285: Chapter 286 Stepping into the City

In this completely purged underground cavern, the group of Earth-Cave Demon Sheep that had once occupied this place and struck terror into the hearts of weaker monsters nearby was wiped from existence without even a chance to struggle.

Just as the name of the skill "World Purifying Flame" cast by Alice implied, after the golden flames containing holy purifying power swept through, only scorched marks and the lingering heat in the air remained at the cave entrance. Rocks had melted and resolidified, forming strange glass-like surfaces. Those hideous demon sheep, along with any traces of their existence, had vanished into nothingness within the flames.

It is worth mentioning that when Alice used the "Cooperative Linkage" trait to cast skills originating from "Feng Ling", the continuous burning effect of the Phoenix True Fire attached to "World Purifying Flame" could indeed take effect, which greatly enhanced the skill's follow-up damage. However, other powerful passive talents of "Feng Ling" herself could not be inherited by other maidens through "Cooperative Linkage". These passive effects only triggered when "Feng Ling" cast the spell herself. This could be considered a small limitation of the "Cooperative Linkage" trait: it could share the skill library, but could not replicate unique personal talents.

Once the threat of the Earth-Cave Demon Sheep was instantly eliminated, the spatial rift connecting the two worlds completely stabilized, expanding to a size large enough for people to pass through easily. Gray, chaotic energy swirled at the edges of the rift, emitting stable spatial fluctuations.

Following this, Lin Muyang stepped out of the rift with composure, followed closely by the Yama Maiden Gui Wanwan, who only reached his shoulder and had short, neat black hair. This was not her first time executing such a cross-world teleportation mission, but it was her first time performing a cross-world operation with Lin Muyang. A trace of imperceptible nervousness would unconsciously reveal itself on her cold, delicate face. She was not worried about her own abilities, but rather terrified that any slight mishap during the process might affect Lin Muyang.

However, looking at the current situation, her operation was precise and stable. Without external interference, maintaining such a cross-world channel had become increasingly familiar to her.

When Lin Muyang and Gui Wanwan both stepped onto the land of the Atlantis World, the first thing they felt was the air rushing towards them, which was completely different from that of Blue Star. The air here seemed heavier, containing more active and chaotic energy particles of various kinds. The Aura of monsters surged from all directions like an invisible tide, varying in strength and rising and falling. With their current perception abilities, which far exceeded common logic, all life activities and energy disturbances within a radius of dozens of kilometers were as clear as looking at the lines on one's own palm.

The instant annihilation of the Earth-Cave Demon Sheep group did not cause much of a stir in this wilderness of the Eternal Night Side, where monsters ran rampant and the law of the jungle prevailed. It neither alerted other nearby monster groups nor disturbed any Atlantis Class Transferees who might be in floating cities thousands of kilometers away. For this area, which had been basically abandoned by humans, occasional energy fluctuations were perfectly normal.

"Temporarily safe." Lin Muyang quickly sensed the surroundings and nodded to the two maidens, "Let's go, let's go outside and take a look first."

Upon hearing this, Alice's face immediately showed a gleeful expression. She floated lightly to Lin Muyang's side, naturally reached out her arm to link with his, her light blue eyes full of curiosity and anticipation. Gui Wanwan stood quietly on Lin Muyang's other side like the most loyal shadow guard, her cold eyes vigilantly scanning the surrounding environment, especially the traces left by the Earth-Cave Demon Sheep that had fled deep into the cave. Although they were insignificant, she habitually cleared away any clues that might point to them.

The three of them walked outward along the winding passage of the cave. The pungent smell of the Earth-Cave Demon Sheep and traces of monster activity still lingered in the passage, but under the lingering might of "World Purifying Flame", these scents were rapidly dissipating.

When they finally walked out of the dark cave and stood on a desolate mountain ridge shrouded in eternal night, the scene before them made even Lin Muyang, who had been mentally prepared, narrow his eyes slightly.

