Chapter 1008: Chapter 764 Coming and Going
Soon, Ai Lin, Silver Light, Little Zi, and Xiaodie had all received responses.
Basically, what they encountered was similar to Long Yi. However, because they were all girls, the intimidation tactics used against them were not as evident. Ai Lin and Silver Light were assigned to one family, while Little Zi and Xiaodie were also grouped together.
Although Little Zi emphasized she was only a Female Demon, and moreover, a contracted servant, the instructor didn’t seem to care. Instead, he became even more interested in Little Zi.
Because even in this Plane, Female Demons were extremely rare, and one with such a high degree of independent consciousness and superior magic skills was even rarer.
"You all be careful. This place was once a Giant’s research ship. If anyone learns the Giant’s technology, there could be trouble. So, unless necessary, avoid conflicts with anyone," Long Yi said.
The girls immediately assured Long Yi that they would definitely not cause any trouble for themselves.
After that, Long Yi shared the structure map of the Ancient Mage Tower within the contract, so they could memorize it. Following the map, they learned each other’s locations. In this way, they could look out for each other in case of any danger.
In the following days, Long Yi began the tedious learning process, gaining some understanding of the little society within the Ancient Mage Tower.
The Ancient Mage Tower had always navigated the cosmos in a hidden manner. Its mission was to search for Cosmic Stone fragments and Giant relics scattered across various corners of the Plane. This so-called Ancient Mage Tower was essentially a Giant’s research ship, which, through some of its equipment, could more effectively locate Cosmic Stones and Giant relics. It was by leveraging this capability that the Ancient Mage Tower maintained its lofty position, looking down upon those they referred to as surface dwellers.
It’s said that over the years, the Ancient Mage Tower has collected a vast number of Cosmic Stone fragments and Giant relics. According to the Giant tablet, this spaceship’s power source isn’t the void energy that Long Yi knows, because the ship was built a long time ago when the Giants had not yet mastered that energy. So Long Yi speculated that the ship’s power also came from Cosmic Stones.
Unfortunately, Long Yi didn’t have much opportunity to look around.
Within just a few days, Long Yi discovered the problems here; it was just like Earth’s production lines—rigid and cold. The discipline here was extremely strict, and everyone lived a life as methodical as ants. There were strict schedules for everything, even for eating and going to the bathroom. Instructors would check each student’s learning progress daily, and anyone who failed to keep up would face severe criticism. Those who fell behind for two days were sent to the Extreme Cold Labyrinth. Although Long Yi hadn’t been there, seeing the fearful expressions of his fellow students whenever the Labyrinth was mentioned made it clear that it was no pleasant place.
Except for Long Yi, all the students here were natives of the Ancient Mage Tower. Clearly, they were descendants of prestigious mages, inheriting their family’s honor—serving the Ancient Mage Tower for life.
There were very few forms of entertainment here, and practically everyone Long Yi encountered was studying desperately every day. In fact, the content of the studies here was extensive and complex every day. If Long Yi weren’t a top student familiar with these subjects, he would probably not be much better off than them.
Moreover, a very important point—there seemed to be no possibility of dropping out here.
However, Long Yi didn’t intend to waste his time like this. Now that he had obtained the structural map of this place, it would naturally be unacceptable not to explore it.
There seemed to be a ventilation duct under the floor of Long Yi’s bedroom, according to the identification on the Giant tablet. That night, Long Yi quietly pried open the floorboard. Indeed, there was a ventilation duct, just large enough for Long Yi to barely squeeze through; turning around in it would probably not be so easy.
Following the map, Long Yi slowly moved forward. As he was walking, he suddenly saw a small golem lying flat on the duct, cleaning its interior. When it saw Long Yi, the Golem stopped; Long Yi’s heart started to pound nervously—this little thing wouldn’t sound an alarm, would it?
But the golem simply brushed past Long Yi without any reaction.
Indeed, the internal structure of this spaceship was truly ancient. If this had been a more recent ship, the golem would definitely have recognized Long Yi’s Giant identity.
Long Yi shook his head and continued forward. Just as he was walking, a cover above him was opened, and a short young man jumped down. They faced each other, eye to eye.
"What a coincidence," Long Yi smiled.
The person was actually the same young man who had taken Long Yi on a tour earlier—his name was Ado.
"You..." Ado was clearly startled, his voice trembling. In fact, the real surprise was on Long Yi’s side, but when he saw Ado’s expression, he knew Ado must also be doing something inappropriate.
"I stumbled upon something interesting, so I came down to take a look," Long Yi said with feigned composure.
"I... me too," Ado said awkwardly.
