Simple Folk Customs in Abyssal City! Punching and Kicking Douro People!

"Hehe, how is it? Did you feel my piety?"

Long Ling raised her head, those amber eyes radiating a bright glow, her cheeks flushed bright red, whether from excitement or just... bashfulness.

Though... though those prayers felt so shameful to say out loud.

Yet after speaking them,

she felt her connection with Chu Zisheng deepen quite a bit.

It was as if her body and mind had already been surrendered to the other person, completely erasing that unfamiliar feeling of a wall standing between them.

This left an indescribable comfort in Long Ling's heart, making her feel as though every pore was letting out excited screams!

Chu Zisheng looked at her, remaining silent for a moment.

He could certainly feel Long Ling's piety, and that strange strand of Faith Power within her body was the best proof.

An indescribable and complex emotion suddenly arose in his heart.

If he wanted to walk the path of Self-Created Godhood, he would need a massive amount of Faith Power. Perhaps in the future, his believers would spread across the entire Douro Continent, numbering ten thousand, a million, tens of millions... too many to count...

Yet right now... could this be considered his first true believer in every sense?

Compared to someone like Bibi Dong, whom he forced into submission with violence, forcibly leaving his own mark of faith deep within her body,

Long Ling was different...

She had truly and spontaneously chosen to believe in him...

A nine-story terrace starts from a pile of earth.

A tree that requires both arms to embrace grows from a tiny sprout.

Perhaps that road was filled with dangers and obstacles.

Yet right now, he had firmly stepped onto it, and all that remained was to cleave through the thorns and press forward with indomitable will!

He subconsciously reached out his hand.

With blushing cheeks, Long Ling naturally pressed her face against his palm, slowly closing her eyes as the corners of her mouth curled upward... slightly out of control.

Chu Zisheng spoke softly, "...Thank you."

Long Ling shook her head, keeping her eyes closed as she replied in a very earnest tone, "My god... has no need to say thank you."

"Heh..."

Chu Zisheng chuckled.

The room grew quiet, and the two of them enjoyed this silent tranquility and beauty.

Yet when Long Ling failed to notice it,

a layer of faint golden light suddenly emerged on Chu Zisheng's palm.

A wisp of Origin Power left an extremely faint mark within her body.

He could not give her too much.

After all, he had not yet become a god and could not bestow blessings like a true deity.

However, this wisp of an origin mark was enough for her to escape danger and save her life if she encountered peril in the future, just like that day when she was surrounded by the wolf pack and nearly lost her life.

Long Ling's body shuddered slightly.

She only felt... her body suddenly grow warm, as if something extra had appeared inside, and she opened her eyes in bewilderment.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Chu Zisheng withdrew his hand, his tone returning to that lazy demeanor: "I'm... leaving tomorrow."

Long Ling was startled, asking anxiously, "Out of nowhere, why are you leaving?"

Chu Zisheng said softly, "It's nothing. I didn't come here for any particular reason in the first place, so now that I've been here, it's time to go."

The atmosphere fell quiet again.

Long Ling fell silent for a moment, her head drooping in dejection.

That's right.

If she hadn't been worrying needlessly about his safety that day, holding him as she fled for their lives, those wolf packs couldn't have hurt him at all. The two of them wouldn't have intersected, and naturally, there wouldn't have been these few days of sharing time together...

He was so powerful... he surely had things he needed to do.

It was impossible for him to stay in a small tribe forever...

The world of the tribe was too small and fundamentally incapable of containing his ambition and grand aspirations.

He had to leave... and she could understand that.

Yet... yet why did her heart suddenly feel... so painful...

Chu Zisheng saw her reluctance to part, pondered for a long moment, and spoke softly:

"Do you... want to come with me?"

Long Ling abruptly raised her head, excitement surging up in her eyes, but it quickly extinguished itself as a thick struggle surfaced on her face.

"I... I..."

She really wanted to say that word: yes! I want to!

No matter where you go, I will follow you!

But...

The tribe had just faced a crisis; the destroyed houses needed to be rebuilt, the dead livestock needed to be cleared away, and the injured people needed to be cared for... The people of the tribe could not do without her.

If she left, and the tribe encountered another crisis... they wouldn't have such good luck this time.

Chu Zisheng watched the struggle and pain on her face. Her eyes were red, obviously filled with reluctance in her heart, and she was almost about to shed tears again...

He took the initiative to embrace her, patting her back gently, comforting her silently.

But Long Ling did not cry. She wiped her face and forced a smile.

"Where... where are you planning to go?"

"...Go to that city first."

Long Ling pressed her lips together, her voice low: "Then... then I won't go with you."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt there was a flaw in them. Afraid that he would misunderstand, she hurriedly waved her hands to explain the reason.

"I don't mean I don't want to follow you... but... but the tribe needs me, they... they..."

Chu Zisheng was amused by her panicked appearance and nodded.

"I know."

"Well... after the tribe stabilizes in the future, you can also come find me."

