Chapter 104: Ascending the Holy City, Provocation

On the day Jiang Qin was about to leave.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens of Dongxing Jidi Shi spontaneously came to the city gate. Compared to before, there was a new light in their eyes—the hope of life.

Most of the Martial Artist factions within the city had been uprooted, and the Military Department's power had grown stronger than ever.

With the whole city united, food was naturally no longer scarce. After all, there were as many Fierce Beasts outside the city as one could want; the only risk was a sharp rise in the Martial Artist death toll, but that wasn't even worth considering.

In the face of disaster, the people struggled at the edge of life and death.

At a time like this, if you're still afraid of dying, what kind of Martial Artist are you?

At a corner of the towering city wall, several figures gathered. This book is first published on Tiantian Kan Novel for the best reading experience, ttktw is superb, providing you with error-free chapters and an out-of-order chapter reading experience.

Chen Xiaohu gazed at the citizens gathering below the wall, then turned to Jiang Qin: "Boss, you're really not going down to say goodbye to them?"

"No need." Jiang Qin shook his head.

Along the way he had experienced much; farewells always came suddenly, without a sound.

A grand ceremonial farewell did not suit him.

Su Lingwei handed a hand-drawn map to Jiang Qin.

"Dijing and Dongxing Jidi Shi were originally only a thousand li apart, but as the worlds merged, the distance between the two cities has grown to three thousand kilometers. Even at your speed, it will take several Days at least. Are you really not taking a flyer?"

"A few days is nothing. I can take the chance to look over this country again along the way."

Jiang Qin took the map and glanced at it.

The next second, his figure vanished from the spot.

Chen Xiaohu watched the rapidly moving figure outside the city and sighed: "The boss left in such a hurry. We only just reunited not long ago, staying a couple more days wouldn't have hurt."

Two years to reunite.

And less than a week later, they had to part again.

When they would meet next, no one knew…

Su Lingwei shook her head: "The burden he carries is different from ours. What we can do is protect this city's safety, but what he has to do is safeguard the entire country. Only he can do this."

This is both the duty and the limitation of those with great power.

The country will welcome peace, but what he loses is freedom…

—

Two Days had passed since leaving Dongxing Jidi Shi, and Jiang Qin had already covered a thousand li.

While traveling, he observed Huaguo as it was now.

Apart from the major base cities, the wilderness had completely reverted to primitive times—not a trace of humanity to be seen. Fierce Beasts, on the other hand, were everywhere, the top predators of the wild.

Jiang Qin did his best to avoid the areas where beast hordes nested.

He possessed several thousand years of memories from Cangling Jie and knew that killing these Fierce Beasts was pointless.

The Fierce Beasts' original form was the Cangling Human Race.

As long as the fortune of the Cangling Human Race remained, even if every Fierce Beast on Lanxing was killed, Cangling Jie would breed countless more. The only way was to completely destroy the fortune of the Cangling Human Race.

But the fortune of the Cangling Human Race had already been reclaimed by the Heavenly Dao; destroying it would be harder than reaching the heavens.

Over those two Days, his understanding of Domain had also deepened.

From a single step covering several dozen meters at first, he could now cross several hundred meters in one stride.

The upside was that traveling was very convenient, but the downside was that he had to constantly employ Domain Power, which drained him greatly—though for Jiang Qin, this drain was essentially nothing.

Domain Power is the evolved form of Dharma Image power.

And as long as he remained beneath this sky, his Dharma Image power was inexhaustible.

Another half Day of travel passed.

Jiang Qin, moving at high speed, stopped atop a large tree and gazed into the distance. A towering city wall came into view—far more magnificent than Dongxing Shi, and several times its size.

At the center of the wall, two great characters gleamed in the sunlight.

"Holy City"!

Jiang Qin expressionlessly took out the hand-drawn map and glanced down at it.

Hmm, he'd veered off course a little.

About a hundred kilometers off the planned route, it seemed.

"Forget it, since I'm already here, I might as well drop by and say hello."

If it were any other city, Jiang Qin wouldn't bother.

But since this was the headquarters of the Church of the Gods, he had to pay them a visit one way or another! With his current strength, as long as he wasn't surrounded by Earth Martial Realm fighters or confronted by a Heaven Martial Realm one, escaping wouldn't be a problem.

…

As the headquarters of the Holy Church, Holy City was governed very well by them.

Here, no one went hungry, and Fierce Beast attacks were unheard of.

And so.

The citizens within the city had no complaints about the Holy Church's rule.

In such chaotic times, a place where you could eat your fill and be guaranteed safety, in exchange for nothing more than three prayers a day—for the people, this place was no different from heaven.

Holy City was divided into three major zones:

Ordinary citizens lived in the outer city, Martial Artists in the inner city.

And anyone who joined the Holy Church could enter the innermost Jiao Ting district, never to suffer again for all eternity.

In an ordinary residence in Holy City's inner city.

The homeowner, gagged with a cloth and bound hand and foot, had been tossed into a corner. He stared in terror at the people before him, wanting to struggle, but the ropes were spirit artifacts that sealed his Spirit Power, making escape impossible.

The residence had two floors, with a simple layout.

At a table on the first floor, three figures sat together.

"I've already gone to scout the outer city — it's full of ordinary people, nothing useful. What about you two?"

"Ling-jie, the area around the core Jiao Ting is packed with Spirit Sea Realm Martial Artists. We tried to approach from underground, but the moment we got close we sensed several auras no weaker than ours. If we go any deeper, we'll definitely be spotted."

"That's right, this Holy City is seriously weird — I keep feeling a chill crawling all over my body."

Two men and one woman, led by a woman in a tight combat outfit.

Hearing the brothers' scouting results, Xu Ling's brows furrowed as she fell into thought.

She and these two came from the World Inspection Organization. They had received a mission this time — it seemed the higher-ups finally intended to make a move against the Holy City, so they were dispatched to investigate the situation inside, such as the number of strong experts.

Xu Ling was at the peak of the Divine Image Realm.

And those two big fellows were called Huo Nan and Huo Bei, their strength at the late stage of the Divine Image Realm, their one specialty being taking a beating.

The three of them working together, combined with spirit artifacts, were enough to handle a Diwu Jing Chugi Martial Artist — that was why they were sent on this mission. But even so, facing the Holy Church with its clouds of experts, a single slip could cost them their lives.

Just as Xu Ling was agonizing over it, she sensed something and suddenly looked up toward the window.

Huo Nan and Huo Bei also immediately sensed the anomaly.

"Who is it? How dare they unleash their aura so brazenly in the Holy City?"

"Seems like a peak Divine Image Realm… is he looking to die? Doesn't he know the Holy City forbids flight?!"

"Let's go, we'll go take a look!"

The three quickly made their decision and slipped out of the civilian house.

Above the Holy City, a black-clad youth strolled through the air as if taking a leisurely walk in a courtyard.

In a few steps he had already crossed the inner city and arrived at the Holy City's core district.

His lips moved slightly, and his voice spread out for several thousand meters:

"How interesting — a rat from a gutter dares to call itself the Holy Church."

"All of you, get out here!"

"Take your own lives to atone, and I may leave you with whole corpses."