Chapter 1069 – Maximum Benefit to Ascending
A blood red needle was flying through the sky. The needle was very fast as it flew through the air. It was almost unnoticeable, leaving only a very thin line along its path. Most people might even just think that it was an illusion.
Of course, at this point, n.o.body would be able to see this needle since it was flying above an ocean. The seas of the Atlanta Plane were very dangerous. Besides appropriate times, people going across these areas would be killed.
The residents of the Atlanta Plane were very peculiar. Although the Magic Armor Continent, Warrior Continent, and Mage Continent were hostile to one another, their people still trade with each other. But since the three continents were enemies, trading was still quite difficult.
In the beginning, there were some big companies that traded between the three continents. These traders would bring numerous guards in order to defend against the a.s.sault coming from the enemies.
But before long, people from the three continents decided that trading this way brought more peril than benefits. The number of merchants who did business with the three continents decreased, causing a lack of commodities between the three landma.s.ses.
Naturally, this lack of commodity didn"t mean that the people would find it hard to live. Instead, this was a shortage of rare materials in each continent. In turn, this made it difficult for them to progress in their civilization.
After they discovered this situation, the three continents reached an agreement. Each year, they would allocate a couple of months specifically for trade. In these months, people from the three continents could freely exchange goods without the fear of being attacked. Anyone who dared attack these merchants would receive collective retaliation from the three continents.
But besides these months of peace, the seas would become a battlefield the rest of the months. People from the Atlanta Plane treat the seas as a smelting trial. They would either go search for ores or try to temper their cultivation.
Hidden in this body of water were formidable Warriors and Mages. Naturally, on the side of the Magic Armor Continent, there were also powerful magic armor pilots present. These people were doing their best to kill the people on the other two continents.
They kill people not just for the sake of slaughter. These people do this mainly because they would receive bounties every time they kill an enemy. Once they return to their clans, they would be handsomely rewarded. Because of this, there were countless amounts of people who would come to this region every year.
Because of this, Zhao Hai wasn"t too anxious to go outside. He knew that the moment he came out, he would be attacked immediately. Therefore, he just sent the blood needle instead of himself.
Besides this blood needle, Zhao Hai also released other blood needles. These needles were divided into two groups, one heading to the Warrior Continent while the others would head to the Mage Continent. Zhao Hai wanted to see the situation with the two continents as soon as possible.
Zhao Hai"s action produced excellent results. At this moment, Zhao Hai had already mapped some areas, showing hidden Warriors, Mages, and Magic Armors. Naturally, they were being monitored by the s.p.a.ce.
This action also went according to Zhao Hai"s current situation. Every minute he stays inside the s.p.a.ce, his cultivation would be accelerated. If he kept being inside, then he would ascend one month later. And even if he didn"t practice, his body would be full in less than two months. Because of this, Zhao Hai had no other choice but to hurry.
It didn"t take more than five days before the blood needles entered the Warrior and Mage Continents. The two continents have distinct architectural and fas.h.i.+on styles. In the Warrior Continent, one would be able to see people wearing warrior clothing everywhere. There would also be weapons hung on the backs of these people at all times. Even some commoner families would have weapon frames somewhere in their houses, holding a weapon of sorts. At the same time, despite being commoners, each household still had a set of dumbbells, sandbags, and exercise materials in their homes. In the Warrior Continent, these things were deemed to be essential to their lifestyles. Even the poverty stricken folks weren"t exempted from this custom.
As for the Mage Continent, in almost every city, one would be able to see a magic tower. These magic towers were places where the mages live.
Actually, in both the Ark Continent and the Divine Realm, magic towers were things from ancient times. These things had long since been out of fas.h.i.+on. Of all the places Zhao Hai had been to, besides the Mage Continent, only the Underworld had magic towers.
The towers that protect each city in the Underworld, where high-ranked Undead live in, were actually magic towers. In the Ark Continent, magic towers didn"t exist anymore. And even if there were, they were mostly used as a decoration or as a historical ruin.
However, these seemingly ancient magic towers were actually present in almost all cities in the Mage Continent. And most importantly, through the s.p.a.ce, Zhao Hai was able to see that around these magic towers were the liveliest places in the city.
