Chapter 189 - The Martial City
Special thanks to Nitish M. for sponsoring the chapter.
...
The Mountain of Falling looked quite close but actually, it was over ten miles away from the main road. While walking towards it, Ye Chen kept feeling an overwhelmingly great pressure that had strengthened all of his negative emotions by several-folds and even induced some greatly confusing illusions.
Ye Chen activated the sword intent and eliminated all of these negative effects, then turned around and looked at Murong Qingcheng. She seemed to have gotten used to this terrifyingly great pressure released by the mountain already, and was maintaining a perfectly calm face. Faintly, Ye Chen had also perceived another mysterious sense of power released from Murong Qingcheng’s body that had been neutralising the power of the mountain.
“So weird.”
Ye Chen was quite curious about that mysterious power possessed by her.
Sooner or later, they walked past the Mountain of Falling and the great pressure given by that mountain quickly dissipated.
……
The Martial City was located in the western part of the Black Dragon Empire, and in the middle of the Heavy Mystery Mountain Range,
Before approaching the Heavy Mystery Mountain Range, Ye Chen had already sensed an increase in gravity which was extremely subtle that one could barely sense it without a specially great perception.
At first, Ye Chen didn’t pay too much attention to that, but as they moved closer and closer to the Heavy Mystery Mountain Range, the increase in gravity grew more and more obvious; Ye Chen couldn’t help but ask, “The gravity in this area seems to have a problem, doesn’t it?”
“So you have felt it already! Indeed, the gravity in this Heavy Mystery Mountain Range is way stronger than other places in this world. The closer we are to the central area, the greater the gravity will be. Right now, we haven’t even entered into the Heavy Mystery Mountain Range yet.”
“I didn’t know about this.”
Murong Qingcheng smiled at Ye Chen. She was as shocked as he was now when she came to this area for the first time, but then she got used to it. This True Spirit Continent was so broad, nearly boundless, that many unexplainably magical people and things existed on this continent. For example, every ancient region was naturally formed as a complete and individual space, and was able to deny the passage of all martial artists whose bone ages were beyond twenty-four years old. Not even Life and Death Realm Martial artists could possibly be allowed to enter.
After half an hour, they reached the Heavy Mystery Mountain Range.
“Such an intense gravity, at least three times greater than usual.” Ye Chen didn’t control his power well when he first walked into the mountain area and left a few deep footprints on the ground.
As for Murong Qingcheng, she had been walking just as normal.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Chen quickly adjusted his power to fit the current gravity so no footprints would be left on the ground.
During their journey in the Heavy Mystery Mountain Range, they had met quite a few groups of martial artists. Most of them were Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists and only a few were Condensing Reality Realm ones.
“Look, isn’t that Murong Qingcheng?”
“Who’s the guy next to her? Why can he travel together with Murong Qingcheng?”
“I haven’t seen him before, he looks nowhere like a Sky Flying Devil Martial School’s disciple.”
“Ah…I’m so jealous of him! Murong Qingcheng is one of the two most beautiful girls in the entire Black Dragon Empire, I’d be so satisfied if I can even talk to her. Why on earth can this guy walk side by side with her?”
“This guy is so dead. Hundreds, and even more than a thousand talented young martial artists had been dreaming of Murong Qingcheng. Any one of them can easily crush him with a finger.”
“Hehe, you’re absolutely right. Let’s just expect the show of his death.”
The Heavy Mystery Mountain Range wasn’t too huge. Ye Chen and Murong Qingcheng spent merely two hours to walk into its central area. The gravity in the central area was incredibly intense, nearly ten times greater than normal. Ye Chen had roughly done the math and found out that, if one flew in this place, the Zhen Qi would be consumed ten times faster than usual; which meant, no Clasping Yuan Realm martial artists could do a long-term flight, and even Astral Reaching Realm martial artists’ flying speeds would be greatly reduced in this place.
“That mountaintop is the entrance of the Martial City.” Said Murong Qingcheng.
