[V7C031– In Life and In Eternal Rest]
After several days of flying through the void, the seemingly constant starry skies finally saw some changes—a continent appeared vaguely in the distance.
During his first long-distance flight, Qianye finally realized just how terrifying the void was. The space here seemed completely empty, but void storms would occur at any time and without warning. Airships without special reinforcement might very well be torn apart if they were swept into the center.
Additionally, there were small floating meteorites in the void and some of them were as fast as bullets. Once struck, they would leave deep pits on the plated armor.
The biggest threat in the void wasn’t pirates but void beasts. A chance encounter wasn’t so bad, but death was almost certain for those who accidentally charged into a nest. Red Pipe, however, was highly capable. Although the route he had picked was curved and roundabout, the ship never encountered a single void beast along the way and managed to arrive safely in the neutral lands.
The neutral lands sounded like a continent, but in fact, it was made up of many small landmasses. The largest one among them was merely the size of the floating continent on which Qianye had been fighting.
This place was a fair distance away from the other continents, almost like an abandoned corner of the world. Countless small landmasses were moving around the sun in extremely complicated orbits. Someone had once speculated that the neutral lands weren’t formed naturally; instead, they came from the breaking down of a certain planet or continent during an era preceding the fall of the Void Star. However, this speculation remained an unproven theory.
This place was far from the layered continents at the center, and hence the intense temperature fluctuations. Disaster-level storms would sweep through often, and many of the landmasses could not support any vegetation. Not to mention human habitation, even the most adaptive arachne couldn’t live very long there.
It was precisely because it was difficult to survive that neither the empire nor Evernight were interested in this place. To those who couldn’t live in either faction, however, this place was their only haven. In the very beginning, those who could arrive in this place were the most powerful people, and it just so happened that they were also the most ferocious of men. As time passed, the place became a mixture of various characters whose only purpose was to survive in the neutral lands.
Due to the rampaging storms and the complexity of the landmass orbits, traveling between the islands here was a dangerous business. Only veteran captains could complete such trips by virtue of their deep experience, and Red Pipe was one such captain. His choice was a medium-sized landmass on which existed the largest port in the neutral lands and also the first transit point for newcomers—human newcomers, that is.
As the old airship slowly approached the dock, a group of well-built men in shabby clothes swarmed over and surrounded the exit.
Red Pipe appeared at the cabin doors and waved his hand. “Go, there aren’t any goods this time. I only need a couple of people.”
The people at the docks dispersed immediately after hearing this. Only then did those standing at the back get the chance to come forward. Most of them were old people and children. There were a few middle-aged men, but they were thin, emaciated, and looked rather sickly.
Qianye and Nighteye had no luggage, and the only crate they had was packed full of frozen beast meat. On the contrary, it was the old “Great Master” who had an entire five boxes with him, all of them extremely heavy. Qianye tied three of the containers together and carried them himself, while five other people were chosen to move the rest.
Walking past the long dock, Red Pipe brought Qianye to a certain three-storeyed brick building. This was the most magnificent structure in the airship port. Its main hall was fairly wide but currently packed full of people. Clamor and chaos rushed at one’s face along with the smell of sweat and body odor, causing Qianye to frown somewhat. Nighteye, with great foresight, had long since shut off her perception.
The bearded captain took the lead and headed to the counter at the end of the hall. Whoever blocked his way he would lash at them with his whip or simply kick them out of the way. Those who were attacked would mostly scuttle to the side after seeing that red pipe in the captain’s mouth, not even daring to utter a word. Only a fierce-looking man with a face full of knife scars glared back at the captain.
Red Pipe smiled coldly and performed a cut-throat gesture at the scarred man. Those in the vicinity began crying out in excitement while the scarred man’s expression became rather unsightly.
“What does that mean?” Qianye asked someone nearby.
That person shot a glance at Qianye and said disdainfully, “You must be new? You’ll know after a while. This is a showdown challenge—those who are dissatisfied will fight to the death, and those who don’t dare can scram to the side and shut up.”
Qianye quickly realized what it was. Who would’ve thought the neutral lands pursued such an undisguised law where the strong reigned supreme.
Not daring to engage in a battle with Red Pipe, the scarred man turned and left. Those in the vicinity sighed in regret.
With the scarred man gone, those left in the hall quickly opened up a path. Countless eyes fell upon Qianye’s group, and all of them were unfriendly.
After arriving at the counter, Red Pipe tossed a gold coin onto the counter and said, “Help my friends here register.”
The man behind the counter was an elegant looking young man. He put away the money swiftly and picked up his pen, inquiring Qianye, Nighteye, and the old man about their identities. Qianye stated a random name, but the old man said his name was Cui Yuanhai. Qianye was somewhat surprised that he would use his real name.
