Death… And Me

"Next."

Kentucky and Kachia approached the guard at the gate. It was quite a contrast to the walls surrounding the city. The walls there had gates, but no one had to pay any fee. Yet here, paying a fee was the norm, and there didn’t seem to be any complaints from the cultivators entering the Central District. Everyone already understood that this was simply the price of doing business in the territory controlled by the Rosvelt Sect.

"Hello, friend."

The guard didn’t waste any time with pleasantries. "Ten Godly Spawn Crystals for a day, fifty for a week."

Kentucky didn’t mind and took out ten Godly Beast Crystals instead. "One Godly Beast Crystal for every ten Godly Spawn Crystals, right? I want one week for me and one week for my friend here."

The guard collected the crystals and pointed at a device on the counter. "Touch it and send your Godly Senses inside."

Kentucky and Kachia nodded and did as the guard asked. For a moment, they felt their Godly Senses being absorbed into the device, although it only lasted a second and caused no harm. Kentucky couldn’t help but find the process somewhat interesting. They had already seen plenty of strange technologies in Woster, but this one was clearly designed for tracking and identification.

The guard checked the information on his terminal for a moment before nodding. "First time here, uh? It’s done. Make sure you are out of the Central District within a week. Otherwise, we will find you and kick you out. And believe me, you don’t want us to do that," the guard warned before turning his attention to the next cultivator. "Next!"

The two quickly entered the Central District, now walking on the street amidst many other cultivators. The atmosphere here was noticeably different from the western section. There were more businesses, more cultivators moving about, and more obvious signs that the Rosvelt Sect had a strong influence over practically every aspect of life in this part of the city.

"Seems like they can detect where we go with those things," Kentucky commented.

Kachia thought about it for a moment. "Can they? Maybe it is some kind of mark that only surfaces when the time runs out. Or perhaps it simply lets them know that we’re allowed to be here without telling them everything we do."

"Well, I have no intention of trying it out." Kentucky shrugged. "Let’s go."

The two walked around as they made their way to the Rosvelt Sect. Now and then, they stopped by the shops, both to acquire information and to have fun. There was no reason to rush, especially since Kentucky’s investigation wasn’t something that required him to arrive at the sect as quickly as possible. They would take an entire day just to get there, using the opportunity to learn more about the Central District along the way.

—

Meanwhile, Rean, Flugel, and Lukay arrived at the fifth vault, another one located outside anyone’s property. There were quite a few cultivators inside, as well as stalls selling things. Just like the vault they had arrived at earlier, this vault also prevented any Godly Pressure from coming inside, making it a convenient place for cultivators to rest and conduct business.

They ignored that, though. Instead, they paid attention to the rune markings on the walls, and especially to the rune markings on the ground. They were old, mostly worn out, and in some places they had almost completely disappeared. If there had been a functioning array here before, that was a very long time ago.

"It doesn’t seem like we will find anything useful in these vaults if it continues like this," Lukay commented, and he wasn’t even an Array Master.

Flugel narrowed his eyes. He wanted to learn more about the ancient arrays, but the city had pretty much no arrays at all. The few that existed were extremely basic, a far cry from the ones used in Besgol.

He couldn’t help but feel disappointed. After all, the ancient arrays were obviously far more advanced than the ones he knew, but it looked like no one in Woster had preserved that knowledge. It was especially strange considering that Woster had been built around the time the ancient arrays were supposedly in use.

"Maybe we should try to get access to the vaults inside owned properties," Rean suggested. "Besides, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we can only find ancient arrays inside the vaults. We might as well try to gather information about ancient arrays used throughout the city."

Flugel shook his head. "We have walked a lot so far. Have you seen anything that resembled an ancient array working at all? The old constructions had marks and carved ancient runes, but most were broken or had lost their power a long time ago. Even those vaults not open to the public likely won’t have anything important."

Rean couldn’t deny that possibility. "Still, Woster is isolated from the outside world, isn’t it? It must be the work of the ancient arrays."

