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Creak… While Xu Yuan was lost in his thoughts, the door was pushed open from outside. Half-crouched on the floor, he immediately turned his eyes toward it and met Ying'er's silent gaze.
Her tone was flat. “Third Young Master, we've arrived at Stillwater.”
Ying'er was still dressed the same as before, in that slightly sensual shadow guard outfit of hers. She had pushed the door open and walked in without permission, but Xu Yuan did not say a word.
After glancing at Xu Yuan once, the woman shifted her gaze to the Source Crystal clenched in his hand. She watched it quietly for two seconds, then quietly turned and left.
Click! The wooden door shut softly, and the room fell so still it was as if Ying'er had never come at all.
Xu Yuan watched the whole thing in silence for a long while, then finally let out a helpless little laugh. The strong always had their pride. That was true in any world. If they looked down on him, then so be it. There was nothing he could do about it.
To those retainers and guest elders, Xu Changtian really was the Third Young Master. But that title only existed because of his father and his eldest brother. Without the backing of his family, Xu Yuan was nothing. Respect was something they would give him, yes, but that was only on the surface.
And if Xu Yuan did not even want that surface-level respect, then fine, they would not bother giving it at all. These people lived by their strength, not by flattering others.
If it had been the Third Young Master, he probably would have flown into a rage by now, his inferiority and oversensitivity gnawing at him again. But Xu Yuan really did not care. Other people's respect had to be earned. In a world where personal strength meant everything, once his own power rose, the attitudes of these retainers and guest cultivators would naturally change with it. If their respect did not matter, then why get angry?
That said, the look Ying'er gave him before leaving did confirm one thing for Xu Yuan. This Source Crystal really had been left behind by his older brother as a test. If he could get it before arriving at Stillwater, then it was his. If he could not, Ying'er would simply drag him away.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan put the Source Crystal into his Sumeru Ring, stood up, and began wrecking the room again. He was not angry, but the act still had to be played. Only after he had dismantled all the furniture in Xu Changge's room, bed included, did he finally stop.
This time, after tearing the place apart, he was not even that tired. His stamina now was probably already better than the husky he had back in his previous life.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan got up and walked to the wooden window, then pushed open the tightly shut panels.
As the room where Xu Changge stayed, this chamber had a formation built into it that blocked soul perception. But for it to work as a complete seal, all doors and windows had to be shut.
To avoid Ying'er's surveillance, Xu Yuan had not opened the window even once these past few days. The moment he pushed it open, the sight before him made the black pupils in his eyes contract sharply. What lay before him was vast and breathtaking.
The sky was a clear, endless blue. Amid shrill eagle cries and birdcalls, dozens, no, hundreds of flying demonic beasts of every size wheeled through the air, screeching as they passed.
Xu Yuan's gaze dropped lower. And there it was, a colossal city, magnificent and sprawling, on a scale comparable to a first-tier metropolis from his previous life.
The entire city lay spread out before him in full view. Streets and buildings stood packed together in neat layers, ring after ring. Broad roads stretched in every direction, crowded with a lively flow of people, all the way to the farthest edge his eyes could reach.
Xu Yuan stared. This... this is Stillwater? Stillwater in Azure Point, the one you could run across in-game with nothing but two or three flat maps?
As they drew closer, the giant black eagle beneath his feet had already begun descending.
BUZZ! As the eagle swept over the towering city wall, nearly 200 feet high, Xu Yuan's soul sense vaguely picked up a faint ripple. It felt as though they had passed through some invisible barrier.
This is… Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes and instinctively extended his soul outward to investigate. But unfortunately, the black eagle was flying too fast, and the range of his soul was still extremely limited. By the time his senses spread out, they had already passed the majestic wall. Left with no choice, he withdrew his soul sense and made a mental note to inspect the wall more closely if he got the chance later.
That thought had only just formed when Zhou Chen's voice suddenly drifted down from the upturned eaves of the attic above.
“Third Young Master, you’re truly gifted. You only just entered the ranks of cultivation, yet you could already sense the spirit testing grand array.”
Xu Yuan fell silent. Clearly, the moment he sent out his soul just now, the man above had noticed.
