Chapter 118: Chapter 104: Small Station
Long Yi was indeed not idle. Upon stepping into this barely traversed jungle, he truly understood the breadth of the world. As Bajie reined in his Dragon Might, various ferocious beasts constantly launched attacks. Of course, creatures at the common level were entirely ignored. However, the powerful creatures capable of deploying Fighting Aura skills and even Magic genuinely piqued Long Yi’s interest.
Most of these creatures evolved from ordinary beings. They were stronger, larger, and more cunning. One must regard these creatures as equal opponents in a fight. Compared to humans’ combat skills, these creatures’ ways of fighting might not be the strongest, but they were the most effective. Their only principle in combat was to deliver a lethal blow to the enemy as quickly as possible. Long Yi and Ai Lin learned a lot from their confrontations with these powerful creatures, and they kept improving their combat styles. Ai Lin especially, whose attack style required swift lethality, absorbed a great deal of experience from these battles, whether straightforward or covert, gradually honed her edge.
Since that battle, Long Yi deliberately positioned himself behind Ai Lin, allowing her to fight alone and adapt to combat. At first, Ai Lin sustained some injuries, but later, she grew more skilled. Her armguards were enough to withstand most enemies’ attacks. She could even dodge an enemy’s attack path before they launched their attacks.
Although Ai Lin was once timid, Long Yi admired her will. Regardless of how injured or tired she was, she always wore a smile and never complained.
Meanwhile, Little Zi, the young female demon who had grown familiar with Long Yi and the others, also gradually found her role.
A maid...
Before becoming a female demon, Little Zi was a maid in a noble family. She received systematic training and each of her movements was in total accordance with the standards of the most excellent maids. Taking care of others was her expertise.
For example, Little Zi’s cooking skills could rival those of high-end hotel chefs. At least, Bajie had grown dismissive of the food Long Yi made.
As a female demon, Little Zi did not need to fight to train herself, so she took on all the tasks directly. During her free time, she kept coaching Long Yi on etiquette, encouraging him to act as a noble.
Little Zi believes that it is only a matter of time before a powerhouse like Long Yi enters the upper class society, and sophistication is the first attribute of the elite class - something that must be practiced!
Long Yi had always disciplined himself militaristically, which wasn’t appropriate for the so-called noble world. Each gesture, each stride, the expression before he spoke, the details of his clothes, and dining etiquette. Ai Lin had known these things since she was young, and Long Yi found studying them quite interesting.
Along the way, Long Yi and the others were fairly lucky. They encountered many monsters and reaped a decent harvest. However, they hadn’t run into any monsters as strong as their initial encounter. Generally, the trio of Long Yi, Ai Lin, and Little Zi could handle most threats. In between battles, Long Yi wondered: These monsters can use Fighting Aura, and Mana, so what’s the point of calling it Dragon Fighting Aura? And the Fighting Aura he was using as a Giant didn’t have any significant differences in essence.
Upon considering it further, there was no difference between the Fighting Aura or Mana deployed by the monsters, the Giant magic he used, the Dragon Power used by Little Zi, or even the magic she used.
In that case, is there any point to chanting in Dragon language when casting a spell? Little Zi did not need to chant Dragon language when casting magic, and naturally, monsters would never chant. It’s only humans who need to chant in the Dragon language when casting magic. So why can’t the Dragon Clan, who naturally speak Dragon language, cast magic?
This matter was full of weirdness, leaving Long Yi completely perplexed internally. Why would my mother seal my memories? Knowing the existence of a riddle but unable to solve it is truly baffling!
After moving forward for almost a month, they finally arrived at their first checkpoint of the journey.
The station was built on a flat open area in the valley. The Empire had expended considerable manpower and resources to transport a large amount of supplies here. They had also set up an information transmission station, which allowed people to send their information to another part of the Empire via magic. From there, the staff would forward it to their homes.
Isn’t this a telegraph service?
The station was not small, covering hundreds of meters of cleared and leveled land, with neatly arranged tents of various sizes. There were all kinds of supply points lined up, giving the place a very professional layout.
