Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
The Heaven Conntecting Tower was only a thousand zhang tall, but standing before it, anyone would feel a heart-palpitating feeling as blood rushed to their heads. Everyone fell in line and lined up properly without being asked to.
A 10-zhang-tall metal door stood in front of the Heaven Connecting Tower, and a spacious hall lay behind it.
Countless cultivators were flooding in towards this area from every direction. These cultivators’ strength ranged from the Second Layer of the Hundred Year realm to the Fourth Layer of the Hundred Year realm. With just a casual glance, it was obvious that this crowd could be counted by the tens of thousands!
There were over a hundred counters inside the large hall, and each one was attended by a beautiful lady to assist the huge group of people to register and process their entry qualifications.
On one side of the Heaven Connecting Tower was a hundred meter tall wall which radiated a fuzzy light. The wall looked like an illusory mirror, and people constantly stepped into it and disappeared.
Two old men sat at the sides of the wall cross-legged, with their eyes closed as if everything here had nothing to do with them.
However, Bei Feng could sense an immensely terrifying aura from their bodies, and it was obvious that these two were not people that he could oppose.
“Hm?”
As Bei Feng’s mental power swept past the two old men, the both of them opened their eyes at the same time. Golden light shone from their eyes, extending over 3 cun long. Their terrifying aura instantly caused the bustling hall to fall silent.
The two old men scanned through the crowd, with alert and doubt intermixed. The mental power that they had felt was exceedingly strong.
‘Fortunately, I was standing far away enough from them. So these two old fellows are both Thousand Year Kings? The Martial Alliance is quite something to place Thousand Year Kings at the entrance of every Heaven Connecting Tower!’
Bei Feng’s heart thumped furiously. The two old men’s spirit sense was exceedingly strong, and he had almost been caught by them. Luckily, the range that his mental power could reach had increased after his soul tempering, managing to stretch 800 meters out. He was also hidden within the crowd, and was thus missed.
But as he thought about it again, Bei Feng felt that his guess was not too probable. At the very least, there definitely weren’t any Thousand Year Kings at the Heaven Connecting Towers in the county.
‘Looks like only small-scale cities and above have Thousand Year Kings guarding them,’ Bei Feng evaluated silently.
Even a First Layer Thousand Year King was an existence equivalent to the Transcendent realm’s strength. Although this world was rich in resources, Thousand Year Kings were still not cabbages that could be found on the sides of the streets!
‘Even if the Martial Alliance has many Thousand Year Kings, their main focus should be placed on the few top-ranked towers. But two of them had actually come here? Looks like there might be some kind of special purpose to their presence.’
Bei Feng did not think too much about the matter, and was also naturally unqualified to be affected by it. Although the Lu Coporation looked powerful, it was a force that did not even have a single Thousand Year King. They were naturally not privy to such information. After all, this world was ruled by the strong.
With so many counters processing the entry procedures, they were naturally very efficient. Bei Feng’s group did not wait long, and it was soon their turn.
“It costs 10,000 HCD for each person to enter for a day. The alternative is to give up 20 percent of whatever profits you gathered in the tower,” the lady at the counter stated blandly. Although a smile hung on her face, her tone was bored and cold.
“I’ll choose the first option,” Bei Feng said directly without thinking. The first option was naturally more suitable for him since many things could not be bought with money.
“This is your identification, please keep it properly. We will calculate the cost based on the amount of time you’ve spent inside when you come back out.”
The girl did not waste any words and directly scanned the wrist watches on Bei Feng and the rest’s hand. After their data was recorded, she went on to stamp a mark on each person’s hand.
‘Interesting.’
Bei Feng smiled lightly as he observed the faint energy ripples along the lines of the strange mark stamped onto his palm. Without further delay, he directly led the team away and stepped through the illusory wall.
As though stepping through a curtain of water, Bei Feng’s eyes were blinded by an intense light for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he had walked down from an altar that was a few kilometers long.
“Forming a team to kill a Third Layer Hundred Year realm Migu Pig, only two slots remaining! Hundred Year realm peak Third Layer cultivators have priority!”
“Buying Fourth Layer Earth Dragon tooths, three million HCD each, sellers with more stocks have priority!”
“Looking for Heavenly Fragrant Fruits, four million HCD each!”
“Do not miss it, Auburn Mushrooms only for 10,000 HCD a jin!”
The moment Bei Feng set foot in the place, he was instantly greeted by the bustling noise of people advertizing their wares.
Bei Feng was instantly stunned speechless by the sight. This place was completely different from what he’d imagined. Instead of a vast wilderness with no other humans around, he’d arrived at a huge city!
This altar was the most prosperous and bustling part of the city. Numerous stalls could be seen all over the place, and large numbers of cultivators lined both sides of the road, laying their wares before them on the ground as they called out to the passers-by.
Not far away was a large group of guides trying to grab onto the newbies. The entire scene caused Bei Feng to feel like he might have transmigrated into a virtual reality game.
‘The Heaven Earth Lingqi here is much stronger than outside!’
Bei Feng took a deep breath and exclaimed internally as the dense Heaven Earth Lingqi flowed into his nostrils.
The higher a Heaven Connecting Tower was ranked, the thicker the Heaven Earth Lingqi inside was. The resources inside would be more abundant as well. The most valuable treasure found here so far was a Spirit Crystal Tree.
