wore the Flowing Mercury Gown Lin Xintong gave him. When he sat on the near-horned beast, Yi Yun lowered the Flowing Mercury Gown to its lowest weight in consideration for the near-horned beast.
But once the team stopped, Yi Yun would immediately increase the weight and binding of the Flowing Mercury Gown during his cultivation!
Yi Yun would wear the Flowing Mercury Gown to train.
In the past, Yi Yun could only demonstrate the ‘Dragon Rib Tiger Bone Fist’ a few dozen times.
But now, due to the Flowing Mercury Gown’s restraint, he could only do it seven to eight times. He would find his energy severely depleted. It was not the weight but the binding the Flowing Mercury Gown had on his body that drained his energy. Be it punching, kicking, stretching or leaping, his speed was much slower than usual.
When his energy depleted, he would take supplements. However, the bone relics Yi Yun had accumulated when he entered the Desolate Human Valley were running out.
Eventually, Yi Yun not only had to rely on the Purple Crystal to absorb Heaven Earth Yuan Qi, but he had to eat large amounts of desolate beast meat. Thankfully with the ‘Elephant Swallowing Technique’, Yi Yun did not reach the point of running out of energy for his cultivation.
This made Yi Yun sigh. He realized that the amount of resources expended by warriors could only be described as horrifying. But such high intensity training had very obvious effects.
In this month, Yi Yun got more used to the pressure applied on him by the Flowing Mercury Gown. If he lowered the binding strength of the Flowing Mercury Gown to the lowest, it was like he was wearing a tight shirt and it was not restricting his movement.
A month flew by as they traveled several hundreds of thousands of miles, and after traveling through a long-distance array, they arrived at a border town.
After waiting in the border town for three days, they re-grouped with other Jin Long Wei teams. Traveling through another long-distance array, they finally reached their destination – the Divine Kingdom’s central plains!
When Yi Yun walked out of the long-distance array following a group of Jin Long Wei, what he saw made him take a deep breath!
They found themselves on an extremely long precipice. And below the precipice, there was a ten thousand feet drop!
This cliff was extremely smooth. It was as if a mountain had been cleaved into two by a god. One half was removed, leaving the other half there like a ruler that spanned across!
Under the ten thousand feet drop, what stood at the limits of human vision, was an even more shocking scene.
There stood a thick divine tower. The divine tower was black and was like a world tree, reaching up into the sky!
Around the unbelievable thick tower was a huge city.
This city’s walls were dark red in color. They were tall and thick. It looked like the gates of Heaven from afar.
Above the city walls were hundreds of airships in the sky. Each airship could carry tens of thousands of people. In between the airships, there were various spirit beasts flying. These spirit beasts were covered in scales and grew dragon horns. Some of them had colorful feathers while others looked terrifying with dragon heads and lion bodies.
Every spirit beast gave off a very strong aura, more than a hundred times greater than the Jin Long Wei’s near-horned beast mounts!
The people could tell that people were riding these spirit beasts even from afar.
It was hard to believe what sort of people could ride these ancient beasts.
“The people of the vast Cloud Wilderness with numerous tribal clans have all been living in a well all their lives…” Yi Yun muttered to himself. He had heard it more than once in the vast wilderness that this world was incredibly big. He also knew the unimaginable power the big sects and the ancient divine kingdom had.
But even after being mentally prepared, Yi Yun still found it hard to settle the shock he had encountered when he saw it with his own eyes.
It was amazing. The picture in front of him could not be described with the word majestic!
Yi Yun had received proud results in the vast wilderness, but when placed in the ancient Tai Ah Kingdom, it was nothing.
Yes, from the Heaven, Earth, Mystic and Yellow ranks, he was only appraised at the Mystic rank. And within the Mystic rank, he wasn’t at the highest grade.
Yi Yun was still alright. The people that had accompanied Yi Yun to the heartlands were completely dumbfounded. The scene in front of them was beyond their comprehension.
What is this place? Is it heaven?
The world could actually be like this?
While Yi Yun was still reeling from his shock, he felt a soft hand place over his palm. Yi Yun turned and realized it was Jiang Xiaorou. “Yun’er, you still have a long way to go.”