Long Ling's eyes lit up again: "That's right! When I'm not hunting, I can go find you! Then, then, where do I need to go to find you?"

Chu Zisheng looked at her and did not answer.

He... didn't know where his next stop was either.

He had a rough direction in his heart.

But who could say for sure about the future?

He reached out a finger and poked Long Ling's chest.

Long Ling stared straight at him, saying excitedly:

"You mean... follow the guidance of the heart, where the heart points is the answer?"

"...No, your clothes are open."

"Ah!?"

Long Ling looked down... She was actually wearing a conservative outfit, but just now, because she was hugging Chu Zisheng and kowtowing, she had been too excited and her movements too large, causing the buttons there to pop off.

For a moment.

She was extremely embarrassed, her small face flushing red all at once. She held it in for a long time before muttering in a small voice:

"...Can you not say things like that at a time like this..."

Chu Zisheng shrugged.

Although when sleeping these past few nights, often because of Long Ling's complete lack of sleeping posture and how she frequently hugged him tightly into her arms, he had already seen plenty.

Yet after such teasing, the reluctance and sadness of impending parting were also diluted a great deal.

"You will find me, I believe it."

Long Ling clenched her fists, her eyes shining brightly, regaining her confident and spirited look:

"Mm, I believe it too!"

"All right, go to sleep. You'll be very busy tomorrow, get your rest."

Chu Zisheng put his hands behind his head and lay down.

Long Ling still sat there in a daze, looking at him, pressing her lips together with a hesitant expression on her face.

Chu Zisheng asked in confusion: "What is it?"

"Then... then... it's the last night..."

Long Ling spoke cautiously: "Can I... can I still sleep next to you?"

"..."

This girl... really deserved to be shocked by electricity quite a few times!

He closed his eyes, but faced Long Ling and opened his arms.

"How could I have the heart to refuse to fulfill a little wish for my believer?"

Long Ling's eyes instantly burst with bright light as she lunged forward and hugged him tightly.

The next day.

The sun shone brightly, and the clear sky stretched for miles.

The tribe also began urgent and busy repairs.

Long Ling was also so busy that her feet barely touched the ground, but no matter how busy she was, her gaze would always involuntarily drift outside the tribe, toward the end of that rugged mountain path.

She seemed to want to peer across the mountains and dense forests to see the figure she longed to see.

She clenched her hands into fists and placed them against her chest... It felt as though his scent and body warmth still lingered there, feeling... warm.

Just then, a shout came from afar:

"Sister Ling! Sister Ling! Look at what went wrong with this medicinal concoction I brewed, Third Uncle says it hurts like hell!"

Long Ling took a deep breath, put away the longing in her heart, flipped around, and turned right back into that bustling, warm-hearted big sister, running over in three or two steps.

"Coming, coming! Let me take a look at what's going on!"

Chu Zisheng's departure did not disturb anyone in the tribe, and they didn't even know he had left.

After all... besides Long Ling, there was naturally no one else who cared about this young man who had suddenly appeared and suddenly vanished.

He left when the sky was just turning bright, at a time when there was still a very thick morning mist, and Long Ling was still fast asleep.

His movements were very light, not waking her.

When he walked out of the tribe's valley, he glanced back.

The tribe was still quiet, with most people still fast asleep, and the sentry on the guard tower, who had stayed awake all night, was also overwhelmingly sleepy and dozing against a pillar.

Yet on the stone pier at the entrance of the village... a figure was sitting.

Long Ling sat in the morning breeze with her knees clutched to her chest, watching him with eyes full of reluctance.

Seeing him look back, she immediately waved hard at him, grinning with her eyes curved into crescents, and her lips silently formed the shape of the words 'have a safe journey', even though across such a distance, theoretically speaking, basically no one could see clearly.

Yet she felt that if it was him, he would definitely be able to see.

Meanwhile, at the great gate of the tribe, another person stood.

Long Ling's old father leaned on his smoking pipe, not stepping forward nor saying anything; he simply made a deep bow to Chu Zisheng from afar.

Chu Zisheng also waved back at Long Ling.

Then he turned and walked into the morning mist.

In a few flickers of his figure, he had already walked more than ten miles.

Chu Zisheng suddenly stopped in his tracks, feeling something in his heart.

He lowered his head and looked at his own chest.

There, an extremely faint golden thread was pulling from the direction of the distant valley far away, vague and ethereal, yet endless and unceasing.

That mark containing the origin power remained within Long Ling's body, protecting her to remain safe and sound should she encounter life-threatening danger in the future.

Yet not only did his strength not weaken, but under that gradually solidifying strange faith power, it seemed to be nourished and grew a bit stronger instead.

He... suddenly understood somewhat.

Chu Zisheng glanced again at the waterskin at his waist, fell silent for a moment, and still unscrewed the cap, tilting his head back to take a large gulp.

"...Tch."

"This beast milk... seriously, once you drink a lot of it... it's actually quite good."

Then he took out a beast-skin map... It was a hand-drawn map, not drawn very delicately and rather crude.

