Chương 27: 18.2 The Imperial Capital

Faust stepped off the flying ship. His eyes were drawn up. The Imperial Capital's skydock was massive. An organised maze with hundreds of docks, possibly thousands, stretching in every direction including up and down. It was so large that turning around, Faust saw a kind of flying ship road, where ships practically tailed each other before turning into a numbered dock on the side. Moreover, the docks weren't made of wood.

Faust walked forward on a massive marble bridge, with intricate handrails and gilded with golden designs. The marble docks were like bridges, with support columns extending on either side of them to hold up more layers of bridges and docks above them. Unlike the skyport in Azure Water city, the Imperial capital's seemed incredibly organised, at the very least, they could afford proper signage. Faust even felt the aura of Nascent Soul realm from a massive marble tower that overlooked the whole skydock.

Faust watched his steps as he navigated the sea of people coming and going to the various docks and platforms, following the signage labeled,"To Ferries for other districts." From what he knew, the Grand Archive would be in the East Westonia District. Faust quinted his eyes, then looked at his map. West Westonia, Northwest Westonia, East Estoria, Southeast Estoria, North Southoria, South Northoria, West Souwestia…

"Which genius came up with these names?" Faust muttered. They were just variations of the direction from the City centre. With the city divided into a 9 square grid, Northeria, Norwestia, Westonia, Southwestia, Southoria, Southestia, Esteria, Notheria— Then each square was divided into 9 more districts, with each being named according to their direction from the center of their square, or central Southwestia district… Faust shook his head smiling. Whoever named them was a fan of efficient communication.

He continued to the ferries area.

"All Citizens! Bow before her highness! The fourth princess of the Imperial Empire!!!" A voice boomed, Faust turned along with many others. He saw several massive red flags embroidered with golden dragons, each with a qi signature so dense it formed together into a twisting dragon of Metal and Fire Qi. The flags were being carried by a large group, in red, silver and gold armour that completely obscured their forms, crossing one of the bridges.

The crowd on that bridge cleared up in an instant, squeezing themselves against the sides, while those who could simply jumped off and floated beside the bridge. Then, in a wave that rippled from the royal procession, everyone who had heard the voice bowed, getting to their knees and then putting their heads to the ground.

Faust followed everyone else as his mind caught up to the situation, bowing in the direction of the two lines of flags on the distant bridge, one level below the one Faust was on and two bridges away. Looking through the handrails, Faust couldn't help but admire the authority of the royal family. There must have been hundreds of thousands of people who were bowing with their heads to the ground Faust followed what many others were doing, looking up from his position to glimpse what was going on.

Looking up, Faust could tell, every armoured guard was at the peak of the Open Palace realm. In the center of the procession, there were three women. Front and center, there was a smug looking woman with blonde hair, wearing black and gold dragon robes… Faust squinted his eyes. Not robes, they were another eccentric like Rozaline with the high slits on the dress and black thigh highs. Even if it was technically modest, Faust really wondered where all these powerful heirs were getting these clothes.

Even Ho Jinyou's choice of loose robes was perfectly calibrated to show his chiseled upper body. Behind the smug woman, who could only be the supposed fourth princess, two more women walked a step behind her, their heads bowed subserviently and hands neatly folded in front of them. They wore black and white uniforms with short puffed out skirts, white stockings and tight black and gold corsets. All three women were in the Golden Core realm. Not some low grade Golden Core either.

Faust suspected the two maids had the same Earth Golden Core he was aiming for. The princess aura on the other hand, was terrifying, with the Heavenly Qi stirring around it. A Heavenly Gold Core. At the back of the procession, an old man in plain white robes stroked his beard. Nascent Soul realm. Faust shivered under the pressure, looking away from the old man. The procession suddenly stopped in front of a ship.

"Dear Miu. Why don't you come out and greet me?" The princess spoke and Faust strained his ears to hear. There was a punctual pause.

"Dear… Your disguise doesn't work on me." The princess continued. A shape, on the deck of the boat held by the princess's procession, moved. A young girl, in thick gray clothes with short black hair, raised her head still on her knees.

"Ah… your highness… Uh… Good to see you…" The young girl spoke.

"Indeed." The princess snapped her finger. The old man at the back of the procession pointed. The young girl's form distorted, turning from an unassuming black haired girl to a significantly more eye-catching girl with long green hair and a small green snake that Faust could just barely make out, peeking out of her clothes.