Lukay thought of something. "Is Woster really found in the same place as our home?"

Rean and Flugel turned in his direction. "What do you mean?"

"A Dimensional Realm," Lukay explained. "We were teleported here, weren’t we? So I was wondering if perhaps Woster itself is one."

Rean immediately shook his head. "No, this is absolutely not a Dimensional Realm."

If it was a Dimensional Realm, Sister Orb would have noticed. It was just that Flugel and Lukay didn’t know much about Dimensional Realms because there wasn’t even a single one in Besgol. In fact, there wasn’t a single Dimensional Realm in any region Besgol could contact, so it was understandable that they had no frame of reference for one.

"Trust me," Rean nodded. "If this was a Dimensional Realm, you would definitely have noticed the difference."

Why hadn’t they seen any Dimensional Realm? Because things worked differently in the Celestial Plane. Even at the Law God Realm, you still couldn’t control space. A Dimensional Realm wasn’t something as simple as a Teleport Array. Being able to directly control space was a must if you wanted to create one, and that was far beyond what Law God cultivators in the Celestial Plane could accomplish.

Rean’s mind went straight back to where Roan had seen the Navy Blue and Golden Womb. Unlike Woster, Rean was pretty certain that the place where the womb was located was indeed a Dimensional Realm. If he was right, that would be the first Dimensional Realm he had ever seen in the Celestial Plane.

However, at least when he saw Roan’s vision, he hadn’t noticed any teleport arrays in that empty space where the womb was located. So, how exactly would they get there? That was the main question at the moment, and it was likely the very place where they would find the Glogau Great Void Echo.

"Also," Rean continued, "Godly Creatures keep appearing. There are so many high-level experts here. Such a closed environment shouldn’t have anywhere near enough Godly Creatures to sustain the cultivation frenzy of Woster. They must be entering it from outside all the time. You wouldn’t be able to do it in a Dimensional Realm. At least not without the constant maintenance of all the functions, and it would be way too expensive."

Flugel wondered. "If that’s the case, then it must indeed be ancient arrays that are keeping Woster isolated. But how can we get access to it? Theoretically, it is everywhere around us since it is trapping everyone inside."

"We would need to find where the central array and its core are located," Rean commented.

"So... the Rosvelt Sect at the center of the city?" Lukay asked.

"Who knows?" Rean shrugged. "There is just too much we don’t know. First of all, if the Rosvelt Sect controlled it, how come they are also trapped inside? Shouldn’t they have destroyed it already to allow everyone to leave, including themselves?"

"There might be various reasons for them not to destroy it," Flugel pointed out. "Besides, who said they can’t get out? Has anyone told you that? Perhaps they have a way to come in and out of Woster, and the rest of the population simply doesn’t know about it."

Rean sighed. "That’s true... But at the same time, maybe even they don’t know where this array exists."

Rean couldn’t help but miss the system’s ability to detect and hack arrays. If it was the Celestial Soul System, Sister Orb would have told them where it was already. Unfortunately, that ability was gone, leaving them to piece together the clues manually.

"So, where now?" Lukay asked.

"How about this?" Rean had an idea. "The informant said that there are always vaults being found every few years. So, there must be some newer ones somewhere. We can go back to him and see if he knows which ones are the newest. There might be intact Ancient Arrays in those ones."

Flugel and Lukay agreed. "It is worth a shot."

—

As that happened, a weird piece of news began to spread around the west and north sections of Dlaval City. People were starting to see cultivators touching the Goodbye World Pillars and surviving it.

At first, most simply dismissed the reports as nonsense. After all, the Goodbye World Pillars had existed for countless years, and everyone in Dlaval knew what happened to anyone who touched one. But as more and more cultivators claimed to have witnessed the same thing, people began to pay attention.

The news spread from one group to another, becoming increasingly exaggerated with every retelling. Some said a mysterious expert had completely resisted the pillar’s power. Others claimed that the pillar had somehow lost its ability to extract souls. Before long, people were beginning to wonder whether something had changed in Dlaval City.

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