The Spirit Crystal Tree grew on large scale spirit veins, and was a divine plant that could help cultivators break through to the Thousand Year realm! However, from the time the tower was open to the outside until now, this species of tree had only appeared less than 100 times!
Although the number 100 seemed high, when compared to the thousands of years that the tower had been open for already, the chances of them appearing was low to an incredible extent!
And every time a Spirit Crystal Tree was discovered, a blood bath always accompanied the find. Apart from fighting being forbidden within the city itself, there were basically no other rules in the tower!
That was because, the presence of a Spirit Crystal Tree did not just mean an opportunity for people to break through to the Thousand Year realm, it also meant the discovery of a huge spirit vein or a spirit stone mine!
Bei Feng’s group did not waste any time, and after rejecting a horde of sales people, they made their way to the wilderness.
After so many years of development, a large portion of this massive space had already been scouted and mapped. However, even greater portions were unknown no-man’s land.
Bei Feng’s target was precisely the no-man’s land. Although more dangerous, the profit margin was greater. While it might be safer to stay within the developed zones, the chance of obtaining anything was basically nonexistent. Everything had already been picked clean and swept through countless times by the predeccesors.
There weren’t any floating cars or anything of the sort in this space. Instead, people relied on tamed Scarlet Eagles to travel around. These eagles had great speed, able to fly at three times the speed of sound. Their endurance was also very strong, making them great steeds suitable for long-distance flights.
The only thing was that the price was extremely shocking as well. Renting one cost 10,000 HCD, and each eagle could only seat two people at most.
After locating the beast rental hub, Bei Feng’s group departed on the backs of several Scarlet Eagles, spending 60,000 HCD in total.
This was what it truly meant to spend money like water. The high-grade spirit herbs and Demonic Beasts were very expensive as well.
But there was no need to worry about inflation since spirit stones were a hard currency on Tianmu Planet. A single piece of low grade spirit stone was worth over 10,000 HCD, and most of the time, a low grade spirit stone would not even be traded for 10,000 HCD.
Bei Feng currently had 300 million HCD on him, so he wasn’t worried at all.
Three days later, the Scarlet Eagles landed on the border of the developed land. A group of workers hurriedly ran out and led the eagles away to feed and rest. Here, all the tamed Scarlet Eagles were monopolized by a single power.
This space was stationed with government troops permanently, and each batch of soldiers would be switched every three years.
“Yin!”
“Hou!”
The roars of countless species of beasts rang out continuously from beyond the border. Under the blanket of twinkling stars, the faraway mountains looked like huge giants standing shoulder to shoulder.
This area was the most extreme end of the developed areas in the tower. Further out would be a vast land of unknown.
This was the last supply stop for the large groups of cultivators. At the same time, the acquisition industry here was also very developed. Many rich and powerful organizations and merchants waited here, flaunting their great wealth to buy up the resources the cultivators gathered back. After returning from the trip beyond the border, most of the cultivators chose to sell their harvest here.
Many dealers were stationed here, specifically buying Demonic Beast parts and materials. All kinds of weapon stores lined the streets, and this place which should have been a bleary border town was actually incomparably prosperous!
The endless stretch of mountains beyond the border was known as the Hundred Break Mountain Range. All kinds of Demonic Beasts lived within it, and even Thousand Year realm Demonic Beasts lay within. It was a place fraught with dangers and opportunities.
This mountain range was extremely vast, and stretched on for an unknown number of kilometers. The favorable conditions of the land gave birth to countless wondrous treasures.
All kinds of spirit herbs, valuable Demonic Beasts, and resources were abundant.
Bei Feng’s group did not continue rushing in. It was already dark now, and the group was not in a hurry. After being on the road for so many days, their condition was not very good as well. Bei Feng decided to rest for a night before continuing.
Entering the mountain range at night was not an act of bravery but stupidity. Nightime was when most Demonic Beasts were the most active. If one did not know the terrain and environment well, it was easy to suffer a great loss.
Bei Feng naturally would not make such a mistake. After booking a room, when everyone had taken a bath and rested, the group walked out of the hotel.
The number of people walking around the brightly lit streets at night was not low. Most of them were First Layer Hundred Year realm practitioners. These people were not soldiers; they were construction workers to build new territories.
The fragrance of all kinds of delicious food drifted into Bei Feng’s nose as he walked, stirring up his appetite.
Bei Feng walked into a restaurant on the side of the streets, with the 10 guards following closely beside him.
Bei Feng walked up to a middle-aged man and asked, “Boss, what specialties do you have here?”
This middle-aged man had an honest face but his cultivation was quite low, and could only be compared to the Evolved Jing cultivators on Earth.
“Sir, our lotus prawns and clear sky albatross are dishes that every customer here would definitely order. We also have a specialty wine called the hundred flowers wine.”
The middle-aged man smiled and led Bei Feng to a table.
Bei Feng smiled and said carefreely, “Alright, I’ll have a set of those and some vegetable side dishes.”
This feeling was similar to eating at a roadside store back on Earth.
“Coming up!”
The middle-aged man nodded and hurried away.
Bei Feng smiled and said to the tense guards, “The few of you, there’s no need to be so nervous. Relax a little—this is the city, and there won’t be any danger here.”
“Old Master’s safety cannot be taken lightly, and we need to be prepared for the unexpected. We cannot let down our guard in any circumstances,” Lu Bu said gruffly, his face one of stoic conviction.