"Cute little beast tamer. I believe I invited you to my estate, didn't I? What might you be doing at the skyport's departure gate?" The princess asked melodiously. Yet Faust imagined it must have felt like being held under a guillotine from the girls perspective.

"We-well— uh— I didn't notice it was your highness earlier—I—I could never dare go beyond my station and enter your highness's abode.."The girl trembled, gently moving to pat the little green snake peaking out of her clothes.

"I'm afraid you're not the one to decide that, Miu." The princess smiled, "Come along then. We've wasted the whole morning." The princess turned. The young girl looked like she wanted to run, but two armoured guards holding flags appeared behind her, blocking her escape. She had tears at the corner of her eyes, but obediently got to her feet and followed, trailing behind the princess and her maids before the maids nudged her forward to be between them and the princess.

"Turning an invitation from royalty down?" Someone in the crowd beside Faust whispered in disbelief, shaking their head.

"It hurts that I know of another with about the same amount of sense." Faust mumbled back, making sure to use a whisper technique that didn't let an ounce of sound beyond a few meters.

"... At least they don't live long." Another whispered voice, consoled Faust. Faust felt a pang in his heart.

"Oh… Oh how I wish… But the Iron Shell… Never breaks…" He sighed. A moment passed.

"At least I'm not in that girl's position." Faust mumbled to himself unconsciously, small mercies. The already silent skyport became even deader. With even the qi flying around from various whisper techniques becoming still and stagnant.

"I wonder. Who just spoke then?" The princess's voice rang out softly across the bridges and platforms of the skyport. Well it certainly wasn't me, I would never. Faust thought. Who would speak with their voice in the presence of the princess? Even using whisper techniques when you were at a distance was risky and better avoided. Who would be insane enough to actually speak out loud? Even mortal children knew not to do such a thing. The world truly became like a painting.

The princess's eyes scanned over the countless people bowing to her around the skyport, before her gaze settled on the old man who was now standing on the side of the procession.

"Apologies, your highness. My attention waned during the moment and I couldn't track them." The old man spoke. As he should because nobody spoke.

"A shame." The princess continued on her way, followed by her procession, the poor girl Miu ready to burst into tears at any moment as her feet forcibly carried her along. Soon enough, the procession faded from view and Faust along with thousands of others began standing up at once. Murmuring broke out immediately.

"Hey, was it you who spoke just then?" Someone asked Faust.

"Of course not. I would never make such a fatal error." Faust rejected the false accusation.

"Naturaly, naturally. Who would dare speak out loud in the presence of royalty." The person nodded, before continuing on their way. Faust briefly glanced at where the procession disappeared to, before looking away and continuing to the ferry's area. A line of red robed imperial scribes blocked off the only apparent exit from the skyport complex by foot, sitting behind polished mahogany desks, with more junior looking scribes moving documents around and to a place unseen.

Behind each desk, there were two blue uniformed guards with red and gold armbands. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. There were other ways to exit if one considered flight, however, Faust had yet to see anyone on a flying sword, except for similarly blue uniformed guards with red armbands. The guards didn't wear any obvious metal armour like the royal procession had. Nor did they even have a weapon visible.

Feeling the Peak Meridian cultivation from every blue uniformed guard however and reading the ancient characters embroidered in gold on their armbands— which Faust understood to mean Imperial Soldier or something close— it was obvious that they were guards regardless. Faust entered one of the lines, behind hundreds of others, looking around the massive complex and between the crowds.

"Excuse me, sir. From Clear Mirror Sect." One of the guards called out and Faust quickly found them.

"Gates are divided by cultivation. You're in the Qi refining line. Please move over there." The guard pointed to some stairs. His tone was perfectly controlled and even, as if he had said that one line hundreds, thousands of times. Faust looked above the line of clerks and saw the characters,"For Qi Refining cultivators only. Meridian Opening and above please ascend to the next level. For mortals, please descend one level."

The long black and gold sign stretched above the entire pure white marble archway that was being blocked by the line of scribes on desks. Faust cleared his throat before calmly leaving the line and walking up the stairs, ascending two levels to an identical setup, with only much shorter lines. He had been so distracted by the massive structure and crowds, that he had missed the massive damn sign. He felt his stomach churning at the thought. He wasn't forgetting that memory any time soon.

The blue uniformed guards on this level not only had a red and gold armband, but also red beret caps with a golden pin in the shape of the dragon on the imperial flag. Each of the red capped guards were at the peak of the open Palace realm. Faust waited in one of the much shorter lines as compared to the Qi Refining line. Soon, Faust reached the front of his line.

