Sun Moon Conditions, Black Stone City Observations

The Explorer slowly docked beside the simple natural pier, Yu Yuanchen and his group stepped onto the land of the Sun Moon Continent.

Beneath their feet lay slightly damp gravel, and the air was filled with a sea breeze similar to that of the Douluo Continent's coast, yet mixed with the scents of unfamiliar plants. Everyone's gaze was drawn in unison to the distant, excessively quiet village.

"Let's go and ask what's going on." Yu Yuanchen took the lead, and the others followed closely behind.

The village was small, with low, dilapidated houses built of rough stones and mud, their thick but old thatched roofs flimsy. Fishing nets were scattered at the village entrance, and several worn-out wooden basins lay overturned on the sand, indicating that the villagers had evacuated in a great hurry. The whole village exuded an atmosphere of poverty and isolation.

Yu Yuanchen secretly released gentle spiritual energy to calm the tense atmosphere among the villagers before revealing that they meant no harm. After a while, the door of the largest stone house was carefully pushed open a crack, and an old man wearing patched coarse cloth clothes, with a face etched with the marks of time and wrinkles, and eyes filled with fear and wariness, walked out shakily, supported by several equally fearful young men. He was the village chief.

Communication went more smoothly than expected. Perhaps it was the invisible influence of the Divine Realm will, but the two continents, separated for countless years, had different languages, yet their general grammar and core vocabulary were six or seven parts similar. With a combination of guessing and gestures, and the deliberately restrained peaceful aura of Yu Yuanchen and the others, they were able to communicate with difficulty.

"A few... distinguished gentlemen... from... from the sea?" The old village chief's voice trembled, his gaze involuntarily drifting to the enormous metal sailboat moored on the shore, a vessel clearly not crafted by this world, and to the group of extraordinary-looking, impeccably dressed men and women before him. In particular, the faintly unsettling aura emanating from them made his legs tremble.

"Old man, there's no need to panic." Yu Yuanchen spoke gently, stepping forward and trying to calm his breathing. "We are travelers from other places, passing through this area, and would like to inquire about the local customs and culture."

Under Yu Yuanchen's patient guidance, the old village chief began to recount his story haltingly. His knowledge was limited, and his information was fragmented, but the picture of the Sun Moon Continent he pieced together gradually dampened the expectations in the hearts of Yu Yuanchen and the others.

According to the old village chief, this vast continent is not a unified empire, but is ruled by countless large and small "tribes". His village belongs to a medium-sized tribe called "Ok". The most powerful tribes on the entire continent are three behemoth tribes - the Purple Blazing Tribe, the Golden Sun Tribe and the Silver Moon Tribe.

"Three... Three Great Tribes, very powerful, they have...they have divinely bestowed weapons that can glow and generate lightning..." The old village chief gestured as he tried to describe the "Soul Tool" he had heard of, but his vocabulary was limited, and he could only utter vague words like "very powerful" and "can protect the great city." He had never left the hundred miles from the sea in his life, and his knowledge of Soul Tool Technology was limited to legends.

What made Yu Yuanchen and the others even more uneasy was the old village chief's description of the situation on the continent. Unlike the Douluo Continent, where human Soul Master held absolute dominance and drove Soul Beast to specific forests, the humans of the Sun Moon Continent seemed to always live in the shadow of Soul Beast!

"Beast... Beast Tide are terrifying..." The old village chief's face showed fear. "Only the main cities of the Three Great Tribes, and the cities of large tribes like the Oak Tribe, can hold them off with... with those glowing stones and weapons. Our small village..." He shook his head bitterly, "We can only hide, set up traps, or rely on our young people to fight desperately. Fortunately, this place is remote, and there aren't any powerful Soul Beast. At most, some that are ten or twenty years old will come, which we can handle."

According to him, there seems to be some kind of tacit understanding between the Three Great Tribes. Although there are occasional frictions, there has never been a large-scale war. On the contrary, they often join forces to resist the invasion of powerful Soul Beast.

Other small and medium-sized tribes struggled to survive amidst the threat of Soul Beast and the pressure from the Three Great Tribes. The Oak Tribe, possessing three cities, was considered a relatively strong force in the Black Stone Mountain Range region, but on the entire continent, it was merely a mid-tier power.

The old village chief's knowledge was limited to this; he knew nothing about advanced Soul Tool Technology, the tribe's specific strength, or the detailed geography of the continent. His life's trajectory consisted of repeating the same cycle on this barren coastline: fishing, planting some barren-resistant crops, defending against the occasional weak Soul Beast, and paying meager taxes to the Oak Tribe.

After listening to the old village chief's story, everyone fell silent for a moment. Tang Chen couldn't help but click his tongue. "What's going on? It sounds like the humans on the Sun Moon Continent are having a pretty rough time? Getting crushed by Soul Beast? And those Soul Tool, they don't sound very useful either."

