Chapter 213: Secret Demon (33)

The steep mountain path of the snow mountain.

Luosen followed behind Meidiyana as they went down the mountain.

"Meidi, can I keep my current situation confidential for now?"

"What I mean is, I don't want people to know I have legendary power."

Meidiyana turned to look at Luosen: "Why hide it? In Nawate, your legendary power would earn you the highest level of hospitality."

But she quickly changed tone: "However, I can also understand your concern, after all, in an unfamiliar plane, suddenly becoming the focus of attention would bring many unexpected troubles."

She thought for a moment and asked: "Do you have a way to conceal it?"

"As long as I don't face a legendary powerhouse, I should be able to hide it."

Meidiyana said: "Then hide it; as long as you don't do anything bad, even if discovered it's no big deal."

Luosen asked again: "You just said Nawate hasn't been peaceful lately; what trouble have you run into?"

"The plane likely has a fourth demon."

"Just hearing that word probably makes people think it's a big trouble."

"Who says it isn't?"

Meidiyana sighed: "Generally speaking, the more cunning and the better a demon is at disguise and concealment, the stronger it tends to be."

"The suspicious traces of this new demon have been detected for at least half a year, yet even its basic existence cannot be confirmed, leaving the entire nation feeling extremely anxious, even prompting a significant raise in alert level."

Luosen fully understood this anxiety.

Because demons lurking in the dark are the most terrifying demons.

As fellow mortals, Luosen naturally does not want Nawate, a pioneer in resisting demons, to come to harm.

But when facing a void demon, personal power is also quite limited; for now we can only observe and act as opportunities arise.

"Tell me more about the situation inside Nawate, please?"

"No problem."

On the way down the snow mountain afterward, Meidiyana gave a detailed introduction to Nawate's situation.

After reaching the foot of the snow mountain, she said: "I've told you everything I should; Nawate has countless fine wines, new brews appear every year, I need to go find some wine."

She paused, then added: "When I miss you, I'll come find you."

At that moment, as they reached a fork, Meidiyana turned left down the left branch, but pointed Luosen toward the right branch.

"Every intersection has a signpost; follow the signs, ask passersby, and someone will take you to see the Guardian Mage."

Luosen quickly asked: "Don't you need to register?"

"I don't need to register, because I am a plane-traveling mage recognized by Nawate, and many people here know me."

While speaking, Meidiyana had already run far away.

Luosen could only continue forward along the gravel road.

At first the road was narrow, then gradually widened and leveled, with pedestrians gradually appearing.

The pedestrians' clothing showed a clear Nawate style.

Regardless of gender, most like to wear a upturned-brim round cap, a vest similar to a sleeveless jacket on top with a tight shirt, and tapered wide-leg pants below, plus cotton shoes.

Occasionally one would see dignified people in long skirts and robes, using relatively high-quality fabric and liking to add many decorative embroideries to the clothing surface.

Luosen also noticed that everyone here travels in groups, usually three or more, with very few solitary travelers.

Meidiyana said this is to counter demonic deception, because solitary mortals are the most vulnerable and easiest for demons to target.

One can also see various vehicles, with power sources all over the place: animal-driven, black stone-powered, and low-altitude hovering.

Looking up, one often sees flying objects, but their lift all comes from a huge balloon.

There are hot air balloons and hydrogen balloons.

Their speed isn't fast, but certainly not slow; it's much faster than ground transport, can ignore terrain, the only flaw being limited cargo capacity.

Luosen's clothing was clearly different from Nawate's, and his facial features also somewhat mismatched.

In Nawate, people's hair colors are mostly blue, purple, or silver, eye colors similar, facial features somewhat rugged, possibly due to highland living, skin slightly reddish, giving a sturdy impression.

One can feel that Nawate civilians are very wary of unfamiliar outsiders; once they spot him, they stare at him intently, as if trying to see through him.

After walking a while, three black-clad Nawate people followed him up; their power was not low, the lowest having reached Five Rings, and one even had Six Rings.

They just stared at him with their eyes, like watching a prisoner.

Luosen, thinking of Meidiyana's introduction, strode over to the three and directly introduced himself: "I am a traveling mage from the De Rui Tan plane."

"I happen to not know the way; why don't you few take me to register with the Guardian Mage of Weimaer?"

Seeing Luosen so frank, the three Nawate people's wariness faded considerably, even showing a hint of a smile.

The man with Six Rings power laughed: "Oh~ so you're from De Rui Tan; I said you're so good-looking."

He then introduced himself: "I am Dennis, captain of the militia of Baihu Town; you've found the right person to guide you."

The other two also introduced their identities, both being patrol militiamen from nearby towns.

Luosen also gave his name: "I am Luo Lin, from the Natural Alliance of the De Rui Tan plane."

Dennis had a pair of strange silver eyes; at this moment his gaze showed a hint of surprise: "Natural Alliance?"

Luosen immediately sensed something odd: "Have you heard this term recently?"

Dennis nodded: "Indeed, I've heard of it; about four months ago, a female mage also came from the Natural Alliance, even taking this same road."

Luosen immediately said: "Can I know more related information?"

Dennis, while leading the way ahead, said: "Of course, that female mage said her name is Ruilana, she wanted to find Guardian Grand Mage Naya, then take an airship to Nailinde."

"By the way, Nailinde is our capital."

Luosen nodded to show understanding: "What then?" "After that I don't know either, after all the capital is very far from us."

