Floating City

Su Shijie, asleep in the tent, suddenly opened his eyes.

A series of hoarse, low prayers faintly surfaced in his mind.

"Great... Dark Light..."

An Evil God Cultist!

The moment he woke up, Su Shijie identified the source of the voice.

However, perhaps because the other party was specifically praying to a certain evil god, there was none of the fanaticism from the previous Brain in a Bottle, nor could he pinpoint their location.

He could only vaguely sense that they were nearby—possibly inside the camp, possibly outside it.

The prayers continued for a while before stopping, leaving Su Shijie with a chill crawling through his heart.

That meant this Evil God Cultist possessed considerable "sanity." In his father's words, they were the most troublesome kind.

They could easily blend in among ordinary humans.

"What is it?"

Su Shijie's sudden movement naturally woke Su Ren as well. Su Ren immediately blocked out the surrounding sounds and asked in a low voice.

"There's an Evil God Cultist praying nearby. A sane cultist praying to some special evil god. Something about Dark Light."

Su Shijie did not hide it.

"Tsk~ At a time like this, they're not planning to cause trouble, are they..."

Su Ren found it rather troublesome as well.

They could not determine the exact range of what Su Shijie had sensed, and it might simply have been the cultist's routine prayer. It was entirely possible that an Evil God Cultist was merely passing through.

Of course, it was also possible that they really intended to stir up trouble nearby.

The Deer Herd Migration had recently become quite an event in this area.

"After we enter the city, let's report it. We'll say we spotted someone suspicious."

There were too few clues. Even Su Ren could not piece everything together.

Still, he chose the safer approach.

Evil God Cultists could not stand the light, and there had recently been a Contamination Source nearby. It was perfectly reasonable to have the Floating City take it seriously and conduct a search.

This sort of thing naturally had to be left to the big shots—to the professionals.

With the Floating City's experts standing at the front, the rest of them could take it easy.

Evil God Cultists could include sane madmen, and they were dangerous.

It was also possible that this cultist had followed some guidance here in search of the Contamination Source that had been removed earlier.

After all, low-level Contamination Sources were too fragile and easily eradicated. If this happened to be another projection of the evil god they worshipped, then coming over to "take care" of it would be perfectly normal.

In any case, the Contamination Source had been dealt with by the Spirit Wind Knights, or perhaps it had been the Task Force's work. Naturally, the cultist should be left for them to handle as well...

"Just stay alert. Don't worry too much. Based on what you said, it's an Evil God Cultist with sanity, so they won't attack ordinary passersby here for no reason. The cost-benefit ratio is too low."

Su Ren reassured Su Shijie and told him to go back to sleep.

However, when Su Shijie woke the next morning, he found that Su Ren had apparently kept watch all night.

"Not worrying is one thing, but necessary vigilance is still necessary."

Su Ren smiled and patted Su Shijie on the shoulder before starting to pack up.

"Let's move faster today. Try to arrive by tonight."

"Okay..."

"Professionals should deal with professional matters. What you need to remember is that, as enemies, humans are always more dangerous than Spirit Beasts.

"If they're Evil God Cultists, they can easily use ordinary people—use normal people to lower your guard—while hiding behind them and delivering a fatal blow. They're nothing like Spirit Beasts, which come straight at you."

Seeing the meaningful look on his father's face and hearing the gravity in his words, Su Shijie truly felt how troublesome and difficult Evil God Cultists were.

For a moment, immense pressure settled on him.

He had fought evil spirits, Spirit Beasts, Contaminated Beasts, and Contamination Sources.

But all of those acted purely on instinct.

Facing an Evil God Cultist with genuine sanity—facing a malicious human—Su Shijie still lacked confidence.

The human heart was already unfathomable, let alone the minds of extremist lunatics like Evil God Cultists!

Human fear came from the unknown. Faced with an unknown enemy he had never fought before, Su Shijie felt uneasy.

After all, he had only just broken through to Awakened Rank, level two...

"So early?"

When Han Wenlong saw that Su Shijie and Su Ren had packed their tent and were preparing to leave, he could not help but look surprised.

"Yeah, we'll try to make it there today."

"You're pushing so hard while bringing the kid along. Don't wear him out."

