Chapter 2154: Ancient City Center
Staring up at the spatial currents above that hid the true height of a large portion of the ancient structures on both sides of the ancient mercial street he found himself stepping onto after getting through the small alley he had coincidentally also ended up inside after stepping through the passage into the old city center of Desolate River City, Xuan Hao felt a sense of wonder watching how those strange yet powerful spatial currents twisted around the different structures without harming them. Instead serving as a perfect guard to prevent anyone who might have wanted to peek beyond to glimpse the true height of these structures with their divine sense. In the end, the only real way to understand how tall these ancient structures were and what lurked within them would be to explore them- or that is what he would have said if he hadn’t already managed to learn the countless people discussing bits and pieces of information about the inside of these structures that had been shared by the few who had already explored these ancient structures before his arrival.
Although the information itself wasn’t exactly trustworthy given it was just rumors, he had learnt during his short time wandering through the main mercial street of the city, it did at least give him some idea of what to expect once he stepped inside one of those ancient structures.
The information in question detailed different challenges one would have to overe to ascend upwards. Finding valuables along the way that generally became more valuable the higher up one went.
Of course, though this on the surface seemed somewhat like a cheap knockoff ascension tower, it wasn’t. Instead, the challenges themselves were just the different defensive measures that had been left behind by the original inhabitants of those ancient structures from what he could gather. Being more powerful the higher one went because the more powerful figures were stationed higher up. Resulting in the defensive measures in place being stronger and harder to break through.
As for why no one attempted to just break open the ancient structures from higher up or tear them down from below… It didn’t take him long to figure out that the ancient structures themselves were all linked together using some kind of grand formation whose grade far surpassed anything he could handle with his current prehension of the Dao of Formations. Essentially making it impossible for anyone to do any real harm to those ancient structures. Forcing everyone who wanted to explore them to endure the countless safety measures left behind inside by the previous owners who didn’t exactly want to have someone sneaking inside grabbing their valuables while they were away. Even if these ancient cultivators had already perished long ago with the fragmentation of the continent, it didn’t change the fact that they had made sure to secure their homes in the process.
Knowing this, Xuan Hao didn’t immediately find an ancient structure that looked promising and instead decided to first explore his surroundings to see if he could find anything of note. Aware of the fact that he was in a pletely different part of the city center from the others who entered and might be able to find something valuable while looking around. After all, though the city center itself had expanded significantly pared to the old city center that had been pushed aside, it normally wouldn’t take someone in the Void Monarch Realm more than a few days to fully explore, let alone someone in the Void Integration Realm.
Luckily for him, the city center itself was also cut into countless smaller islands of buildings by terrifying spatial anomalies that seemed to have originated from the failure of the ancient spatial formation that should have once concealed the ancient city center from the world. Understandable, given how only such a large-scale failure in the internal situation of the grand formation keeping this ancient city hidden and isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years was needed to explain how it had suddenly decided to emerge now of all times.
If not for this chaotic internal situation, it was likely that there would be far less people willing to step inside. Wondering if it might be some kind of elaborate scheme to gather a large number of powerful cultivators together for some kind of sinister ritual.
Because of this, it also didn’t take him long to explore the island he himself had found himself on. Finding out that the overall size of the city he found himself inside was around a dozen kilometers following the main mercial street while being another kilometer stretching out away from the main mercial street itself.
The place had no other people around and the few defensive golems and other similar defensive constructs he had heard should be roaming the city was nowhere to be found.
Still, this didn’t make him lower his guard as he distinctly remembered that these guardians of the ancient city center could move between the different city regions. The spatial turbulence that was far deadlier and more difficult to manipulate pared to the outside spatial currents that covered the outside of this ancient city center, was easily overe by these locals that had clearly been specifically built to resist these kinds of spatial anomalies.
In fact, it was also because of these golems and constructs unique resistance to spatial currents and anomalies that the locals were having a difficult time dealing with them. After all, every single one of them specialized in the Dao of Space and here were a few unique golems and constructs that just so happened to perfectly counter them. Leaving them with little to no chance to fight back, as most who found themselves unfortunate enough to run into them ended up being chased out of the ancient city center. Following which they would end up crying tears of blood at the local tavern upon realizing they would have to pay the city lord again to enter.
Of course, the city lord conveniently forgot to charge the few Void Integration Realm cultivators who were similarly chased out. A clear sign that he knew who to not target when squeezing for a bit of extra profit. After all, the satisfaction of these weaker cultivators didn’t matter to him and them escaping from the ancient city center had nothing to do with him.
Looking at it in another way, without the ruthlessness of the city lord, Xuan Hao would have had no way to learn what he had about the ancient city center and some of the dangers that lurked within. So, in a way, he felt thankful towards the city lord and his willingness to take advantage of the situation he had found himself in.
Without him, he would have truly entered the ancient city center blind and would have to figure out everything on his own once he stepped inside.
Rumble~
But just as he had finished searching through his little private region of the city without finding anything of value and looking for an ancient structure to try and ascend to see what he could find inside, a soft rumbling sound echoed out only a few steps behind him-
Thud~
And the next second, a golem standing close to four meters tall broke through the seemingly impenetrable spatial currents and landed on the paved stones. Taking little to no time before it focused its gaze on him.
“…”
For a good five seconds, he kept eye contact with the golem, both startled by the sudden turn of events.
That was at least how he wanted to perceive it even if part of him understood that the golem’s inaction most likely had to do with it examining him to confirm he was a hostile entity that had to be eliminated.
Whoosh~
The second that determination had been made, the golem moved, swinging down towards him with tremendous force that not only carried with it a mountain shattering power, but also seemed to have a restrictive effect on the space around him. Making it far harder to utilize the Dao of Space for fighting and escaping.
In other words, it was truly the worst possible enemy for someone whose entire life had been spent prehending the Dao of Space with little to no time prehending any other Daos beside the Dao of Space, let alone to the degree that it would be useful in an actual battle.
Not just that, but the strength of the golem he found himself facing off against was by no means weak, its strength alone parable to that of a demon beast at the Early Stage of the Land Creation Realm. Put together with the suppression of the Dao of space, the golem before him was more than capable of killing someone in the Void Integration Realm.
BANG!
Unfortunately for the golem, it just so happened to encounter someone who wasn’t solely focused on the Dao of Space and was more than capable of fighting back…
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