Chapter 1242: Chapter 990: Visiting Tour
All of the Teleportation Arrays of Ghost Spirits City of the Okaman had been destroyed, save for one, which Elsa and Suolin entered in the company of a group of Okaman Pioneers. However, the other end of the Array was not the Okaman’s planet but a desolate one, where a newly built Teleportation Array stood alone on a mountain top. It looked incomplete due to rushed construction, with many parts not yet fully built. Yet, the main body of the Teleportation Array was complete, not only complete but seemed as if it had been moved from somewhere else.
Next to the Array, there was a small, dilapidated spaceship parked. Compared to the streamline, patterned, and decorated spaceships of the Celestial Clan, the one before them looked more cobbled together from scrap iron. Not to mention the exposed large rivets, some places were even fixed with rebar piercing through holes! And in some spots, there were even large planks of wood!
A spaceship made of wooden planks, yet still capable of traveling through the universe – leaving aside the spaceship itself, the physical qualities of these Okaman people were truly astonishing.
The flickering light of the Teleportation Array alerted the Okaman people below the spaceship. Those people stood up, looking over from a distance. Compared to the average Okaman, they were smaller, but their bodies were stronger than those of the Okaman Pioneers; they mainly handled technical tasks within Okaman groups.
"Good heavens! Am I seeing things? Did those Pioneers actually capture Princess Elsa?" a technician shouted.
"Clearly, you are mistaken. I’m here as a guest," Elsa replied.
"What?" The group of technicians was so scared that they fell back onto the ground.
"Don’t ask foolish questions. Princess Elsa has decided to visit the Great Elder’s council, quickly start the spaceship," said the first captured Okaman Pioneer.
A group of people boarded the spaceship, which had no seats whatsoever, just some tattered blankets thrown on the floor. A group of Okaman Pioneers picked up the blankets from the ground to wrap themselves in, and a blanket was handed over to Elsa. She glanced at the symbolic blanket full of holes and shook her head.
The spaceship took off and soon entered the vacuum of space. It instantly became ice cold, and the air vanished, while those Okaman Pioneers huddled together. The cockpit of the spaceship was sealed, but this cargo area behind was completely exposed to the universe!
Elsa smiled and shook her head. She stirred her mana and completely enclosed the cabin, while also releasing air from her private space, and then heated the inside of the cabin with a spell. The Okaman Pioneers unfolded from their huddled positions, looking at Elsa with amazement.
"To be able to travel through space without any use of mana, your adaptability is indeed surprising," Elsa said.
"No need to be surprised. Every space journey half of us get frozen to death," said an Okaman Pioneer.
"Were you created by gods or giants?" Elsa suddenly asked.
"Unsurprisingly, it was the gods," said an Okaman Pioneer, perhaps due to the goodwill Elsa had shown, the pioneers were less resistant.
"After they created you, did the gods not help you any further?" Elsa continued.
"The gods granted us unparalleled adaptability; they believed we could adapt to any environment and become the strongest race. Unfortunately, they didn’t give us enough intelligence. Although we adapted to the environment, we couldn’t become stronger; we were simply adapting to survive," another Okaman Pioneer explained.
This seemed to be an extreme approach. The giants had done something similar in the past, creating humans but giving them no power. Yet, the giants protected all of the Human Realm with their most potent technology. Because of this, humans could coexist peacefully with the Dragon Clan in a relatively harsh environment. More importantly, the giants endowed humans with unmatched intelligence but not strong bodies, so humans could not generate energy by themselves. This forced humans to delve into their own intelligence for survival.
In comparison, the Okaman people indeed had it a bit tougher.
The spaceship was not fast, and it took almost ten hours of tedious time in the universe to reach the destination.
Okaman Star.
Feeling the spaceship enter the atmosphere, Elsa immediately released the protection, and immediately, air with a strong smell rushed into the spaceship. The odor was slightly irritating, and Elsa wasn’t sure how to describe it – perhaps a mixture of various spices.
"Some plants on this planet emit strong scents, which combine to form this smell. This odor is non-toxic to us, but I’m not sure about you," said an Okaman Pioneer. Because of Elsa’s care for them along the way, they already adopted an honorific tone for Elsa. After all, in the world of Okaman, power determined everything. These Okaman Pioneers had limited power and, naturally, a very low status. You could say that not even their parents had ever been so kind to them.