Qian Daoliu frowned slightly; he was more concerned about order, "Tribal divisions, surrounded by powerful beasts... the living environment here is far more severe than in Douluo."

Yu Yuanchen sighed inwardly. This was quite different from the Sun Moon Continent he had imagined, a continent with highly developed Soul Tool Technology and a flourishing civilization. It seemed that the Sun Moon Continent in this era was still in a relatively primitive and difficult stage.

Disappointment aside, the exploration had to continue. Yu Yuanchen left some dry rations and cloth from the ship's reserves as a token of gratitude to the old village chief, and secretly left a wisp of pure Dragon Might around the village. This Dragon Might was harmless to the villagers, but it could effectively deter Soul Beast with Cultivation Level less than a thousand years, ensuring peace in the area for several years.

After bidding farewell to the small fishing village with limited information, Yu Yuanchen and his group had mixed feelings. Their first impression of the Sun Moon Continent was far from the prosperous scene of Soul Tool Technology they had imagined; instead, it seemed more like a backward and barbaric land.

However, the group was not discouraged. After Yu Yuanchen properly hid the "Explorer" in a secluded bay and set up ingenious concealment and guard restrictions, the group traveled light and headed towards "Black Stone City," one of the three main cities of the Oak Tribe, as indicated by the old village chief.

They moved at an extremely fast pace, far exceeding that of ordinary travelers, even when they deliberately slowed down to observe the local customs and culture. Along the way, they passed through several larger villages, much like the small seaside villages.

The houses remained simple, the villagers looked pale and lived a hard life. There were very few Soul Master, and their Cultivation Level were generally low, mostly only at level 10 or 20, who served as the guardians of the village.

Along the way, they happened to encounter a "Earth Splitting Mountain Pig" Soul Beast with Cultivation Level of about five or six hundred years, which was attacking the simple fence of a village. The villagers were terrified. The only soul master, who was only a level ten or so and had only one white Soul Ring, led some young and strong Soul Master to fight desperately, but they were already in grave danger.

Yu Yuanchen casually flicked a finger, and the wild boar collapsed to the ground, dead, howling in agony. The rescued villagers were extremely grateful, but when asked about Soul Tool, they looked blank, saying that those were "treasures" that only important figures and Soul Grandmaster in the city could access.

This scene made Tang Chen shake his head. "The people here live a much harder life than we do back home. The threat of Soul Beast is almost everywhere."

Qian Daoliu's gaze swept over the still-shaken villagers, and he nodded slightly. "It seems the village chief was right. The humans of the Sun Moon Continent do indeed live in the shadow of Soul Beast. Soul Tool may be their survival reliance in dire circumstances."

Yu Yuanchen remained silent, but a guess was forming in his mind. Perhaps it was precisely this severe pressure to survive that gave rise to the unique development path of Soul Tool on the Sun Moon Continent?

After all, when individual strength is difficult to improve quickly to fight powerful Soul Beast, using external objects (Soul Tool) to make up for the gap is a more realistic choice. However, judging from what we have seen so far, the level of these "external objects" seems to be at a relatively rudimentary stage.

In less than a day, a gray-black city built against the mountain appeared at the edge of their sight. The city walls were over twenty meters high and were built of a hard black stone, a local specialty. Every so often, they could see metal objects embedded in the walls—one of their goals for this trip: Soul Tool.

These Soul Tool have an ancient and simple design, mostly tubular or crystal-like devices with chaotic patterns engraved on their surfaces and radiating energy fluctuations. The most conspicuous are several thick cannons mounted behind the battlements, and a layer of white energy light membrane that covers the entire city.

"We've arrived, Black Stone City." Yu Yuanchen stopped, and the group looked at this important border town of the Oak Tribe from afar.

"These are Soul Tool?" Tang Chen narrowed his eyes. As one of the world's top blacksmiths, his gaze instantly focused on the material and structure of the Soul Tool. "Tsk, this forging technique... is too rough! It's completely relying on the properties of the metal itself, slightly removing impurities before engraving arrays? The spiritual guidance and structural enhancement within the metal are practically zero! What a waste! Such a waste!"

His tone was filled with undisguised disdain, as if a top Grandmaster had seen an apprentice's shoddy work.

Qian Daoliu was more concerned about the energy membrane. "The energy level of this shield... can it probably withstand a full-force attack from Soul Ancestor level? If it were Thousand-Year Soul Beast, unless it had a top-tier bloodline or was skilled in offensive tactics, it would be difficult to break through it in a short time. For this city, it's barely enough."

Yu Yuanchen remained silent, his powerful Divine Sense spreading out like mercury, silently sweeping over every Soul Tool on the city wall. In his perception, the core array structure, energy circuits, and material ratios of these Soul Tool were clearly revealed.