Ye Chen asked in a surprised tone, “What? Is the entrance of that city truly located on the mountaintop?”
“You’ll find out soon.”
Ye Chen finally understood what she meant after he climbed to the mountaintop.
The Martial City was located on a majestic mountain. This mountain seemed topless, as if someone had sliced the entire mountaintop off and created a smooth, flat area that had a radius of over a hundred miles on top of the mountain. The edge of this flat area was split from the main mountain body by a bottomless chasm, which had completely separated the flat area and the outer world. There were only two methods in entering this flat mountaintop area: the first one was to fly in. However, the gravity of the chasm area was far too great because Ye Chen had just witnessed a level 4 flying demonic beast that had been dragged down into the chasm by the suddenly increased gravity and disappeared completely, without even leaving a trace.
The second method in entering the flat area was through those chains in front of them. Countless adult-leg sized chains had been floating above the chasm, connecting the main mountain body and the middle flat area.
“Let's go.”
Murong Qingcheng nimbly leapt up into the air then landed on a chain, then streams of Zhen Qi bursted out of her heels, pushing her swiftly towards the other end of the chain.
Ye Chen did exactly the same, closely following behind her.
When he reached the middle area of the chasm, Ye Chen sensed a huge increase in gravity. The gravity in that area was at least thirty times stronger than normal, no, probably fifty times stronger. No wonder even level 4 flying demonic beasts couldn’t fly across this chasm. If any Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist dared to recklessly fly, they would probably end up exactly similar to that flying beast.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
They landed in front of the city gate of the Martial City.
The Martial City was even bigger than the Happy City. It was more than seventy square miles; its city walls had a height of more than three hundred meters. This height wasn’t set for no reason, as based on the pull of gravity in this area, all martial artists below the Clasping Yuan Realm couldn’t possibly fly so high.
In each side of the city gate, was a line of martial guards.
Murong Qingcheng reminded Ye Chen, “The entrance fee is one piece of low-ranked stone, so is the exit fee.”
“They charge for leaving as well?” One piece of low-ranked stone was indeed a high price, but Ye Chen had already gotten used to the high standards of those big cities’ entrance fees. After all, people who would come to this Martial City were all martial artists, and they could buy many rare objects in this city, which was quite attractive. He did understand why they charge so much for entrances, but he couldn’t figure out why they were charging for leaving as well.
Murong Qingcheng explained, “The Martial City has many rules, this is just one of them.”
Handing two pieces of low-ranked stones to a guard, they walked into the city.
The first impression Ye Chen had from the architecture and landscape inside the Martial City was, gigantic and magnificent. A random building can be over ten meters tall while those hotels were all luxury and stylish; each looked just like a sky-high tower which stood on the city and were quite eye-catching. The street was especially broad that even a hundred people could walk on the streets side by side and not feel crowded at all. For a short moment, Ye Chen felt that he had come to a city of giants.
“The second rule of this Martial City is that, fights are strictly forbidden. Anyone violates this rule will be executed immediately, or in lesser cases, be imprisoned.”
Hearing her, Ye Chen nodded and responded, “This Martial City is a city of martial artists, I assume, this city is run by some powerful people, am I right?”
Murong Qingcheng nodded and said, “The lord of this city is a Soul of Sea Realm Martial Artist.”
“A Soul of Sea Realm Martial Artist, no wonder!” If Astral Reaching Realm martial artists could be counted as powerful people, Soul of Sea Realm Martial Artists were all legendary that every single slight movement made by them could be powerful enough to change the structure of a piece of land. Under the watch of a Soul of Sea Realm Martial Artist as the lord of this city, anyone who dared to violate any rule of this city might just want to get themselves killed.
This broad street wasn't built for no reason at all as Ye Chen had seen many stalls set up by martial artists by the streets once he walked in. The appearances of these stalls were varied as some looked like bookshelves, leathers, tables, and gigantic stones that looked like a table; Ye Chen was even dazzled by all those different stalls and merchandises.
