Chapter 848: The Goddess Scepter
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Dragon City had a total of eight observation platforms, located at the four cardinal directions and four intercardinal directions of Dragon City respectively. At the top of the southern city gate where Mo Wen was, there was one observation platform.
The observation platforms were built on top of the three thousand meter tall city walls. If one stood at the bottom of the city walls, they would not be able to see the observation platforms at all because the walls were too high. If they were standing fifty kilometers away, they would surely see the towering observation platforms on the city walls.
With their identity tokens, they could enter the heavily guarded Dragon City. However, entering Dragon City required a certain tax, euphemistically called a management fee.
Sharp-eyed people naturally could tell at a glance that this was one of the methods for the Huatian Palace to accumulate wealth. The payment for entering or leaving through the city gate was not cheap. Each person had to pay fifty Dragon Coins. According to the standard set by the Huatian Palace, one spiritual stone was equivalent to a hundred Dragon Coins. Fifty Dragon Coins were equal to half a spiritual stone.
This was the amount it cost just to enter and leave through the city gate. Mo Wen already knew that the Huatian Palace had many shady ways to accumulate its wealth that would slowly chip away at one’s pockets. If just entering and leaving through the city gate cost this, other places would certainly need a lot of money.
Huatian Palace Executors guarded the city gates. They were all high-ranking Executors, and Mo Wen also noticed that there were many Martial Arts Grandmaster strong practitioners on the towers. Secretly entering Dragon City was almost impossible.
The observation platform was located at the top of the city wall. Right now, there was a large group of people around the observation platform discussing things, but very few people actually walked up onto the observation platform.
The observation platform sounded grand in name, but in reality, it was just a slightly larger altar. Mysterious stratagems and runes were carved on it. There was a silver mirror as tall as a man floating at the center of the altar. The mirror was quaint and exquisite, emanating a faint glow. At a glance, one could tell that it was extraordinary.
The sky mirror was a type of very mysterious immortal cultivator magical treasure that usually only the Huatian Palace had. Using the sky mirror, immortal cultivators could observe everything in detail within a hundred or even a thousand kilometers. Some powerful sky mirrors could even observe distances ten thousand kilometers away.
Mo Wen did not know what rank the sky mirror placed on top of the observation platform was. However, to be able to observe the full view of the Dragon City Mystery Dimension would require a powerful object.
Using the sky mirror once cost ten spiritual stones. With such an astronomical price just to take a look at the full view of the Dragon City Mystery Dimension, there were too few people that were willing to spend such funds.
Although many people surrounded the observation platform, few people actually spent money to look in the sky mirror.
Of course, even if they had not experienced the actual thing first-hand, they could still experience it in other ways. Many people had heard legends that described Dragon City as a city on a huge dragon and a pearl of a goddess. This made them even more curious about Dragon City which was another reason why so many people had gathered here.
Occasionally, one or two people with big money would appear, throwing down their payment and stepping onto the observation platform to have a look. Then, a large group of people would surround that person and inquire about what they had seen. The people who saw the full view of the Dragon City Mystery Dimension quite enjoyed the attention. Many would say a few words.
Mo Wen walked straight onto the observation platform and gave ten spiritual stones to the person on duty. Then, he walked up to the sky mirror. His mind shook and his entire consciousness was immediately sucked into the sky mirror.
The surrounding people saw that a youth had so simply and neatly thrown down the spiritual stones without even batting an eyelid. They were surprised by the youth’s willingness to spend. Of course, there were also quite a few people who cursed this prodigal youth. They did not know which large clan this youth was from. He had simply thrown down ten spiritual stones. Even some large sects could not stand such squandering.
Tang Zhizhi was also surprised. This employer of hers was a bit too generous. Before this, she had already felt that this youth was loaded. Now from the looks of it, he was more loaded than she had imagined.
Mo Wen’s consciousness surged into the sky mirror. The next moment, an ancient aura blew over him as though he had walked into an immemorial world. A spiraling Divine Dragon that connected the heavens and the earth appeared in his vision. Mo Wen merely glanced at the Divine Dragon and his heart trembled, as though he had seen an ancient Divine Soul.
Mo Wen saw that the Divine Dragon was absolutely gigantic. The entire Dragon City Mystery Dimension was actually just the size of one spiral of this Divine Soul as it wrapped around the city. When compared to the entire world, the Dragon City Mystery Dimension was not very big, but it was still almost as large as two provinces. The dragon was able to wrap around such a large area with its body spiraling once. It was almost impossible to imagine how big this dragon actually was.
“A thousand kilometers? Ten thousand kilometers? It is practically horrifying.”
Before this, Mo Wen had been doubtful. Such a small space like the Dragon City Mystery Dimension, that was also so far from the main space, should have been very unstable and in danger of collapsing at any moment. But now, he finally understood. The reason why the Dragon City Mystery Dimension had survived since the Primeval Age and had not been destroyed was most likely because of the protection of this Ancient Divine Dragon.
Mo Wen did not know whether this Ancient Divine Dragon was dead or alive. Maybe it was just a statue, but Mo Wen could feel how absolutely frightening this Ancient Divine Dragon was.
Something else astonished Mo Wen even more. The Ancient Divine Dragon’s head towered high into the sky, piercing straight through the high heavens. On top of the dragon’s head, a goddess statue had been erected. Mo Wen did not know how tall the goddess statue was and he could not see the face of the goddess clearly. No matter how he tried to make it out, he could only see a faint profile. It was as though the goddess was wearing a veil, and he was not destined to see the face beneath it.