What made Zhao Hai even more surprised was the fact that, in the Mage Continent, two to three people out of ten were wearing mage"s robes. The proportion of mages to common people was quite high.
In the Ark Continent, if a Mage could emerge every thousand people, then that was already seen as a good ratio. But here, in ten people, two or three Mages could be seen. It would be very hard for people to accept this statistic.
This wouldn"t be strange if it came to Warriors. After all, most people could practice martial arts. Even if one didn"t practice too deeply, they could still become a common Warrior. But as for Mages, one needed innate skill to dabble in the elements. But even if this was the case, the Mage Continent seem to have a lot more talents.
Even Zhao Hai, with his talents and capabilities, couldn’t help but be speechless when he saw this. In the end, he could only let out a helpless sigh.
If he had the time, he would certainly do a thorough investigation on these two Continents. He might even go and buy some land in these two continents to play around from time to time.
But it was a pity that Zhao Hai was about to ascend, he didn"t have time to play around in these two continents. And as long as he ascends, he would no longer have this opportunity.
Although the needles had arrived at the two continents, Zhao Hai didn"t immediately exit the s.p.a.ce. Instead, he would wait until the terrain of the continents were fully mapped inside the s.p.a.ce. This took five days to be finished. Unknowingly, Zhao Hai had already spent ten days inside the s.p.a.ce. If he continued to stay inside the s.p.a.ce for a month, then he would immediately ascend.
After finally mapping the two continents, Zhao Hai let out a long breath as he stood up. It was already night, but he still wanted to take a look.
Laura saw Zhao Hai stand and immediately said, "Brother Hai, it"s already dark. How about you go outside tomorrow?"
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, "I"ll just go out and feel the laws. Otherwise, I wouldn"t be able to sleep."
When she heard Zhao Hai, Laura knew that she couldn"t stop him, so she said, "Alright, but Brother Hai needs to be careful. If the laws are just like in the Magic Armor Continent, then you need to come back. We"ll just s.n.a.t.c.h an ascension magic armor so that you can ascend."
Zhao Hai nodded, "Rest a.s.sured, I will be careful." After he said that, his clothes changed into warrior clothing and his staff s.h.i.+fted into a greatsword.
After seeing Zhao Hai"s change in attire, Laura and the other knew that Zhao Hai was planning to visit the Warrior Continent. In the Warrior Continent, people with Zhao Hai"s attire could be seen everywhere, n.o.body would suspect him of anything. Additionally, with Zhao Hai"s strength, n.o.body in the Warrior Continent would be able to defeat him. The only thing that can threaten him were the laws.
Zhao Hai gave Laura and the others a glance before he smiled and vanished. The next moment, he was already in the Warrior Continent. Upon appearing, Zhao Hai immediately felt the laws pressuring him, it was even stronger than the pressure he felt in the Divine Realm.
But even if this was the case, Zhao Hai was still ecstatic. This was because the laws in this continent was different than the Magic Armor Continent. In the Magic Armor Continent, the laws made Zhao Hai feel sick. But here, the laws were pressuring him, the same as the pressure back in the Divine Realm. In other words, Zhao Hai can choose to ascend here.
Zhao Hai carried his greatsword and arrived at a tavern in the city. He listened to the Warriors boasting about their accomplishments. Although these were just mere boasting, Zhao Hai could still find obtain useful information.
However, Zhao Hai only stayed at the city for one hour before he returned to the s.p.a.ce. After finding out that he can ascend in the Warrior Continent, Zhao Hai decided to take a look at the Mage Continent. If he could ascend in the Mage Continent, then he would have another choice.
Zhao Hai turned into a Mage before teleporting to the Mage Continent. Just like the Warrior Continent, Zhao Hai was able to ascend here. With this matter taken care of, Zhao Hai began to relax. With the Mage and Warrior Continent present, he didn"t need to worry about ascension anymore.
However, he was left with deciding on where to ascend. He needed to understand the two continents before making a decision.
Although Zhao Hai didn"t know where he"ll end up upon ascending, he still needed to consider where he would ascend. He would a.n.a.lyze their laws and find out where he would benefit the most from ascending.