Looking up, the canopy was not purely dark. In the deep night sky, stars were densely scattered like shattered diamonds, and the Milky Way stretched across, so clear it felt within reach. This was somewhat similar to the starry sky at night on Blue Star, but it seemed even more brilliant and closer. However, what was completely different from the starry sky of Blue Star was that beneath this sea of stars, it was not empty. On the extremely distant horizon, some tiny but steadily glowing points of light were faintly visible, arranged in regular or irregular shapes; those were the few floating buildings constructed in the high altitude of the Eternal Night Side, used for observation or executing special missions. They were like gems pinned to the night curtain, silently fulfilling their duties.

Because the Eternal Night Side always faced away from the star, there was no daylight here, only eternal stars and the occasional magical glow streaking across the sky. Cold was the main theme here, and bone-chilling winds howled across the vast, frost-covered wilderness.

"Those must be the eyes set up by humans on the sun-facing side, right?" Lin Muyang pointed to those distant points of light. "There aren't many of them, and their vigilance should mainly be targeted at large-scale monster anomalies. If we are careful, it won't be a big problem."

He stretched out his arms and gently wrapped them around the waists of Alice and Gui Wanwan. The next instant, the three of them seemed to merge into the night, their figures becoming blurry, transparent, and finally disappearing completely. Immediately afterward, a powerful force lifted them, and they rose silently into the sky, speeding toward the sun-facing side of the planet—the direction of the floating city clusters where humans mainly resided—at a speed far exceeding the speed of sound, yet without causing any energy ripples.

At their current speed, crossing the distance of a hemisphere did not take too long. Soon, the pitch-black horizon ahead began to be replaced by a hazy halo of light. As the distance closed, the halo gradually became clearer and expanded, finally transforming into a magnificent scene floating above the sea of clouds, shrouded in the soft light of the star.

That was a massive floating city. Visually, its base was about four or five kilometers away from the land occupied by monsters below. The city's architectural style was mixed; it had both magic spires reaching into the clouds and domed academy-style buildings, as well as a large number of neatly arranged residential buildings and commercial districts. The entire city was shrouded by a visible, pale golden magic barrier that looked like an inverted glass bowl, the surface of the barrier shimmering with flowing light, with runes faintly appearing.

With Lin Muyang's perception, he could easily judge that the average strength of the residents living in this city was far inferior to that of the luxurious building complex he had seen from high altitude earlier. But even so, the core area of the city faintly emitted several Auras that reached above level 400, which could be called experts. This was enough to show that in the Atlantis World, being able to live in a floating city several kilometers off the ground itself required a certain level of strength or status as a threshold.

"There is a large composite magic barrier at the edge of the city," Lin Muyang observed the pale golden light film. "The functions are very comprehensive; it can not only resist external attacks but also restrict internal personnel from entering and exiting at will. I'm afraid it also has functions like identity verification and energy monitoring... The management is much stricter than Blue Star."

He did not intend to activate the "Barrier Degeneration" Aura for the time being. The effect of that Aura was too overbearing; once activated, all barrier-type effects within range would become invalid, which would inevitably cause a violent reaction from the city's defense system, equivalent to directly announcing that there were intruders.

Instead, he activated another more covert Aura, "Magic Void".

The effect of this Aura was to allow the blessed target to temporarily enter a state of magic insulation. It immunized against magic damage and most non-offensive, continuously effective magic effect influences, such as barrier obstruction, tracking marks, negative status application, and so on. At the same time, this insulation was bidirectional and peaceful; when they passed through the barrier, they would not trigger the barrier's alarms or counterattacks, just like a harmless breeze passing through a filter.

Under the dual cover of "Divine Concealment" and "Magic Void", Lin Muyang led the two maidens like three transparent ghosts, easily penetrating the seemingly sturdy pale golden barrier without causing a single ripple.

Entering the interior of the barrier, the full view of the city was displayed more clearly before their eyes. The streets were wide and clean, paved with some kind of glowing stone, appearing bright even under the star's light. The buildings on both sides were arranged in a staggered and orderly fashion with diverse styles, but generally carried a thick trace of magical civilization; tiny protective runes were engraved on the windows, crystals absorbing light energy were embedded in the roofs, and streetlights were floating magic orbs. Pedestrians moved back and forth; some were in a hurry, others were strolling leisurely, their clothing varied, but most were convenient for movement, and many people carried weapons or staves on them. Occasionally, magic flying shuttles of various shapes or Class Transferees riding flying mounts swept through the air, all orderly.

