A storm had gathered during the night, and the ground was covered in tiny hail stone, making it difficult to walk. As such, Rihanna once again found herself on the back of her special ride. Palatun swayed from side to side, his large hooves crushing the tiny ice-drops to smithereens, as the group made for the shortest path to Core City.
They had already been on their way for the last ten days, and as such they should be entering the No-Man's land by afternoon on the next day. Though the No-Man's lands were highly toxic, there were Array Bridges connecting the Core City to the Inner Circle of each Prefecture at specific times. As such all people going in or coming out from the Core City, could only go in or come out when the bridges were activated.
The bridges were activated twice a day, once during late morning, and once after the first sun went down. As such there was bound to be a large line. They could only hope the lines would not be too long.
"Hey! What's up with all these random caravans we keep passing by? I haven't seen as many caravans anywhere in the outer and inner and outer circles as I have seen in just the past few days."
Currently the path they were on wound through a line of hills. Though this the path a bit more treacherous, it was also shorter in length. Though it was a bit too much for commoners, cultivators though nothing of taking this path to lessen the hassles.
"They all seem to be commoners. Are they all coming from the Core City? Since when did the Core City have so many commoners?"
"They might be a returning convoy of laborers. Maybe the Core City is undergoing some major reconstruction or building something new."
"In which world have you been living till now! When has there ever been any kind of building and renovating in the Core City. Do you not know building or renovating even a single wall requires layers of permissions and authority clearances from the Four Major Clans and the Gavarnum? Moreover, there are so many caravans we have already passed....what ever in the world are they building? The entire city?!"
"Wait, wait! Look at that last caravan....look inside...see those clothes?! They are definitely not clothes from our country!"
"What the....! Aren't those the clothes of commoners of Ruaan-Jamphu?! Look, that is the only country which has a separate style of clothing's given to the commoners of the country. And that dress looks exactly like it!"
All the three, Rihanna, Ye Luo and Artreya had been keeping an eye on the passing caravans while also paying attention to the gossip flying around them. Since the path was too long, and there could be unforeseen dangers, the Sect Leader, or Ye Luo's Master had stubbornly insisted that they join the Landain Mercenary group, which was also the largest Mercenary group in Landain City, the city nearest to the Ancient Beast Aura Sect. This city was also under the Sect, and hence it was pretty common for Sect disciples to be travelling with their mercenary groups. That way, the disciples had an extra layer of protection.
And the trio found these people interesting in more ways than one. Especially Rihanna. Till now she had either been travelling alone or with the two people she had befriended. Now she found that there were a lot of similarities between people from earth and the people in this world. Especially their love for gossip!
Not that she minded. It made her relax, and the overshadowing somberness of Beibei seemed to have gone down by quite a bit. Moreover....gossip also meant free information. She had come to know a lot without even having to ask a lot of questions!
"Why is the Gavarnum allowing commoners from Ruaan-Jamphu to enter our lands? Do we not have enough commoners ourselves! What is the meaning of filling up our lands with more and more commoners.....who will answer for all the resources needed to sustain so many extra baggage?!"
Rihanna frowned. Though she could somewhat understand the issues of sudden migration of large hordes of people from one country to another, the issues between commoners and cultivators ran much deeper. It had almost become a part of their inherited DNA. Even 200,000 years ago, it was the same. It was a shame that they refused to see that both belonged to the same species.
Ye Luo leaned over, seeing which Artreya too leaned over, and Rihanna found herself caught in between the two. She glanced helplessly at the gossipy-face of Artreya and then glanced at Ye Luo's serious face with a sigh.
"Does the Sect have any news about this? What is the current situation in Ruaan-Jamphu?"
"I am not sure. Master did say that there does seem to be something happening since the Seven Parayasei have suddenly closed down their borders, and everyone going in and coming out are under heavy scrutiny. I didn't know about these commoners coming to Madsa-Tamu though."
"Well looking at the number of caravans we have passed, I'd say that this migration of commoners have started recently."
"Hmmm....perhaps we'll get more news once we reach Falanderie City. Oh.....don't we need to make a stop at Gwalange Passage for you to fetch the Abyss Token. We should be crossing it tomorrow at day-break. I'll remind Sarconei to make a stop at the Passage Gates."
