First Entry into the Narrow Valley

What came into the six people's view was a broad street. On both sides were caves carved into the sheer cliffs. Aside from the somewhat strange architecture, it was almost identical to the layout of every city on the continent. Taverns, restaurants, clothing shops, apothecaries, and all kinds of stores lined the road, while pedestrians came and went in an endless stream. It was extremely lively.

"This is Blood Canyon?"

The same question rose in all six of their minds at once, and it all felt somewhat unreal.

"All right, you're free now." The black-clad man who had led the way turned around and said to the six of them, "Fighting and brawling are forbidden inside the canyon. If you have a conflict, you can register for a duel at the arena, and life or death will be up to fate. If anyone fights inside the city, the party that provoked it will be killed on the spot by the black-clad guards of the canyon."

"Walk toward the center of the canyon and you'll find a profession registration office. Register according to your respective professions, and someone there will naturally make arrangements for you. Any questions?"

"If someone challenges me, can I refuse?" the blond youth Blondi suddenly asked.

"Of course," the black-clad man said. "Otherwise, wouldn't everything fall into chaos?"

"Do we need money to eat and stay here?" Robin leaned forward and asked.

"Yes, and it's not cheap." The black-clad man smiled and said, "Any other questions?"

"If someone provokes me and the canyon guards don't arrive in time, then if I kill him, does that count as breaking the rules?" Li Junshan asked.

The black-clad man smiled. "That doesn't count, provided the provoking party attacked first. If you die at his hands, we'll still kill him. We'll investigate the details carefully." As he spoke, he glanced at the six of them again. Seeing them all shake their heads, he then walked off on his own.

"Come on, little brother. I'll buy you a drink." Robin gave Li Junshan a hearty pat on the shoulder and said, "I drank a bottle of your Flaming Red Lips just now. I don't know if there's any good liquor here, but I'll treat you."

After eating dried meat for days, Li Junshan felt as if his mouth had gone bland enough to grow feathers. Robin was forthright, so he did not put on airs either. Smiling, he walked with Robin toward a hotel by the roadside.

The trio was even faster than them and walked ahead of them. Just then, outside the hotel, an old woman in a black robe, trembling as she carried a basket, went up to meet the trio.

"Cloud Radish Grass, very cheap. Do you gentlemen need any?" The old woman's back was so bent she could barely straighten it, and only a few teeth remained in her open mouth. When she spoke, air leaked through the gaps.

Cloud Radish Grass was relatively rare. It was very useful to mages and was also a main ingredient in refining magic recovery potions.

"Get lost." That "young master" impatiently waved his hand and knocked the old woman's basket to the ground. The emerald-green Cloud Radish Grass scattered everywhere, and without even looking back, he led the other two toward the hotel.

"Stop right there."

The old woman barked sharply. In an instant, her hunched back straightened, and a pitch-black magic staff appeared in her hand. As her lips moved, an earthy-yellow magic shield first surrounded her body. Immediately afterward, the empty cliff by the roadside trembled slightly, and then a massive stone man around six meters tall projected out from the cliff and stood before the old woman, its enormous shadow enveloping the frightened, uneasy trio.

"I, Alexia, an earth-element Magister, formally issue a challenge to you." The old woman spoke with an icy expression. There was no trace at all of the aged, decrepit look she had shown just now.

"Magister." The trio could not help but suck in a cold breath. The mage was the first to react, and he immediately said respectfully, "I'm sorry, Lord Magister. I apologize to you for my companion's rudeness."

That "young master's" face alternated between white and red. He gnashed his teeth for a long while, but in the end, he dispiritedly lowered his head.

"That basket of Cloud Radish Grass was worth ten thousand gold coins. Add another five thousand gold coins to compensate me for emotional distress, and I'll withdraw my challenge to you. Remember, you were the ones who insulted me first. Even if you refuse to accept, I'll keep following you." The old woman Alexia still looked ice-cold, but as Li Junshan watched from the side, no matter how he looked at it, her cloudy eyes seemed full of cunning.