As Dennis spoke, he also sized up Luosen: "We often see people from other planes; after meeting them we usually do a basic assessment; could you tell me your power level and what you're good at?"

Luosen thought for a moment and said, "I possess Eight-ring mana; I am most skilled in healing spells, and I also have a rudimentary grasp of alchemy."

As for his belongings, they are not many; visibly, he only has a staff devoid of any magical aura.

This staff attracted no attention from the other party, so Luosen didn't elaborate further.

Dennis's expression instantly became much more respectful: "Oh, so you're an Eight-ring healer; we're very glad you could come to our Nawat."

"We'll take you to see the guardian mage."

The group then set off together.

As they walked, a low-altitude hovercraft happened to pass by, hovering less than five meters above the ground.

Dennis then said to Luosen, "Walking is too tiring; let's just fly straight to Weima City."

He used a Flight Spell, flew up onto the hovercraft and sat down; the other two militiamen followed, and Luosen naturally joined them as well.

The so-called hovercraft is actually a hot-air balloon vehicle.

Above is a bulging hot-air balloon; below is a small wooden frame, and at the rear are two air vents that emit hot air for propulsion, driven by a Four-ring mage.

The balloon has ten seats; five people were already seated, and after four more sat down, it was nearly full.

Also, due to the increased load, the driver immediately intensified the hot-air flow.

"Mage Roland, do you have money on you?"

Luosen had prepared some Levinde silver xila on him, and he pulled out a few: "I brought some silver coins; you should be able to use these, right?"

He knew Nawat was a silver-standard country, where the state mainly used various styles of silver coins, and paper money was not in circulation.

Nawat isn't particularly wealthy either, because most other countries in this world have basically fallen, so Nawat has no foreign trade at all and is entirely in a closed, self-sufficient state.

Fortunately, the country is large enough, with a population of over 1.6 billion, and its people are fairly diligent, so it isn't impoverished.

The silver coins Luosen produced were not few, but not many either, and they were not enough to arouse greed.

Dennis glanced at them, nodded, and said, "Of course we can use them; one of these is worth about twenty walin, enough for food and drink for a day in Weima City, and a single one can even cover the fare to Weima City."

He then turned to the driver mage: "Hey buddy, this is a healer from another plane; can you exchange forty walin from you, no problem?"

The driver mage jerked his chin at the money box beside him: "Change it yourself, outsider."

He seemed quite at ease, indicating that domestic security in Nawat is quite good.

Luosen then tossed down two silver xila, took the forty-walin coins, and discovered that this money was a kind of steel token made of stainless steel.

After a rough estimate, he found that the purchasing power of one such token was roughly equivalent to three claes of Weilan.

The airship's speed is indeed fast, and it can also cross some complex terrain; after about half an hour, it carried Luosen across a straight-line distance of over twenty li, arriving at the airship docking station outside Weima City.

Dennis said, "Flying is prohibited inside the city, so we'll have to walk to see the guardian mage."

Luosen saw a passing Black Stone tram and immediately said, "Why not take the tram? I'll treat."

Dennis waved his hands repeatedly: "No need to waste this money; that Black Stone tram is brand new and very expensive."

"How much per ride?"

"Five walin per stop; to reach the government building you need five stops, so it's not worth spending that money."

Since that's the case, Luosen went on foot, also taking the opportunity to observe the local customs and scenery.

When he reached the city gate, his heart twitched slightly as he sensed a strange power passing by his side, its intensity considerable.

According to Laifu's estimate, it was probably at least Legendary 6.

Luosen's heart gave a slight jolt—this was quite formidable! He instinctively wanted to look, but he quickly restrained himself, merely glancing with the corner of his eye.

Laifu immediately reproduced the target's appearance.

An ordinary-looking man in his thirties, with a weathered face; judging by his attire, he was likely a farmer from some village on the outskirts of the city.

Outwardly, he was utterly unremarkable.

At the city gate, mages used a special legendary device to scan every person entering, and the device showed no abnormalities.

Because of his distinctive appearance, Luosen was certainly going to be inspected as well.

To avoid being seen through, he beforehand used an electromagnetic wave detection spell, employing ultra-high-frequency electromagnetic waves to covertly examine the internal structure of the legendary device.

The structure is very complex, and the detection principle is quite advanced, but it mainly targets the legendary power of void creatures; it is not sensitive to the legendary power of ordinary people.

With Laifu's computational power, Luosen quickly grasped its basic principle and then adjusted his concealment method accordingly.

Before long, it was his turn.

He received special attention, being examined from head to toe.

The legendary device naturally gave no alarm.

Seeing Luosen pass, Dennis seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

He feared Luosen might feel resentful, so he explained, "This is a check for demonic power; as long as you have no connection to demons, there will be no problem."

Luosen nodded to show he understood, then glanced once more at the retreating ordinary farmer, secretly memorizing the subtle power signature on his person.

"From the power signature, it is something unique to void creatures, but not strong; yet it can evade the detection device, indicating that Nawat's demon-detection apparatus has been specifically modified."

Moreover, it is a real-time modification, because Mediana said that Nawat's demon-detection device is frequently upgraded.

"So, the void demon behind this farmer is quite extraordinary."

The other party's strength is at least Legendary 6, which also fills Luosen with great apprehension.

"Truly living up to its reputation as the anti-demon vanguard Nawat—just a random demon shows up and is this formidable."

(End of chapter)