After a moment, he withdrew his Divine Sense and shook his head slightly. "The structure is simple, the energy utilization efficiency is low, and the stability of the core formation is average. The most powerful Soul Guidance Cannon are roughly equivalent to the level of Level Four Soul Tool, and the city's protective light membrane is also rated as mid-level four. Based on this, the highest level of Soul Tool Technology that the Oak Tribe can master is probably no more than level five, at most touching the threshold of level six."

Level four and five Soul Tool... In the Soul Master system of the Douluo Continent, they are roughly equivalent to the attack or defense power of Soul Master at the Soul Ancestor or Soul King level. For people like Yu Yuanchen, who possess Titled Douluo or Titled Douluo, this level is indeed difficult to attract their attention, and they are even somewhat disappointed.

"It seems that the Soul Tool Technology of the Sun Moon Continent is... much more backward than we expected," Ye Zhilan said softly, her tone tinged with regret.

Avril and Yang Xueqi nodded in agreement. What they had seen and heard along the way was far different from their imagination of the "high-tech continent".

"Since we're here, let's make the best of it. Let's go in and take a look; perhaps there's more to the city than meets the eye," Yu Yuanchen said calmly. Although he felt a little disappointed, he hadn't completely lost interest. The level of technology was only one aspect; the underlying development strategy and system architecture might be more valuable for reference.

The group concealed their presence and, like ordinary travelers, headed towards the gates of Black Stone City. The guards at the gates wore leather armor, carried spears, and were all around level 10 or 20 in Cultivation Level, vigilantly observing the passersby.

Upon seeing Yu Yuanchen and his group of outsiders, who possessed an extraordinary demeanor and were dressed in fine clothes (compared to the locals), the guards became visibly tense. However, sensing that there was no fluctuation of Soul Power on them (they were deliberately concealing it), and after glancing at their empty hands, they relaxed slightly, collected a small amount of entry tax, and then let them pass.

Upon entering the city, a cacophony of sounds—a mixture of metal, fireworks, and faint fluctuations of Soul Power —was immediately apparent. The scene inside the city was quite different from that outside. The streets were paved with stone slabs and were fairly clean, with stone or wooden buildings of varying heights lining both sides.

Most pedestrians walked in a hurry, dressed mainly in dirt-resistant colors such as gray and brown, their faces showing the weariness of working hard for a living, but their eyes showed less of the fear of the Soul Beast that the villagers outside the city had, and more of the sense of security that came with living under the protection of the city walls.

Most notably, one can see several Soul Master on the streets from time to time. Their Cultivation Level are generally around level 10 or 20, and occasionally one or two Soul Elder or Soul Ancestor can be seen. These Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor all wear some kind of Soul Tool.

Some were crystals inlaid on wristbands or belts, shimmering with a faint light; others were metal boxes carried on the back, their purpose unknown; and some even had weapons that clearly bore the characteristics of Soul Tool, such as swords and knives engraved with Soul Guiding Array, or bows and crossbows with added aiming and acceleration devices.

"The prevalence of Soul Tool is not bad." Qian Daoliu observed his surroundings and said in a low voice. In the Douluo Continent, Soul Tool are still high-level and rare equipment, and they are basically Storage Soul Tool.

Normally, only elite disciples of major sects and families, or highly Cultivation Level Soul Master, can be equipped with these items. But here, it seems that any Soul Master with even a little strength can possess one or two.

As evening fell, the group checked into what appeared to be the best-looking inn in town. The rooms were simple, but clean enough.

"It seems that the Oak Tribe is just an ordinary force on the Sun Moon Continent," Qian Daoliu concluded. "While their Soul Tool Technology is unique and fairly widespread, its level... is somewhat of a liability for us."

Tang Chen took a swig of the locally produced, somewhat bitter Wheat Wine, smacked his lips, and said, "What a waste of so many good materials! If I were to forge it, using the same materials, the effect would be at least 30% better!"

Yu Yuanchen stood by the window, gazing at the scattered lights driven by Soul Tool gradually illuminating the outside world, his gaze distant. "The improvement of technology is not achieved overnight. The development of Soul Tool in the Sun Moon Continent seems to focus more on practical combat, which is different from the path of pursuing the peak of individual strength in the Douluo Continent. However, we can still learn from it."

He turned to the crowd. "There's not much left to investigate here. After a night's rest, we'll set off tomorrow for the main city of the Oak Tribe — 'Oak City '. Once we obtain the map of the Three No Tribe there, we'll head directly to find those Three Great Tribes. I believe that any power that can stand firm on this continent surrounded by Soul Beast is certainly not limited to what we have now."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Although their initial impressions of the Sun and Sun Moon Continent were somewhat disappointing, they did not extinguish their curiosity. The true nature of this continent might be hidden among those more distant and powerful tribes.