Chapter 113: Reporting for Duty on the Flying Boat

Two days later.

At dawn, Du En walked out of the Qingya Courtyard alone, without causing any ripples of attention, walking along the road in calm silence.

He was still wearing that set of Lacquer Shadow Dharma robes, and the two newly refined Dharma artifact headbands fluttered slightly in the breeze along with his tied-up long hair; his footsteps were silent, light, and swift, and the shantytown, which was gradually becoming lively, was soon left behind.

In his eyes was the city wall, drawing ever closer.

The southern city wall of the Nanmo Border City remained towering and lofty, stretching on without end, like a mountain range, or more like an eternal cliff face that made one sigh.

The closer one approached, the deeper one's cultivation, the more clearly one could feel its oppressive force!

For Du En, whose perception was sharper than ordinary people of the same rank, it was even more clearly visible, heavy enough to make one unable to catch their breath.

He stopped his footsteps, halting before the gate tunnel.

Lifting his eyes to look, the greatest impression was its spaciousness and cleanliness!

These people who had stayed in the city all along were already despairing and hopeless about the future; at this moment, how could they endure such sudden bloodshed? They were so terrified and trembling that their Dao hearts nearly collapsed.

The two city gates, nearly thirty zhang high, were firmly sealed, coldly shutting people out.

Someone finally could not bear the fear, turning around with a panicked face, wanting to run.

A cold snort rang out, and this person, who had only run a few steps, was immediately hit by something, flying up while spitting blood, finally slamming onto the flying boat's deck, fresh blood splattering onto the bodies and faces of those nearby.

Simply put, they were high-level laborers.

Du En's divine sense was no longer obstructed; as he walked, he scanned the surroundings roughly, while his naked eyes also gazed into the distance.

Either granted knowledge of alchemy or artifact refining, or granted knowledge of maintaining spirit herbs and spirit fields, they did all kinds of repetitive and tedious work in relatively high-level production areas throughout the city.

From beginning to end, no high-level figures appeared; this person shouting orders was merely a Foundation Establishment deacon responsible for counting cargo on the ship. Now that the counting was finished, he hurried down, ran away quickly, leaving only a back view as he went to report to the Outer City Affairs Office.

But in reality, there was no essential difference between the two; both were just being squeezed by the Immortal Sect in various ways.

Quiet, pitch-black, unable to see with the eyes, unable to peer with divine sense.

Rich spiritual Qi rushed toward him; if one were to clearly describe its specific quality, it should be at least third-tier, giving one a warm and comfortable feeling, like soaking in a bath.

The difference was that the high-level laborers in the city were more precious, and it was not good if they died easily; the various raw materials continuously transported from outside the city still needed them to process, so they had to be squeezed for at least eighty years!

After a while, he finally saw new points of light.

However, these Foundation Establishment cultivators in the city had long been accustomed to such work in the past; after desensitization, they had no exclamation, only more worry about their own future.

As long as they could be dragged to the outpost camp, that would count as a full number of people, with no deserters, no need to supplement people, and no stains on the matter.

As Du En walked, he saw the converging Foundation Establishment cultivators; they were dressed quite gorgeously and expensively, mostly plump and fair, looking very wealthy, but at this moment, they all had the appearance of mourning their parents, as if they were heading to the execution ground.

When the sun was high, fifty Foundation Establishment cultivators had gathered.

"Don't drag your feet, get on quickly, we are about to depart!"

That's right, critically injured and dying.

A black shadow began to cast down from the sky; it was a second-tier flying boat, radiating spiritual light, landing on the square, and the outer walls of the cabin clicked as they lifted, revealing one opening after another.

Time flowed by; after the cargo was loaded, someone finally shouted a greeting.

According to Du En's experience in killing, this person was actually beyond saving, just relying on the dissipation of Foundation Establishment cultivation to keep their life hanging by a thread.

There was no loud or obvious movement; after Du En showed his transfer order, the two city gates opened silently, revealing the pitch-black and deep gate tunnel inside, like the throat and esophagus of some giant beast.

Spirit stones, Dharma artifacts, pills, talismans, spirit materials...

However, with the fresh warning of the previous example, they also subconsciously covered their mouths, fearing they would also be beaten into a state of critical injury and dying.

"Hmph!"

Outpost camp!

Hand over the transfer order, receive the token, stand to the side, and wait.

At the same time, carts and boxes of things began to be pushed out from all directions in the city.

He did not wander around, but mingled in and went along, soon arriving at a square in the south of the city.

Just a group of early-stage Foundation Establishment consumables, whose value was the lowest on the entire flying boat!

Du En thought this because the other party's control of force was too precise, and at the same time, he himself had not noticed any obvious clues except at the very last moment.

The buildings were spaced quite far apart; even though seven or eight-story high-rises were visible everywhere, there was not a hint of crampedness, and roads paved with clean, white jade-like bricks ran between the buildings, dotted with spirit trees and green plants along the roadside.

Naturally, he saw the laborers who also began their activities with the arrival of daylight.

However, the Nanmo Border City was far from the front line, and after so many years of accumulation, there were not many positions left to arrange inside and outside the city; the whole thing was almost saturated.

Du En stepped inside, and the city gate closed quietly, cutting off the light source behind him.

"Ah! No! I'm not going!"

Many people were secretly angry, but did not dare to act rashly, and could only stand to the side sullenly.

Various goods immediately began to be loaded into the cabin; as for the Foundation Establishment cultivators, they naturally had to wait first.

He continued to step forward, his rhythm unchanged.

He continued to walk forward for a while, finally walking out of the gate tunnel and arriving behind the city wall, inside the Nanmo Border City.

They had used storage bags as much as possible, but it was mainly low-grade spirit stones in large quantities, and a small portion of the most precious items limited to second-tier top-grade.

Even so, on the surface, the conditions were indeed much better, and therefore it was easier to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

"It should have been the Outer City Superintendent who did it."

Naturally, it was impossible to let the newly broken-through Foundation Establishment cultivators have free time to practice leisurely; if placed elsewhere, they would only be dragged to the battlefield to fill the lines as cannon fodder, while here in the Nanmo Border City, it was another place that was not much better.

Turning his head to glance, at the end of the distant street was the majestic and solemn Outer City Affairs Office.

Without stopping his pace, he arrived at a corner of the square, in front of a small stall, and began to queue.

This type of person looked quite different from the people in the shantytown outside the city at first glance; not only could they stay in the city, but their treatment and salary were also significantly higher, and even if they were arranged to go outside the city, they were often transferred to become supervisors.

The small official responsible for this was only at the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, but he did not respect or care about these Foundation Establishment cultivators at all, working in a hurried and fast manner, not even bothering to lift his eyes to look.

However, this did not mean that people could live in comfort and contentment just by living in the city.

Taking that transfer order out from his bosom, Du En's expression remained unchanged; the oppressive force or whatever meant nothing to him.

Du En had just landed on the deck of the flying boat when this voice came from behind him.

Among the people replenished and sent over each year, a considerable portion had mid-grade spiritual root aptitude, and they would be settled within the city to perform labor.

Brilliant light radiated in all directions, blinding to the eyes.

Back when I first arrived and had just begun cultivating, I couldn't tell when passing by, but looking at them now, they are clearly all peak first-grade, yet here they only qualify as roadside greenery, and no one cares about them at all.

The rest can only be transported like this, box by box and cart by cart.

"No wonder I hadn't buried such corpses before; it turns out they were all piled up over at the outpost camp."

That place is a full eight hundred miles away from the border city, so obviously no one would run back and forth just to transport a single corpse, which is why burying or cremating them on the spot is the simplest operation.

(End of this chapter)