Shenjiao City lay on the border of the Seven Towers Federation, while Snakehead Town was an even smaller settlement established during the pioneering war more than twenty years ago. Although the surrounding land had already been developed,
danger had never truly been eliminated. Spirit beasts attacked frequently.
With his recommendation form, Duke boarded the Spirit Society's special route train.
This was a special route train commonly called the "Black Beetle." Its shape resembled a beetle several houses in size, with a thick smokestack standing upright at the front. Whenever it was preparing to depart, the pipe would belch out a steady stream of black smoke.
It resembled the black smoke rising from factory chimneys; both were caused by burning spiritually charged mineral slag.
Factories and vehicles were huge consumers of spirit energy. Relying on Spirit Storage Cards to power them was impractical, and the cost was terribly uneconomical. Burning cheap spiritual mineral slag was the normal way to operate.
As for pollution—
Black smoke was the romance of the Industrial Revolution.
"Woo-woo-woo!"
The Black Beetle Car sounded its whistle. The black smoke pouring from its smokestack rapidly thickened, and then several solid tires as large as millstones began turning slowly. They crushed over the gravel-paved road and headed outside the town.
Duke sat beside the window, watching the gradually receding town, his heart filled with a strange mixture of emotions.
Snakehead Town was called a town, but in reality it was no smaller than a county seat. Seventy or eighty thousand people crowded together to live there, and many of them, Duke included, had never left.
This time,
he was leaving Snakehead Town for the first time, heading toward Chen Jiao City.
The Black Beetle Car did not travel very fast, and the carriage was extremely bumpy. Neither highways nor even asphalt roads existed yet; every road was made of gravel.
Such roads were also called routes.
That was because in areas far from towns, spirituality stimulated all things. Even after humans cleared them out again and again, countless spirit beasts still lurked there, damaging roads and attacking convoys.
Every trip outside was like an unknown voyage across the open sea.
Clang, clang.
The carriage suddenly jolted violently, nearly launching Duke out of his seat.
Someone in the carriage cursed, "Do you even know how to drive? Couldn't you go around the hole?"
A conductor soon came over to explain. "Sorry for the trouble, everyone. The road ahead seems to have been damaged by Digger Worms. The entire—"
Before she could finish, the carriage jolted violently again. The conductor hurriedly gripped the handrail, only barely preventing herself from falling. Once things steadied, she continued, "The entire stretch of road has been dug up. The patrol road-repair team hasn't had time to fix it yet, so please stay seated for now. It'll be fine once we get past this damaged section."
"Damn Digger Worms!"
"When I go hunting outside, I'll definitely kill a few extra Digger Worms!"
The passengers complained and cursed the 0-Ring Spirit Beast Digger Worms. They were insects resembling cockroaches, but larger than cats, and they wandered the wilderness in swarms.
After a good while of jolting, the Black Beetle Car finally steadied.
Before long, Duke saw through the window that they had already passed another small town. They would have to pass four more towns before reaching their final destination.
After stopping for a while, some people got off and others boarded.
Soon, they set off again, leaving the market town and the farmland behind before driving into the boundless wilderness.
Duke greedily drank in the scenery outside the window. Compared with Earth, this place was full of exotic charm. Strange plants dazzled his eyes, and now and then he could even see beasts with bizarre shapes.
Suddenly,
the Black Beetle Car stopped.
"Please remain calm, everyone, and don't open the windows casually. Several spirit beasts are blocking the road. The accompanying Great Knight has already gotten off to drive them away." The conductor smiled as she soothed everyone. This sort of situation was already nothing unusual to her.
Duke did not stay in his seat.
Like the others, he ran toward the windows near the front of the carriage to watch the excitement outside.
He saw two Great Knights in armor confronting several black spirit beasts that looked like a cross between leopards and wolves. Each black spirit beast was as large as a calf.
"They're Lean-Cheek Black Panthers, one-ring spirit beasts. There are only six of them—they're no match for two Great Knights," a passenger said casually.
The standoff lasted less than three minutes.
One of the Great Knights suddenly moved. Holding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, he charged forward and crashed into the Lean-Cheek Black Panthers. Then he swept his one-handed sword in a circle, cleaving out a round arc of sword light.
The other Great Knight slowly advanced, maintaining pressure on the Lean-Cheek Black Panthers.
One attacked while the other threatened.
The six Lean-Cheek Black Panthers dodged while baring their teeth. They seemed eager to pounce, but in the end they focused on evasion and did not attack the two Great Knights.
Soon, one of the Lean-Cheek Black Panthers simply slipped away.
The remaining Lean-Cheek Black Panthers let out several snarls before slipping away as well.
The spirit beast attack thus came to an abrupt end. The two Great Knights returned to the Black Beetle Car, laughing and chatting with each other. Black smoke billowed upward as the vehicle continued crushing over the gravel road.
Back in his seat, Duke savored the brief battle from moments ago, still reluctant to let it go.
"That sword light should be the Great Knight's battle aura." He remembered that his predecessor had once taken a Blood Boiling Potion, hoping to open his blood sea and thereby gain a knight's cultivation talent.
Unfortunately, it had failed.
"Come to think of it, whether it's the blood sea or the qi sea, both have already been incorporated into the Spiritual Arcana system. They're regarded as branches of the spirit sea, each a place where spirituality gathers."
In his mind, he communicated with Xiao Yi through his thoughts. "Xiao Yi, do you think I still have a chance to open my blood sea and qi sea?"
"Xiao Yi lacks relevant data and is temporarily unable to calculate the probability."
"All right."
Duke helplessly abandoned the matter.
At present, he was merely a fifteen-year-old orphan who had just set one foot over the threshold of cultivation. He knew nothing about true three-sea cultivation.
Half a day later,
Chen Jiao City came into view.
The first thing that entered Duke's eyes was the billowing black smoke rising from countless chimneys. Yet when the smoke climbed to a certain height, it was as though a constant gale blew it apart and carried it beyond the city.
"It should be an arcana related to wind that has been fixed in place."
The Black Beetle Car entered the station, where all sorts of distinctive special route trains bustled about. After getting off, Duke followed the crowded stream of people out of the station and immediately saw a tram bus passing along the street.
He quickly grabbed his bag and ran toward a nearby bus stop.
Although this was his first time in a big city, he had already asked Old Sam about the details of food, clothing, housing, transportation, and other necessities of urban life.
"Sorry to trouble you, but which bus goes to the Spirit Tower?" he asked a middle-aged woman. There was no route sign at the stop, only a sign that read "West Station."
"The Spirit Tower? I think it's Route Seventeen." The middle-aged woman turned to ask her companion, "Right? Route Seventeen goes to the Spirit Tower, doesn't it?"
"That's right."
"Thank you." Duke expressed his gratitude.
Route Seventeen had a conductor on board. It cost five Copper Dragons to reach the Spirit Tower stop, which clearly wasn't cheap—far more expensive than taking an ordinary human-powered rickshaw.
But Duke had money now, so he wanted to try something new.
The tram bus itself was very steady, but the journey was thrilling. Pedestrians, animal-drawn carts, and freight wagons practically ignored traffic rules, charging recklessly and squeezing through every gap.
Fortunately, none of them were traveling very fast. Even if they crashed, they could not kill anyone.
"Chaotic, filthy... yet bursting with life." Duke thought this to himself.
Before you continue