The Savage Wants to Enter the City

The blazing sun hung high in the sky, recklessly pouring down scorching heat. Rings of white-hot halos visible to the naked eye spread from it and scattered across the earth. With the light breeze blowing past, waves of burning air swept over everything on the ground in an instant.

The crisp little grasses gave off a deep green glow beneath the fierce sun, swaying back and forth in comfort and leisure. It was noon, the hottest time of the day, and the sunlight was especially venomous. Most people would choose to stay at home to escape the heat.

Even those who had no choice but to go out would think up every possible way to block that vicious sunlight, making sure they did not get dried into human jerky. Only, not many people passed along this road to begin with, and at this hour there were even fewer.

In a small copse by the roadside, a figure was sitting with his back against a tree trunk. Dense branches and leaves wove together into a large patch of shade, completely intercepting the vicious sunlight. The breeze blowing through made the figure under the tree feel waves of coolness.

Diya narrowed his eyes slightly, his face faintly showing an expression of comfort. Why faintly? Because at this moment, his face was mottled black all over, as if he had deliberately smeared it with charcoal and dirt and the like. That was no surprise. He had never found a water source—or rather, Diya had never deliberately gone looking for one—so neither his body nor his face had been washed. It had been many days now. Sweat mixed with dust, and over time it had naturally settled into this state.

Even if one looked carefully, it would be hard to make out Diya's appearance. Coupled with that messy, bird's-nest-like hair, the animal skins all over his body, and his bare feet, he looked exactly like a beggar from another world.

Three days had passed since his first time acting as a bandit. Counting it up, this was exactly the ninth day since Diablo had fallen into slumber. If nothing unexpected happened, Diablo would wake up tomorrow, and at that time Diya would be able to enter Hell's second fragment again.

Of course, Diya could enter now as well, but without Diablo there, some questions could not be answered, so there was no need to rush. Since the sunlight was too fierce right now, Diya could only avoid its edge for the moment and rest awhile in the shade.

It had already been three days. Aside from the little brats and the old man he had met when acting as a bandit, Diya had successively encountered a dozen or so groups of people. Every one of them sized up Diya as they passed with extremely strange looks. Most deliberately kept away from him, and only one group of three people, after seeing the Azure Tiger skin on Diya's body and the bulging leather pouch at his waist, developed wicked thoughts. They stopped Diya, intending to rob him.

Forced by circumstances, Diya could only make another guest appearance as a bandit and rob them in return, stripping those three people of all their money. As for his first time acting as a bandit, speaking of it, that had been a loss-making deal for Diya. He had lost the longsword. Originally, when that archer locked onto him and was about to shoot that arrow, if Diya had fought with his life on the line, there was still a certain chance he could have escaped the arrow's range.

But he did not want to take that sort of risk. Other than the longsword, he had nothing in his hands. He could not very well throw the entire bag of money he had robbed back, could he? So he had no choice but to throw the longsword. Fortunately, it was not really a loss. After all, he had already planned to sell the longsword after entering the city. The money he had robbed from those little brats totaled nine gold coins and seventy-five silver coins. Add to that the three fellows who had harbored ill intentions toward him and failed to rob him only to be robbed themselves, who had contributed only thirty silver coins and nineteen copper coins.

Heaven could bear witness that Diya absolutely had no intention of framing Porter. Of course, there were no absolutes in worldly affairs. Accidents could appear at any time, and that was not something human strength could control.

Leisurely chewing on fruit while watching the road to either side, Diya tossed away the fruit pit in his hand, closed his eyes, and once again began cultivating battle qi. Cultivating battle qi was not as troublesome as cultivating inner energy in the martial arts of his previous life. It did not require a safe environment where one could not be disturbed.

During battle qi cultivation, even if one was disturbed, at most the cultivation process would merely be interrupted. There would not be any aftereffects or anything of the sort.

Time passed bit by bit, and the sunlight gradually became gentle, no longer as vicious as before. Diya opened his eyes and ended his battle qi cultivation. Up until now, he could already quickly control the qi within his muscles to cycle once around his entire body. Basically, at this point, he could already proceed to the third step of battle qi cultivation, but Diya always felt it was not enough. He still needed to control the movement of qi with even greater proficiency, to the point where it obeyed like an arm directing the fingers. It would be best if it became like instinct. That way, when he carried out the third step of cultivation, it would be even more effective and swift.

Rising to his feet and walking out from the copse's shade, Diya returned to the roadside and continued heading in the direction of Luo City. Another convoy of carts and horses passed by. Amid the rumbling of wheels, a dozen or so fellows dressed like mercenaries stared hard at Diya. There was disgust, curiosity, and all sorts of different expressions among them. But as long as they did not take the initiative to provoke him, Diya did not want to act as a bandit again. Besides, one glance told him these fellows were the kind of capable mercenaries who had experienced life-and-death battles.

He went farther and farther. When the sun once again inclined toward the west, its original blazing brightness had dimmed into a dusky yellow, hanging in the sky like a round piece of cheese, and the sunlight it scattered upon all living things on the earth had also softened. At that moment, a smear of grayish white appeared before Diya's eyes.

Diya quickened his pace. He knew that was Luo City's city wall. It looked not far away, but when he actually walked it, it still took Diya nearly half an hour.

Compared with Carlos, Luo City looked more like a city. Carlos's gate was only three meters tall, and its city wall was no more than two and a half meters. Yet Luo City's gate was actually twelve meters high, and its city wall was ten meters high as well. It could be considered majestic and spectacular.

The grayish-white city wall looked somewhat rough. It had been built from huge rectangular, regular stone blocks, each almost half a meter wide, one meter long, and half a meter tall. The city gate, meanwhile, was entirely red, and steel plates as wide as a palm were tightly inlaid on the door panels, making the gate look even sturdier and more solid.

At this moment, both gate leaves were open. In front of the gate, on the left and right, stood two guards on each side. Wearing silver-gray armor and holding long spears, they were watching the crowds coming and going, entering and leaving.

From some distance away, Diya saw that whenever anyone passed through, the guards would step forward to stop them. First they asked something, and if the passersby were carrying anything, the guards would inspect it before stretching out their hands to demand a toll.

Dressed as Diya was now, he would draw attention no matter where he went. As soon as he approached the city gate, all four guards turned their gazes toward him at once. Completely different from the guards in Carlos, the guards of Luo City not only looked extremely spirited, their eyes were also much sharper.

"Stop. Where did this savage come from?"

"Savages aren't allowed into the city." Although they felt absurd inside—how could savages appear in a place like this?—the guards still stopped Diya.

Diya swept his gaze over them and discovered that these four guards unexpectedly all possessed Guardian Rank strength. They were merely cultivating basic battle qi without any attribute, that was all. But this point alone already far surpassed Carlos.

"I'm not a savage," Diya said calmly.

"This fellow really isn't a savage. I heard savages can't speak our human language. He's probably a vagrant or beggar or something," one guard said in a low voice to the other three guards.

"You want to enter the city, right?" The guard standing at the front immediately changed his gaze and stretched out one hand. "Hand it over."

"How much?" Diya remained expressionless. These fellows were going to collect an entry fee.

"Seeing as you look like a beggar, five copper coins."

Diya frowned slightly and took five copper coins from his money pouch. The sound that unintentionally came from inside the pouch made the four guards' eyes light up. They looked at one another. Diya handed the five copper coins over, and after the guard received the copper coins, he blocked Diya's steps.

"We suspect that you robbed travelers on the road. Now hand over everything on you and come with us to the city guard station." Four long spears instantly aimed at Diya. When the surrounding passersby saw this posture, they immediately scattered.