PNB Chapter 556 9 Qucheng
Chapter 556 9 Qucheng
Ningchuan region, Jiuqu city.
A dazzling white light flashed by.
Shen Xu felt a sudden dizziness, as if his internal organs were being violently kneaded and pulled by an invisible giant hand, and then he was suddenly thrown back to his original position.
The intense white light and the heart-pounding spatial fluctuations gradually subsided, and the feeling of solid ground came through, but a high-frequency buzzing lingered in the ears, the afterglow of the stabilization of spatial power.
An indescribable feeling of suffocation washed over me.
It wasn't that the air was thin, but rather that the surrounding energy was so complex and turbulent, like countless streams of different colors colliding violently in a narrow river channel, completely different from the gentle energy in the Xingchuan region he was familiar with.
Shen Xu took a deep breath, trying to calm the turbulent energy within his body caused by the long-distance transmission.
Fortunately, he did not choose to let Uncle Wang and the others ride the inter-domain magic array. Even he could not withstand it, let alone an ordinary old man like Uncle Wang.
"New guy! Get out of the way!" A harsh shout rang in my ears.
He looked up abruptly, the dizziness not yet completely gone, but the scene before him slammed into his mind like a heavy hammer.
He was standing at the edge of an enormous circular plaza.
Above them was a vast, almost blinding sky, with sunlight pouring down without any obstruction, carrying an unfamiliar heat.
As far as the eye could see, there was an unimaginably huge teleportation plaza.
The ground was paved with a huge, dark stone, with faint silver runes flowing through it, cold and hard.
On this cold, dark stone base stand nine enormous magic arrays of different shapes, each shimmering with light.
At this moment, the teleportation array beneath his feet, engraved with intricate and profound runes, was emitting faint spatial fluctuations, and the light of the runes was slowly dimming.
Several other towering teleportation array platforms on the plaza were lighting up or going out one by one.
Each time it lights up, a group of figures with different clothes and expressions appear in the blinding light, distorted by the light.
Shen Xu thought he was fully prepared, but when the scene of Jiuqu City truly came into view, he was still deeply shocked.
"I told you not to block the way, you country bumpkin!" A burly man with a deep accent shoved him aside.
"Stop causing trouble!"
Amidst the clanging sound of metal armor rubbing together, a cultivator clad in black armor trimmed with silver pointed a gleaming halberd at the burly man.
The big man immediately fell silent and then obediently stood at the back of the line.
Around each teleportation array were several such cultivators, standing like cold reefs around the various array platforms.
Their eyes, sharp as eagles, scanned everyone who came in and out, while the prominent Ningchuan Clan emblem on their chests silently proclaimed their identity and authority.
"From Xingchuan Region? Identification jade disc, travel permit!"
A cultivator dressed in the same standard blue and white robe with gold trim stood expressionlessly in front of the crowd, holding a floating jade tablet that emitted a faint light.
In Shen Xu's view, Ning Chuanyu's identity jade disc was entirely a product of cutting-edge technology.
People from other regions who enter Ningchuan Domain need to obtain their own identity jade tablet. The jade tablet is bound to a person's soul and essence. No matter how a person changes their appearance and name, their soul will never change.
Therefore, it is virtually impossible to forge or impersonate it.
It is said that if one becomes a true resident of Ningchuan Domain, this identity jade certificate will have even greater uses.
When it was Shen Xu's turn, the cultivator's jade tablet swept over the jade disc and his body. A faint light flashed, and after seeing his pass, he casually tossed him a rough iron plate engraved with the character "temporary".
"Here you go, this is your temporary identity card."
"Next!" the monk waved his hand impatiently.
Before he could react, he was swept along by the crowd and surged toward the tall archway at the edge of the square.
The archway marks the boundary between two completely different worlds.
As you pass through the archway, the noise suddenly increases more than tenfold.
This place is like a giant funnel, where all the people who have just come out of the teleportation array briefly converge and diverge.
The smells in the air were extremely mixed.
The heat and noise seemed to form a tangible barrier, with wide streets extending in all directions, and shop banners fluttering on both sides, each displaying unique local products from the eight regions.
The streets are lined with buildings of different styles, and flags, banners and lanterns of various colors flutter in the wind, painted with unique totems from different regions.
There are pavilions with carved beams and painted rafters, pavilions with upturned eaves, bamboo houses covered with lush green vines, and workshops with a rough design built of huge dark red stones.
A caravan riding long-haired giant elephants and carrying huge packs slowly passed through the crowd. In the cages on the elephants' backs were brightly colored mythical birds that Shen Xu had never seen before.
Several dancers dressed in revealing gauze dresses, barefoot, with bells tied to their ankles, swayed their bodies to strange drumbeats on a street corner, surrounded by a circle of cheering onlookers.
Every now and then, a tall, powerful puppet carrying a box weighing a thousand pounds would rumble past, causing the ground to tremble slightly.
As far as the eye could see, there were crowds of people, and their clothes and appearances were all very different.
There were burly men covered in blood-red markings, and strange female cultivators dressed in revealing clothes and adorned with bizarre bone ornaments.
There were muscular monks with skin like bronze, and craftsmen riding strange puppet beasts passing by in a hurry.
Several young cultivators, dressed in finery and with arrogant expressions, clearly from Ningchuan Region, were surrounded by guards and walked through the crowd as if no one else was there.
The shouts, conversations, and arguments in various accents merged into a chaotic torrent that was difficult to distinguish, assaulting his eardrums.
"The caravan heading to Jingchuan Domain is short two guards! They must be at least at the mid-stage of the Qi Sea Realm."
"Freshly made 'Azure Spirit Pills,' a specialty of the Azure River Region, guaranteed to be of the highest quality!"
"Get out of the way! Don't block my 'Flame Camel'!"
"Fellow Daoist, need a room? 'Eight Directions Guest House' is clean, inexpensive, and the best choice for gathering information!"
"Ouch! You stepped on my treasure-hunting mouse! Pay up!"
……
At this moment, Shen Xu felt like a country bumpkin who had just arrived in the city, with not enough eyes to see everything.
This is Jiuqu City, the hub connecting the nine regions of Ningzhou.
Chaotic, yet there was a strange, vibrant life force surging within it.
He took a deep breath, letting the air, mixed with countless scents, rush into his lungs. It was slightly spicy and unfamiliar, yet it also brought him a strange sense of excitement.
In his previous life, he couldn't even leave the Tianhe Sword Sect, but in this life, he has come to a much bigger stage.
However, he did not come here to experience the local customs and culture of Ningchuan Region. The goddess had given him limited time, and he had to find a suitable place as soon as possible.
Jiuqu City is a melting pot of all sorts of people, filled with high-level cultivators from other major regions, making it unsuitable for ordinary people to live in.
He needs to find a few targets as soon as possible and then conduct on-site inspections.
At this moment, he remembered what someone had mentioned about the Eight Directions Guest House, where one might be able to find out some useful information and also try the specialties of other regions.
Best of both worlds!