Reaching Holy City
“The Hail Continent’s holy city!” Leylin muttered as he sized up this city that seemed to have been built by giants.
The entire city was filled with brilliant lights, and what was the most unforgettable was the giant sculpture at the very heart of the city.
It was a very bewitching female with long hair with separated out and transformed into exotic snakes of all kinds. There were the iant Kemoyin Serpents, the Alabaster Devilsnakes, Three-headed Pythons, and many other species could be found within the hair of this snake chieftess.
“The sculpture must have been made with the Snake Dowager as the model. I can see it so clearly even outside the city, and if I were to determine the scale, it must be over tens of thousands of metres tall…”
Leylin’s eyes were full of admiration. If not for the spell formations and other assistance from other worlds, a statue of this scale could never have been accomplished.
The secret undulations hidden in various parts of the holy city made Leylin’s expression change slightly. While he was unable to detect rank 7 existences, the radiation from rank 6 Breaking Moons could no longer resist the A.I. Chip’s scans.
Hence, Leylin was certain that there were at least ten rank 6s in the holy city, and they were all descendants of the Snake Dowager!
‘From the intel and what I saw yesterday, the Snake Dowager is here, but I don’t know where she is.’
“Keke...” Leylin suddenly began to cough.
“What’s wrong, Nick?” Belinda and Sophia looked over, their eyes full of concern.
“It- It’s nothing!” Leylin laughed forcefully, hiding his palm that now had traces of blood.
“In the holy city, where the Snake Dowager’s aura is even more concentrated, the rate at which my life force depletes is even faster. With this rate, I might not be able to hold on for a few years, but thankfully, these few years should be enough!”
“I was just a little emotional after seeing such a huge city. Let’s get in! Have you notified your friend yet?”
“I’ve already notified Aegnis. She’ll be here soon!” Belinda laughed.
The three of them now stood outside the huge holy city. There were three huge triumphal arches, and a bridge that was tens of metres long. Below it was a surging moat, though the waters were black and gave an ominous feeling.
The gates of the city opened, and many half-snake people and even pure-bloods passed by in an orderly manner.
“That’s…” Upon seeing this, Leylin’s eyes narrowed.
The queue that wound around like a long snake suddenly had a small disturbance near the gates, and immediately after, a half-snake person with black scales on its face wailed as he was separated out, and was pushed into the black moat.
“Ah…” Its mournful cries vanished in an instant, and Leylin immediately saw only white bones, and even then, they melted quickly.
“Just now…” Leylin’s eyes shifted to the stone sculpture of snakes on the city gate. The vertical pupils of the sculptures were now flickering with green light.
“Seems like when that snake being passed by, the eyes of the sculptures turned bright red! Is that some sort of bloodline identification system?” Leylin was slightly afraid, because he had not found anything strange about that snake person earlier.
“That is the Snake Sculpture found everywhere in the holy city. As long as there are residents whose souls or bloodlines aren’t pure, or have not gotten permission, all will be detected and thrown into the Howling Abyss!”
There was a grim look on her face, “Based on the system of the holy city, whether it’s bloodline beings with unknown origins or wanted criminals, none can stay in the holy city!”
“Oh! In other words, if you and I were to enter, the sculpture’s eyes would turn red, and many soldiers would be attracted?”
Leylin stroked his chin, “What benefits are there, for so many of them to scramble there?”
“Benefits?” Belinda smiled wryly, “There are obviously a lot! First of all, all those who get permission to stay in holy city will have their safety guaranteed. In the Hail Continent, there are few organisations who dare treat residents of the holy city roughly!”
“Absolute protection?” Leylin nodded. In this era of living from hand to mouth, absolute protection was a dream come true for the weak.
“Also, the holy city is the core of the Hail Continent. You’ll be able to get anything at all here, even the most highly-ranked strength systems, the best offerings and beast spirits… but most importantly…” At the mention of the holy city, she evidently became excited.
“What’s most important is that the entire holy city has gained the favour of the Mistress, and all of those who live here will have the purity of their blood not fall in rank and even continuously increase based on the length of time they stay here.” Another voice sounded from the side, and along with a streak of black light, there were two more figures appearing.
