Chapter 168: The Outside World(3K asking for monthly ticket)!

Translator: 549690339

After covering a hundred miles, despite heading south towards the civilized regions, the environment gradually became more dangerous.

With the help of the scouting and alerts from the Storm Falcon, Lu Liu managed to circumvent several monster encampments.

However, while conspicuous monster camps could be avoided, groups of monsters lurking in the forests and wandering monsters were challenging to evade.

“Roar-!”

A giant python, seemingly made entirely of steel, and over twenty meters long, bolted out from the forest, toppling countless trees along the way. It rose to its full height, casting a huge shadow as its metallic body glistened in the sunlight.

“I’ll cook it!” said Benduo.

Just as he finished his words, he felt Lu Liu’s Death Stare.

“Lord has specifically instructed that General Duo Lai should not intervene.”

“Eh… Okay.”

Duo Lai scratched his head, remembering the warning.

What did the Lord say exactly? It was something like… the merchant group must reach Shiling Town safely and effortlessly with a regular arrangement to qualify for future business.

However,

“This snake seems a bit tricky, doesn’t it?” Sofia asked.

Yesterday, she had taken a quick glance at the ‘Monster Illustrated Handbook’, and now she found a matching target.

“It’s the Giant Steel Snake, a rare two-star monster. Looking at its aura, it’s undoubtedly an elite-level one.”

Wild monsters do not usually hide their aura, and thus, an oppressive force was emanating from this Giant Steel Snake.

Sofia nudged Daisy with her elbow. “Should we step in?”

“Probably not. General Lu said he would handle the journey to Shiling Town. We should conserve our energy for the tasks after arrival unless we meet a formidable enemy. Also, your sister once mentioned that General Lu is very strong,” Daisy pondered.

If Daisy had to confront this giant snake, emmmm, she’d be a bit terrified.

The Giant Steel Snake seemed to possess slight intelligence. It stared at Lu Liu, but after merely three seconds, it couldn’t resist its inherent instinct and launched its attack with a roar.

It appeared like a thick pole, falling heavily.

But it stalled halfway.

Lu Liu, in his black armor, rose up with tiny bits of golden light. With a single hand, he managed to hold up the head of the falling snake, even though the ground beneath him cracked open, his figure remained unwavering.

“By the Name of Fearless.”

Lu Liu muttered under his breath, grabbing the Earth Shield with his left hand as if it were a lightweight plank, and swatted the snake’s head powerfully.

In the resounding “bang”, the Giant Steel Snake was thrown up high, and Lu Liu appeared in front of its head, pierced its massive eye with a black heavy spear.

Boom

About ten seconds later, the Giant Steel Snake stopped struggling altogether, extracting Soul Sand and Remnant Soul.

Without uttering a word, Lu Liu wiped his favorite weapon and ordered to set off again.

Sofia and Daisy, in a daze, followed him. They couldn’t help but crouch when they passed by the giant snake, poking its hardened body, which was as hard as a rock.

“Is it over?”

“It’s over.”

Duo Lai stepped forward, found the only thing he could do – collect the Soul Sand, Remnant Soul, and the gigantic serpent’s body, then resumed the monotonous journey.

Since the process lacked any thrills, General Duo Lai started to ponder upon his skills and artistic conception.

He remembered that he almost lost to Isloa the last time. If the Lord gave Isloa more advantages, wouldn’t his defeat be certain?

No way, absolutely not.

He, General Duo Lai, must uphold the dignity of his elders.

While Duo Lai followed the group levitating, his chubby face turned serious, pondering upon his ideas.

In mid-air, the Camera Falcon was delivering highlights of their journey to Mu Yuan. Occasionally, the Camera Falcon was attacked too and had to quickly descend to seek reinforcements.

“Traveling through the wilderness is indeed not easy, especially for a large merchant group that’s an easy target,” Mu Yuan thought to himself.

His family’s slime transport workers managed to scoot quite swiftly in the face of danger. But the commonly seen Rock Beast transport workers, with their sluggish movements, couldn’t even escape.

Of course, encountering a strong wandering monster like the Giant Steel Snake was an infrequent event.

However, what the merchants need to be prepared for are these rare incidents. If they couldn’t handle this one encounter while making twenty trips, their earnings from previous ventures would make up for the losses.

No wonder the new Lords could only sell their local specialties at low prices to the passing merchant groups.

The Guangyuan Merchant Group resumed the journey, without encountering any formidable enemies like the Giant Steel Snake. Still, they faced a succession of relatively powerful monster swarms.

The most troublesome encounter was when a group of camp-level goblins targeted them.

This group of goblins clung to them for a long time, harassing them continuously without launching a direct attack, being as nauseating as cockroaches. Eventually, Lu Liu hatched a plan and led a group of elite guards to defeat the core power of the goblins. They finally got rid of these monsters.

