Chapter 310: Land of Spirit
The journey remained completely uneventful.
Although the distance was immense, flying nonstop made the passage of time hardly noticeable to Richard.
Eventually, he arrived above a much calmer sea and could faintly make out an enormous landmass in the distance.
Compared to the Land of Humans, this continent stood much higher, so even the clouds drifted below it.
Several small islands came into view, each seemingly serving as a private estate, with a magnificent villa built upon it.
When Richard spotted people, he noticed that every one of them had a pair of luminous wings of various colors on their backs.
The Spirits.
Those wings were their defining characteristic.
The Fire Spirit Queen hadn’t displayed hers because she had deliberately concealed them while staying in the Land of Humans.
Occasionally, their entire bodies would even transform into the same light as their wings.
The stronger a Spirit was, the more frequently they could do so.
It was their way of approaching their true form. It was said that Spirit Grand Sovereigns could maintain their bodies of light indefinitely.
Naturally, they were far more powerful in that form.
Richard slowed his flight.
He had arrived with virtually no knowledge of the geography of the Land of Spirits.
The only two places he knew were the Fire Spirit Kingdom and the Sun Spirit Kingdom.
The latter was the strongest force on the continent, possessing influence comparable to the Order of the Heaven Emperor in the Land of Humans.
Its prestige was only slightly inferior, having produced four Grand Sovereigns throughout its history.
The Sun Knight Grand Sovereign, their third Grand Sovereign, for example, ranked among the five strongest Grand Sovereigns in history, standing on equal footing with the Skylight Grand Sovereign.
The Fire Spirit Kingdom, on the other hand, had only produced two Grand Sovereigns.
Even the Fire Spirit Queen, the previous era’s candidate, had failed to ascend.
As he drew closer to the continent, Richard spotted a massive city.
He had to fly even higher because the elevation between the sea and the mainland was astonishing.
Unlike the cities of the Land of Humans, the cities here were incredibly magnificent.
Every building was constructed from gemstones of countless different colors.
Looking farther into the distance, Richard could even see enormous gemstone mountains scattered throughout the land.
What humans regarded as precious jewelry had become ordinary building materials for the Spirits.
Of course, humans weren’t absent from this continent.
Some had traveled here from the Land of Humans in groups, while others appeared to have been born and raised in the Land of Spirits.
Richard landed inside the city.
There were no walls surrounding it, nor were there any guards.
He couldn’t even spot a city patrol anywhere.
As a lone human who had suddenly appeared, he immediately became the center of attention, as though the Spirits had encountered something unusual, even though there was almost no difference between the appearance of Spirits and humans under normal circumstances.
In the end, the distinction between the two races lay only in their origins.
Richard remained calm as he observed the city.
The first conclusion he reached was that the Spirits seemed to have far more beautiful women than humans.
No wonder the Fire Spirit Queen was so breathtakingly beautiful.
His gaze eventually landed on a small tavern run by a middle-aged man who was surprisingly human.
Richard walked inside and was greeted with a friendly smile.
"Young man, you must be exhausted after traveling all the way from the Land of Humans to the Land of Spirits. Please, enjoy some wine," the middle-aged man said, placing an ice-filled glass on the counter before pouring a clear crimson wine into it.
Its sweet fragrance immediately reached Richard’s nose.
He sat down at the counter and took a sip.
An instantly refreshing sensation spread throughout his body.
"Sir, sell me a whole barrel," Richard requested.
"Unfortunately, my tavern doesn’t sell wine by the barrel, only by the glass. But I’ll gladly keep refilling your glass for as long as you like," the middle-aged man replied with a faint smile as he filled Richard’s glass to the brim once more.
"Don’t you want to make an exception for me?" Richard asked, glancing at the many barrels stacked behind the man.
"Do people usually change their rules for you?" the middle-aged man asked in return.
"I’ve never asked them to, but I suppose most people would agree if I did," Richard answered.
"I see. You must be quite influential on the other continent."
"I suppose so. Everyone over there knows who I am."
"Then why have you come to this continent?"
"My woman is here. I came to see her. It seems her kingdom is in trouble," Richard answered honestly.
In his eyes, the Fire Spirit Queen was naturally his woman.
In fact, among all the women around him, she was the one least likely to ever be separated from him.
"So your woman is the ruler of a kingdom?" the middle-aged man asked in surprise.
"The Fire Spirit Kingdom..." Richard answered without the slightest hesitation, because it was simply the truth.
This time, the middle-aged man was genuinely shocked.
"Young man, if those words spread, the Fire Spirits will hunt you down," he warned.
"Are they really bold enough to hunt their own king?" Richard chuckled, causing the middle-aged man to roll his eyes.
"Sir, you must admire my woman," Richard said. "But in this world, certain things are destined to belong only to certain people."
He grinned.
Based on his own perception, the middle-aged man was a First-Step Ancient Sovereign, likely someone from the same generation as the White Ancestor and the Fire Spirit Queen—a former contender for the World Magic Aether.
Who knew why he had chosen to run a tavern here now?
"Ahem..." The middle-aged man cleared his throat.
"The Fire Spirit Queen is naturally one of the finest women of my generation. I do admire her, but only to that extent. I have no excessive obsession with her, so there’s no need to worry about me being jealous," he said.
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