Chapter 264: The Holy Land’s Prototype And The Bone Forging Realm Of A New Era?
Crimson Moon Mountain, the morning sun had just risen.
With Lin Qi’s return, the entire Crimson Moon Mountain had undergone earthshaking changes. The peaks that should have been towering into the clouds were now covered by one steel building after another, and a tall tower stood on the summit. From time to time, flying transports could be seen passing by the tower and landing on nearby steel skyscrapers.
In front of the only steel bridge on land leading into Chiyue Town, rows of transport vehicles were now parked. These vehicles came in small, medium, and large sizes, stretching out of sight.
Even the guards escorting them were all at least martial artists, yet these convoys of considerable strength did not rely on their power to cut in line or drive away the vagrants entering Chiyue Town. Instead, they all queued up obediently.
“Is this Chiyue Town?”
At this moment, Xia Ling and Estina, who had followed Lin Qi, looked at the Crimson Moon Mountain before them and could not help doubting whether they had come to the wrong place.
Both of them had been to Crimson Moon Mountain before and had personally witnessed a great battle there. They knew very well what Crimson Moon Mountain used to be like.
Not to mention the poor environment, its level of development might not even have matched an abandoned area; it merely gathered many vagrants.
Yet in such a short time, how was this still Crimson Moon Mountain? It had become a living, breathing city, almost as prosperous as the city proper, with flying transport vehicles shuttling everywhere and martial artists walking all over.
In fact, it was not only Xia Ling and Estina who were shocked. Even Lin Qi, who had been away for just a period of time, felt surprised when he saw the current Chiyue Town.
He was very clear that the construction speed of Chiyue Town was fast. After all, more than one hundred thousand martial arts hall disciples had been building here long-term, all of them at least intermediate apprentices, and with all kinds of equipment, their infrastructure capability was far beyond ordinary people.
What surprised Lin Qi, however, was the number of people coming to Chiyue Town.
If in the past Chiyue Town drew more than hundreds of thousands of vagrants every day for business, now the number definitely exceeded one million, and there were actually many caravans coming to Chiyue Town as well. This was truly strange.
Although Chiyue Town was close to the City of Light Chasing and Wanxing City, its only real specialty was monster meat.
With monsters surging in the wilderness, monster meat was no longer scarce in the major cities; its price had even fallen a lot. Chiyue Town’s competitiveness had dropped greatly, making it hard to imagine why so many caravans from other towns would come.
While Lin Qi was feeling puzzled, a group approached along the steel bridge.
The group was not large, just over twenty people, but each one was a martial artist rarely seen in the wilderness. The various caravans waiting in line all unconsciously became solemn when they saw them, as if laying eyes on some great figures.
When they saw a winged youth within the group, the martial artists and leaders of each caravan showed undisguised envy in their eyes.
This winged youth was none other than Flo, once the vice gang leader of the Green Sparrow Gang, now one of the managers of Chiyue Town. Any caravan coming to rent a shop in Chiyue Town could not avoid dealing with Flo.
Just as the caravans and vagrants were wondering why this big figure of Chiyue Town had suddenly come over, Flo hurried straight to Lin Qi and the others.
“Master of the Pavilion, what you instructed has all been arranged. The systems and staff for the Cultivation Tower are fully in place. Once you give the order, these people can take up their posts at any time,” Flo reported with utmost respect and caution. “Also, the current number of town residents has reached 415,The built houses can accommodate a population of one million. The surrounding lakes and roads have been opened up and can extend outward at any time. If you give me another week, Master of the Pavilion, I am confident I can raise the capacity to two million residents.”
“Not bad. Take us to have a look,” Lin Qi nodded.
The task he had given Flo was to build houses and expand the town’s area. After all, if he wanted to upgrade his administrator permissions, the first requirement was one million martial arts hall disciples. Relying solely on the City of Light Chasing, it was difficult to recruit so many qualified disciples, but recruiting from the entire Wushan Region was different.
In the City of Light Chasing, he could not arrange for that many applicants for assessments, nor could he accommodate that many martial arts hall disciples. After all, the city was not his. Even if he was the vice city lord and had obtained an area in the city center, considering future development, he still needed a town of his own.