Chapter 1070 – Sweeping the Central Bookstore
Shangwu City was a fairly famous city in the Warrior Continent. The city was built according to ancient architecture. It had a 300 feet high city wall that was ten feet thick. Moreover, the walls weren"t constructed using ordinary materials. It was being reinforced with the unique black iron ore of the Warrior Continent.
This black iron ore was a common ore in the Warrior Continent. Black iron can be extracted from this ore. However, black iron wasn"t as popular in the Warrior Continent as the other metals. This was because it only had one redeeming quality, it was very heavy!
Black iron refined from black iron ore was ten times heavier compared to ordinary iron. But despite this, black iron wasn"t stronger than ordinary iron. It can be said that it was a weak metal. In the Warrior Continent, black iron was only used to add weight to a weapon.
However, the qualities of black iron ore and black iron were different. Black iron ore can be said to be one of the hardest materials in the continent. When not refined into black iron, the hardness of the ore was no less than steel and iron. It was only after it was refined into black iron did the hardness change. It was one of the mysteries in the Warrior Continent.
This black iron ore was the best material to be made into a city"s wall. There were even weapons that had black iron ore added to them.
At this time, a young man carrying a red greatsword on his back was seen heading towards the city. The man looked very ordinary. His clothes were also the most common warrior clothing, his greatsword was the only unique thing about him.
Naturally, this person was Zhao Hai. The city"s guard only looked at Zhao Hai and didn"t make any action. In the Warrior Continent, it was very common to bring your weapon along. Here, it would be very strange if you didn"t have a weapon on you.
Zhao Hai looked at Shangwu City"s walls and his eyes couldn"t help but sparkle The s.p.a.ce didn"t have this kind of ore, he needs to get one for the s.p.a.ce. This was what Zhao Hai was thinking about as he entered the city.
Upon entering, Zhao Hai looked for a restaurant first and ordered several small dishes. He poured himself some wine and drank alone, n.o.body paid any attention to him. However, Zhao Hai"s ears were listening to the conversations around him.
The reason Zhao Hai entered Shangwu city was to acquire information. He also needed to collect some of the continent"s martial arts manuals.
Upon listening to the drivel coming from the surrounding Warriors, Zhao Hai knew that staying here any longer was useless. However, he was able to get some tidbits here and there. For example, manuals were common in the continent. Additionally, there were bookstores in each city. One could see basic training manuals from these bookstores. As for the more profound methods, one needed to acquire them from dojos or from some powerful families.
These powerful families and dojos were the most important groups in the Warrior Continent. In the continent, there weren"t such things as kingdoms. Each city were either managed by a powerful family or a dojo. The army defending the cities were subjects of these two groups.
As the name suggests, powerful families were great clans in the Warrior Continent. These great clans had their own unique martial skills. These unique skills shouldn"t be underestimated. It was said that each of these unique skills were very formidable.
As for the dojos, they were inst.i.tutes for practicing martial arts. They were just like schools where Warriors learn martial arts. In each city, it didn"t matter if they were commoners or members of influential clans, all of them would study inside a dojo. Because of this, dojos had become rooted into the society.
Getting to know about these information was already quite good, so Zhao Hai paid the restaurant before leaving and heading towards a bookstore. There were a lot of bookstores in the city. However, the bookstore with the most complete collection of martial arts related books was the Central Bookstore. Naturally, Zhao Hai didn"t delay and headed towards this bookstore.
Shangwu City"s central bookstore was very popular. It was the highest building in the city. The building was divided into ten floors. The first five floors was where one could buy and sell basic martial arts manuals.
As for the sixth-eighth floor, this was where Warriors can acquire the rarer manuals. One could also sell unique manuals in these floors. As long as the bookstore"s attendants find the book good, then they would give a very good price for it.
And as for the ninth and tenth level, this was where people could only borrow books. However, not anyone could borrow books here, and not anyone could go up these floors. There were barriers guarding these floors. One needed to break these barriers if they wanted to enter.
Zhao Hai arrived at the central bookstore. Upon seeing the huge structure, he couldn"t help but feel nostalgic. This place was truly huge, they wouldn"t lose to some large-scale malls back on Earth.