"It's not easy to come to another world, so there's no need to keep our spirits too tightly wound." Lin Muyang let go of the hands holding the two maidens and said with a soft smile, "Since we're in, let's take the opportunity to experience the atmosphere of this world and collect some intelligence."

"I have long been curious about the urban life of this world!" Alice's eyes lit up as she curiously examined everything around her. For this Vampire Progenitor who had lived in an underground castle since childhood, the vibrant, orderly floating city before her was like a brand-new, bizarre, and colorful world.

Gui Wanwan sniffed slightly; the air held the complex scent unique to the city, a mixture of magic materials, food spices, and the atmosphere of human life. She still maintained her vigilance, but her tense nerves relaxed slightly.

The three of them maintained their "Divine Concealment" state, flying low along a wide main road. They observed that because this city was fixed by magic and always faced the star, there was no alternation of day and night here. People seemed to use the huge magic clock tower in the center of the city to unify timekeeping, and the pace of life remained regular. Shops on both sides of the street were open as usual, noisy sounds came from taverns, young apprentices were practicing magic in the academy area, and people were trading in the market...

"It seems that the people here have adapted to this life of eternal daylight." Lin Muyang mused, "The concept of time relies on a public timing system, and biological clocks probably also need magic or drugs to be regulated. The social operation is quite orderly."

He also noticed that the racial composition of the residents in the city was no different from Blue Star humans; there were Eastern faces and Western features, with various hair and eye colors, but they all belonged to the human category. This made him breathe a sigh of relief; at least in terms of appearance, the three of them would not appear too abrupt.

"Stanro City seems to be a city of mixed immigrants." Lin Muyang recalled the city nameplate he had glimpsed while observing from high altitude earlier, "That's best; if we appear, it won't attract special attention."

He found a secluded, narrow alley located between two tall buildings, where some abandoned magic material boxes were piled up in the depths of the alley, rarely visited by anyone.

"Let's disable invisibility and walk around normally," Lin Muyang said.

The "Divine Concealment" state was quietly removed. As if an invisible veil had been lifted, the surrounding scenery instantly became more vivid, and the colors became fuller. Sounds also seemed to become clear, as if they were no longer behind a layer of glass; the time-telling sound of the distant magic clock tower, the conversations and laughter on the street, and the hawking of shops soliciting business all flooded into their ears at once.

"The monetary system also seems to be based on magic crystals," Lin Muyang whispered to the two maidens. He had already glimpsed the currency used in several trading places while flying earlier; it was a kind of standard magic crystal coin that had been cut and magically marked. "Let's go to a place where there are many people and information flows quickly first. Let's find a lively-looking tavern or restaurant, listen to what the latest rumors are, and by the way, get a general idea of the top experts in this world."

This kind of basic information should belong to the category of common knowledge in a mature Class Transferee civilization that had developed for hundreds of years. Just like on Blue Star, people who care slightly about current events know what level the top Nation-Guarding Level Experts are roughly at. Here, going directly to archives or libraries to look it up would certainly be faster, but those places are often heavily guarded and equipped with higher-level magic restrictions, which could easily alert the enemy. It is better to start from the streets first.

The three of them walked out of the alley and merged into the flow of people on the street. The stunningly beautiful faces of Alice and Gui Wanwan immediately attracted the gazes of many passersby. Such beautiful women could not help but make even the knowledgeable Atlantis residents take a few extra looks.

Lin Muyang was already used to this, walking in front with a calm expression, his eyes scanning the signs along the street, looking for a suitable target. Alice looked around curiously, full of freshness for everything. Gui Wanwan followed quietly half a step to Lin Muyang's side, her eyes lowered, but her perception had already quietly spread out like a spider web, capturing all the conversations and energy fluctuations around them.