So he had Flo expand the town as much as possible while recruiting disciples from among the vagrants.
Judging by now, the results were quite good.
“Yes.”
Flo then led Lin Qi and the others, along with dozens of martial arts hall guard corps disciples, directly into Chiyue Town.
As Flo led Lin Qi and the others into Chiyue Town, the caravans and vagrants lined up on the bridge were stunned.
“Who are those people, to have Lord Flo personally receive them?”
“I just heard Lord Flo say ‘Master of the Pavilion.’ Could that human youth be the master of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?”
“My god, the master of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is that young? I heard that the war between the City of Light Chasing and Star Tower City started because the disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall heavily injured Star Tower City, forcing them to give up the City of Light Chasing. Now the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is widely recognized as the number one major power beneath the cities. And the master is still so young. This is too much.”
“Exactly. I heard this master will definitely reach the level of a city lord in the future. Chiyue Town is the headquarters of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and might become another city one day. Now is the best time to invest. Once the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall finds a large energy vein and relocates it here, there may be no chance to invest in Chiyue Town.”
As they discussed, they quickly realized Lin Qi’s identity. When they spoke of him, their eyes were full of envy and admiration, especially the many newly advanced martial artists and apprentices preparing to apply to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. Watching Lin Qi’s disappearing figure, their hearts were boiling.
Now, the master of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Lin Qi, had become a legend.
He had risen from an obscure nobody in the City of Light Chasing, step by step, to now being able to stand on equal footing with a city lord level existence, with the entire Obsidian Martial Arts Hall capable of fighting a city.
This was no longer just a legend; it could be called a myth.
Precisely because everyone had seen how formidable the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was, various towns in the surrounding area, and even many factions from Wanxing City, planned to settle in Chiyue Town, waiting for it to become another city.
However, one frustrating thing about Chiyue Town was that it only rented and never sold, leaving many major powers quite helpless.
Crimson Moon Mountain, atop the summit.
“So this is the Cultivation Tower?”
Xia Ling looked up at the spire piercing the clouds, puzzled as to why Lin Qi had built such a thing on Crimson Moon Mountain.
The square tower made entirely of energy ore was not only somewhat prodigal, but also seemed quite impractical.
If one wanted to create a cultivation venue for martial artists, building rooms directly inside the martial arts hall would be enough. Constructing the Cultivation Tower like this allowed even those who did not enter it to benefit from the energy around it, which seemed hardly cost-effective.
Moreover, a cultivation ground made of energy ore would be depleted with every bit of energy absorbed. Once the energy was exhausted, the entire square tower would become mere decoration. It would have been better to build rooms in the martial arts hall; rebuilding them would be more convenient.
To build such a tall square tower and reconstruct it after each use would be a massive project.
It was not only Xia Ling, a former manager of the Phosphor Fire Gang, who could not understand this. Even Flo, who had supervised its construction, was baffled by Lin Qi’s extravagance.
To rapidly build the Cultivation Tower, they had employed tens of thousands of laborers, including many martial artists.
With so much manpower and resources spent, if it was just a decoration, there was no need. After all, the strength of a town ultimately depended on the faction that controlled it.
Now that the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall could heavily damage the army of Star Tower City, no matter how Chiyue Town developed, it was already the undisputed number one town within several thousand kilometers. No one could question that.
“Very good.” Lin Qi looked at the Cultivation Tower, gleaming in the sunlight, and was very satisfied.
Although he had yet to officially activate the Cultivation Tower, the energy it naturally released had already raised the surrounding energy density to a level not much inferior to that within a small energy vein. Once fully activated, the effect would be even better.
If the energy density within a five-kilometer radius could reach this level, it would greatly accelerate the growth in number of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall disciples and even provide benefits to those in the Bone Forging Realm.
After all, this level of energy density was already close to that of a city’s center, the kind of land various races within the cities fought over like mad.
Lin Qi did not explain. He entered the Cultivation Tower alone, leaving the others to wait outside.
