After being ignored for almost a day and a half, as much as I absolutely hate to admit it, their argument makes sense. I do understand that my actions the other day have ramifications, but I regret nothing, given the chance, I'd do the same thing nine out of ten times, explosions are cool. Ok, I'm getting a bad vibe from Aurelia so maybe I'll think about this seriously. From what I've gathered over the past couple of days is that there are two areas the I need to work on the most.
The first is holding back my urges to do anything I think is fun and think more about the consequences of my actions. The more I think about this, the less I want to actually do it. What's the point of life if I'm not doing as I please. For starters, I can try and reign in my actions outside of battle, but there is no way I'm giving up my experiments, especially with the Big Metal Dragons. I can at least stop trying to find new ways to make things explode though.
The second thing I need to work on is my strength. Aurelia is one thing since she's always been strong, but as it stands, Lia will surpass me soon and Wanjing should be close to completing her conversion into a full Taotie. Once Yue meets up with us I really need her to introduce me to the Demigod who she thinks can teach me. Both she and Dai Jiang seem to think her abilities suit me, so I'll take their word for it.
In the meantime, I need to eat, and this time not just for the sake of good food. I need biomatter and a lot of it at that. If I'm reading the mutations right, after two more spacial mutations I'll have the essence I need. The only problem is their cost, the Spacial Essence Formation mutation will cost me 250,000kg of biomatter and to even have the chance a to obtain it, I need to first get the Spacial Interference mutation which costs 120,000kg of biomatter. Both of these mutations cost far more than all the biomatter I've consumed in my life, maybe even more than both lives.
After a few more hours of travel, Lia finds an empty spot devoid of people to land. But to be sure we fly around the area for a bit longer so I can bring a dense fog in to hide our landing. At first, I wanted to clear mountains of their vegetation and any small creature I can instantly kill. But after this isn't like the isolated island of Eon, something like that would attract way too much attention. I've just messed up with that explosion from before so I can't go causing trouble like that again so soon.
Sharing my thoughts with the others, both Lia and Aurelia seemed satisfied. Since it is as Aurelia said before, there is a chance of us being known criminals now, so I proposed that once we get near Zhongyang, we have Aurelia go in and get some information. As the strongest and most versatile among us, she is the best choice for the job as she should be able to deal with most problems that arise. Wanjing says that it probably won't be much of an issue, but Aurelia and Lia want to play it safe.
Lia chose a nice place to land, as according to Wanjing, we aren't far from Zhongyang so it shouldn't take too long for us to reach the outskirts of the city. As we begin to head towards the city, Wanjing starts to share what she knows about it.
"The most important thing that you should know is that Zhongyang is not beholden to any of the three powers in Shengdi. I'm sure that they hold some degree of influence in the city, but for all intents and purposes, Zhongyang is an independent city-state as well as the largest city in Shengdi. It has two other names, the 'Border City', as it sits on the border of Shenzhou, Yamato, and Samhan. But the other is the 'Impregnable Fortress', it has large sturdy walls that surround the entire city that is far superior to the defences of other cities," Wanjing explains.
"What does the city do when under siege? After all, as a city-state, it doesn't have any reinforcements," Lia asks.
"The city is, of course, self-sufficient with its food production well protected within the walls so in theory, as long as the walls stand so does Zhongyang. But the city isn't exactly without reinforcements, there are many sects that are located in the area around Zhongyang which aren't beyond lending the city a hand."
"But they aren't exactly loyal to the city, are they? They are more like mercenaries in this case, and just like any mercenary, they can be bought off," Aurelia says.
"Right, if I recall correctly, this has actually happened once in the past, Aunt Jiang should actually know more about this as she participated in the defence of the city. But from what I heard, it was one of the rare times when the three Empires actually worked together."
"She was a participant? Just how long ago was this and what happened?" I ask.
"It was close to 800 years ago. Just as Aurelia said, the three Empires paid off almost all the sects that had been lending military aid and turned traitor. But even that wasn't enough as the city still stands independent to this day. As the Treasury HQ is located in there, it was a major backer for the defence of Zhongyang and it was their success in the war that allowed them to spread all over Shengdi unimpeded. But the biggest contribution was the ruling power of Zhongyang, the Council of Zhongyang. It's made up of twelve Demigods that make up all the decisions of the city. It's their presence that allows Zhongyang to be an independent city to this day."
She went on to explain that it's because of this independent status that even if we are considered criminals in Shenzhou, so long as we don't cause trouble in Zhongyang then there isn't anything Shenzhou can do to us. But even so, Aurelia still wanted to make absolutely sure and insisted on sticking to the plan.
It didn't take long before we arrived at the city walls and Aurelia went ahead to ask around the city guards and the various people around. She came back saying he worries were for nought as although we are indeed wanted in Shenzhou now, Wanjing was right and it doesn't extend to Zhongyang. Although if we are out of the city's walls bounty hunters and Shenzhou's forces are free to do as they please, but so long as we are within the confines of the city they won't be able to do anything.
Looking at the walls of the city, they definitely surpass anything I've seen so far in this world. Their height is the highest I've seen, even at my full size, I'd find it difficult to get over these walls. They're also the thickest I've, even if Gaoh came charging at these walls I'm not sure it would amount to much. The walls of Zhongyang are very different from most others as they are made of some kind of metal, maybe I can sneak a bit of it and find out what it's made of later. But looking up, though difficult to see, there seems to be a multitude of anti-air and all sorts of ranged weapons on the top of the wall. Certainly deserving of the name Impregnable Fortress.