"From the Clear Mirror Sect? Do you have your sect token?" The scribe asked. Faust nodded and handed it over. The scribe brushed over it with his hand and qi, before handing it back and scribbling something neatly on the ruled up document in front of him.

"Purpose for visit and length of stay." The scribe said.

"Study at the Grand Archive. For two or three years." Faust answered concisely.

"Stays more than 3 months recommend a mailing address. Please sign one at any imperial office or post station as soon as possible or your mail will not be routed properly." The scribe informed, before stamping another document with some details on Faust twice, then tearing it in half and handing one piece to Faust.

"This is your city pass. There's a special line for those only temporarily leaving the city. You can just show this document to them." Faust took the document and went to cup a fist.

"No time for that. Move." The scribe interrupted Faust. Faust lowered his hands, unable to fully hide his strange expression as he swiftly and very calmly moved to the side and passed the scribe's desk, past the line of blue uniformed and red capped guards. He heard a set of questions nearly identical to the ones he had been asked sound behind him and he sighed. Another memory to never forget. Faust mused. Eventually, the skydock levels above Faust fell away, leaving an unobstructed view of the sky.

Faust paused, taking a deep breath as he felt the cool breeze and warm sunlight on his skin for the first time in the last two or three days. Walking forward and putting a hand on the marble guardrails and looking out, Faust saw that there were still plenty more levels below him. Just in front of him, two levels down the skydock continued, extending forward to a much smaller skydock, where small flying ships only a few meters wide constantly docked and undocked, with large crowds waiting in front of them.

Seeing the signs pointing down some stairs, Faust guessed those were the ferries he had been looking for. However, looking up, Faust saw that there appeared to be lanes of flying sword traffic beginning above him, with people alighting their flying artifacts and joining the horizontal column of people who were moving between massive pagodas that stretched to the heavens, taller and wider than any had been in the Azure Water provincial capital.

Faust looked back at the crowds waiting for the ferries, then up at the aerial road of other cultivators. The memory of boarding at Azure Water city flashed in Faust's mind. The late ship, the lack of seats, the terribly named gates… Faust controlled his flying sword to leave its sheath, before hovering in front of him.

With a tap, Faust shot into the air, joining the several, relatively neat aerial roads formed by other cultivators as he headed westward to the Westonia block of the city before finding East Westonia. Looking out towards the city centre, Faust noticed a clear lack of sky pagodas extending between the skyport and the distant walls of what Faust guessed was the Central block of Zentrum.

With the distance still between them and the sky pagodas around which could extend hundreds of meters into the air, the what must have been at least 30 meter high walls by Faust's estimation looked pitifully small. There were no sky pagodas past the Central Block wall. Faust could only see some 4 story buildings at most, peaking up, with single story buildings with gilded roofs stretching ever further, into the fog of air in the distance. Faust rubbed his eyes, but the wall of fog didn't disappear.

He was well aware that at his level of cultivation, he shouldn't hit the limits of his vision from the sheer density of air until 500 or so kilometers. He couldn't even see the royal palace. A moment later, Faust lost vision of the Central Block as a sky pagoda blocked his view. He looked at his map. The skyport was in the middle of the central Southoria district. So… Judging by the map distances, he should keep going west in a straight line until he hits the East Southwestia district.

Then, turn North until he reached the East Westoria district, where the Grand archive supposedly was. The map also clearly marked the whole Central Block of the city off limits to commoners without invitation or escort. A nagging curiosity asked Faust to find a way to get an invitation, simply to see what the central block was all about. Faust shook his head. He was here for study, not sightseeing or vacation. He could always come back once he reached his goal of the Nascent Soul realm.

A realm respected enough to be the bodyguard of a princess. The Emperor himself would invite you if you reach the Void Returning realm. That thought escaped the recesses of Faust's mind for a moment and he slapped himself.

"Huuu…" Faust exhaled deeply. He needed to get a hold of his mind and mentality. Such thoughts were dangerous to a stable and predictable life. Faust continued forward, maintaining his trajectory to east Southwestia. In the Clear Mirror Sect. Long Tao groaned, opening his eyes. He had become rather familiar with the birch oak and spirit paper ceiling of the Medicine Hall. The countless injuries from difficult missions could pile on, causing him to collapse in the mission hall once the adrenaline left.

He reached a hand up to his face, massaging his temples and wiping his slightly moist eyes while smiling self deprecatingly.

"I… I don't get it…" Tao said.

