Chapter 143: Darcy City

Stepping away from the thin young man, Lin Huang’s lips curved into a slight smile.

"Yang Ling, huh..."

He naturally knew that the name the other party gave was fake.

Using ten life crystals to exchange for one hundred million credit points, which were transferred into his new account, Lin Huang then inquired about the landing spot of the magic crystal airships and headed straight for the plaza where they docked.

By the time he reached the plaza, it was nearly ten o'clock in the evening. After searching the vicinity for a hotel, he finally managed to find one with a vacant room, which he immediately booked and checked into.

The new Emperor Heart Ring worked smoothly, and Lin Huang’s check-in registration went off without a hitch.

Since he was still unsure of how to return to Baqi City, he simply booked the room for two days.

Once inside the hotel room, Lin Huang began transferring the items he frequently used from his original Emperor Heart Ring into the new one and the storage ring given to him by Leng Yuexin. He also copied his contact list before sealing away his original Emperor Heart Ring.

As for the tens of billions of credit points inside it, he had no intention of touching them for the time being. Unsure whether using those credits might draw the attention of the Purple Crow, he chose to proceed with caution.

By the time he finished these tasks, it was already past one in the morning. Exhausted, Lin Huang sank into a deep sleep.

He finally woke up at around eight o'clock the next morning.

After heading downstairs for breakfast and returning to his room, Lin Huang leisurely began searching for a route back to Baqi City.

Stronghold 7C357, locally known as Daxi City, was located almost at the extreme western edge of the Seventh Zone. Baqi City, on the other hand, was situated in the south-central part of the same zone. To travel from Daxi City to Baqi City meant crossing nearly half of the Seventh Zone.

"So far..." Lin Huang couldn't help sighing when he saw the distance between the two cities on the map.

After searching the network, he discovered that due to the immense distance, there were no direct magic crystal airships running from Daxi City to Baqi City.

Taking a magic crystal airship would require two transfers. The first leg of the journey alone would take over four months, while the second and third legs would each require more than three months. The entire trip would take at least eleven months to complete.

"Traveling like that is definitely out of the question. By the time I make it back, Lin Xin will have already graduated from school." Lin Huang instantly dismissed the idea of taking a magic crystal airship.

After searching online for a long time, he finally found a viable route.

From Stronghold 7C357, he would first travel to the nearest ultra-large stronghold, 7A28, then use the ultra-distance spatial gate to reach Stronghold 7A12—the ultra-large stronghold closest to Baqi City—and finally take a long-distance spatial teleportation from Stronghold 7A12 back to Baqi City.

Whether it was ultra-distance or long-distance teleportation, the journey was completed almost instantaneously. The problem, however, was that using the ultra-distance spatial gate required booking at least one month in advance. As for the long-distance spatial gates operating between C-grade small strongholds and A-grade large strongholds, reservations had to be made at least ten days to half a month ahead of time.

Checking the long-distance spatial teleportation from Daxi City to Stronghold 7A28, the earliest available booking slot was twelve days away. When he checked tickets for the ultra-distance spatial gate, the earliest he could secure was thirty-three days out.

Upon seeing the ticket prices, Lin Huang’s eyebrows twitched.

Previously, he only knew that spatial gates for teleportation between C-grade strongholds cost upwards of ten thousand credit points per use.

However, the current ticket prices showed that long-distance spatial teleportation gates cost dozens of times more than ordinary ones, demanding a staggering 680,000 credit points.

As for the ultra-distance spatial gate, the price was even more absurd—tens of thousands of times higher than an ordinary spatial gate. The journey from Stronghold 7A28 to Stronghold 7A12 required a colossal fee of 160 million credit points.

The reason Lin Huang did not book the tickets immediately after looking them up was simple: his new Emperor Heart Ring did not have nearly enough credit points.

Left with no choice, Lin Huang went out to the Credit Administration Bureau, withdrew one hundred life crystals, and exchanged them for one billion credit points before returning to the hotel.

After spending over 160 million credits to secure all three tickets—from Daxi City to Stronghold 7A28, from 7A28 to Stronghold 7A12, and from Stronghold 7A12 to Baqi City—his itinerary was finally completely finalized.

"I have to stay in Daxi City for 12 days, spend another 21 days at Stronghold 7A28, and finally stay at Stronghold 7A12 for a day or two before I can return to Baqi City." Lin Huang reviewed the schedule; this was the fastest itinerary he could possibly manage. Even so, it would still take over a month.

Daxi City was territory governed by the Purple Crow, with a rather open social atmosphere and a vibrant nightlife.

None of this concerned Lin Huang, however. The more powerful humans and monsters he witnessed in this world, the stronger his sense of urgency grew. He constantly felt that he was far too weak in this realm, where any random entity could spell his death. He thoroughly disliked this helpless feeling of being unable to control his own life.

"There's a Tier 2 wilderness zone nearby, which is perfect for practicing the Flowing Fire blade technique. Twelve days might not be enough to piece the blade technique together, but it should be sufficient to accumulate quite a few skill fragments." Lin Huang quickly formulated his plan for the next twelve days.

That Tier 2 wilderness zone was located less than twenty kilometers away from the western gate of Daxi City. After finishing his lunch, Lin Huang mounted his Azure-Scaled Wolf and rode straight toward it.

Venturing deep into the wilderness zone and entering the distribution area of bronze-grade monsters, Lin Huang put away the Azure-Scaled Wolf and began practicing the Flowing Fire blade technique in an open clearing.

A number of monsters in the vicinity noticed Lin Huang and immediately pounced, but they were quickly cut down by his blade. In less than an hour, the ground around him was littered with beast carcasses.

Yet, he did not stop his blade practice, continuing until past ten o'clock in the evening when he finally gathered the scattered beast carcasses and sheathed his blade to return to the city.

Over the following week, Lin Huang left early and returned late every day, dedicating all his time to practicing the Flowing Fire blade technique. The fragments of the Flowing Fire blade technique accumulated to over four hundred pieces, but they still refused to coalesce into a complete skill card.

When he asked Xiao Hei, the reply was merely that there were insufficient skill fragments to synthesize it.

Though the blade technique had not yet formed into a complete skill, Lin Huang could already wield the Flowing Fire movements with effortless ease, and its power was no longer much weaker than his Thunderflash blade.

However, since Xiao Hei stated that the skill fragments were insufficient, Lin Huang could only continue obediently accumulating them.

Between practicing his blade and hunting monsters these past few days, combined with the fragments accumulated earlier in the trial tower at the training camp, Lin Huang now had enough fragments from seven different kinds of monsters to piece together complete cards, but he chose not to do so.

Those seven types of monsters were all ordinary variants with nothing particularly distinctive about them. He preferred to save them as card fragments, waiting to exchange them for more useful monster cards or utility cards in the future. If he pieced them into complete cards now, breaking them down later would result in a 10% fragment loss.

Heading out from the hotel early on the morning of the eighth day, Lin Huang noticed the sky looked somewhat gloomy, as if a passing shower might be on the way. Nevertheless, he still headed out to the wilderness zone, intending to return once the rain officially started.

From morning until noon, the sky maintained its rain-threatening appearance, though no actual precipitation fell.

At noon, Lin Huang climbed up a large tree, planning to take a short rest among its branches.

Just as he pulled out some rations and took a few bites, he heard a strange sound coming from the sky directly above his head.

He raised his gaze toward the sky and immediately let out a crude oath.

"What the hell!"