《Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies》Chapter 105 - Star Night Royal City
Advertisement
"Star Night Royal City, the capital city of the Inner Walls within the capital itself. The largest, most prosperous city within the Inner Walls. Home to the Earthly Fortune Palace and Xin Clan. Also, home to the continental spatial platform. Due to this, it could be considered a capital within a capital." Tao slowly listed off some information he'd obtained of this city from records in Grux.
Passing through the inner wall was as easy as the outer wall. As long as you have the proper wealth to purchase an entry pass, you can enter the inner wall. However, it was dozens of times more expensive than the outer wall.
"Finally, we're here." Yan Zaizen remarked, looking at the astonishing skyscrapers and spectacular buildings with varied designs littering the city. He instructed Tao to land the skyship outside of the city gates. Afterward, he immediately stored the skyship within the Meteor Ring, causing quite a few people who were curious about their existence to have widened eyes. It was incredibly uncommon for a ring to be able to store a skyship, and unless it was specifically designed to hold the skyship, it was a near impossible feat.
Anyone who could accomplish or possess such means would definitely have an extraordinary status.
Yan Zaizen didn't mind the gazes, looking at Bai Lufeng with some thought. His gaze caused Bai Lufeng to feel strange, and he was even fiddling a little in his spot like a child being watched by their parent.
"Don't cause any trouble in the city." Yan Zaizen warned. Earlier, while they were traveling through Presba, this man didn't only indulge in his desires, but he often caused issues with the natives. Of course, with his profound cultivation base, he could handle any issue, but it was still troublesome if he offended some great force.
Bai Lufeng looked away with some shame, unable to muster any feeling of being aggrieved at the warning. Tao scanned Bai Lufeng and shook his head, displaying his apparent disapproval of his abhorrent actions. If this Bai Lufeng was more like him, a scholarly gentleman, how could he be in this position?
However, Yan Zaizen turned his gaze to Tao. This time, his eyes became more solemn than before. "Especially you."
What?!
Tao was appalled at this accusation and declaration, taking a deep breath, reeling backwards, and placing his hand softly on his chest. His eyes filled with disbelief at such words. Could it be that Yan Zaizen didn't trust him? Him?! He couldn't help but put on an aggrieved expression of presumed innocence.
Advertisement
Yan Zaizen directly ignored his bullshit expressions of disbelief and added, "No drinks."
This Tao may seem all scholarly and nice on the outside, but the moment he gets a bit of drink in him, he does the most ridiculous things. His hidden perversions would reveal itself completely leaving no trace of his previous scholarly bearing. If Bai Lufeng caused them trouble due to his disdain and arrogance, then that's fine and reasonable. However, this person caused many fathers, mothers, daughters, and spouses to feel murderous rage at his acts.
Unfortunately...his profound cultivation base just made him untouchable to most. Normally, Yan Zaizen wouldn't have to worry about these two, but in the city of Star Night Royal City, he truly felt the need to restrain them. Sure, he wasn't afraid of anyone in the country, even if the Ancient Emperor of Presba was before him, he'd still have no fear, but that didn't mean he wanted to offend everyone in the country.
These two would definitely act with unbridled methods if left alone due to his protection. It felt like watching two kids at a playground, afraid they may trouble the other kids. He looked at them with keen eyes, but for some odd reason, he truly felt like his warning was lost on the both of them.
A soft sigh later, he instructed, "Tao, sell the materials at the Earthly Fortune Palace. Bai Lufeng, arrange for the continental spatial platform at the earliest."
They both nodded in response.
Approaching the Star Night Royal Gates, they met a young man with black hair and ample muscles fitted in a suit of armor. Surprisingly, at the gates, there was only this young man directly watching over entry and exits.
The individuals in the city looked at him with apprehension, fear, and reverence. This young man looked in his mid-twenties, with vibrant eyes indicating an extraordinary lifeforce, and vital energy that felt suffocatingly strong. Bai Lufeng looked at the guard and others reactions to him, he couldn't help but scoff at it all.
The guard only possessed the strength of an initial-Origin Core Realm and his vital energy aura was similar in intensity. The look on this guard's face was filled with arrogance and tyranny, and for some reason, it irked Bai Lufeng greatly. However, recalling Yan Zaizen's earlier warning, he decided to keep an indifferent expression on his face.
Advertisement
Tao looked at this guard and couldn't help but appraise him. His young age and profound body and qi cultivation base indicated an extraordinary status and future. However, he was a mere gate guard. This was shocking.