"Ado, come quickly, what are you doing?" a female voice called from above.
"Someone else?" Long Yi smiled.
Then Ado climbed back up, and Long Yi also followed, jumping up. He discovered it was a very cramped small space, all enclosed, but since there was a vent, the air wasn’t stuffy. There were five people in there; Long Yi recognized one of them as Ado, but he didn’t know the others.
"This is Long Yi, a newcomer to my class, a surface dweller," Ado said.
"Surface dweller?" Immediately, the other four crowded around, some even sniffing like puppies.
"What are you doing?" Long Yi asked, puzzled. Weren’t these people supposed to despise surface dwellers?
"We’ve never seen a surface dweller before! Are all surface dwellers as tall as you?" a girl asked.
"Of course not, I’m an exception," Long Yi replied.
"They say surface dwellers carry the smell of earth and rocks, but you only have the smell of sweat," a young man commented.
"Next time, bring the person who taught you that to me, and I’ll give him a lesson myself," Long Yi said.
"They say all surface dwellers are weak, but you were able to enter the noble Ancient Mage Tower. Are you strong then?" another person asked.
"Of course I’m strong," Long Yi said.
"We don’t believe it!" This time, almost everyone spoke in unison.
"If you don’t believe it, come and try, you can all come at once," Long Yi beckoned with a hook of his finger.
But those people shook their heads at the same time: "No way, private fighting is a serious crime, you’d be thrown into the Extreme Cold Labyrinth immediately!"
"No one’s watching here, how about you try first?" Long Yi said nonchalantly, pointing at someone.
"I’m someone who’s going to become a magic researcher, I’m not good at fighting," that person said, shaking his head as though it were only natural.
"How about you?" Long Yi asked.
"I’m going to be a magic equipment operator," that person replied.
"I specialize in magic defense."
"I excel at formula calculations."
A few people said things all at once, each one stating their specialty.
"So, in short, you just won’t fight, right?" Long Yi asked with a smile.
"Yes!" everyone replied immediately.
"Since you are all rule-abiding people, what are you doing here?"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other with confusion, not knowing what to say.
In the end, it was Ado who spoke up first.
"Because we’re all tired of the boring daily routine, and just happened to find this pipe, so we agreed to meet here and chat every day."
Chatting, huh? These kids are so innocent.
"Are you leaving now?" Long Yi asked.
"Yes, we were just about to leave," Ado nodded.
"Then go ahead, I’m going to rest here for a while. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about what happened today," Long Yi said.
The group quickly left, and Long Yi watched as the last one, Ado, disappeared, but shook his head. "Can’t even say thank you."
As part of the Giant airship, this space naturally wasn’t something that just appeared out of nowhere. In fact, it was supposed to be part of the ventilation system, but because it had been abandoned in advance, the equipment was never installed.
Long Yi slowly levitated, discovering another ventilation duct above. Opening the door, he crawled in, and this time the air was much more humid. He could even smell the scent of soil and vegetables.
After crawling forward for quite some time, Long Yi finally reached the end.
He opened the door and jumped out, finding himself in an expansive plantation. Fresh crops were neatly arranged as far as the eye could see, and a large number of golems were working. According to the map on the Giant tablet, this was one of the two hyper-spaces.
At the far end of the place, an old man was looking at Long Yi in surprise.
The old man was dressed in coarse cloth, hunched over, and leaning on a walking stick. He seemed frail, as if a gust of wind could knock him over.
"Where did you come from?" the old man asked.
"I came from where I was," Long Yi replied.
"Where are you going?" the old man asked again.
"I’m going to where I’m headed!" Long Yi said with a smile.
"Came from where you were? Going to where you’re headed? Hahaha, interesting, you’re quite an interesting kid," the old man laughed a few times, then turned and sat down on a chair next to him.
"Is this place the source of the Ancient Mage Tower’s food supply?" Long Yi asked.
"Yes, all the food for the entire Ancient Mage Tower comes from right here, from me alone! Hahaha!" the old man’s face glowed with joy.
"Alone? That’s really remarkable! Why not get some help?" Long Yi asked.
"Get help? Everyone thinks their bloodline is noble, destined to be the strongest mages, who would want to deal with soil in a place like this? Back when I was still a teacher, nobody wanted to attend my classes, they wouldn’t listen even if they were forced to be there and eventually, all of them were replaced. In a fit of anger, I stopped lecturing and started managing these places by myself. With golems to help me, I don’t need any outsiders! It’s a pity these fools think they are so high and mighty, never considering that no matter how powerful they are, without this food, they would have starved to death long ago! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian.com with your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)