“Who are you?” Xu Yuan asked softly.
Zhou Chen flipped down directly from the attic roof, came in through the window, and cupped his hands with a cheerful grin in greeting. “My name is Zhou Chen.”
Looking at the man's rough, unshaven face, Xu Yuan recognized him as one of the people who had blasted open the cave dwelling back at Suspended Heaven Cliff. So he was probably one of the men Xu Changge had left behind to protect him.
Xu Yuan was quiet for a breath, then asked softly, “That spirit testing whatever you mentioned just now, what is it?”
Zhou Chen smiled and cupped his hands again. “It is only natural that the Third Young Master would not know, having just entered cultivation. Demonic beasts are wild by nature. If they enter the city directly, they can easily lose control and injure people.
“If a demonic beast wants to enter a city, it must first pass the Nine Examinations of either the Imperial Department of Exotic Beasts or one of the major sects. Once it passes every test, a special mark is placed inside its body. Only with that mark is it allowed into the city.”
So this world had something like that. A flash of surprise passed through Xu Yuan's eyes. After a pause, he suddenly cast a sideways glance at the boundless giant city below and asked in a strange tone, “You mean the entirety of Stillwater is covered by it?”
Zhou Chen gave a slight nod, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Naturally.”
Hearing that, a trace of shock flashed through Xu Yuan's eyes. This world actually had formations on such an enormous scale?
And at the same time, a flood of questions surged up in his mind. How was such an enormous formation even set up? And what powered something on that scale? The questions flickered through his mind, but no answers came, so Xu Yuan forced them back down.
After a pause, he looked at Zhou Chen and asked, “What if a demonic beast does not have the mark and tries to force its way into the city anyway?”
Zhou Chen lifted a hand to stroke his scruffy chin, then bared his teeth in a meaningful grin. “There are other formations inside the city as well.”
Xu Yuan frowned. “Other formations?”
This time Zhou Chen did not answer right away. He tilted his head up toward the sky, as if searching for something.
A moment later, he suddenly grinned. “Third Young Master, wait a moment.”
The instant he finished speaking, his figure vanished from before Xu Yuan's eyes.
With source qi flowing into his vision, Xu Yuan looked out the window, but saw nothing. The bodyguards Xu Changge had left him were all absurdly fast.
And a little more than ten seconds after Zhou Chen disappeared, Xu Yuan suddenly saw it. A demonic beast that looked like a pterosaur was plunging straight down from high above.
As Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes and stared, Zhou Chen's airy voice drifted out from behind him once more. “Third Young Master, see for yourself.”
Xu Yuan was speechless. The speed at which these experts around him vanished and reappeared was practically ghostlike.
Giving a slight nod, Xu Yuan kept his eyes fixed on the broken-winged drake as it fell.
The winged beast dropped from the sky. The moment it entered the range of that spirit testing array, the creature's instinctive sense of danger kicked in, and the ten-foot beast began frantically beating its wings.
Unfortunately, one of those wings had already been snapped by Zhou Chen, so it could only keep falling helplessly downward. Then, when it dropped to a certain height, a streak of white radiance condensed in midair above the giant city and shot out in an instant.
Without a sound, the drake was reduced to dust. Not even bones remained.
“Third Young Master, that is what happens when a demonic beast without a mark still tries to barge into the inner city.”
Xu Yuan shot him a glance. “Yes, very direct. But could you not have just told me?”
Zhou Chen gave a dry cough to cover the awkwardness, then continued, “Ahem. Right. Also, this formation does not only guard against demonic beasts. It can deal with people too.”
Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Would it work on you too?”
“Too slow. It can’t hit me. And the power is a bit lacking too.” Zhou Chen grinned and shook his head. But after a pause, he let out a sigh and added, “Of course, those two formations are only the standard ones. There are plenty of grand formations in the city that are not normally activated. If they were, even I would not be leaving alive.”
Xu Yuan fell silent. The world's automatic filling-in of its own details was starting to leave him with a dazed sense of unfamiliarity.
Zhou Chen cheerfully patted Xu Yuan on the arm, already acting like they were old friends. “Third Young Master, if the city did not have formations like these, the whole world would have fallen into chaos long ago.”