As soon as Lin Qi stepped into the Cultivation Tower, the system’s prompt sounded in his mind.
System: You have entered the Cultivation Tower. Do you wish to activate the Cultivation Tower now? （Note: Once energy circulation is activated, daily consumption will be three energy crystals. Current energy crystal reserve: ）
“Activate it. Deposit these three hundred energy crystals I have into the Cultivation Tower.”
Lin Qi did not hesitate. He directly opened the metal briefcase he had been carrying. Inside was a small portion of the one hundred thousand energy crystals originally given by City Lord Di Luoya.
In an instant, the three hundred energy crystals in the metal briefcase were completely devoured by the Cultivation Tower, and numerous golden runes appeared on the tower walls.
These runes flickered and vanished, as if injecting life into the entire Cultivation Tower, and Lin Qi could feel a heartbeat-like pulse within it.
Immediately after, the Cultivation Tower was like a waking giant whale, madly devouring the surrounding energy. The energy within hundreds of kilometers began to converge irresistibly toward the Cultivation Tower, making the energy inside denser and denser.
In just a few breaths, the energy density inside the tower more than doubled. Even Xia Ling and the others outside could feel the energy growing richer, until it finally stabilized at a level seemingly higher than even a city center.
“What is going on?” Estina stared at the Cultivation Tower before her in shock.
She had clearly sensed something change or be activated inside the tower just now, and then the surrounding energy had surged wildly.
The current energy density was almost the same as that of the training rooms of her main family.
Those training rooms had been built by the main family in the city center at great cost. Now the energy outside the Cultivation Tower could already match that of those training rooms, which were not open to everyone. Aside from family members in the Bone Forging Realm, only a handful of geniuses qualified to use them.
Yet now she only had to stand outside the Cultivation Tower to achieve the same cultivation effect. It was simply unbelievable.
However, Estina did not know that compared to the true training rooms inside the Cultivation Tower, the outside environment was like heaven versus earth.
“Incredible. Incredible.”
After experiencing the training rooms on the three floors, Lin Qi could only marvel.
Products of the system were truly top quality.
The training rooms on the first floor already had double the energy density of the outside. The second floor doubled it again. The Third Floor Training Room doubled it once more on top of the second. In other words, the energy density in the Third Floor Training Room was eight times that of the outside.
Although there was only one training room on the third floor, with eight times the energy density, staying inside was almost like enjoying the effects of a Type Three Energy Potion.
And unlike drinking a Type Three Energy Potion, where all that energy was forced into the body at once and could be dangerous if not consumed quickly, inside the Third Floor Training Room the energy could be absorbed at will. It would not flood in all at once and cause indigestion or other side effects.
It was as if even apprentices could safely enjoy the benefits of a Type Three Energy Potion with no side effects.
Cultivating or attempting to break through realms in such an environment would provide immense help, and for a moment, Lin Qi even felt tempted to charge at the Bone Forging Realm.
But he quickly suppressed this impulse.
Impacting the Bone Forging Realm was no trivial matter. Although he had potions that could heal the injuries from failed attempts, each failure, while treatable with potions, still wore down the cells’ self-repair ability, which was not infinite. Minimizing failures was the safest course. He was not a player; players could casually change bodies. He could not.
While Lin Qi was considering how to arrange the Cultivation Tower’s use and pricing for the disciples, over in the City of Light Chasing, inside the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s Beginner Meditation Room.
This Beginner Meditation Room had been specially modified by Lin Qi for players, designed to help them better create martial skills. It had no partitions, with each person using a separate room. The fee for one hour was as high as five million points and five thousand contribution, serving as a way to reclaim players’ points and contribution.
At this moment, in the Beginner Meditation Room, Luo Wu Shang’s whole body was wrapped in energy, and her hair and clothes fluttered despite the windless air. The moment she opened her eyes, blood suddenly burst from her entire body, and blood gushed from her mouth as if it cost nothing.
After a few seconds, her transcendent state seemed to collapse under the strain, and she fell to the ground, seemingly on the verge of death. Yet a rare smile appeared on her bloodstained face.
“This finally counts as entry-level for me!”