That basket of Cloud Radish Grass was worth at most one thousand gold coins. Alexia was asking for an outrageous price; she was clearly extorting them a little.

"Heh heh, it's always the newcomers who get unlucky. Serves them right for being blind. Alexia waits for this day every year. She's going to make herself another tidy little sum."

"Exactly. Serves them right."

Hearing the discussions of the onlookers who had gathered to watch the excitement, the trio's mage apologized while taking out a Magic Crystal Card and respectfully handing it to Alexia.

Magic Crystal Cards were issued by Alan Bank, which had been jointly established by the continent's seven great empires under the supervision of the Holy See. It had branch offices in cities large and small, allowing withdrawals, deposits, and redemption at any time.

Alexia took it and probed it with her spiritual power. There were twenty thousand gold coins deposited inside. She could not help showing a satisfied smile. With a wave of her hand, the huge stone man turned into stone dust and drifted away. Picking up the Cloud Radish Grass on the ground, she left without looking back.

The trio, having suffered a silent loss, looked at one another, then slunk into the hotel. Seeing there was no more excitement to watch, the onlookers scattered with a roar.

"It really does seem like hidden dragons and crouching tigers are everywhere. Even such a sloppy old woman is actually an earth-element Magister." Thinking this, Li Junshan followed Robin into the hotel.

"May I ask what the two of you would like?" A rather pretty young girl came over, a sweet smile piled on her face.

"What liquor do you have here?" Robin loved liquor as much as his life, and the moment he sat down, he asked.

"All kinds of red wine and fruit wine. If you prefer something stronger, I recommend Bloody Anya, made from flame viper blood, green celery, red fruit, and other ingredients. It's also our hotel's signature liquor."

"Then we'll have that." Robin kept swallowing as he listened to the maid's introduction and waved his hand. "Bring some roast meat and whatever else too. Anything is fine."

The maid looked at Li Junshan with an impeccable smile. After he nodded, she said, "Please wait a moment," then turned and walked back.

"Brother Robin." Li Junshan looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to them, then asked quietly, "Logically speaking, a Magister would be respected anywhere on the continent. Why would she do something like this for gold coins? Don't you think it's a little strange?"

Robin smiled slightly, leaned closer to Li Junshan, and likewise lowered his voice. "I also think it's very strange. We've only just arrived, so there's no need to rush into discussing these things. Let's observe carefully first."

At that moment, Li Junshan saw the maid coming over with a large bottle of liquor as red as fresh blood, so he stopped talking.

Bloody Anya truly lived up to its name. As soon as it entered his mouth, he sensed a faint fishy taste. Then a burst of fiery heat exploded over his taste buds, flowing down his throat all the way into his stomach, after which his teeth and cheeks were filled with rich fragrance.

Robin repeatedly praised it as satisfying. Holding a roasted ox leg in his left hand, he drank nonstop with his right, utterly content. Li Junshan also began to appreciate the flavor, and before long, the two of them had drunk ten bottles of Bloody Anya.

"Good liquor." Robin's whole face was flushed from drinking, yet seeing that there was not the slightest sign of intoxication on Li Junshan's face and that his eyes were exceptionally clear, he could not help praising him. "You're not very old, but your drinking capacity is even better than mine. Anyone who can drink is a true man. I accept you as my little brother."

Li Junshan did not understand Blood Canyon deeply, and Duke Aldrich, Randolph, and the others had also spoken vaguely about it. Right now, he needed to get to know some people to learn more, and he had a good impression of Robin as well, so he went along with it and said, "Then I'll call you big brother."

"Good, straightforward." Robin laughed loudly several times, making the stone cavern hum and echo. Then he called to the maid to the side, "Bring another five bottles of Bloody Anya."

"Come on, hurry to the arena! Boer from the Magic Academy and Harry from the Warrior Academy are going to duel."

Just then, a thin middle-aged man rushed in from outside the hotel, grabbed a bleary-eyed young man who had been drinking, and dragged him outside.