As he continued looking, Mo Wen was shocked to his core. No wonder Dragon City was called the city at the top of the sky. The goddess statue wielded a scepter and Dragon City was built at the tip of the scepter!
Mo Wen found it hard to imagine exactly how big the goddess statue and the Ancient Divine Dragon were.
Dragon City was an ancient city that had survived since ancient times. What was the connection between this city at the top of the sky and the goddess statue and the Ancient Divine Dragon?
His heart filled with astonishment, Mo Wen slowly backed out of the sky mirror. After a while, he was still in a daze. Such a visual impact was too astonishing.
“Elder Ling, do you want to see the Dragon City Mystery Dimension?” Mo Wen asked Ling Feng as he stepped off the observation platform. Spending ten spiritual stones to see such a beautiful and majestic world was indeed not a waste. From an ordinary person’s perspective, it was impossible for them to see such a beautiful scene. Only by using the sky mirror or maybe an extremely high point in the sky could they catch a glance at the full view of the Dragon City Mystery Dimension.
After Mo Wen had helped Ling Feng to recover his cultivation, he let Ling Feng join the Dafang Sect and become a sect grand elder.
“I have seen it once, two hundred years ago. I still have a vivid memory of it. Most likely, this Dragon City Mystery Dimension has existed since the Primeval Age, or even the Immemorial Age,” Ling Feng said with a smile. In his youth, he had also tried out various things. Naturally, he had seen the full view of the Dragon City Mystery Dimension.
After getting off the observation platform, Mo Wen and Lin Feng went to tour the city. Dragon City was very big, much larger than any ancient city that Mo Wen had seen before. If an ordinary person just walked, it would take them at least two weeks to walk from the southern city gate to the northern city gate.
The city was divided into the inner city and outer city. The outer city was no different from ordinary ancient cities. It had many ancient buildings, towers, gardens, lakes, pavilions, mansions, rivers, forests, and artificial mountains.
The architectural style was very eclectic, with various different types of buildings that each had a flash of ingenuity. It was far more free than ancient Hua Xia’s architectural style. Not all of the buildings were quadrilateral.
“The outer city is no different from an ordinary ancient city. It is just slightly bigger. But that is not the case for the inner city. Under normal circumstances, no one can simply enter the inner city,” Tang Zhizhi explained.
Mo Wen nodded his head. Just now in the sky mirror, he had looked at the full view of Dragon City. It was not hard to see Dragon City’s outer city; everything was visible at a glance. But many places in the inner city were covered in shadows. He could not see anything clearly at all. Someone had obviously used special methods to shield off the area.
The outer city was busy, with a large number of people out and about on the streets. The inner city, on the other hand, was extremely quiet and there was almost no one in sight. Mo Wen’s deepest impression of the inner city was the square at the very center. There was a goddess statue in the square holding a scepter in her hand. It was exactly the same as the goddess statue on the head of the Ancient Divine Dragon. The only difference was that it was countless times smaller.
“Mr. Mo, there is usually no one in Dragon City, but during the Martial Arts Circle Convention, countless people will come swarming in. Actually, a month ago, there were already people coming to Dragon City. However, at that time it was not open to ordinary ancient martial art practitioners, just to various capable merchants.”
It turned out that, a month ago, there were already merchants from all around coming into Dragon City. The people who could enter Dragon City to do business were naturally not ordinary people. Many were large firms from the various large mystery dimensions, including some firms that crossed mystery dimensions. The businesses in Dragon City sold all kinds of things. Transforming a dead city into an ordinary city merely took one month to do.
Most businesses were contracted out by the Huatian Palace to these large firms. It then extracted high taxes from them. After all, although the Huatian Palace was huge, its responsibility for overseeing the world already kept it busy. It was impossible for it to put its focus on managing a city.
“Mr. Mo, for the one-month duration of the Martial Arts Circle Convention, you can stay in Dragon City. First of all, we need to settle the issue of accommodation. Dragon City’s accommodation is divided into two types. One type rents rooms for a month. This type is comparatively cheaper in terms of price, but the services will not be as good. But, you might not need to stay a full month in Dragon City. The second type charges day by day. You pay according to how many days you stay. This type is more flexible, and the quality of its various services is also high,” Tang Zhizhi explained as they walked.
Right now, Ling Feng suddenly spoke. “Dragon City’s accommodations are not cheap, and they are divided into five grades according to their different environments: heaven-grade, world-grade, top-grade, medium-grade and low-grade. If it is just the two of us, low-grade rooms are good enough.”. He had been to Dragon City many times, so he was very familiar with how things worked.
“If it is just for sleeping in, low-grade rooms are indeed enough. After all, Dragon City is not an ordinary city. Even the condition of a low-grade accommodation is not bad,” Tang Zhizhi said with a smile. Professional guides in the Dragon City had quarters provided by the Huatian Palace. They would not stay with their clients. Also, guides had fixed working hours. Every day, they would work for around twelve hours. It was impossible for them to follow their employers around for the entire day.
“There is a Shallow Moon Inn in Dragon City. That place is not bad. We’ll stay in the Shallow Moon Inn.” A bright light flashed in Ling Feng’s eyes. He seemed to be particularly interested in the issue of accommodation.