"Come, my young friends, let Old Hou raise a cup to you both. Without your hard work, we could never have made so much this past month!"
"You give us too much credit, Brother Hou. You were our guide. We owe most of this to you."
"That's right, Brother Hou. You're making us feel embarrassed."
"Hahahaha! All right, all right, enough of that. Let's just enjoy our drinks. Come, bottoms up!"
"Bottoms up!"
Inside the only tavern in Maple Grove Market, Old Hou, Li Chen, and You An ate and drank, chatting freely and enjoying themselves without a care.
Maple Grove Market District was only a town-sized trading settlement. Aside from them, the tavern had scarcely any customers, so even the proprietor was drawn over to exchange a few words.
When he learned that they were the Demon Hunters who had brought one High Rank demon beast and three mid-rank demon beasts into town that day, the proprietor immediately grew respectful. "So you're those three heroes! Word of your exploits has already spread throughout our market. To hunt beasts like those so easily, you must all possess extraordinary skills."
For all his praise, however, he never offered the three heroes so much as a bowl of wine on the house. They still paid the full bill, without even a discount.
Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, Old Hou invited the two to browse the Market Fair with him. As they walked, he said, "I've never been here before, but I've heard people mention it. Maple Grove Market is a necessary stop on the trade route east, so merchants often pass through. Towns like this have far more good things than the Commandery Seat."
Li Chen was puzzled. "Isn't this just a little market town?"
Old Hou explained, "Walls and houses stay put, but rogue cultivators move about. Merchants coming and going, goods changing hands-all that depends on people, not the place."
"The Creation Sect has another saying: a great sect's greatness lies not in the size of its gates and cities, but in the greatness of its masters and Grand Artisans."
Understanding dawned on Li Chen. "So that's how it is."
The prosperity of cities on the Eastern Victory Continent truly had little to do with their population. Sometimes, a single skilled Puppet Master could reshape an entire region.
The Commandery Seat they had come from, for instance, had originally been a stretch of untamed forest. Only after the ancestors of the Lei Family and several other aristocratic clans cleared the wilderness and built a city had it become a human settlement.
But once that generation of Grand Artisans and Master Artisans died of old age, the city had gradually declined. Only the likes of the Lei Family's Six-Star Puppet remained to guard it, serving as symbols of their lineage's glory.
The Yong Kingdom had little Spiritual Essence and no powerful cultivators in residence. It was therefore suitable for living, but not for cultivation. Those who aspired to advance in cultivation could scarcely find a suitable path there anymore.
Places like Maple Grove Market, on the other hand, might offer a glimpse of a much wider world.
Old Hou sighed again. "But compared with Sky Cities and the Other Continent, none of this is worth mentioning."
"Sky Cities? The Other Continent?" Li Chen paused in surprise.
"I think I heard my father mention them before. They're floating cities built by High Rank Puppet Masters using vast quantities of magnetic ore, floating gold, and floating soil. There are also all sorts of magnificent puppets capable of flying and remaining in the heavens for long periods, which fall into the same category."
"Those High Rank Puppet Masters dwell far above us, like immortals and gods. They no longer need to confine themselves to living on the ground, so Sky Cities are also called Celestial Palaces—meaning the abodes of immortals."
Old Hou said, "Every Sky City must have a master-level Puppet Master or higher presiding over it, because it's a blessed land and private property under their name. Their beloved kin and puppet legions live there, along with countless rarities and heavenly treasures."
"As for the Other Continent, that's where the Sword Cultivators, Spellcasters, and Martial Artists across the sea from the Eastern Victory Continent live. Each has a different cultivation civilization."
Li Chen nodded. The runaway Sword Cultivator slave he had encountered on the road when Zhao Bin took him to the prefectural city had been a captive from the Other Continent.
"Sky Cities and the Other Continent really do make you yearn for them. Compared with them, our region is as backward as some remote country village, and nobody pays it the slightest attention. If I get the chance, I must go see them for myself!"
Old Hou sighed. "You two are still young. You may have a chance to visit those places in your lifetime, but I'm afraid these old legs of mine won't carry me that far."
"Never mind anything else. Just reaching a Sky City floating up above requires at least the standing of a Master Artisan and Foundation Establishment cultivation. That's not because there's any explicit restriction on status, but because you need the ability to fly there yourself."
You An chuckled. "The gap in strength between cultivators is enormous. Those lofty experts certainly won't go out of their way to accommodate low-tier cultivators who can't even fly. So the only way low-tier cultivators can get aboard a Sky City is to ask someone to take them."
"But those capable of taking people up are unlikely to make a business of ferrying passengers around. Anyone who can't get there under their own power has to rely on a lucky opportunity."
Li Chen asked, "Old You, from the sound of it, have you been up there before?"
Old Hou also turned to look at him.
Old You smiled sheepishly. "To tell you both the truth, my grandfather was a Grand Artisan. My father was an unremarkable son born to a concubine among his many children, but under his protection, we were able to live in the Sky City where he served."
"But my grandfather died when I was twelve. His legitimate heirs left us nothing of value, and our family fortunes declined. After that, we lost all contact with that Sky City."
Understanding immediately dawned on the other two. He was a descendant of a Grand Artisan's concubine-born branch and had lived in a Sky City as a child. No wonder he could afford the Heavenly Soldier War Armor and possessed martial arts methods clearly superior to those found among ordinary wandering fighters.
Old Hou exclaimed, "I never imagined you were actually the scion of an aristocratic clan, Old You."
You An waved a hand dismissively. "What kind of aristocratic scion am I? We were already a fallen household in my father's day, and a collateral, concubine-born branch at that. By my generation, I was a genuine Wilderness Rogue Cultivator."
"Never mind our family-even the legitimate branch failed to master my grandfather's Grand Artisan legacy. I've heard they've now fallen to the point where they can only make Heavenly Soldier War Armor and Heavenly General War Armor."
Li Chen asked curiously, "What about your father?"
You An curled his lip. "When I was sixteen, he got drunk and caused trouble, and someone beat him to death. They even confiscated his Storage Ring as compensation, leaving it out of my hands. Otherwise, with his Heavenly General War Armor, even if my cultivation wasn't enough to unleash its full power, I could at least have scraped my way into the general rank, couldn't I?"
His words seemed tinged with resentment, as well as deep frustration and helplessness.
Old You seems to have quite a story behind him.
Li Chen and Old Hou exchanged a glance, at a loss for how to continue the conversation.
Fortunately, amid the awkwardness, they reached the commercial street. You An immediately put their earlier conversation behind him and pointed excitedly at a large sign ahead. "There's actually a restaurant here! Come on, let's go take a look."