When the few other diners in the hotel heard this, they all shouted for the bill and ran out like smoke.

In the blink of an eye, only Li Junshan and Robin were left in the huge hotel. The trio had disappeared at some point as well.

"Big Brother, let's go take a look too." Li Junshan was a little curious as well. Robin nodded and reached out to call a maid over.

"Should be enough, right?" Robin said, taking out a large handful of gold coins. Without bothering to count them, he stuffed them into the maid's hand, and the two of them stood up together, ready to leave.

"Sir, the total is three thousand seven hundred gold coins. You only have thirty gold coins here," the maid said unhurriedly, the smile on her face not diminishing in the slightest.

"How much?" Robin thought he had misheard. He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and asked in astonishment.

"One bottle of Bloody Anya is three hundred gold coins. The two of you drank ten bottles in total. The roast meat comes to seven hundred gold coins altogether. The total is three thousand seven hundred gold coins."

Robin's expression changed at once, and he said, "Are you charging whatever you like because you think we're newcomers?"

"You misunderstand, sir. Even if you had stayed in Blood Canyon for over a hundred years, this would still be the price," the maid replied calmly.

"I'll pay the bill." Li Junshan was anxious about that challenge fight and had no time to get tangled up with the maid. As he spoke, he took out a Magic Crystal Card and had her transfer the payment.

"I said it's my treat." Robin stopped him and took out his own Magic Crystal Card. After the maid finished the transfer, the two of them asked where the arena was, then hurried out.

There were not as many pedestrians on the road now as there had been earlier. Most of them were heading toward the open-air arena at the end of the street. After paying the entrance fee of two hundred gold coins, Li Junshan and Robin followed the crowd and squeezed inside.

It was much like the ancient Roman arenas Li Junshan had seen in his previous life. The open space in the middle was comparable to the size of a soccer field, with walls all around it. There were not many seats, though; at a glance, Li Junshan estimated there were about three or four hundred people.

"Look, Boer's coming out."

Li Junshan and Robin had just sat down when they heard someone beside them say excitedly. Looking in the direction the man was pointing, they saw a middle-aged man in white holding a magic staff walk out from a door on the north side of the arena.

The moment he stepped into the arena, the mage called Boer cast Levitation and Gale on himself. His figure traced a streak of white through the air and arrived above the center of the arena.

At that moment, cheers came from the south side of the arena. Li Junshan looked over there as well and saw a blond giant of a man in iron armor walk out. From so far away, his age could not be made out clearly, but his build seemed extremely tall and powerful.

"The duel begins. It will only end when one side is completely killed by the other."

A voice echoed over the arena, long and calm in their ears, as if someone were speaking right beside them.

"Roar!" Mage Boer pressed a hand to a badge on his chest, and a magical beast over ten meters long instantly appeared beside him, lowering its body and letting out an enraged roar.

"Level-eight magical beast, Red-Eyed White Tiger." Li Junshan's eyes lit up. At that moment, he heard Robin's breathing beside him quicken as well.

PS: A friendly recommendation of a friend's book: The Divine Forbidden Canon. It has already been contracted, and the word count is already fairly substantial. If you're short on books, you can go take a look.

Transmigrating beneath the Six Paths of Reincarnation, a mysterious young girl in blue gave him a mysterious and profound treasure of both East and West—the Divine Forbidden Canon!

The Divine Forbidden Canon had nine pages in total. Every time he turned a page, he would obtain a special ability! It might be a powerful immortal art or divine ability, or it might be a heaven-defying magic treasure!

He arrived in a mysterious world, one with grand battle aura, magic refined to its peak, and temples that powerfully represented the gods!

Having obtained a supreme treasure and discovered the mystery of a legend from ten thousand years ago, where should he go from here?

Facing the mysterious legend of fallen gods in another world, bizarre and varied professions, and tempting deeds of ancient sages, he pointed his sword at the heavens and fought with fierce resolve!