Chapter 2261

"The city walls too?" As the Hairy Ridge Giant drew closer, Sun Hongye felt the walls growing ever more imposing.

"Hmm, they're all made from molds. What we see now is just a scaled-up version. And as long as there's sufficient spiritual energy, they can even adjust their structure. Let's do it this way—it saves labor, time, and money." Pu Hua laughed, "In the past, building city walls was backbreaking labor. I heard Bekka's high walls took eleven years to barely finish, and the cost was probably about sixty times ours, and they almost ended up abandoned."

"Sixty times!" The sheer scale of the total cost left Sun Hongye unable to imagine it.

"Yes, our Ju City walls were built in sections, completed in just one year and seven months, fully joined, with labor requirements less than one-tenth of Bekka's." Pu Hua counted on his fingers as he explained to Sun Hongye, "Think about it—Ju City used fewer laborers to build the walls, and we saved ten years' worth of labor and material costs compared to Bekka."

Building walls the traditional way takes a long time, consumes enormous resources, involves too many intermediate steps, leads to low efficiency, incurs extremely high unnecessary costs, and brings about countless vexing problems.

"When you work it out, Bekka's city walls being completed actually didn't put them ahead of us by even a few years."

As they chatted, the Hairy Ridge Giant strode swiftly, quickly passing several checkpoints and arriving before the city gate.

Upon reaching this point, the Hairy Ridge Giant also had to withdraw his divine abilities.

Besides those born with wings, all beings within the city must use ground transportation, and the use of swift movement divine abilities is prohibited. Though this makes things slower, it maintains order within the city.

Such a vast city, with such a large population, "order" is the greatest challenge in governance.

Those who truly have urgent matters requiring aerial travel must possess an official travel permit.

After shrinking, the Hairy Ridge Giant was hardly different from an ordinary person, except for having two heads, which was somewhat frightening.

The crowd entered through the north gate after making a detour, which brought them closer to the palace.

During the detour, the sky darkened, the wind gradually strengthened, and it blew Sun Hongye's beard into a frenzy.

Looking closely at the city walls, the more he saw, the more imposing and sturdy they appeared—the wall tops were wide enough to accommodate three carriages side by side. That such a magnificent structure could be built in just over a year left Sun Hongye feeling it was utterly astonishing.

Compared to the series of experiences after setting foot at Giant Deer Harbor, his time in Fu State had been utterly unchanging, as if the entire world had abandoned him.

As they passed through the city gate, a colossal dragon head protruded from the city wall!

A red dragon head, red dragon horns, and dragon eyes glowing with white light.

Sun Hongye jumped in fright: "Dragon, Dragon God?"

Who doesn't know that the Nine Abysses Great Emperor of the Flashing Gold Plains is said to be the reincarnation of the Dragon God?

"No, this is a Red Flood Dragon, the gate beast of the northern city wall." Pu Hua introduced, "Each section of the city wall has its own guardian beast, specifically for defense."

"Ah, so this is the city gate beast!" Seeing is believing—Sun Hongye had long known that some major cities install gate beasts to enhance their defenses. Though this gate beast serves a great purpose, it consumes enormous energy, and Ju City dares to keep it active at all times, indicating they are not short of money.

"They are also boundary beasts." Zhu Xiuer noticed his surprise, "Ju City does not welcome just anyone—once certain unwanted evil spirits or malevolent things approach, they are blocked outside. If someone tries to smuggle them in, they will also be intercepted and inspected."

"You mean?"

"Nightmares or ghostly entities."

"So living in the city means one doesn't have to worry about ghostly mischief?"

"That's one way to put it." This is one of the invisible benefits of residing in a great city.

The Red Flood Dragon's large eyes kept fixed on the Hairy Ridge Giant and Zhu Xiuer, clearly sensing their strength. But they had passage tokens, so they could ignore the Red Flood Dragon's gaze.

"Crack!" A few sounds—after the thunderclap, a fierce wind accompanied by torrential rain came rushing in!

"Quick, get inside the city." Large raindrops the size of beans struck the face, causing sharp pain.

However, no sooner had one crossed the city gate than Sun Hongye immediately felt the wind weaken.

Outside the city, at least wind force eight; inside, at most three or four.

Just one wall's distance away, the wind force had dropped by half.

"Huh, does the city also have a wind-suppressing formation?"

"Yes." Pu Hua casually pointed at the city wall, "Look, that's the wind-suppressing beast, also called the Wind Lion Grandfather."

Several colossal stone statues stood on the wall top, resembling giant lions but with postures like humans—two hind legs standing upright, the whole figure endearingly clumsy.

"That's also a relic of the Xian Sect taken by the Nine Abysses from Mount Mount Fengmo Mountain, polished and re-carved, then used as a foundation point for the new wind-suppressing formation." The surnamed Sun was an old friend of the Nine Abysses; otherwise, Zhu Xiuer would not have bothered to explain, "This plain is fine everywhere, except it's always windy—sometimes strong enough to blow carriages and horses into the air."

"If the plain's marshes are the great wind demon, why not let it subside the wind?" Isn't that its proper function?

"It could, but that would be inappropriate." Zhu Xiuer said, "The grasses and trees on this plain have long grown accustomed to the constant coming and going of the wind; many seeds and pollen need to spread far away, relying on the wind's power; even two kinds of medicinal herbs only reveal their roots and stems when the wind rages, allowing them to propagate. The wind also brings nutrients from afar here. By suppressing the plain's wind, we also suppress its vitality, so the Nine Abysses forbid it, preferring to expend xuan crystals to establish the wind-suppressing formation."

Sun Hongye scratched the back of his head: "Does Ju City even have to consider such things?"

"When poor, one cultivates oneself; when prosperous, one aids the world. But when there is surplus strength, one must not contend with the plain's living beings for profit."

After entering the city, Sun Hongye saw that the main roads here were level and straight, wide enough for eight carriages to travel side by side, with deer carts and horse carts visible everywhere. Many monsters walked the streets, peacefully coexisting with humans.

Despite the constant flow of people and vehicles, the streets were remarkably clean. Pu Hua told Sun Hongye that the main roads were divided into sections with cleansing formations, which periodically and automatically moved garbage and filth to the street corners, then left it to dung beetles and other cleaners to handle.

The wind-suppressing formation does not block rain, so being drenched by heavy rain is uncomfortable.

Sun Hongye sighed: "Ju City is so vast—even if riding a deer cart, how long would it take to go from the east to the west of the city?"

"Several hours, assuming no traffic congestion on the roads. But if we need to move between several districts, we have a more convenient method." Zhu Xiuer turned around, "Follow me."

This hairy, giant spider walking on the road attracted many glances, but few were afraid of it.

The residents of Ju City, these past years, have also become well-traveled and knowledgeable.

Zhu Xiuer and the others entered a bright orange house by the roadside.

The house's color was so striking, it naturally served a functional purpose.

Sun Hongye had mentally prepared himself, yet upon entering, he still jumped in fright. The house looked normal from outside, but once inside, he discovered it was actually a huge greenhouse!

On the ground lay two meat-red large flowers, just two of them, nearly filling the entire house.

There was no one inside, but the ground had several pits.

Each of these large flowers had a diameter exceeding one zhang and five cun, with five fat, thick petals, the surface covered in white spots, and the center a large, inward-curving circular hollow.