It was what Long Ling had tossed and turned over unable to sleep last night, secretly getting up and drawing based on her memory of the approximate map route for entering the city, which she then placed on him.

Beside it were also densely written small characters, roughly detailing which path was easy to walk, which forest was prone to fierce soul beasts roaming about, which place had delicious food inns where one could rest for a while, and so on.

These were actually of no use to him, but after all, it was Long Ling's heartfelt gesture...

He put the map away into the storage space, released his soul power, and floated his entire body mid-air. With a flash of his figure, like a shooting star, he swiftly streaked across the vast sky...

The place Chu Zisheng went to was a wilderness situated between the national borders of the Häagen-Dazs Kingdom and the Balak Kingdom, right next to the outermost periphery of the Star Dou Forest.

It was a grayish city named Abyssal City, standing quietly at the end, spanning between human civilization and soul beasts like the gate of the Star Dou Forest.

Chu Zisheng stopped in his tracks and gazed into the distance.

The city gates were tall, and on those thick city walls remained countless dense scratch marks, bearing witness to how many beast tides it had weathered.

The entire city exuded an aura of stern hostility.

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

Banners fluttered on top of the city walls, embroidered with a huge character: 'Xue'.

This city was precisely the fief location of a collateral branch of the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial family, bestowed by Xue Ye as a hereditary prince.

It was also the place where Long Ling and the others' tribe went every month to sell soul beast meat and purchase daily living supplies.

Regarding the origins of this city.

Long Ling had also chattered a great deal in his ear last night.

Due to its special geographical location, this place used to be a zone where no one exercised control, and the passing soul masters were a mixed bag of good and bad.

Everyone simply compared whose fists were harder, and whoever's fists were harder held greater sway.

There were often phenomena of high-level soul masters bullying the weak, and ordinary people had nowhere to seek justice after being bullied. There even existed evil soul masters who wantonly slaughtered civilians, plunging the populace into misery and making days utterly unbearable.

Later, Xue Ye of the Heaven Dou Empire assigned this place to a prince named Xue Yuan to serve as his hereditary fief.

Nominally a fief.

In truth, it was treated as a buffer zone for border friction between the two nations, as well as the first barrier to block the soul beast tides of the Star Dou Forest.

That Xue Yuan was indeed a capable person; with only a level-76 Soul Saint cultivation, which was not considered top-tier within the empire, he nonetheless managed this kind of city exceptionally well.

In the first few years of his arrival, he directly used powerful methods and heavy-handed measures to purge a large batch of evil soul masters, and also established a series of rigorous rules.

At that time, under his powerful rule, Abyssal City truly briefly achieved a state where nothing dropped on the road was pocketed and doors were left unlocked at night.

However, according to Long Ling's accounts, that Xue Yuan also had an only son named Xue Ling whose moral character was not very good.

Although Long Ling had never met this person and had only heard others say that fellow was no good, she had specifically admonished him to stay away from such people to avoid bad luck.

Although the sins of the son reflect on the father's failure to teach.

Regardless, no matter how scoundrelly Xue Ling was, out of respect for Prince Xue Yuan, everyone turned a blind eye and swallowed their grievances; of course, even if you wanted to report him, there was no way you could...

There were also quite a few factions within the city.

Aside from setting up some branch offices for major sects and prominent families for the convenience of sending young disciples of the sects and families to undergo trials in the Star Dou Forest, there was also a Spirit Sub-Hall.

Only in recent years did that old prince seem to have grown older and somewhat lost his grip on the situation.

The city was no longer as peaceful as before.

In a word.

This Abyssal City possessed simple folk customs, and the commoners were all very kind-hearted. If you encountered some difficulties in your life, you could wear a mask and make a trip to some nearby grocery stores, and then, upon seeing this, the shopkeeper of the store would give you some food and soul coins.

Because here, wearing a mask usually signified needing help.

When Chu Zisheng arrived beneath Abyssal City, before even entering the gates, he saw a large group of soldiers suddenly rush out of the city gate.

At the head were two Soul Elders, rushing majestically in the direction of the Star Dou Forest.

"What's the situation? What happened early in the morning?"

"It seems another beast tide broke out. Last night in the Star Dou Forest, things were not very peaceful."

"I heard the commotion too, and it was quite a disturbance. Last night, the sky above the forest's core area was blazing with light; perhaps there was another Title Douluo-level powerhouse fighting soul beasts there again."

"Sigh, strange occurrences have happened frequently lately. A beast tide happened just a few days ago, and it was even two elders of Spirit Hall who personally came and took action to quell that fluctuation. Hopefully... hopefully this time it can be peaceful."

"..."

On both sides of the road.

People entering and exiting the city looked at the direction the army had left for and whispered among themselves.

Many among them were tribes like Long Ling's, hauling soul beast herbs early in the morning to prepare to sell them in the city.

Yet... that direction...

Chu Zisheng furrowed his brow slightly.

A beast tide?

There wasn't one, was there?

Could something have changed in the core area again?