“Aegnis!” Upon seeing who had arrived, Belinda grinned brilliantly.
“Belinda, my sister! We haven’t seen each other in around 132 years!” Someone headed over and gave Belinda an enthusiastic hug. This must be the good friend that Belinda had constantly mentioned, Aegnis.
Leylin could not help but size up this being. She had short brown hair, a tall stature, fair and glowing skin, and she wore tight-fitting armour that seemed to be made of crystal. Her fine nose was raised, and she had a heroic air to her. While a female, she had a gender-neutral beauty to her.
What surprised Leylin was the bloodline aura of her body. This even caused him some fear. This was definitely the bloodline of a rank 6 giant serpent, and Aegnis herself had already reached rank 5.
‘She evidently has the formidability of pure blood nobility! She’s only half-mature, and already has rank 5 strength. Once her bloodline completely matures, reaching rank 6 isn’t an issue! I can’t tell her Sacrificer and beast spirit master ranks though…’ Leylin silently began to judge her strength.
Compared to a mixed-blood like Belinda, she had a pure bloodline from a giant serpent. In other words, her main body was a python, and her human form was just for convenience.
“It must have been a miraculous coincidence that these two could have become good friends from the beginning!”
“Don’t worry! I won’t let off those people of the Trial’s Eye organisation for treating you that way! I told you before not to go to that sect made out of lunatic eyes. Only the might Mistress is worthy of our faith!” Aegnis warmly held Belinda’s hand, completely ignoring Leylin’s existence.
She held Sophia, eyes sparkling, “This must be your sister, Sophia, right? How adorable! I’d only seen her in portraits before. Don’t worry! I’ll take care of you and your sister’s identities. You’ll definitely be able to get the residence permit and gain the right to stay in the holy city permanently!”
Seeing how she was itching to hug Sophia close and her facial muscles twitching, Leylin suddenly thought of another word from his previous world.
“Alright, alright. Aegnis! I have a friend who I’ve yet to introduce to you!”
Her friend’s invasive gaze full of fervour was a little too much for Belinda, and she huffed as she struggled out of the devilish grasp of Aegnis, before pointing at Leylin.
“This is the person I talked to you about, and a good friend who’s rendered me a lot of help: Nick!” Belinda placed emphasis on the two words, ‘good friend’.
“Good friend? Him?” It was only at this point that she noticed Leylin and glared at Leylin challengingly.
“He doesn’t seem all that strong? He’s only a rank 5 mixed blood Alabaster Devilsnake! Oh, sorry, my beloved Belinda, I wasn’t talking about you. Whether it’s the blood from your father or mother’s side, they have combined magnificently on you, whether it’s your ruby-red eyes, or long silver hair full of luster… they are so intoxicating…”
“Aegnis, Nick is my friend just as you are!” Belinda smiled wryly and had to repeat herself.
“Alright, alright. Friend!” Aegnis flicked at the hair at her forehead, “Since it’s your friend, I’ll do it too!”
“Wait, sister, how can you let people with unknown origins just enter the holy city? Did you forget our work?” At this moment, the person behind Aegnis suddenly spoke.
“Hm?” Leylin noticed the person at this moment. He had short brown hair like Aegnis, and there was a faint resemblance. It seemed that they had blood relations.
“Oh, Belinda! So this is the useless brother I’ve mentioned before, Thomas! Thomas! Come here and say hello!”
“Good morning, beautiful ladies!” Thomas bowed respectfully, he looked enchanted and intoxicated as he gazed at Sophia, who was like a little girl,
“Aegnis!” Noticing the siblings ignoring Nick, obviously trying to infuriate him, Belinda was slightly annoyed.
“If you still keep that attitude, I’ll leave with Nick! Anyway, besides the holy city, there are tons of places we can go.”
Based on what she had mentioned, after obtaining permanent residency in the holy city, they could receive preferential treatment everywhere in the Hail Continent. It was the best method to counteract the fact that they were on the wanted list. Now for Leylin’s sake, she was unexpectedly discarding this opportunity, it could be said that this was very unusual.
‘But come on, don’t you know that the closer you seem to me, the more trouble you’ll bring to me?’ Leylin was speechless. He could already sense two pairs of eyes that were willing to burn him to ashes.