In Han Wenlong's view, Su Ren traveling alone was one thing, but if this kid had only recently broken through to Awakened Rank, he would probably be exhausted.

After all, this was not a plain but complicated jungle terrain. Even for someone at Awakened Rank, it was tough. Ordinary people could directly compare it to an enhanced version of Yeren Mountain mode...

Since they were hurrying along, aside from continuing to control the Star Crossbow as it flew alongside them, Su Shijie temporarily stopped the time-consuming shooting practice.

Whenever they encountered a Spirit Beast, they ended things quickly. One lash of a tendril, and it was dead.

None of the Mortal Rank Spirit Beasts they encountered along the way escaped.

With more than two hundred kilometers still left, they even encountered an Awakened Rank level-four black bear midway through.

Su Shijie took the initiative to attack, wanting to test the Soul Tendrils.

Before the stupid bear realized what was happening, the tendrils wrapped around it. Although the recoil from the bear's soul left Su Shijie with a burst of throbbing pain, the stupid bear was drained to death on the spot.

"Impressive. Things really are different after reaching Awakened Rank."

As Su Ren dealt with the black bear's carcass—skinning it, removing its tendons, chopping off its paws, and extracting its gallbladder—he clicked his tongue in amazement.

Su Shijie was only Awakened Rank level two, yet he had forcibly drained an Awakened Rank level-four beast to death.

"Still, I think this is probably my limit in a normal fight. If it were any stronger, and I directly clashed with it using Soul Tendrils, then even if I won, I'd be seriously affected."

"It's good that you realize that. I was going to remind you. Just now, you exposed an obvious opening. If there had been another enemy, one burst of fire would have finished you."

Seeing that Su Shijie was not getting cocky, Su Ren gave him an approving remark.

That made Su Shijie feel awkward inside. I was just being modest. I didn't expect there really was a problem.

Fortunately, his father had been watching from the sidelines and pointed it out in time.

Still, if there was only one enemy in a one-on-one fight, then against someone one or two levels higher, his losses should still be smaller than theirs. He would lose eight hundred to inflict a thousand, perhaps.

It was like when he had helped his father deal with that Contaminated Beast last time. Given the gap between them back then, it had probably been more like losing a thousand to inflict a hundred. If his father had not been the main attacker, he would have been done for on the spot...

Red evening clouds streamed through the edge of the forest.

After traveling for an entire day, Su Shijie looked at the forest exit ahead, bathed in the sunset, and could not suppress the excitement in his heart.

He quickly covered the last stretch, then stood atop the branch of a giant tree at the very edge. There, Su Shijie saw the setting sun giving off its final brilliance as it slowly sank behind the mountain range.

Beside the setting sun, a majestic city floating in the air came into Su Shijie's view.

He had seen it many times online and visited similar places in immersive games.

But seeing this magnificent man-made miracle for the first time in reality still filled Su Shijie with excitement.

Its base stretched downward like an inverted mountain, with what seemed to be roots hanging beneath it. Looking only at the underside, it could have been Mount Shu from a xianxia world.

Above the base stood a city filled with towering buildings and crisscrossing rail lines, faintly visible and brimming with a sense of science fiction.

Su Shijie was standing atop a cliff, on the branch of a giant tree, yet even from there, he could see only one corner of the Floating City.

Below the Floating City was a somewhat disorderly area of human buildings with a wasteland-like style.

It had clearly gradually taken shape later on. The buildings looked as though they had been cobbled together, appearing crude and chaotic from afar.

From the foot of the cliff beyond the forest all the way to the horizon stretched a desolate Gobi wasteland. It formed an extreme contrast with the dense forest behind them, as though there were only extremes and nothing in between.

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go. A mountain may look close, but it can tire a horse to death. If we don't leave now, it'll be dark."

"Okay."

Su Shijie answered and leaped down from the treetop. He then reached the cliff ahead and jumped off, using the nearly vertical slope to slide swiftly down toward the plain below.

He let out a strange whooping cry as he went.

Standing at the cliff's edge, Su Ren watched his son frolic and a faint smile appeared on his face. He raised his head to look at the Floating City, shining alongside the setting sun, and his eyes filled with emotion.

This would be his son's stepping stone into the future...