Chapter 9: Perils at Every Turn
The black dragon formed from the metallic lifeform coiled through the mountain skies. Members of the Black Dragon tribe who wished to travel to Imperial Wing City flew over one by one. A sturdy young man stood at the entrance of the passageway that had opened in the metallic lifeform's belly.
"One at a time. Anyone who wants to go to Imperial Wing City, pay five inkstones each!" the sturdy young man shouted nonchalantly.
Over a hundred people wanted to go to Imperial Wing City. Linley and his two companions were naturally among the crowd.
Five inkstones per person meant fifteen inkstones for the three of them. Back when they had sold four lower-grade divine artifacts, they had only obtained twenty inkstones. Now, more than half of that was gone in an instant.
"That's really expensive!" Bebe muttered under his breath.
"Didn't you hear what Parton said?" Linley whispered. "This is the tribe's own people setting out. Only internal tribe members can join. For five inkstones per person, they can travel together. People from other tribes aren't even qualified to board this metallic lifeform."
As they spoke, it was Linley's group's turn.
"Three of us," Linley indicated. He took out two long inkstone bars. Each long bar was equivalent to ten inkstones.
The sturdy young man took them and handed Linley back five small inkstone pieces. "Hurry up, next!" he said impatiently. Linley and the others quickly entered the metallic lifeform.
The interior space of the metallic lifeform was extremely large, divided into a forward cabin and an aft cabin. Anyone who paid five inkstones like Linley was sent to the aft cabin, which had numerous seats automatically formed by the metallic lifeform.
The seats were arranged in rows of four. Linley's group naturally chose the same row.
"I'll take the edge," Bebe said, sitting directly by the innermost side. Through the transparent metal, he could see outside. Dilin and Linley sat on the outside.
"We're finally leaving the Black Dragon tribe," Linley and Dilin exchanged a smile, holding each other's hands. As more tribe members filed in, the seats in the aft cabin became insufficient. A young man with twisted green hair smiled at Linley in greeting and sat down beside him.
"Hello, I'm Debra!" the green-haired young man greeted Linley amiably.
"I'm Linley," Linley nodded back in a friendly manner.
In Hell, status was primarily determined by strength. Debra was only a lower-level god... He could sense that the woman (Dilin) and the youth (Bebe) gave off an aura that intimidated him. Linley, on the other hand, seemed to be a lower-level god.
"Linley, what are you going to Imperial Wing City for?" Debra asked curiously.
"Me? It's my first time in Hell. I want to see Imperial Wing City. I've never been there. What about you?" Linley asked with a faint smile.
Debra lowered his voice and said, "I want to sell a divine artifact, but selling it in the tribe is too much of a loss. So I decided to go to Imperial Wing City to sell it. This is my lucky break. During that big battle half a year ago, I happened to pick up a mid-grade divine artifact down below."
In that great battle, many mid-level gods had fallen. At the time, Linley's group had even killed three mid-level gods and seized their divine cores, artifacts, and spatial rings. During such battles, any ordinary spoils obtained by tribe members didn't need to be handed over to the chief—whoever got them kept them. That was the tribe's rule.
"You're pretty lucky," Linley praised lightly.
"Rumble~"
The metallic lifeform began to move. The violent air currents were split apart as the lifeform instantly turned into a blur, vanishing above the mountain range and leaving the Black Dragon tribe behind.
"It's started," Linley thought to himself.
"From here to Imperial Wing City, it'll take about half a month. That's going to be boring," the green-haired youth Debra muttered helplessly.
"Half a month?" Linley's mind stirred.
He recalled that Quate had once said the nearest city to the Black Dragon tribe, Imperial Wing City, was over ten million miles away. If it took half a month to get there, then this metallic lifeform traveled about a million miles per day.
"Keep your voices down!" Suddenly, a cold shout came from the front. Linley and the others looked up. At the passageway connecting the forward and aft cabins, a golden-haired old man, followed by several mid-level god warriors, stepped into the aft cabin.
"Lord Edmund is here too," Debra whispered in surprise.
"Who is Edmund?" Linley asked quietly.
Debra explained, "Lord Edmund is the chief steward of Chief Steton. I didn't expect him to be going to Imperial Wing City this time. For Lord Edmund to come personally, it must mean the tribe has some big business in Imperial Wing City." Debra's knowledge of the Black Dragon tribe far exceeded Linley's.
Linley glanced curiously at Edmund in the distance.
Chief steward?
"This Edmund should be a high-level god," Bebe's voice echoed in Linley's mind.
Linley nodded inwardly.
Edmund's gaze was cold as he swept his eyes over the crowd in the aft cabin. He said indifferently, "Is anyone here going to Imperial Wing City for the first time? If so, stand up!"
Immediately, two figures in the aft cabin stood up. Linley, Dilin, and Bebe exchanged glances and also stood.
Edmund scanned them and nodded calmly. "Five in total." He then walked toward the nearest three—Linley's group. When he reached them, he saw Debra and smiled. "Debra, you little rascal, you're going too? Tell these three about the things they need to be careful about in Imperial Wing City. If they cause trouble and die, that's their problem. I don't want them to bring a big mess down on the tribe because of their ignorance."
"Yes, my lord. Rest assured, I'll tell them everything they need to know," Debra quickly replied.
Edmund nodded indifferently. "If anything goes wrong, I'll hold you responsible. You three, sit down!"
