Chapter 387 - First Town

As the flying ship slowly began descending in front of the capital, a few figures could be seen rushing out towards the flying ship before a small group of people had formed in front of the flying ship.

Whoosh!

Just as the flying ship landed, two people could be seen walking out from inside the flying ship.

One was a young woman who was curiously looking at the unique mining shafts that the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was built on top of, while the other was an elderly man who signalled for the group from the Iron Sky Kingdom standing in front of them to come over.

"Master, this place looks really interesting! Totally different from any of the other kingdoms around this place!" As she was curiously looking at the mining shafts that were just a few meters in front of her.

The mining haft in question was not an abandoned one but was still active as a few people could be seen coming up from time to time before making their way over towards the capital with a few precious spiritual metals in hand.

Though… The flying ships sudden appearance had mostly caused these people to take a short break as they were looking towards it with curious expressions on their faces.

Flying ships were not something just anyone could use, and it required a lot of resources to make one in the first place. For that reason, other than Domain Lords. Normally only people with a strong background would ever use a flying ship.

Not to mention that the symbol of the Sky Empire was plastered all over the flying ship… Making it rather easy for anyone passing by to identify who it belonged to and think twice about whether they would want to try and rob it…

"Ah… It's your first time to the Iron Sky Kingdom if I'm not wrong?" Thinking about something for a short moment as he watched the people from the Iron Sky Kingdom making their way over, the elderly man turned to ask the young woman walking beside him.

"Yes… I never got a chance to visit because a certain someone didn't want to let me leave the capital before I at the very least became an Expert Alchemist…!" Frowning a bit towards the end as she narrowed her eyes while looking at the elderly man walking beside her, it was clear to everyone around who she was referring to.

"Hehe, I wonder who that was… Now, now, the people from the Iron Sky Kingdom are already here! Let's not think about the past any longer." Brushing the young woman's words aside with a shameless smile on his face, the elderly man quickly switched the focus of the conversation towards the people of the Iron Sky Kingdom who finally came to a stop only a few meters away from them.

"Greetings, Artisan Fang Shi! We are part of the royal guard and are here to escort both of you to the royal palace!" Stepping forward and introducing who they were, a tall looking and well-built female soldier clad in a full plate of armour bowed down in front of Fang Shi while saying this.

The other soldiers standing behind her silently followed her lead as they bowed down as well in a show of respect towards the elderly man.

"Hoho, I never expected to be greeted so sincerely. Just get up for now and let's get moving, I still have quite a lot to prepare for before the start of the competition… After all, I don't want to end up not even having the spiritual herbs needed for the competition ready when it starts!" Laughing happily with a smile on his face as he saw how respectful the royal guards of the Iron Sky Kingdom was to him, the elderly man called Fang Shi soon dragged the young woman with them as both of them made their way towards the royal palace of the Iron Sky Kingdom under the protection of the small group of royal guards…

It had to be noted that each and every single one of the royal guards had at least reached the fourth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm! The strong looking woman, who had taken the lead in talking with Fang Shi, was at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm!

From this alone, it could easily be seen how strong the Iron Sky Kingdom was compared to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom!

Someone who was comparable to the strongest person in another kingdom was only one of the people in charge of the royal guard of the Iron Sky Kingdom!

Other than that, the strong looking woman was still young and might even have a chance to breakthrough into the Domain Lord Realm in the future with the guidance and help from the king of the Iron Sky Kingdom!

…

At the same time, Xuan Hao and the rest of the group had just entered the territory of the Iron Sky Kingdom, when they came upon their first town.

"What is this?"

"How in the world…"

"T-this is still a town…?"

Outside of Xuan Hao who had long since managed to grasp the appearance of the town before they could even see it, everyone else gasped in wonder and amazement at the weird town in front of them.

Instead of a normal town just consisting of a few buildings, houses and maybe a wall for protection against bandits or demon beasts, the town from the Iron Sky Kingdom was surrounded by several large mining shafts that went straight down into the ground below!

Large groups of people could also be seen moving in and out of the mining shafts with several large containers filled with all sorts of different rocks.

This, however, was not the most shocking part of the town from the Iron Sky Kingdom… The most shocking part of it was the town itself.

The town was located above an enormous mining shaft in the shape of a giant hole that had a diameter of at least a few hundred meters!

Held up by several supporting beams located at the sides of the enormous circular mining shaft, the town was barely held up. Looking like it could fall and take everyone inside the town together with it into the enormous mining shaft below if even a single support beam ended up breaking.

Even Xuan Hao felt a wave of nervousness wash over him while looking at the town from a distance. Not to say how the rest of the group had reacted to the shocking sight.

Towards the centre of the town, Xuan Hao could feel the presence of a formation that helped keep the entire town stable. The formation itself was not too complicated and just helped spreading the pressure at the centre of the town out towards the corners of the town where the support beams were present.

The formation was most likely the only reason why the town could even exist in its current state, and it made Xuan Hao wonder why the inhabitants had not just simply built the town around the giant miningshaft and had instead decided to build on top of it…

Looking a bit closer at the countless smaller mining shafts located around the town, Xuan Hao suddenly seemed to have come to some understand as to why the town was not located beside the giant mining shaft… There was simply no place to put the town in the first place…

"Master… Are we going to enter that town…?" Nervously grabbing onto the side of his robe to get his attention, Qing Yi seemed almost afraid as she asked this while keeping her eyes locked on the weird town almost floating above the giant mining shaft.

"Of course, we are going to visit the town! Aren't you curious why the people here build a town directly above such a giant vertical mining shaft?" Smiling down towards the nervous Qing Yi as he said this, Xuan Hao didn't even wait for her to respond as he began making his way towards the weird town. Making sure not to fall into some of the smaller mining shafts that were located along the way.

"…"

Qing Yi who was about to answer her master about how she really didn't want to visit the town dangling dangerously above a giant bottomless hole was left speechless as she watched her master walk over towards the town without even waiting for her!

"M-master! Wait for me!" Not daring to hesitate and stand around for too long in case she lost sight of her master, Qing Yi bit down on her lips as she threw her fear of the weird town aside as she ran after Xuan Hao who was only a few dozen meters away from the entrance to the town at this point in time.

""…""

The group of elders who had come together with them for the alchemy competition all looked silently at each other with. Nervously glancing over in the direction of Qing Yi and Xuan Hao from time to time.

Whoosh~

It was only when Chi Hu took the first step to follow after the master and disciple that the rest of the elders build up enough courage to break free from their nervous and fearful state and follow.

They were not Domain Lords! If they ended up falling into the giant mining shaft, they would die! Even if they were Core Formation Realm Experts!