Yan Zaizen's reaction wasn't as intense. He directly ignored this man's traits and gave him no look of appraisal. Currently, Yan Zaizen had already built himself a steady foundation and with his dao filled with a tyrannical ferocity bordering on imperialistic sovereignty, how could he give anyone who works as a gate guard a gaze of appraisal?
Were they even worth it?
They directly stood in-front of the gates. The guard scanned them with his senses and his brow pricked in interest. Tao was young with an initial-Origin Core cultivation base and Bai Lufeng was at the mid-Origin Core Realm, how could this not cause the young man to feel surprised? Typically, in Star Night Royal City, those in that level of strength would typically come with airs to the heavens and nose so high the sky was beneath them.
However, Tao and Bai Lufeng were a step behind Yan Zaizen, obviously displaying their inferiority in terms of status and importance. He looked at Yan Zaizen and furrowed his brows. Yan Zaizen vital energy aura and soul cultivation base was thoroughly hidden, but his qi cultivation base was at the late-Qi Unification Realm with an exceptionally youthful appearance.
This caused the young guard to be surprised. He calculated that Yan Zaizen couldn't be more than a hundred-years-old, and for a junior to reach such a cultivation stage with a stable aura was exceptionally rare. He thought for a second, looking at Yan Zaizen with analyzing eyes.
Being gazed at so intensely made Yan Zaizen a little uncomfortable, but since this was the guard's job, he would respect it. His personality has never been to eliminate people over the slightest of slights. Those he's killed thus far deserved to be killed.
After a short while, the guard walked towards Yan Zaizen with steadily powerful steps. The armor on his body was exceptionally heavy that each step caused slight tremors through the ground for hundreds of meters. This would be like a mortal in the aftershock of an earthquake, but to cultivators, this was just a mild annoyance.
"You, what's your name?" The guard asked, but the tone he spoke wasn't one filled with arrogance and disdain, but one filled with just a powerful domineering aura. The nearby individuals immediately drew their gazes over, looking at the guard and Yan Zaizen.
"Oh god...to think they obtained 'his' attention."
"Xin Guanyu! He's making a move! What will he do?!"
"...I wish I was in the city...hope I don't get caught in the crossfire…"
Many individuals in the surroundings were having conversations relating to the young guard named Xin Guanyu.
"Xin Guanyu?" Yan Zaizen silently thought. Star Night Royal City was controlled by the Xin Clan and Earthly Fortune Palace. Someone from the Xin Clan was actually the gate guard of the city, and one so young and obviously talented as well. This surprised Yan Zaizen, and the surrounding conversations intrigued him enough to give this Xin Guanyu an appraising eye.
"Are you deaf?" Xin Guanyu frowned, looking at Yan Zaizen with a flickering light within his eyes. Bai Lufeng brows went up in excitement. Truly wishing for a conflict to occur at this moment, ready to watch the world burn. Tao, however, was solemn. Unlike Bai Lufeng that wants Yan Zaizen to throw the world into chaos with his exceptional prowess, Tao didn't want to create issues.
Their goal was to use the continental spatial platform, not offend every last power in existence.
Yan Zaizen's furrowed his brows but didn't take it seriously. "Yan Zaizen," he answered calmly.
Yan Zaizen? Xin Guanyu couldn't recall any Yan Clan worthy of note. He could only assume that Yan Zaizen wished to remain anonymous due to reasons, but walking around with two Origin Core bodyguards was a little too noticeable.
"Good. I'm Xin Guanyu." His voice was truly bolstering to the atmosphere. "You can enter."
What?!
All that for...that?!
Yan Zaizen felt puzzled.
Advertisement
- In Serial32 Chapters
Dungeon I/O (⚒ Crafting ⚒)
A young engineer with photographic memory dies after choking on a pretzel. He is reincarnated in a fantasy world as a dungeon core. Having near infinite knowledge from Earth, and infinitesimal common sense, he begins to shape his dungeon into the ultimate factory of resources. Collect all the things! Automate all the systems! Even adventurers can be farmed! And if a few world governments collapse in the process, well, it’s all for the sake of science! This story is like if Factorio was about dungeons, played by someone with ADHD. Warning, lots of numbers and spreadsheets. Arithmophobes beware!
