Chapter 153
Decaying World
Leaving the Moon Tower, Tian Long didn't fly very far. Instead, flapping his wings laboriously, he bobbed up and down as he dragged his plump rear toward another Moon Tower in the distance.
This Moon Tower differed slightly from the previous one.
The tower's exterior was covered in countless fine, gray-white threads. Densely packed, these threads sometimes tangled together and sometimes merged into patches, resembling a fishing net. In some places, weathering had created gradients of gray, off-white, and pure white.
Compared to the previous Moon Tower, the traffic entering and exiting via the stone bridge here was much heavier.
An endless stream of carriages and pedestrians crisscrossed continuously upon the bridge. Occasionally, flying figures flashed past overhead.
"This is the Weaving Tower. It is responsible for manufacturing various fabrics, boat sails, quilt covers, curtains, and all sorts of woven goods. They all come from here, and the output is astonishing. A single tower supplies the entire high-end textile market of the Inner City." Tian Long had clearly received a good education; his introduction was very articulate.
"Weaving Tower... then the raw materials..." Lin Hui asked.
"Mm, it's similar to the Mist Dragon from before. An 'Ice River Weaver' is imprisoned at the top of this tower. That is a gigantic Mist Zone spider, about the size of a town. It is continuously drained of spider silk to weave various products." Tian Long nodded.
"Is there such an individual at the summit of every single Moon Tower?" Lin Hui was slightly stunned.
"Pretty much. After all, when the Mistborn founded the city, they couldn't develop various technologies themselves. The fastest way was naturally to find suitable Mist Zone monsters and utilize them reasonably. One Ice River Weaver has lived for over two thousand years and can still continuously produce silk. Tell me, where else can you find such useful labor? Aside from giving it a bit of food, you don't have to pay anything." Tian Long sighed.
"...Thinking about it that way, it is indeed true... No wonder the Inner City lacks nothing in terms of products. If it's all based on this model, I understand now." Lin Hui gazed thoughtfully at the gray-white spider silk on the Moon Tower's surface.
"But don't be in a hurry. The place we are going isn't here, but a bit further past it." After speaking, Tian Long continued to fly forward.
They crossed over this Moon Tower and passed through a buffer zone district filled with sparse fields of white flowers.
"Why are there so many flowers planted in these blocks?" Lin Hui asked in passing as they traversed the area.
"Because some Truebloods like them. If you don't plant them, you die. Then they replace you with someone else," Tian Long replied casually.
"..." Lin Hui was speechless.
"When we get to the place laterâitâs the only intersection point on the ground between Truebloods and ordinary people like us. If you see anything, absolutely do not act impulsively. You must endure it; otherwise, it will be extremely dangerous," Tian Long added a careful warning.
"Don't worry, I can endure it." Lin Hui nodded.
By this time, the two had left the main road with the heaviest traffic and were running toward a branch line on the outskirts of the district.
There was very little traffic on the branch street. Occasionally, he saw vehicles carrying heavy goods crossing paths with them from the opposite direction. The drivers were mostly clad in full-body armor, covering their faces so that their appearances were completely hidden.
Every vehicle, every person, kept their head down, not saying a word, like statuesâdeadly silent.
After flying another hundred meters or so, Tian Long waved his small wing. Suddenly, a suit of white full-body armor appeared in front of Lin Hui.
"Come, hurry up and put it on. To be in this place, you need to cover your face, figure as much as possible."
"Why?" Lin Hui didn't object. As he caught the heavy armor falling toward him, he looked at the bird.
"Because the eyes of the Lord Truebloods cannot be allowed to see ugly things. No, I should sayâas long as it isn't beautiful, it cannot be exposed to their eyes. Otherwise, there will be danger." Tian Long answered seriously. "You must have a face that fits their aesthetics, you must have flawless skin, you must be at least 1.9 meters tall, you cannot make unpleasant sounds, and you cannot make ugly or undignified movements. If you accidentally violate any of these, you will die."
"..." Lin Hui fell silent again.
He honestly donned the armor over his entire body, then followed Tian Long as they continued forward.
"What about you?" he asked.
"I'm easy." Tian Long took a sudden deep breath. His body shrank rapidly, quickly becoming only the size of a baby's fist. He flew behind Lin Hui's helmet, his wings and claws grabbing onto the feather-like patterns on the back of the helm. Immediately after, the feathers on his body changed color rapidly, turning the same white as the helmet.
In this way, the bird became a perfect part of the armor.
"Continue forward. Do you see that gigantic white spiral rock ahead? That place is called Cloud Port. Go there." Tian Long's voice, clinging close to Lin Hui, became as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
Lin Hui acknowledged, deployed his movement technique, and ran quickly toward the spiral-shaped white giant rock in the distance.
"Speaking of which, if you're lucky, you might be able to buy some good things in this place. At Cloud Port, you occasionally meet strong individuals who are in a hurry to flee but don't have enough for the Moth Carriage fare. To scrape together money temporarily, they will sell off the precious items they usually cherish at a low price."
It took them a few minutes to finally run to the bottom of that massive white spiral rock.
An endless stream of cargo trucks and armored people were walking out from the circling roads on the exterior of the spiral rock. No one spoke; all the armored people kept their heads down, hurrying along in silence.