Rihanna nodded sub-consciously, her mind still connecting the layout of the regions. Madsa-Tamu was bordered by Ruaan-Jamphu on the north-east, north and north east and Abarone-Tengai on the south and south east, with a minor part of south-west touching a small part of Feyin-Damaya. However, the point where it did touch Feyin-Damaya was intercepted by a region called Illusion Waters, which actually belonged to the lands of Feyin-Damaya. Thus, to travel from Madsa-Tamu to Feyin-Damaya, one had to go through Ruaan-Jamphu or Abarone-Tengai, since there was no known ways of crossing over the Illusion Waters.
Ruaan-Jamphu was the largest of the five countries, but it was also one of the most unstable ones. Around seventy thousand years ago, the country of Ruaan-Jamphu, which had a similar structure of governance as Madsa-Tamu, fell under the continuous internal strife raging within the country, and the entire country broke up into seven large regions, or as they were called, the Seven Parayasei. Though on the outside they still continued as one country with one name, the internal strife had continued, and the borders of the Parayasei's were known to b the most volatile and dangerous areas.
Rihanna turned towards Ye Luo, her brows furrowed as she was still sunk in her thoughts. Both the boys felt helpless, knowing that she was about to start another barrage of questions. She never stopped till her curiosity was satisfied. It was no wonder that Artreya, alias Kunwa had had to read so extensively inside the dimension, as she was always hounding him with questions he had no answer to. Moreover she herself read a lot. He could have turned a blind eye to it before, but now, how could he not keep ahead when his own master was sprinting in all directions!
"But the Seven Parayasei have always had their differences and internal problems have been rampant all over Ruaan-Jamphu ever since the Gavarnum of the country got taken over by the Parayasei. Why is the Gavarnum of Madsa-Tamu suddenly showing so much of benevolence and accepting so many commoners from Ruaan-Jamphu?"
"You mean....there is some kind of a deal between Ruaan-Jamphu and Madsa-Tamu? Our Gavarnum has never rejected any of the bordering countries overtly, but it has never shown excessive interest in any of the Parayasei either."
"But then....that would mean that it not Ruaan-Jamphu who is throwing out the commoners from their lands..."
".....But Madsa-Tamu is accepting these commoners, perhaps even has some kind of a deal with the Parayasei's to send all their commoners to our country."
"....Doesn't that sound too far-fetched! What in the world would out Gavarnum do with so many commoners?"
The three fell silent. Each had their own speculations regarding this strange scene. Rihanna for one was busy wondering if there was some sort of a hidden experimentation going on somewhere in Madsa-Tamu, for which they required a lot of commoners. Having seen the fates of Su Caiwei and the others in the labs of the Su Clan had indeed shaped her mind-set. However....why not use the commoners of Madsa-Tamu and instead bring in commoners from another country. This made no sense....as the person from the mercenary group said....it was a wastage of resources.
How she wished she could read through the minds of these passing people. Unfortunately, the path they had chosen was much above the lines of the valley, and her sensory perceptions were not quite strong enough to cover such large distances.
"Since the number of caravans passing us have been on the increase, there may be many more heading our way. And they will have to come through Falanderie City. Maybe we can catch onto some more information when we make a stop there."
Ye Luo nodded in agreement. Apart from Core City, each prefecture had one large city, belonging to the Main Clan governing the prefecture, and they were simply called the Governing Cities.. The main family of the clan resided in the Core City, whereas the next in command resided in the Governing Cities. They held a great amount of power, next only to the Main Family.
And these cities were at the apex of each prefecture. Which meant, every person and creature coming from or going to the Core City, had to pass through the Governing City. Indeed, that could be the only place where they could find all information regarding these activities.
However, as far as Rihanna was aware, neither the Core City nor the Governing Cities had any commoners. She wondered where all these commoners were being put up. Never mind, they would come to know about it when they reached the city itself.
Currently, Ye Luo had diverted her attention to another important part of this journey. Getting the Abyss Token. Though many people could get such token from the branches in order to attend these auctions and markets of the Abyss in various locations, however a White Token was Quite uncommon. She couldn't catch too much of attention, especially since she was hiding her own cultivation. She knew that the yellow tokens were available at these branches of the Abyss. Perhaps she should buy a couple for herself and Artreya to avoid suspicion.
Which again brought her to another stressful issue...money!
She had accumulated a lot of spirit stones, but then she ended up in the dimension. And since Beibei had no knowledge of the outside world, she had lavishly used these spirit stones for various experimentations. Now she had a pile of currency from the dimension which had no value in these lands, and was in serious shortage of spirit stones, the actual form of currency in the outside world!
How in the world was she going to recover all the spirit stones she had melted away blissfully inside the dimension!