"I even read Sun Wu's Guide to Shadow Enemies and Cold Disputes…. Why did Aneroze beat me up again?" He tried so hard this time. He followed her advice as best he could using the guide. What did he do wrong??? The old ghost appeared.

"Beat you up???" He repeated.

"Kid. She was going for the throat." He looked at his eyes wide with disbelief.

"..." Tao didn't answer.

"Also," The ghost continued.

"Did you just say you read ' Sun Wu's Guide to Shadow Enemies and Cold Disputes'???" He asked.

"... Yeah?" Tao responded slowly, looking at the old ghost confused. He never knew modern things. Not usually anyways. The old ghost's jaw dropped as he stared at Tao "... Kid… That book was written by people I called ancestors… It's gotta be millions of years out of date by now."

"..." Tao's eye twitched and he looked away.

"There was no 'published on' date…" He mumbled. The old ghost's eye twitched, "Surely, there must have been some kind of give away."

"Well… At the start… It said it was translated from ancient characters…" Tao's voice trailed off.

"..." The old ghost was speechless. How could one be this… This… He didn't even know.

"Haizzz…" The old ghost sighed and disappeared back into Tao's ring. Tao sighed as well, closing his eyes again.

"Martial brother Tao?" A soft voice asked. Tao opened his eyes again, to find a young woman in tight white robes leaning over him, green eyes looking at him worriedly.

"Sister Maria." Tao smiled, forcing himself to sit up with a few grunts of effort.

"You got hurt again?" Tao nodded.

"I had a small disagreement and got into a fight." He looked at Maria's worried face, her green eyes scrutinising the bandages on his neck. She really was too caring. She was part of the sect through birth, a daughter of the Medicine Hall's overseer. Tao really admired how much she cared for each of her patients. There was a brief pause.

"What's wrong? Am I good to move now?" Tao asked. Maria shook her head, snapping out of whatever distraction she had had.

"Y-yes. You should be healed enough to leave, but… A woman named Aneroze is waiting outside for you with another woman named Foria." She explained.

"Ah… I'll go talk with them then…" Tao said, shifting his feet off the bed.

"But.. Are you sure, martial brother?" Maria questioned, putting a hand under her chin.

"Who are those women?"

"Hm?" Tao paused. Why did something feel wrong with the way she said that question.

"They are just some people I occasionally go on missions with." Tao summarised. Maria stepped back.

"I see. I was worried they were going to bully you. Please, try not to get hurt, brother."

"If I don't get hurt, I won't have any excuse to see you." Tao smiled, before walking past, with Maria covering her mouth with her hands. Leaving the birch and marble hall, with a dark oak polished floor, Tao threw his arms out to welcome the sun on his body once more.

"My, my, it took you long enough." Aneroze, tapping her foot and holding what looked to be a metal collar in one hand. Veins were still bulging on her head. Foria stood to the side awkwardly.

"My, after much research, I've found a way to fix your bad behavior." Aneroze raised the metal collar, her smile resembling a demon more than a human's in its fakeness. The old ghost appeared again.

"That's a curse artifact. Don't let her put it on you." He spoke in a low voice, grimacing. Suddenly, Tao felt his heartrate spike as Aneroze took a step forward. Tao gave a quick bow, cupping a fist, "unfortunately, I have somewhere to be, so I will—""I don't care anymore!" Aneroze shouted, lunging at Tao with the collar, he was ready for her this time and threw himself to the side.

"Hey! Hey! Don't put something on a man's neck without consent! Someone might misunderstand!" Tao shouted, grabbing Aneroze by the wrists as she jumped on top of him with the collar.

"My, My! So worried! Don't! This will—" She struggled to force herself through tao's grip, " fix you—""Foria! Help me!" Tao shouted to Foria, who looked the other way and started whistling.

"FORIA!" Tao screeched as Aneroze managed to move the collar an inch closer. People passing by briefly glanced at the commotion, before quickly shuffling past.

"Someone! HELP!" Tao begged. To little effect.

"My, my! Just! Give! In!" Aneroze managed to increase her force even more.

"Oof—" Tao kicked Aneroze and threw her over him, before sprinting in the opposite direction.

"I apologize! But I really must be going for my appointment!" Tao shouted back as he sprinted back to his residence as fast as he could go.

"Get back here!" Aneroze screeched back. Her voice gained volume as she got closer. Tao assumed his ultimate running away form, breathing carefully and consistently with his strides, his heart thumping as cold sweat already soaking his back as he ran.