Throne

A weirdo.

That was Dailin's first impression of Xilian.

Dailin was starting to regret coming to see him. Anyone who talked to a dog every day hardly seemed like someone he could trust with a job.

But when Xilian saw through his purpose at a glance, Dailin reconsidered. Perhaps the young man wasn't as hopeless as he had expected.

"A sharp deduction," Dailin said, confirming Xilian's guess. "The City Guard Bureau does urgently need people, but there's more to it than that."

"I understand." Xilian repeated what Bruce had just said. "A city-state doesn't fall without warning unless Chaos forces are involved."

"You're afraid the Chaos Followers hiding in Her City will collude with outsiders and bring the city down."

Dailin studied Xilian in surprise. "How did you know that? Was it all deduction and guesswork?"

Xilian's expression did not change. "Even the cleanest kitchen has a few cockroaches hiding in the corners. Her City is no different. No matter how tightly the City Guard Bureau guards it, Chaos Followers will always take root inside."

Dailin was convinced. Xilian now struck him as an odd but dependable Torchbearer.

Xilian kept smiling.

His deduction was so accurate because he knew the accomplices who had destroyed White Cliff Town came from Her City.

"So, would you like to join the City Guard Bureau?"

Dailin went on, "The work is dangerous. We're on the front line against Chaos. But the pay reflects that. Even a new recruit earns a top-tier salary by Her City standards."

In this mad age, Transcendents had always held high social standing, especially those whose work brought them face-to-face with death, as the City Guard Bureau's did.

"Of course."

Xilian's immediate answer left Dailin strangely uneasy, as though Xilian had known all this already and had been waiting for him to come.

Xilian quickly supplied an explanation. "Can I start soon? I only paid a month's rent, and it's almost due again."

"Money's tight?"

"Do you think someone who fled all the way here from the Wilderness would have much in his pockets?" Xilian joked. "I'm one step away from selling blood to be refined into Soul Marrow."

"That sounds rough," Dailin said.

He wrote down an address and handed it to Xilian. "You can get ready in the meantime. This is the City Guard Bureau's address. Just be there before noon tomorrow."

"All right."

Xilian paused, then asked, "That's it? I thought your screening would be stricter."

Dailin wasn't the only one feeling uneasy. To Xilian, too, everything was going a little too smoothly.

They stared at each other, each concealing his own agenda.

"The City Guard Bureau's requirements aren't that strict. We don't turn anyone away, regardless of where they come from or which Fated Path they follow, as long as they aren't beholden to Chaos and are willing to do their part for the city."

Dailin smiled. "Don't imagine we're such a serious bunch. Our backgrounds are all a bit questionable. We're quite a mixed crowd."

He deliberately stressed "backgrounds" to test Xilian, but Xilian acted as if he hadn't heard. He gave no reaction at all.

"Take me, for example. I follow the Throne Fated Path created by the Giant God, Sky-Bearing Arm. But I've never made a pilgrimage, and I have nothing to do with the Calamity-Resisting Saints."

Dailin had offered his own case to reassure him. "You needn't worry about being too unusual. Out here in the Outer Flame Frontier, no one cares about things like that."

Xilian had read about the Giant God, Sky-Bearing Arm, in the public library.

Unlike many Giant Gods who had sunk into the Spirit Realm, Sky-Bearing Arm had remained in the real world. He was one of the six Giant Gods still in existence and active.

Legend held that when the Noonday Calamity erupted, a terrible crisis was about to sweep across the land. To stop it, the Giant God stepped forward and sealed the unknown threat with his own body.

Ever since, he had stood motionless and silent. Anything that came within a certain distance of him froze, lifeless, and turned into a hard stone statue.

Over time, people came to call that strange Death Zone the Silent Land.

Even now, thousands of years later, the Giant God still stood within the Silent Land, sealing away the crisis that had never come to pass.

Later, grateful for his sacrifice, many people settled around the Silent Land. With the Secret-Speech Sage's help, they restored the Giant God's Throne Fated Path on the Sourcebinding Long Stair.

His followers founded a Transcendent organization called the Calamity-Resisting Saints. To honor his spirit of sacrifice, they shared the path to Transcendence without reservation, allowing more people to become Transcendents, even if those people had no faith in the Giant God.

