above the sky

That's the way it is.

After Flying Flame pretended to worship the Dragon Cult and raided the group of scholars participating in the Lonely Mountain Conference, only a few people found that Ian and his party suddenly disappeared.

Except for Tres, those who knew about this matter chose to keep silent.

They're not necessarily all elites in their respective departments, but having been undercover for so long, they've learned how to manage their curiosity...and keep the right amount of silence.

So, after a while.

Late night, light rain.

Ian, who rode a dark blue scaled horse, and another horse with crimson scales, carrying a saluting horse, followed the track at a brisk pace, heading north.

The two fairies swirled and danced beside the horse and the boy, laughing cheerfully.

The surrounding area of ​​Shuili Town is full of moon fire grass, which is a sublimation plant that can be used to prepare alchemical potions related to light. When they are hit by raindrops, they will emit a sparkling flame like a faint flame. Speeding past, it was like being surrounded by countless stars.

Smelling the faint fragrance of plants and flowers in the dark summer night, the teenager smiled and stood side by side with countless fluorescent lights in the night rain.

Then, the rain gradually stopped.

In this dark night without stars or moon, the earth should be shrouded in darkness.

However, at the far end of the sky, where the clouds overlap, a beam of light that is so huge that it seems to run through the sky faintly lights up at the end of the horizon.

The colorful rainbow light spreads around the clouds, but the light beam itself breaks through the shading of the clouds and reaches the high sky.

--what is this? Where did the light come from, so huge and bright?

When the young man saw this, he was slightly taken aback, and instinctively thought about these questions.

But then, he urged the horse forward.

He came to the top of a hill with the fairies, and looked far away, in the middle of the vast plain of Quinor.

Then, Ian briefly forgot to think.

He heard the wind.

The terrain of the Setal Empire is very strange. The entire country is surrounded by many mountains, which can almost be said to be blocked.

Even from the Nanling Mountains, the Karan Mountains and the Farut Mountains, there is water vapor from south to north, and there is moisture from north to south in the direction of the Meditation Sea and the Misa Port, but it is impossible to make the heart of the empire wet. It is mild enough to be cultivated normally, making people live comfortably.

Even if someone swept away all the towering mountains in the empire.

But now, he somewhat understands.

In the summer of the Quinor Plain, the sea breeze blowing from the eternal silence of Nanling is surging. The wind swept through the vast forest next to the Baisen Mountains, and passed through the boundless golden field. It crossed the Dihu Bridge and brushed the black sea. The lake passed through the vast hills and forests and the sea of ​​trees in the Jerol region, and went straight along a long road.

Of course, the wind that passes through the vast natural cycle of heaven and earth is not so persistent because of nature itself, but because of a force, a force that originates from people, but is beyond the natural cycle, so it is persistent all the way. come here.

After the rain, the cool wind blew the boy's hair and swayed it forward, but Ian didn't have the energy to care about this small matter. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the magnificent structure that appeared in front of him as much as possible.

It was a huge spectacle beyond the essence of this era.

Below a huge beam of light that penetrates the sky and the earth, there is a black shadow that is even bigger than the mountains. It is like a lonely mountain standing in the boundless plain. , the only giant structure that can obscure human vision.

Its majestic figure stands in the center of the Quinor Plain, with unparalleled majesty.

Shadows covered it, but there were layers on it, and tiny things that were glowing flickered on its surface.

The wind moved towards it, as if attracted by the deep gravitational abyss, and seemed to want to be part of the beam of light that ran through the entire planet's atmosphere.

This is a city.

A giant city built on steel peaks and 10,000-meter-long lonely mountains!

Ian rode on the horse, and he looked into the distance, quietly staring at this huge, shadow-covered behemoth. It is like a volcano rising from the ground. It is 10,000 meters high and more than 15 kilometers wide, but there is a thicker foundation in the depths of the earth. The metal structure reflecting the distant moonlight is glowing. And the jet port that was releasing the bright beam of light made the young man recall something.

"how can that be……"

Ian whispered to himself, and the boy stared at the outline of the huge city with dazed and longing eyes, curious and confused.

He shook his head slightly: "This is, a planetary engine?!"

"No...this is, this is a planetary shield generator?!"

No one answered his question, not even a goblin.

Both Hua An and Frost Butterfly looked at this magnificent sight in the distance together, the little goblin fell into a kind of shock at the majestic beauty, and the young lady just felt that she should not speak at this moment.

until they heard a roar.

Boom, boom.

There was the sound of the train's alchemy furnace running on the track, and the whistling of the engine was incessant. The young man turned his head and looked at the track beside the road. An alchemy train drove straight ahead, over him, over the towns and countryside, towards the plain. Central gallop.

Not just one.

Ian turned his head, and he looked around the entire Quinor Plain. On this earth, which was covered by moonlight and darkness, there were many spots of light shining with tiny rays of light, converging towards the huge city.

The trains merged into it like water droplets cast by steel merging into the ocean of steel... The dense black dots and the light dots were intertwined, and they moved slowly on this lonely mountain cast by manpower.

That is the human city, the moss covering the mountain crust.

yes. These days, years, decades, hundreds of thousands of years have passed above Terra.

Time nicks the steel, the earth repeats the cycle of fertility and barrenness, until mushrooms and moss grow on the rocks, until the seeds grow into towering trees.

The traces of human habitation, human cities, are just such moss and such big trees.

Here you can see the Imperial City. And here is the capital.

"I see."

Watching the city, Ian muttered to himself.

He smiled lightly, raised his head, and looked up at the surging rain clouds, as if returning to the rainy night four years ago.

At this moment, there is no thunder in the sky, but there is a beam of light that is even more scorching than the thunder reaching the sky.

"Teacher, I understand."

With a nostalgic tone, the young man said to Gao Tian softly: "Yes, yes. This is what you told me and what you passed on to me."

"You want to teach me, entrusted to me..."

"Eternal immovable, fortified city."

－－－－－－off topic－－－－－

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