Elsa of course was unsure, but she could easily cast an air filtration spell. Meanwhile, Suolin didn’t need such trouble; she didn’t care at all.
This was the most prosperous city of the Okaman people.
At least, that was the theory.
Everyone used a robust beast to pull the cart, rushing through the streets wildly.
In Elsa’s view, the tallest buildings here were merely three stories high and extremely rough in shape. Rather than constructions, they seemed more like haphazard piles. It was as if someone had carelessly thrown a bunch of broken stones on the ground and then randomly picked a spot that looked habitable, and thus, people moved in.
Yes, that was the impression the scene before Elsa gave her, even the worst slums she had seen were not as dismal as this.
They were still on the outskirts of the city. As everyone gradually moved deeper into the city, the regularity of the buildings increased somewhat. The imagery of some rudimentary structures finally began to emerge but they inevitably looked extremely rough and unfinished. When they arrived at what was called the city center, they could finally see some taller buildings occasionally.
With the spire on the very top, there were a total of five floors, clearly, the upper levels were not intended for habitation; they were just there to add height to the building.
The fact that the Okaman Vanguard had brought Celestial Clan’s Princess Elsa back to the star of Okaman, this news spread immediately. Then, it gradually turned into a story that the Okaman Vanguard had launched a raid on the Celestial Clan and successfully captured Princess Elsa.
Before long, many people came rushing out to see the spectacle. Most Okamans were robust, with a height of at least two meters, making them appear almost as broad as they were tall, with gray skin, and fangs protruding from their mouths. They had disproportionately small heads, sparse hair, but extremely well-developed muscles. Bone armor protected the joints of their bodies. They truly seemed like a race born for battle.
Some of them wore clothes of extremely coarse fabric, while the majority used animal skins. They looked at Elsa’s bright princess attire with amazement. For the Okamans, such attire might be a once-in-many-lifetimes sight.
"How many people do you Okaman now have?" Elsa asked.
"Less than thirty million," replied the Okaman Vanguard.
"What!?" Elsa could hardly believe it. Couldn’t the Okamans’ reproductive capacity account for more than this meager population?
But looking closer at their current living conditions, Elsa could basically understand why; they simply couldn’t sustain themselves!
Elsa’s brows were tightly knotted, deep in thought, as she silently followed the Okaman Vanguard toward the largest building. This structure served as the power center for the Okaman, the Great Elder Council of Okaman. Everything that was vitally important to the Okamans was resolved here. And the Okaman Great Elders hardly went anywhere else; they lived and worked in this place.
The news of Elsa’s arrival had been reported earlier, so by this time, the Great Elders had already gathered, waiting for her arrival.
Stepping into the hall, they were faced with a round table made from wood and covered with mottled marks. The craftsmanship and materials were definitely not the work of Okamans—this must have been pillaged from somewhere else and used ever since.
Before her sat sixteen Elders, wearing garments made of woven fabric. These were more delicate compared to those worn by people outside, but regrettably, they too were riddled with signs of age and disrepair.
"Greetings, Princess Elsa," one of the Elders began.
"Greetings, Elders," Elsa responded with a bow.
"It seems their reconnaissance mission has failed," another Elder stated.
"There’s no helping it. No one could have succeeded," Elsa said.
"So, did you follow them here to flaunt or to protest against us?" yet another Elder queried.
"Clearly, neither. I just have some doubts I wish to resolve, which is why I asked them to bring me here," Elsa replied.
"Then, what are your impressions of our Okaman star?" an Elder inquired.
"Although I do not wish to speak so discourteously, I must admit, I never imagined that such a barbaric place could exist in the upper Plane," Elsa stated.
It was indeed the truth.
Back then, when Elsa was wandering in the Human Realm, it was still a town of the White Dragon Empire. Even though it was a small town, it was part of an illustrious Empire in the Human Realm. Despite her wandering for a while, the things she encountered were far more prosperous than these. Later, when she was taken in by Long Yi, she received his careful care. From a pitiful creature barely clinging to life, she rose to become the Guardian Dragon Rider of the White Dragon Empire. She truly had no chance to encounter such a derelict world.
Hearing Elsa’s words, several Elders visibly filled with anger. They were just about to speak when an Elder beside them stopped them.
"Anything else?" the Elder pressed.
"If I were Okaman, I think I too would be desperate enough to wage wars to plunder resources," Elsa said. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