As a result, though the Calamity-Resisting Saints were not among the foremost Transcendent organizations, the number of Transcendents on the Throne Fated Path far exceeded those on any other path.

"That's about the size of it. Well... see you tomorrow."

Dailin said goodbye and left.

Once he was sure Dailin had gone, Xilian turned to Bruce.

"A mixed crowd... is that common among Transcendent organizations?"

"What else would you expect? The Interstice Gray Domain isolates the city-states, and the Sourcebinding Long Stair makes it easier for ordinary people to embark on different Fated Paths."

Bruce explained, "These days, many Transcendents have no strong ties to the organizations associated with their paths."

"In that case, I should get a few things moving." Xilian opened the door. "I'm going out again."

"What for?" Bruce asked.

"To look around the shopping district and see if I can find ingredients for an Ascension Elixir."

Xilian had only recently arrived in Her City. He had found no trace of Tania, let alone any clues about Chaos.

With none of his other plans making progress, he decided to prepare for his next advancement.

"I'm coming too." Bruce hurried after him, brimming with excitement. "I haven't had much chance to look around."

"Don't you go out all the time?"

"Only to walk the streets! If I went into a shop, they'd throw me right back out!"

Xilian treated Bruce as a person shaped like a dog, but no one else would see him that way.

"Let's go."

The man and the dog left the apartment, wound through the streets, and reached a light-rail station, where they waited for a train.

"Come to think of it, Her City has so many people, all living inside the walls. Where does their food come from?"

The question had suddenly occurred to Xilian.

Under the influence of the Interstice Gray Domain, the land of the Outer Flame Frontier was barren. Few crops could grow well there. But clearing farmland inside the city would take up space people needed to live.

"What do you think the industry Heavenly Craftsman Iron Father rebuilt was for?"

Bruce answered with a scoff. "After completing the Industrial System Reconstruction Project, the first thing he did with Source Energy technology was establish Automated Vertical Farms."

Only then did Xilian remember what lay beneath White Cliff Town.

"Vertical farms are usually built beneath cities. Everything from sowing and irrigation to fertilizing, harvesting, and processing is automated."

Bruce went on, "Any city-state with a complete industrial system has enough food and other essential resources. That automation is what makes it possible for each city-state to remain isolated."

"For the city-states... no, for the Civilized World, the resource that truly matters is space. Room to live."

Bruce sighed. "That was why the Expeditionary Pathfinders launched expedition after expedition. They reclaimed lost lands from the Dark World, one stretch after another, only to lose it all again in the Year of Rebellion."

The light-rail train slowly entered the station. Like an iron snake weaving through the city, it linked the districts together and was a vital means of travel for residents.

With a rumble, it carried Xilian and Bruce toward another district.

Her City had a well-developed industrial base and Source Energy technology. Its streets were full of unfamiliar marvels Xilian had never seen before.

There were oddly shaped vehicles for individual travel, armored machines standing guard, and a huge airship floating above the city. Its shadow covered an entire street.

"That's a Sea-Whale-Class Airship. It can travel long distances at high altitude, well away from the Interstice Gray Domain near the ground. It's one of the safest ways to travel between city-states."

Bruce had a keen eye for machinery of every kind. "The downside is that it's slow and has to resupply at city-states along the way."

The train reached its stop. This was Her City's shopping district, where all sorts of shops lined the riverbank. The dazzling array of goods left Xilian unsure where to look.

"Didn't you say the city-states could provide for themselves?" Xilian asked. "I thought trade would be much less active."

"They can only produce the most basic necessities themselves. For many things they can't make, they have to rely on trade, difficult as it is."

Useful knowledge surfaced from Bruce's damaged dog brain now and then.

"Supernatural materials from the Spirit Realm, for instance, or resources unique to a particular city-state. Those have to be traded, even in an age when the cities are isolated from one another."

Bruce suddenly stopped and motioned for Xilian to look ahead.

At the heart of the shopping district stood a castle-like building, conspicuous and imposing.

"Usually, you can buy anything you need there," Bruce said. "It's the largest trading company in the Civilized World and a vital link in trade between the city-states."

An emblem caught Xilian's eye: eight shapes resembling human legs arranged radially around a single center, forming a wheel.

"The Centipede Trading Company."