“If you want to set up a stall, you’ll have to pay a hundred low-ranked stones for a permit. Otherwise, you would violate a rule and the punishment could be terrifying. Normally, people won’t set up stalls if they didn’t have too many to sell. Instead, they prefer to choose off-market dealings for small batches of merchandise.” Said Murong Qingcheng.
“Is there any shops in this city?” Asked Ye Chen.
“Yes, but treasures and ranked great weapons are rarely sold in shops. Shops normally only sell medicines and ordinary weapons, or food and drinks. Of course, if you have a huge amount of treasures and ranked great weapons to sell, you can just buy a shop. But people usually don’t have that many great things to sell, so a simple stall is more cost-effective, as you only need to pay a hundred low-ranked stones for the permit.”
Quite a lot martial guards had been patrolling in the city to see if anyone was breaking any rule, none of those martial artists who were more powerful than these guards, dared to provoke them. They were afraid that once they offended these martial guards, punishments would come in all kinds of unexpected ways.
While walking past a few stalls, Ye Chen found that not every owner of these stalls required their customers to pay with stones, some of them would offer two prices, one in gold and one in spirit stones. Comparatively, the price of gold was usually higher than the price in stones. For example, you could buy a magic herb with ten low-ranked stones that’s equal to four thousand gold. But if you want to pay with gold, the price would be six thousand.
To this, Ye Chen had his own understanding. He assumed that gold in this Martial City was not as valued as it was in the outer world, as spirit stones were what everybody actually needed. Therefore, if you want to purchase using gold, you shouldn’t struggle too much about the price.
As Ye Chen stopped in front of a bookshelf, he took a quick glance and found that the books placed on the shelf were all secret martial art books. Books on the upper layers were top-ranked Mortal Realm secret martial art books while books on the bottom two layers were low-ranked Earth Realm secret martial art books.
“How much are these books?” Ye Chen asked.
The owner of this stall was a medium Clasping Yuan Realm martial artist, he gave a quick glance at Ye Chen, then said in a bland tone, “Eighty low-ranked stones for each Mortal Realm books, low-ranked Earth Realm books have different prices.”
Hearing this, Ye Chen gave a closer look at those low-ranked Earth Realm books.
The price of the cheapest low-ranked Earth Realm book was six thousand low-ranked stones, while the most expensive one was one hundred and thirty thousand low-ranked stones. The five low-ranked Earth Realm books on the shelf were worth over forty-thousand low-ranked stones in total. ‘That was quite a fortune!’ Thought Ye Chen.
This Martial City was indeed as marvelous as Qi Shaofeng said. Even the profit gained in business transactions of such a small stall can be so huge.
‘I still have tens of martial books in my storage ring, I can just come here and sell them if I need more stones someday.’ Thought Ye Chen.
“Do you want a book or not? If you don’t, can you please move a bit away? I’ve got other customers.” Said the stall owner with a dark expression.
“Ah, I’m just taking a look.”
Ye Chen walked away with Murong Qingcheng. The bad attitude of the stall owner didn’t bother him at all. After all, none of these people who came to set up a stall in this Martial City was ordinary, and they all have different personalities. Good temper or bad temper, you could meet all kinds of people in your journey, but you don’t have the right to ask a powerful martial artist to be nice to you.
Even after walking past a few blocks, they still haven’t seen any stall that sold treasures and weapons. Most stalls were selling magic herbs, rare metals, inner Dan of demonic beasts, and martial art books.
“You can’t find too many good stuff here in the outer city. Let’s go to the Trading Hall, it’s in the inner city.” Said Murong Qingcheng.
“Trading Hall?”
“The Trading Hall is where you can find the most genuine treasures and ranked great weapons. Sometimes even Astral Reaching Realm martial artists would buy or sell in the Trading Hall. But you have to be qualified for you to be allowed to the enter the Trading Hall. That is, you either need to be a late Clasping Yuan Realm or above grade martial artist, or possess more than two hundred thousand low-ranked stones. You have more than five hundred thousand low-ranked stones. That means you can surely get in there.”