“Yes!” Yi Yun nodded with a smile. Jiang Xiaorou was always able to tell what was on his mind immediately.
In Yi Yun’s mind, Jiang Xiaorou was a kind and considerate girl.
Zhang Tan patted Yi Yun on the shoulders and said, “That city is the Divine Capital. The Tai Ah Kingdom has 108 states and 24 wild lands. This Divine Capital is one of the biggest cities within the Tai Ah Kingdom’s Jing state”
“Divine Capital! One of the biggest city in the Jing state…” Yi Yun’s eyebrow twitched. Such a large city was just one of the many jurisdictions of the Tai Ah Kingdom, it was only one out of all the biggest cities!
The heritage of the Divine Kingdom was self-explanatory!
“Let’s go. Let’s enter the city! The Jin Long Wei has a big camp in the Divine Capital. That is our territory.” Saying that, Zhang Tan pulled on the reins. The near-horned beast ran along the cliff and after an hour, went around the large cliff to the grand entrance of the Divine Capital.
Upon closer look, the Divine Capital was magnificent. The Divine Door was like the door to heaven in legends. It was almost a hundred meters tall.
In front of the Divine Door, two groups of guards stood neatly. They were dressed in shiny silver armor. Each of them had a four foot long saber hanging by their waists. They had an hidden imposing air. They were like a row of dormant primordial desolate beasts.
It was clear with one look that these people had gone through all sorts of bloodshed, and they were not just chosen for their fierce looks.
One could tell the strength of a city’s heritage by looking at its guards. These guards were all warriors at the peak of Purple Blood!
Upon thinking of this, Yi Yun felt breathless.
“Dismount!” With a wave of Zhang Tan’s hand, everyone had to dismount.
Zhang Tan smiled, “It’s a rule of the Divine Capital. Commoners have to dismount when going through the city gates, but… Kingdom Knights and Barons are not restricted by these rules. They can ride their mounts while traveling through the city gates. If we go one step higher, such as viscounts or higher ranks, they can ride their flying mounts and fly over the city walls directly into the Divine Capital. In the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom, ranks are made clear and order is strictly obeyed!”
“Oh? Rank…” Yi Yun faltered. “Wouldn’t making such a clear difference in rank incite the unhappiness of the people?”
Zhang Tan paused before saying, “Why would they be unhappy? In the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom, all the people with noble ranks have to go far to fight enemies. They have to resist the attacks of fierce and desolate beasts. They can be said to be putting their lives on the line to ensure the safety of the commoners. The higher the rank of a noble, the greater exploits they have accomplished! There are so many people who want to enter the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom’s lands to lead a safe life. They can only feel grateful to the warriors who protect them. So why would they be dissatisfied?”
Zhang Tan’s words enlightened Yi Yun. Yes, this alternate world was not a peaceful one. A person’s status and glory had to be earned with their lives!
Obtaining a status by inheritance or by relationships would make people unhappy, but the honor gained from risking one’s life would give them respect and awe.
As such, in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom, the status of being a noble not only meant privilege, it also meant infinite glory!
With this thoughts in mind, Yi Yun looked up to the sky. There were huge, luxurious airships and gallant spirit birds and spirit beasts.
Noticing Yi Yun’s eyes, Zhang Tan laughed, “What are you thinking about?”
Yi Yun hid nothing and said, “I was thinking that one day, I will be sitting on those airships, or riding those flying spirit beasts, or primordial beasts into the Divine Capital!”
“Hahaha!” Zhang Tan laughed heartily. “Yes, that’s the way! As a person who practices martial arts, that has to be the way! There is no limit to the martial arts way. We need to continuously climb higher!”
Saying that, he patted Yi Yun’s shoulder firmly. He liked this youth more and more.
Whatever Yi Yun had done in the Lian tribal clan was reported to Zhang Tan by Sun Jingrui. Upon receiving the report, Zhang Tan felt that Yi Yun’s temperament was very much to his liking.
A warrior had to be as such, to settle vengeances quickly, and to discriminate between friends and foes.