As he stroked his chin, Mu Yuan thought, “This also highlights a problem; when Lu Liu leaves, the guard team is left without a leader… Duo Lai and Sophia can indeed command, but the guard team still needs a Deputy Commander.” The problem was not a big deal.

Nowadays, more and more territory elites were awakening their self­consciousness. It was not difficult for Dead Bone and Lu Liu to devote more effort into cultivating them and picking out a few with some command abilities.

Mu Yuan did not intervene in the whole process, nor was he always peeking.

He was busy with his own affairs, and didn’t have time to keep an eye on this all the time.

After the caravan left the territory, the earlier part of the journey was calm and the middle part was fraught with danger. However, after they had been walking for seven or eight hours, the frequency of monster attacks they encountered started to decrease significantly.

The caravan still maintained roughly the same formation.

The Imperial Guards and the Halberd Guards were spread out in the periphery, the archers with their sharp eyes scanning the surroundings, and in the center were Sophia and another individual, a bouncing slime, and Duo Lai.

“We probably still have about a hundred kilometers to go.”

At this point, they occasionally encountered teams of players venturing out. From a distance, Lu Liu even saw two teams of players clashing, apparently fighting over some treasure.

Sometimes, players were more dangerous than monsters.

Lu Liu avoided them whenever possible, deeply understanding the way of Dead Bone.

As the distance to Shiling Town drew nearer, the forest gradually thinned, and a small path formed by pedestrians trudging over time appeared in the woods.

Every once in a while, they could see signs marked ‘Shiling Town’.

“15 kilometers to Shiling Town.”

“5 kilometers to Shiling Town.”

At this point, the journey became much easier.

Soon, the silhouette of Shiling Town loomed in the distance.

Sophia halted her steps, her mouth slightly opened, “This, is this Shiling Town? Lord said that Shiling Town was quite prosperous but, this is too exaggerated-!”

The first thing that caught their eye was the town’s city wall.

The brown wall, standing more than ten meters high on the ground, seemed like a gigantic dragon. Numerous arrow towers stood on this majestic wall. Roughly every hundred meters, there were massive, fierce black cannons.

The dark barrels facing the outside world were extremely large, big enough to fit Sophia inside.

She opened her mouth in astonishment, “What kind of weapon is this!”

She was born into nobility and had seen quite a few things, but she had never seen such powerful and domineering defensive weapons in the Eagle Kingdom. It felt that with these cannons, the defensive power of Shiling Town would be stronger than that of the Eagle Kingdom in her time.

“It’s quite normal.”

From inside her head, came the steady voice of the lord, which calmed her fluctuating emotions.

Yes, she is now representing Tianyuan Territory and she mustn’t act startled.

But Great Lord Shepherd was quite surprised.

Despite its name ‘Town’, Shiling Town was incredibly impressive. He had a clearer view than Sophia and the others through the Battle Falcon.

Within the city, there were numerous buildings standing in great numbers. The traffic on the roads was very busy.

By preliminary estimates, Shiling Town was home to tens of thousands of people, including not only players, but also a great many native residents.

There were native territories of Shiling Town, foreigner native merchants’ groups, mercenary corps, and even travelers!

In fact, the concepts of “players” and “native residents” only existed in areas like Tai Xuan Alliance and Shen Yao Empire. Like the Yongxing Empire and the Shen Mu Dynasty, they were also national camps founded by the chosen ones, fully integrated into the Eternal World, without the concept of the chosen ones, only the difference between nobility and commoners.

In Tai Xuan Alliance, many senior players had almost settled down here starting families.

Even for native residents, who could clearly state whether their ancestors were from the chosen ones?

Just like Master Li.

“As for the weapons and defense capabilities, this place is, after all, the forefront of the Tai Xuan Alliance’s defense line. It used to be the frontline fortress against monster waves in the past. Therefore, it’s quite normal to have such a configuration. Moreover, there are many hidden trump cards in the city that you can’t see.”

Mu Yuan was explaining to Sophia and the others.

Although he could understand such configuration, he still couldn’t help but admire.

Living in such a territory would give a sense of security. He wondered when his Tianyuan Territory could reach such a level!

Sophia was no longer surprised or envious.

No matter how prosperous Shiling Town was, it was still someone else’s territory. Tianyuan Territory was their true home.

As long as they worked hard enough, she believed that Lord would definitely be able to build all these in the future.

It was time to get to work!

“Let’s go.”

Sophia’s eyes burned with fiery determination, “Now that we’re here, it’s up to us. We can’t disappoint the lord.”

She tied her long black hair, which usually fell to her hips, into a bun and was wearing a cyan robe. Despite being pretty plain, she radiated an extraordinary aura from all aspects.

She was from a major noble family, well educated in various etiquettes. She was quite prepared.

Daisy’s attire was more casual. She wore a loose cloak over her clothes, which hid her fluffy, large white tail that grew from her tailbone.

Upon arriving here, the command of the caravan was handed over to Sophia.

She steeled herself, and headed towards the bustling North City Gate of Shiling Town in the distance.