With that, Edmund walked to the back and similarly ordered someone else to inform the other two about the important matters. After finishing, he led his people out of the aft cabin and back to the forward cabin.
In the forward cabin were Chief Steton's direct subordinates.
"There are things to be careful about in Imperial Wing City?" Linley looked at Debra.
Debra nodded with a smile. "Yes, a few things. First, entering any city in Hell requires an entry fee. The fee is one inkstone per person!"
"How greedy," Linley thought to himself.
Debra continued, "Once inside the city, it's best to stay with the tribe's group and not wander off... because after finishing all business, everyone usually leaves Imperial Wing City the same day and returns to the tribe."
"Leave the same day?" Linley was a bit surprised.
But in his view, this didn't matter much to him. Linley had no intention of returning to the Black Dragon tribe.
"Yes, the same day. Because Imperial Wing City—in fact, all cities in Hell—have a curfew. From midnight to around five in the morning, no one is allowed on the streets. If you're caught... if you're a resident of Imperial Wing City, you might just get punished and released. But if you're not a resident, you'll never return to the Black Dragon tribe," Debra said solemnly.
Linley was startled.
"You mean, if you're caught at night, it's over?" Linley looked at Debra in shock.
Debra nodded seriously. "That's why we usually return to the Black Dragon tribe the same day and never stay overnight in Imperial Wing City. Staying in a hotel there costs over a hundred inkstones per night. Who can afford that?"
"Over a hundred inkstones?" Bebe leaned in.
"Yes," Debra confirmed.
Linley and the others were shocked. The cost of living in Imperial Wing City was terrifying. No wonder Quate had told him it was hard to establish a foothold there.
"Hey, Black Dragon, stop! Passing through Mount Petal, leave some money behind!" A hearty voice rang out, filling the entire metallic lifeform. Everyone in both cabins was alarmed. They all knew—
Trouble. They'd encountered bandits!
"We've only just set off, and we've already run into bandits?" Linley was astonished.
The journey to Imperial Wing City would take nearly half a month. If this was the frequency, how many bandits would they encounter along the way?
Linley glanced at Dilin and Bebe, thinking to himself, "No wonder Parton said back then that if the three of us roamed Hell, we wouldn't last three days. There are just too many bandits and robbers in Hell." Through the transparent glass, Linley could see a large group of people hovering outside. The leader wore a deep green robe, his green hair disheveled, with a single horn on his forehead.
"A horn?"
Linley understood that many other races had different aesthetics from humans. Even when taking human form, they retained features they considered beautiful, like a horn. This bandit leader was probably like that. There were about seventy or eighty people. They had just summoned an elemental beast to block the metallic lifeform.
The green-haired youth Debra smiled and said, "Don't worry, Linley. It'll be fine."
"Hmph! Since when did you occupy Mount Petal? Don't you know this is the Black Dragon tribe's territory?" The chief steward Edmund's voice rang out. At the same time, Edmund and two black-robed figures flew out of the metallic lifeform.
Linley saw the two black-robed figures through the transparent glass and was shocked. "Those are the ones who helped Lord Steton during the battle half a year ago."
Back then, there had been three black-robed figures. One had died, and these were the remaining two.
Above Mount Petal, the metallic lifeform came to a halt. When the nearly eighty divine-level bandits saw the three people emerge, they were terrified. They couldn't see through the strength of any of them... Clearly, all three were high-level gods.
Especially the two black-robed figures, who wore demon badges on their chests.
"Demons!" The bandits were horrified.
They had hit a wall.
Three high-level gods, two of them demons—enough to wipe out all of them.
"My lords, we're truly sorry. We, we made a mistake," the horned green-haired man said in terror.
"Hmph. Get lost. Disappear from my sight!" Edmund shouted coldly.
"Yes, yes!" The horned green-haired man was overjoyed. Without hesitation, he led his men diving downward, vanishing into the depths of Mount Petal in an instant.
Linley sighed inwardly at the scene. These bandits were really weak. But that was only relative to high-level gods. If Linley's group had encountered them, it would have been trouble... After all, they were a group of divine-level experts, with thirty or forty mid-level gods among them.
The metallic lifeform continued on its way.
"Hell really is dangerous," Linley remarked.
"Yes. Only by following the tribe's group do we have a chance to reach Imperial Wing City," Debra sighed. "But Linley, there are safe places in Hell too. Places where there's no danger, where no one dares to act. There, you can live a very secure life!"
"Oh?" Linley was surprised.
Since arriving in Hell, all he had seen was brutal conflict. Hell gave him the feeling that everywhere was filled with slaughter and plunder, full of danger. But from what Debra said, there seemed to be safe places.
"Yes. In Hell, each prefecture has ten cities. The cities are the safest places," Debra said seriously. "Linley, this is something I must remind you of. In Imperial Wing City, absolutely no fighting or killing is allowed. If you're caught, the consequences are even worse than being caught during curfew. Not only will you be finished, but our tribe might also get into trouble!"
"No fighting?" Linley felt a sense of relief instead.
If that was the case, then no one would dare to act in Imperial Wing City.
It seemed...
Imperial Wing City really was a safe place.
"Unfortunately, the entire Yemu Prefecture spans a billion miles, but there are only ten cities. Each city is only about a thousand miles in area. And the cost of living in Imperial Wing City is far too high," Debra shook his head and sighed.