Chapter 351 [Bonus ] The Great Fort

William ignored all of that and took note of how immensely huge the number of spirit masters were in the Scorching Lands. He saw enough to rival the army gathered up by the Long clan by many folds actually.

And that was only a small part of the real force this place really had.

William hadn't met a single monster since leaving that battlefield. He crossed a distance that should be crossed in two hours but in five thanks to all the incoming spirit masters from the fort direction, blocking his path forward.

But that told him he was heading in the right direction at least.

It was like a dam fell and the entire world was filled with racing and widely running waters. The moment William got closer to the fort, he couldn't help but stop, looking in admiration towards the piece of wonder in front of him.

He always thought that the fort was just like the academy, the Long clan, a place that got surrounded by walls and defences, filled with lots of people and various buildings.

But what he saw right in front of his eyes made him smile in satisfaction.

In front of him, nine huge hills appeared, rising from the ground, looking like small mountains.

What made these not mountains were simply their low peaks. Their peaks just ended abruptly after rising up for five hundred metres in the air. It seemed like someone or something quite formidable cleaved these peaks in the past, flattened the tops, and prepared the place for building the fort on top of them.

The hills were closely situated from each other, with narrow and limited space in between each other. On the cleanly cut tops, there was a grand structure that spanned over these hills, covering up the entire valleys and gaps in between, extending for a few thousand metres outwards in all directions.

The fort took the shape of a nine headed star, one that gave awe in the eyes of anyone looking at it from far or near.

It was built out of special ore, one that looked quite shiny like steel. It looked solid, strong enough to carry such grand weight on top of it.

The hills acted as the foundation for such a grand fort, nine grand pillars that were enough to carry the sky even if they needed to. The entire fort's surface area was at least two hundred kilometres square, or even more.

William felt real admiration for the grand work done here. It looked like a lot of thought and much effort was put into coming up with such a grand fort. And from seeing it from afar and down there, William couldn't help but feel more awe.

He knew being in that place was considered one of the safest places in the entire area, in the kingdom, even in the world perhaps. Not a single monster would dare to come here. Not a single army would be able to touch that fort no matter how huge and strong it was.

The path towards the top of the fort was quite ugly and hard. Not to mention the fort had grand walls that lined that fort edge from outside. Many strong and mighty looking towers appeared in William's vision, and all this together would keep this place safe no matter what.

This fort was the perfect example of using the terrain perfectly for one's advantage in defending this place, in addition to using normal defensive structures and weapons like towers and walls.

Even the monster tide that threatened Long clan residence before wouldn't even pose a single threat to this place.

And just from seeing such a strong fort, William couldn't help but wonder how in the world such a place fell when the apocalypse fell.

"Something must have happened here," William knew if monsters' and dark spirit masters' powers wouldn't be able to do it, then human treason would.

He started to walk again towards that fort. The fort was already on high ground, enough to let anyone inside to spot anything moving in a ten kilometres radius, or even more.

However, they didn't act like how the Long clan did, and didn't care about cleaning any trees or removing the part of the forest around. And that was quite interesting for William.

It seemed the owners and residents here were quite confident in their strength or something, even letting the forest run normally under the fort, as if they were inviting trouble to come, if trouble even dared.

The moment William got closer, he noticed there was a grand and broad road, one that came from behind one big hill, curved around it as if it was hugging it or something, before passing directly underneath a big hole in the middle of the seven hills.

William didn't notice that space before until he followed the path of that road. It was just like the road he walked over before to head from the academy to the Long clan, but a bit bigger, much wider actually.

The road was well protected by arrays and many spirit masters who looked like they were patrolling it. Not to mention any cargo passing through this road was heavily protected by mercenaries hired by the merchants owning it.

Even when everything here pointed towards a huge battle going on nearby, the movement on this road didn't even slow down for a little bit.

The convoys down below kept marching towards the fort in a very thick line, steadily advancing with lots of spirit masters guarding them.

​ The caravans were all carts drawn by monsters, tamed monsters. They got covered by thick curtains of opaque mattress, or even made entirely out of special ores, looking like big prison cells.

William couldn't believe that all these merchants and spirit masters were walking normally while a brutal battle was going on not far from them. This was a clear sign on how they got used to such situations, and how confident they were in their safety.