Zhao Hai calmed himself down before entering the bookstore. When he went in, he couldn"t help but gawk. The first floor of this bookstore was full of ten meter tall shelves. There were rows upon rows of bookshelves. These shelves went from floor to ceiling, making one feel that they were propping the entire floor up.
Up and down these shelves were warriors choosing or reading books. The place looked extremely busy.
After sweeping a glance at this floor, Zhao Hai didn"t stop and continued going upstairs. He continued up until the eight floor without any problems. Naturally, he was met with the barrier to the ninth floor. However, how could this barrier stop Zhao Hai? He was able to swiftly enter the ninth floor.
There weren"t a lot of people on the ninth floor. Moreover, this floor was different. There weren"t as many bookshelves here compared to the other floors. In between bookshelves, there would be areas to rest and read.
Zhao Hai explored the ninth floor. He also had Cai"er control a blood needle to fly from shelf to shelf, recording the name of the books. When Zhao Hai got the book he wanted to read, he proceeded to the resting area to read.
The books that Zhao Hai wanted to read were introductions to high-level martial arts. Besides these, there were also records of miscellaneous stuff about the Warrior Continent. Such books were rarely seen in the Warrior Continent.
The reason Zhao Hai chose to read these high-level manuals was because he wanted to understand the martial skills of the continent. As for the records of miscellaneous events, he wanted to see if there were any information about someone ascending.
Zhao Hai wasn"t only reading, he was also releasing blood needles in order to scan all the books inside. Cai"er would then sort them out and divided them into categories. After all, the Warrior continent was a holy place for Warriors. Zhao Hai wanted to see to what degree their martial arts had reached.
After staying for a while on the ninth floor and waiting for the needles to finish their scan, Zhao Hai proceeded to enter the tenth floor.
He needed to head to the tenth floor personally. These two floors had barriers that would definitely detect the blood needles. If he had the needles fly to the tenth floor themselves, then it might produce an unwanted result.
Zhao Hai only stayed at the tenth floor for a short time. After scanning each book, he proceeded to leave the bookstore. Shangwu City was a huge city, there were a lot of people who entered here every year. Because of this, n.o.body would pay special attention to Zhao Hai. And even if the powerful families take note of him, by the time they receive information, Zhao Hai would already be inside the s.p.a.ce.
In the central bookstores of every city, local families would have informants planted inside. As long as someone had the qualifications to enter the ninth and tenth floor, these informants would immediately send word back to their families. One had to know that people who pa.s.s the barriers to the ninth and tenth floor were considered experts. Seeing an unknown expert entering the city, it was natural for these people to pay attention.
Zhao Hai was unaware about these. The time he spent on the bookstore was very short. While these people were still looking for more information about him, he was already inside the s.p.a.ce.
After returning, Zhao Hai immediately looked for Cai"er and asked, "Cai"er, how many books did we get? And what kind of books were they?"
Cai"er quickly replied, "We have various books numbering more than 10 thousand. There were about ten thousand books on martial arts while the miscellaneous books numbered a thousand."
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, "Good, then please reorganize these books for me. If there are low-level manuals mixed in, deal with it accordingly. If you see useful books, then make copies of it and send them to the Academies. But focus on high-level manuals and miscellaneous information. See if they have anything we need."
Cai"er nodded before she left to process the books. As Zhao Hai sat down, Meg gave Zhao Hai a cup of herbal tea before saying, "Young Master, will you go to the Mage Continent tomorrow? Or would you take us out to play around?"
Zhao Hai forced a smile and said, "I"ll get more books tomorrow. I don"t have time left to play around. You can go out and play yourselves. I want to use the remaining days to look for books about ascending."
Laura, who was on the side, said, "Brother Hai, there"s no need to waste too much time on these matters. Just abduct a high-level warrior and turn them into Undead. You do the same at the Mage Continent. This would make things quicker."
Zhao Hai just bitterly smiled, "It"s okay. I just want to ascend, I don"t want to kill people. I need to look for information about ascending in the Mage and Warrior Continent. This way, I can make a perfect decision as to where to ascend."