They flew over a massive wilderness area, sometimes skirting bodies of water and admiring the view, other times passing by huge mountains that seemed completely untouched by human hands. There were no signs of human civilization after passing the Shihu Kingdom and Sage was curious what remote area they were heading to.

Certainly, this whole trading vessel wasn’t going to drop us off in the middle of nowhere, right?

The days and weeks passed, and he started to grow worried. They were moving at such high speed he wasn’t sure how far they had traveled. When he was about to send his Twin Soul up to bother Guan Zhenyan again, that’s when he saw it. At first glance, he thought they’d reached the end of the world. He didn’t know much about the world he was on, and at that point, he feared it was no planet and instead a flat plane like conspiracy theorists are always talking about.

Cultivators had very powerful eyes and with a bit of altitude they could easily see things thousands of miles away. Even so, from the size of the maps he’d seen so far, it was very likely this planet was so large that the horizon would at least be tens of thousands of miles away. Worse yet, it was almost impossible to find a day where the skies would be clear for such an absurdly large distance. Normally, they would only get a clear view for a few hundred miles before mist, fog, rain, or mountains blocked their view.

In the distance Sage saw what could only be described as a dark wall rising into the sky and completely blocking his view. They were high up in the clouds, yet he could see a hundred miles to the left, right, and upwards. All of them were blocked by the dark wall in front of the Flying Ship.

This is absurd. Is that the end of the world, or is there actually something so big…

Turns out, the latter guess was correct. As they moved closer, details began to become clear. The wall wasn’t black, it was actually a dark red color. More amazingly, it looked less like a fortification and more like the side of a building. Sage could make out different panels and box-like protrusions with windows on the outside. It was like thousands of metal buildings were stacked up on top of each other and extending in every direction. Luckily, they could still see the ground from their altitude, so Sage had a better idea of the scale of the thing.

What is this thing? Is it some sort of mega-city?

Over the next few hours, he’d find his guess to be correct. Sage was still treated as a piece of cargo and moved from the hold to the flatbed of a large wagon. Guan Zhenyan still hadn’t explained what was going on, instead leaving the Flying Ship before Sage had even finished being transferred to the wagon. He only left behind a simple instruction in Sage’s mind, “Stay calm and allow them to move you. I’ll meet you at your destination, but I have a few errands to run first.”

Putting his fate completely in the hands of others was not something he ever wished to do, but at the moment he didn’t really have much of a choice. He’d already been chained up and while he could still cause some damage during the moving process, he was far from his peak. Even if he killed a bunch of porters and wagon drivers, what good would that do for him? If he changed his mind and wanted to escape, now was definitely not the right time. For now, he was still quite curious about Guan Zhenyan and what his plans were. He suspected that the man had caused him to advance in his mental cultivation. It was something he’d heard rumors about, but only those who joined Spirit Power related Sects had access to such secret methods.

His curiosity won out, and Sage stayed docile. Allowing himself to be handled and shipped like livestock. The Flying Ship docked against the side of the giant wall, where it seemed there were many similar moorings. Then they were taken into the wall and Sage was astounded at the utter size of the place. He’d figured it would be like the inside of a building or maybe even a ship. Instead, they passed through a corridor a few blocks long and then exited into a full sized city. There were skyscraper-like buildings crowded up against the inner side of the ‘wall’ and rising a few hundred feet into the air. The ‘ceiling’ was over a thousand feet in the air, giving the city the feel of a many times scaled up sports stadium. As they moved away from the ‘wall’ and towards the center it was more open and airy. Most of the buildings were only a few stories tall and the streets were just as wide as the cities he was used to. He had many questions, but he kept his mouth shut to keep from drawing attention. The porters had been kind enough to leave his head uncovered, but they’d draped large sheets over his body to make it less of a show.

The city he passed through was of quite a high standard, Sage could only compare it to the most wealthy of districts he saw back at a Provincial Capital, or in the richest areas of the Holy Flame Sect. The wagon took him back away from the center of the city area and towards the wall again. They traveled up a few ramps to a ‘balcony’. If he imagined the city as a theater, the area they brought him to was at a higher level and jutted out from the wall to get a great view of the city, especially the parks in the center. The ‘balcony’, was sort of like building on a mountain to get a good view. As they traveled upwards, Sage noticed that many of these areas existed around the edge of the city, like tiered terraces with expensive manor homes on them. Against the ‘wall’, tall apartment-like skyscrapers were built underneath the terraced zones.

The wagon he was on was driven into the courtyard of a large manor and the porters ‘unloaded’ him, placing him in the courtyard before returning from where they came. Thankfully, the Spirit Animals pulling the wagon were well trained and they didn’t leave any droppings behind to keep him company. Instead, Sage just laid there for another hour before Guan Zhenyan finally arrived.

“Are you done showing off yet? Can you tell me now what’s going on? It’s getting really annoying being treated like a package.”

Guan Zhenyan had a relaxed, but slightly smug look on his face, “Is that so? Given how much I had to pay for you, it seems only fair you get handled like property for a while. You think practicing forbidden things and making enemies everywhere will end without some consequences?”

“Oh, so you aren’t just trying to wear me down like the Shou Empire? Something like a military indoctrination process to break me down until you become the only thing I can rely on. Then you mold me into an obedient servant.”

Sage tried to sound snarky and sarcastic, but the muzzle really took the bite out of it. In addition, there was something about Guan Zhenyan’s aura. Just looking at him seemed to demand his respect, and made it quite hard to admonish him. It was somewhat disconcerting because Guan Zhenyan always looked quite sloppy and unkempt. At first glance you would want to berate him for his laziness, but the power of his aura somehow made him seem noble and beyond comparison.

“Hah, not at all. The mental training comes later, it’s more just a little payback for the expenditure. If you had just been a little less extreme in gathering so many enemies and making a big show out of things, you would have been much cheaper.”

“You still haven’t told me what you’re going to do with me and why you came for me. I’m guessing it’s related to something that got me all those enemies. In which case, if I didn’t make so much trouble, then you would have never known I even existed.”

Guan Zhenyan puffed a ball of black smoke into Sage’s face. Somehow the smoke clung to his face. He shook his head and tried to blow it away, but it stuck to his face and made his eyes water. By the time it cleared on its own a few minutes later, Guan Zhenyan had already left.

So spiteful.

“Hey, where’d you go?”