8 160 - In Serial20 Chapters
On the Road to Elspar (Book 1)
The year is 1329. The Huntress' War has entered its tenth year, inflaming competing nationalisms and pitting the Confederacy of Caldrein against one of the continent's superpowers, the Tenereian Union. Desperately outnumbered, the Confederacy has relied on the prowess of its famed Caldran mercenaries, with highly-trained and experienced warbands returning from foreign conflicts to the defense of their homeland, and it is on their backs that Caldrein has successfully mounted a valiant defense for a decade. But they are losing, and day by day, with all the grace of a sledgehammer, the vast Tenereian armies take one more bit of Caldran territory, one footstep at a time. Sixteen-year-old Neianne from the village of Caelon has submitted herself to Faulkren Academy, one of the centuries-old institutions established to train the next generation of Caldrein's elite soldiers of fortune, to learn the ways of wars for three years before embarking upon the defense of her country. Her dryad family once hailed from reclusive woodland communes isolated from Caldrein's complicated mainstream society, and her upbringing leaves the shy village girl unprepared to suddenly train alongside other apprentices from backgrounds as low as the dirty slums of Caldrein's cities and as high as the halls of aristocratic power. Yet the war is eroding the norms and traditions that the Caldran people have long considered part of their national mythos, and the tensions within the confederacy that have long simmered under the surface - race, class, community, identity - are slowly but surely dividing its people, and Neianne must grow and discover who she really is, even as the war that she is steadfastly training for comes to its inexorable end... On the Road to Elspar is a fantasy quest - a work of interactive fiction wherein readers get to vote on what happens next at critical junctures - that is the first entry in a story that follows Neianne of Caelon, which first began on July 20, 2016. Originally a three-part in medias res prologue to a larger story titled On the Elsparian Road, it was eventually decided that this section - which covers Neianne's three years at Faulkren Academy - become its own independent story due to length, structural, and accessibility reasons. Despite this being a reader interactive work of fiction, due to logistical and verification concerns, voting will only be counted on its thread on the forum Sufficient Velocity, where this story originally began. As such, the content here on Royal Road serves as a story-only archive. You are, of course, entirely welcome to enjoy On the Road to Elspar as a conventional work of fiction, just as you are welcome to comment, discuss, and provide critique. But if you would like to participate in the voting, then I would be honored to welcome you on Sufficient Velocity. To facilitate accessibility and to ensure the best reading experience, this story-only version of On the Road to Elspar will be updated at a periodic pace, even though further content exists, so as to not overwhelm new readers on Royal Road. If you enjoy this story, wish to binge it, and/or want to participate in voting immediately, you may of course read all additional content via the link provided above. This paragraph will be removed once the content on Royal Road catches up with what has already been posted in its original thread. Cover artwork by DreamSyndd.
8 337 - In Serial11 Chapters
Curiosity Killed The Imp
A/N: On hiatus (higher priority). The story is planned out but I need to do some rewriting for clarity and cohesiviness. Still very interested in the story though. Aeris is a place of endless conflict. Bloody evolution is the way forward, and the closed fist is the path given. Life is a luxury granted only to the strong. In a tiny corner, at the edge of a volcanic land, is born an imp. An imp no different from any other save one thing. An anomaly in its code. A blip in its creation. For unlike other imps, this one was born…curious. Book Cover by Betty Elgyn: https://www.deviantart.com/bettyelgyn
8 318 - In Serial15 Chapters
The Silencing of Esteria
Toland is the son of a village smith and lives a quiet, rural life, that is until the Princess of Esteria and her dying Archmage come tumbling through a portal at his feet, fleeing from an assassination orchestrated by her treacherous uncle. When the archmage passes on his book of spells to Toland, he and the Princess Katrina must find a way to take back the kingdom and save its people from tyranny. Perhaps the answer to their problems could lie in the fabled Six Grand Magics.
8 148 - In Serial20 Chapters
Stonenanny
Infamous assassin of the past, now the next on death row. He had his chances, but loyalty towards the goal took the better of him. There was no going back now, he knew it. After death he would go back to the cycle of souls and start anew as it meant to be. Or so he thought. Assassin to hero babysitter because giving choice to others is overrated.
8 211 - In Serial12 Chapters
Ready Or Not ✔✔
(Wade Watts/Parzival x Reader)Read if your interested. If not then move onto the next book.-----------DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ready Player One or the character/plot. I also don't own you either. Im just writing it with you in the story.-----------Started: June 20th, 2020Ended: August 18th, 2020-----------*She/her pronouns*-----------COMPLETED!! ✔️✔️
8 80