By the time Long Yi arrived, there were already quite a few people gathered within the station. It appeared that over half of them were students from the Dragon Rider school, and most of the remaining people were their bodyguards. Among the crowd, one could occasionally spot freelance hunters. They did not take on assignments, they only hunted monsters for money. The Empire allowed these freelance hunters to exist, under the guise of promoting competition.
Long Yi strolled into a tent with hanging kitchenware. It was a restaurant, with a line of tents behind it for accommodations. The restaurant owner was a kindly-faced, big-bearded man. He informed Long Yi with a cheerful smile that crystal cores were the only form of payment accepted at any outpost within the empire - no currency. This was to prevent people from staying indefinitely, as the loss of crystal cores would directly lead to a loss of merit, something no one could tolerate.
Perhaps his timing was off as there were no diners. Long Yi was in luck, two tents were available, one for Ai Lin and himself. Bajie would follow Long Yi, and Little Zi would follow Ai Lin. One tent required two Tier 3 crystal cores, and Long Yi paid a total of four. Ai Lin’s eyes seemed to be on fire. Such hard-earned cores given away to this swindler; it was infuriating.
Nevertheless, the swindler informed them that these four crystal cores could be partly counted toward their merit. Ai Lin immediately perked up at this.
Delighted, Long Yi decided to splurge, paying two more Tier 1 crystal cores for two buckets of bathwater. He deserved a good soak. Ai Lin fully supported this decision. Although her whole body was covered in fine scales that kept her clean, she was, after all, a girl that liked cleanliness.
"By the way, where is everyone?" Long Yi asked the owner.
"A couple of the kids started fighting, their followers joined in, so they decided to settle it in the square. They bet that the loser would give all of their crystal cores to the winner. So, everyone went out to enjoy the show," laughed the owner.
"Aren’t you worried they’ll dine and dash?" Long Yi asked jokingly.
"Ha, not here. At our place, you pay with crystal cores before you eat!" the owner said with a big laugh.
The tents behind the restaurant were small, just about filled by a folding wooden bed and a bathtub. The tub had a built-in heating function; it would heat up if injected with Fighting Aura or Mana. Surprisingly, the owner provided Long Yi with an extra-large bathtub. Without ceremony, Long Yi stripped and jumped in, injecting it with Mana. The water slowly heated up and eventually started to boil. Thanks to his giant bloodline, normal temperatures didn’t bother Long Yi, and this boiling water felt just right. It’d been far too long since his last soak. It was doing wonders for his circulation and relaxation!
The tent did have one downside, though, the thin walls. Laying in his tub, Long Yi would occasionally hear peculiar clapping sounds from the neighboring tent, along with muted groans.
Even though he was a proud virgin, Long Yi could still understand the implications. He closed his eyes in envy, picturing Elsa in his mind, recalling the soft touch he’d never really explored.
What should he do? Could he only rely on Little Left and Little Right?
Although he kept injecting small amounts of Mana to re-boil the water, Long Yi quickly found the water cooling down faster. Thus, he had to inject Mana at an increased rate, but strangely, the water was cooling down even faster.
"Little Zi!"
Long Yi called out, and Little Zi, smiling, floated up from just under the tub’s waterline, only her head emerging.
"What are you doing?" Long Yi asked.
"Of course, I’m looking after Master! You know, Master, if the water is too hot, it can harm certain things. Master is a strong man, so the water temperature has to be just right! Just look at your maid, working so hard for Master’s welfare. And yet Master scolds me. Poor Little Zi, so unfortunate to have such a harsh master, boohoo..."
As she spoke, Little Zi slowly sunk back into the water leaving Long Yi feeling a mixture of amusement and bewilderment, not knowing what to say.
After a while, feeling the now icy water, Long Yi’s heated mood cooled down, and he decided to finish his short-lived indulgence.
Sigh, I’m not an old man. Why am I wasting my time soaking in hot water?