Woo!
Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound came from overhead.
Lin Hui looked up and saw a streak of white light shooting down like a meteor toward the top of the giant rock, landing precisely at the summit.
"That is a Trueblood or a powerhouse coming to take a carriage. Those who can come here are at worst High Divine Officers or peak Grandmasters, because ordinary people cannot afford the Moth Carriage fare here," Tian Long explained in a whisper in his ear. "Let's go, go up. Walk at the same speed as everyone else."
"Mm."
Lin Hui nodded and headed up the mountain against the flow of traffic. About a dozen people were going in the same direction as him, but the number was far fewer than those going down the mountain.
Round after round, no one unleashed their movement techniques to rush; everyone just walked up the mountain steadily and quietly.
Lin Hui didn't ask whyâwhy Tian Long made him walk up slowly like this.
But very quickly, he learned the reason.
"Lou Xing, you trash! Come chase me! Hahahaha!! With your cultivation base, you're only fit to eat shit behind my ass!!"
A rough male voice suddenly rang out from the mountain road.
Immediately after, on the road ahead, a tall, handsome man with red hair and red eyes, wearing a magnificent white robe with gold trim and riding a pitch-black steed over two meters tall, sprinted down the mountain in a frenzy.
The speed of the horse was so fast that it far exceeded any livestock Lin Hui had ever seen. Its speed was even comparable to his own when he didn't activate his special effects.
In just that instant, because the black steed was too fast, it slammed violently into two roadside armored people who couldn't dodge in time.
No cries of alarm, no screams of misery.
There was only a flash of invisible distortion in the air.
The two armored people vanished instantly, as if marks on a piece of paper had been erased by an eraser.
The steed rushed straight past, flashing through the middle of Lin Hui's group, moving away and disappearing.
Immediately following that, a white steed galloped down.
Riding on the back of this white horse was a cold, stern man with black hair and red eyes. The man's features were as beautiful as a woman's, but his eyes were piercingly cold.
"Head down!" Tian Long's voice carried a trace of urgency as it transmitted into Lin Hui's ear.
He hurriedly lowered his head in response.
Shua!
In the next instant, an armored person in front of him was suddenly struck by a red shadow flashing past.
Only the lower half of the body remained in place. It stood stiffly for a second before toppling forward onto the ground.
It was as if this armored person had been bitten off at the top half by some extremely sharp, giant mouth. The wound at the severed waist didn't even spray blood; it had been cauterized and sealed in a split second.
Only after the corpse fell to the ground did the man on the white horse flash past, chasing into the distance.
Once he had completely left, the remaining armored people around them finally let out sounds of relief.
"Good thing he's gone. These black-haired Truebloods are the most neurotic!" Tian Long sighed.
"Why was he killed?" Lin Hui looked at the half-corpse in front of him, not knowing what to say.
He thought to himself that he could have dodged the first personâs charge just nowâthe speed itself wasnât the problemâbut he still couldnât quite grasp the method of attack. As for the second strike, the one from the Trueblood, he hadnât even seen it clearly. Whatever had appeared in that instant had already surpassed the limits of what even his dynamic vision could capture.
It wasn't a question of dodging quickly or not, but of seeing it first. If you couldn't even see it, naturally, it was impossible to dodge.
Moreover, the first two people had been killed simply for blocking the wayâbut what about the one behind them? Lin Hui hadnât seen him do anything at all to provoke that Trueblood.
"Who knows? Maybe he simply raised his head at too steep an angle. Some Truebloods do not permit mortals to gaze upon them without permission. Once they notice you, it becomes a capital offense," Tian Long whispered.
"..." Lin Hui gradually formed a preliminary impression of the Truebloods in his heart.
"Let's go. Are we continuing? The higher we go, the more Truebloods there are. But the dangers encountered might also increase." Tian Long said. "Are you sure you want to continue?"
"Are there even more troublesome ones?" Lin Hui paused, then asked.
"Naturally, there are. The controller of Cloud Port is the Yun family, one of the Trueblood Nobles. Their temperaments are even more troublesome," Tian Long said softly.
"Troublesome in what way?" Lin Hui didn't believe there could be anyone worse than the two just now.
"It's just... let me put it this way. In the Core Zone, the Yun family dislikes any moving object within their line of sight that isnât a Trueblood. If you so much as move, theyâll freeze you on the spot so you can never move again. So before their gaze falls on you, you must become instantly alert and stop all movementâturn yourself into a living statue," Tian Long sighed.
"..." Lin Hui was simply speechless.
"And the worst is a certain Trueblood family. When their family members are in the mood, they like to play the 'Dismantling Figurines' game."
"What is the Dismantling Figurines game?"
"You know how you're wearing armor that covers your entire body, right? Your face and figure are completely hidden. Members of this family, when the mood strikes them, like to rip open your armor and tear off your clothes just to inspect the appearance, skin, and figure of the person inside," Tian Long continued.
"And then?" Lin Hui remained silent for a moment before asking.
"And then it's just like the Truebloods before. If the armor is torn open and the person inside isn't good-looking enough, they will kill them directly. If they are good-looking, they will take them back to play with. When they get tired of playing, they throw them into the Deep Domain as materials," Tian Long answered.