As though he understood Qianye’s thoughts, the old man said, “I’m too old to keep running. I don’t want to go anywhere else after arriving here.”
The young man produced three bronze tokens with their names carved upon them and tossed them to Qianye. “This is your proof of identity. Naturally, it has no other major use. If you’re not willing to reveal your real identities, you can also rob a couple of tokens, no one will care. In this accursed place, anything in your hands is yours.”
He fished out yet another bronze plate and placed it on the table. “If you want to survive here, you have to earn or rob it yourself. This is a ticket to the Eastern Desolace. You’ll get a room on the ship, barely enough for your group and things. If you want better arrangements you’ll need to pay more. They’re short of people on the Eastern Desolace, so they’re offering fairly good terms. You’ll get a piece of land there so long as you’re willing to go. You can ask for more land if you think your share is too small, but that way, you’ll die earlier.”
Qianye knew nothing about the neutral lands, but to him, it was the same everywhere. Hence, he reached out to take the bronze plate, but the young man pressed the plate beneath his palm with a meaningful smile and wouldn’t let go.
Qianye gave it some thought and realized the point. “How much?”
The young man revealed a brilliant smile. “Smart! I like talking to smart people. Fifty gold coins and this ticket is yours.”
There were many currencies flowing about in the neutral lands—imperial gold coins, black crystals, Evernight silver coins, blood crystals, demonic cubes—everything was fair game. Qianye produced a pouch and weighed it in his hands before passing it over. “Forty-seven is all I have.”
The young man snatched the pouch and stuffed the bronze plate into Qianye’s hands. “That’s enough, that’s enough!”
Qianye knew he had overpaid, but he didn’t mind since taking a loss was unavoidable as a first-timer. After asking where the airship was parked, Qianye headed to the docks with the others in tow. Red Pipe remained leaning on the counter without any movement. His job had been completed after sending Qianye here.
The smile on the young man’s face disappeared entirely as Qianye left the hall. A middle-aged man who had arrived from the side watched Qianye’s receding figure and said, “He’s just a rank-eight fellow. Do you really need to send him to that place?”
The young man glanced at Red Pipe. “Didn’t you say he’s hidden his strength? How much did he hide?”
Red Pipe didn’t answer this question. He took two deep puffs from his pipe and said, “That isn’t important. If he’s hidden enough, it’ll just cause more trouble for those people. Isn’t that good? The Wolf King isn’t that easy to deal with.”
The young man revealed a mysterious expression unbefitting of his young age. “You’re still just as evil. Perhaps we should reconsider our next cooperation.”
Red Pipe pointed at the pouch of gold coins and said, “You earned quite a bit too, didn’t you?”
The young man weighed the pouch in his hand. “But I suddenly feel that this money is going to be troublesome.”
On the other end of the docks, Qianye had finally found his airship, an ancient-looking vessel. Many of its steam pipes were on the outside, and its two chimneys were puffing out rolling black smoke. The airship could barely fit its massive steam engine—no one knew how much space there was left for passengers.
Such an antique airship was a rare sight even on Evernight Continent.
Qianye handed over the bronze ticket and obtained permission to board. The cabin was, as expected, quite small. After stuffing the boxes in, the group could only remain standing. It was fine for Zhuji since the little lass could sleep in any position, even upside down. So, she jumped directly onto the ceiling and fell asleep in a hanging position. The old man sat on the boxes while Qianye and Nighteye simply went up to the deck, prepared to spend the journey there.
The time to set sail arrived pretty soon. Hissing and screaming, the airship left the dock with great difficulty and drove away.
Even though the flight was between landmasses, it took an entire two days to arrive at the destination. This was an exceedingly big piece of land at the periphery of the neutral lands. Looking at it from the void, Qianye reckoned it was the same size as the floating continent, or maybe a bit bigger.
Throughout the journey, Qianye at first wanted to ask about matters related to the Eastern Desolace, but everyone—from the captain down to the crew—avoided the topic and weren’t willing to utter a word regarding it. Even when Qianye offered them a couple of gold coins, the money was stuffed back into his hands.
However, Qianye did manage to obtain some basic information. Most of the Eastern Desolace was covered by a huge lake—only a fourth of its surface area was land, while the rest was water. The lake was so large that it extended thousands of kilometers and could rightly be called a sea. That was why the Eastern Desolace was also called the Eastern Sea.
The ancient airship gradually approached land. Qianye and Nighteye stood at the bow, gazing at the mysterious but dangerous-looking land. Nighteye suddenly leaned on Qianye’s shoulder with a sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
Gazing at the fast-approaching continent and its vast, deep sea, she said, “I have a feeling that this will be our home.”
Qianye held her tightly and said, “Very well, then this shall be our home!”