Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Heavenly Capital, Heaven City.

A place that had always existed only in legends, no one knew where it was or in what form it existed.

Even the city lord of Daliang City only knew a single phrase passed down through generations: When his city lord’s token glowed, it meant a summons from the Heavenly Capital had arrived. He needn’t do anything, just follow the guidance of this summons token, and he would be able to reach the mysterious Heavenly Capital and have an audience with the lord of the Heavenly Capital.

This explanation was truly baffling.

The young city lord couldn’t see any guidance from the token at all.

But as the last rays of the setting sun faded and night fell, when the sky was covered in pitch darkness, suddenly stars began to emit extraordinary light. This was a sight that had never appeared in the twelve cities of this world before.

— This world was not complete, more akin to the legendary blessed lands and secret realms. Even the sun and moon were mere illusions, and not a single star had ever appeared in the sky above.

But now, countless stars shone together. Among them, the twelve brightest and most brilliant stars seemed to be guarded by the other stars, forming a beautiful star map in the night sky. The light they emitted fell upon the earth, as if casting twelve starry rivers on the ground.

In the city lord’s mansion of Daliang City, the young city lord gazed at the glowing token in his palm, feeling the power that faintly resonated with one of the bright stars in the sky. He stared for a long time at the intricate star map in the heavens, his gaze falling on the center of the star pattern.

... Under the infinite starlight, a faint shadow seemed to flicker in and out of existence in the distant place corresponding to the center of the star map.

“Heavenly Capital...so that’s how it is,” he realized with sudden understanding and indescribable awe. “Heavenly Capital is right there.”

And the star map in the sky was the best guide.

He couldn’t help but feel intense longing and curiosity, the instinctive human desire to explore the unknown. “... Even if just for this incredible spectacle, I should make the journey.”

“Heavenly Capital... what kind of place could it be?”

.....

Half a month later, in a nameless desert.

The flag of Daliang City flew high as a group of more than ten people trudged through the desert, advancing at a slow pace.

Among the team, there were only five “transmigrators”, all of whom had earned the city lord’s favor due to their outstanding performance and had the opportunity to voluntarily apply to join the guard. Li Fufeng and his companion were among them.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but fine golden sand, seemingly stretching endlessly to the horizon, with no trace of life to be found.

In the vast desert, terrifying ravines appeared from time to time. The edges of these chasms were lined with blackened, scorched earth and rocks. The ground was baked by intense heat, while icy cold winds occasionally swept through the air, lifting sand grains from the surface to reveal knife marks, sword marks, spear marks, and skeletal remains buried deep below.

A sense of desolation, primitiveness, and vastness permeated the atmosphere.

—All of this inevitably brought to mind the ancient battlefields left behind after the great wars of the gods in ancient times.

“In a sense, it’s not wrong to call it an ancient battlefield.”

Li Fufeng, who had been immersed in this vast and unfamiliar landscape, was suddenly jolted by the words of the person beside him. He realized that he had unknowingly spoken his first impression aloud.

The person who responded was the youngest member of the team, yet also one of the strongest warriors, Qing Fei.

This mysterious young girl, who knew about Li Fufeng and his companions’ unusual background yet chose to help and conceal them, had become an honored guest at the city lord’s mansion in the three months since joining Daliang City. Her exceptional martial arts talent and strength had quickly set her apart. When it came to this journey to the Heavenly Capital, the city lord had agreed without hesitation as soon as she expressed her desire to come.

Li Fufeng was well aware that she was held in much higher regard than himself. Even the city lord’s library was completely open to her. Despite her young age, this girl likely knew far more secrets than he did. He immediately asked, “An ancient battlefield? How so?”

They weren’t interested in the internal power shifts of this world. Whether the twelve cities acted independently or united under the Lord of the Heavenly Capital didn’t matter much to them.

But based on the various rumors about the Lord of the Heavenly Capital, if they had the ability to leave Blue Star and venture into the void, they surely had a way to return to Blue Star. Wasn’t one interpretation of the summons that the awakening of the Lord of Heavenly Capital would lead everyone back to their homeland?

If so, awakening the Lord of Heavenly Capital became crucial for them—at least for those “transmigrators” who had come with Li Fufeng and wanted to return home.

But thinking about what the Daliang City lord had said, and then considering the eleven city lords with unclear intentions, they felt a great headache coming on.

Their time in this world had been short. Although many transmigrators had made considerable progress in martial arts cultivation, this progress was far from enough to allow them to force all the city lords to listen to them through overwhelming power and obediently go to awaken the Lord of the Heavenly Capital.

Therefore, they could only adapt to circumstances as they arose, using rhetoric and strategy to guide the situation towards their desired outcome.

...They just hoped that the “transmigrators” who had crossed over to other cities had some ability and could become trusted confidants who could speak to the city lords. Even if they couldn’t influence decisions, they could at least act as inside agents.

As night fell once again, the star map in the sky scattered its light, and the Daliang City team finally saw the ethereal image of the Heavenly Capital City slowly emerging in the distant desert, attracting them like a lighthouse.

When the group hurriedly arrived in that direction, they immediately encountered teams from other cities coming from different directions.

Everyone stood in the night, with mercury-like starlight coating the desert in a layer of silver-white. The vast expanse of silver-white sand was like an unfolded canvas, imprinted with the phantom of an ancient city.

It was an enormous, sprawling ancient structure that couldn’t be taken in at a glance. Broken city walls were buried in fine sand, and the entire city looked as if it had been swept by a violent storm. All the buildings had been cut in half, destroyed into a landscape of ruins.

Only the sword and blade marks engraved on them remained as clear as yesterday. Li Fufeng couldn’t help but reach out to touch them.

His hand grasped at nothing.

It was like passing through a reflection in water, an illusion in bubbles.

This was a city that existed only under the glow of starlight. When the stars disappeared by day, so would the phantom. It truly existed in the past but had long perished in the present.

Before they knew it, the teams from all twelve cities had arrived.

“What should we do now?” Facing this “ancient city” that seemed close at hand yet untouchable, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

“The existence of the Heavenly Capital is real, so the legends about the Lord of Heavenly Capital are likely true as well. We were able to come here because of the resonance between the city lord’s token and the star map, right? Our city lord tokens are probably the keys to opening the real Heavenly Capital.”

The oldest-looking city lord spoke first.

“That makes sense. Xingji, Xuanniao, Xushi, Jianglou, Daliang, Shishen, Chun Shou, Chun Huo, Chun Wei, Shou Xing, Da Huo, Xi Mu... you probably don’t know this, but the naming of the twelve cities comes from the ‘Twelve Star Celestial Spheres.’ Our Sword Realm has never had stars, so there’s no concept of ‘Twelve Star Celestial Spheres.’ Those were named by the ancestors of our homeland as they observed the celestial bodies.”

“I found it. This seems to be where the tokens should be inserted, forming the celestial star map. I propose we arrange the city lord tokens according to the distribution of the Twelve Star Celestial Spheres...”

“Stop talking among yourselves!”

An impatient voice interrupted their conversation, breaking the seemingly harmonious atmosphere.

“Who wants to open the damned Heavenly Capital anyway!”

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