Imperial Treasure

"There’s another way the upper three tiers monopolize civilization: academies. For children from the lower three tiers to enroll, they either have to pay insanely high tuition or pass layers upon layers of aptitude screening and only get in if they meet the criteria. This fundamentally throttles the development of civilization in the lower three tiers... it’s a very common tactic."

Yi handed the book back to Sui Yi and said, "And this Dragon Ape World has a very large world map, but its population and architecture are highly concentrated... which is the Dragon Ape Country we’re in now. Other than the Dragon Ape Country occupying half the territory, the remaining small nations occupy one third, and the other two thirds belong to unattended Special Secret Realms. Land area plus the monopoly on civilization and force makes power in this world highly concentrated in the Dragon and Ape Sects."

They did indeed belong to the Dragon Ape Country now, but the Dragon Ape Country was very different from the national systems of many worlds. Its extreme centralization was also reflected in the fact that eight or nine out of every ten buildings in the nation were clustered together. The moment Sui Yi opened the first page of the book, she could see an enormous national map, with the national area drawn in planar form, encircled by a ring of piled-up circular high walls. Moving inward, it was divided into thirteen Administrative Districts. The geographical environment of each Administrative District was different: some districts were completely covered in ice and snow, some were subtropical jungle, some were underwater, some were on the water...

Each had its own characteristics, and the races and living beings inhabiting them were all different as well.

This was a vast world, an immense country. Just looking at the proportional land area on the map below, one could roughly estimate that the architectural area of this hyper-concentrated Dragon Ape Country was ten thousand times that of New York City.

A terrifying number—maybe the sum total of all national cities on Earth put together.

More importantly, its civilization was intensely concentrated, its martial power was intensely concentrated, and its authority was merged into one.

If not for the split and opposition between the Dragon Faction and the Ape Faction, this world would already count as a standard unified dynasty-type nation.

Sui Yi pressed down on the book. "...The purposes of each of us coming to the Dragon Ape World must be clear. I’m here to look for something and for people; Yi is here to enroll in Pharmacognosy; Zixu is seeking the Thousand Buddha Hands inheritance; as for Qinghan, you..."

Pu Qinghan smiled. "You’re not going to say you want me to stay here and shoot movies and be a star, right~~"

Obviously not.

Sui Yi couldn’t help but laugh, and Pu Qinghan said to Yi and Ye Zixu, "When you two don’t have time, I’ll bring Nine Tails along to stick by her side. At the very least, we won’t let her take risks alone."

Naturally Yi and Ye Zixu agreed with this arrangement. Not to mention that Pu Qinghan’s strength was formidable, plus she had Yuezhuo’s Special Ability—within this world where Dragons and Apes were supreme, her advantage was obvious. And then there was Nine Tails, that arena-controlling ultimate weapon; even if they ran into a group of Void-breaking experts, they could retreat with ease.

Generally speaking, even if they came up against a Cloud Ascendant powerhouse, the two of them plus Nine Tails would have no trouble getting away.

"Then it’s settled." Yi didn’t give Sui Yi the right to refuse. In fact, Sui Yi hadn’t intended to refuse at all. She put away the book and smiled. "Good arrangement. But the prerequisite for doing all this... is that we need money. Where we are now does indeed belong to the 13th Administrative District, which is the District closest to the Dragon Ape High Wall. And Yi, if you want to study Pharmacognosy, unless you join an upper three-tier Noble Clan, you’ll have to enroll in an academy. The academies are basically located in the four inner Administrative Districts: Starshine, Ice Gleam, Golden Shine, and Purple Sky, which are also the four most powerful Districts. In terms of territory, to head to those four Districts, even flying non-stop day and night, it would take a full month. On top of that, there are defense layers between Districts, and each environment has its own dangerous, powerful creatures. For example, in the desert region there are several Cloud Ascendant monsters... and the other regions surely aren’t much different. To enter safely, we can only take public transport such as Flying Shuttle Trains and Flying Ships, or rent private Flying Riding Beasts... and whichever we choose, we’ll have to shoulder a sizable cost. For instance, going from the 13th Administrative District to the 12th Administrative District by Flying Shuttle Train, the ticket is five hundred Spirit Currency. Uh... we can’t even afford a single ticket."

Money... The few of them, who had belonged to the wealthy class back on Earth, looked at one another...

Making money really was a skilled craft.

Sui Yi pushed three hundred of their remaining four hundred Spirit Currency over to Ye Zixu. "Transportation, food, errands—added together... use it sparingly."

Pu Qinghan could only laugh and cry, but Ye Zixu actually put it away very seriously and carefully.

But just then, Sui Yi suddenly turned her head, looking toward the southeast.

"Something’s coming...."

Something?

The other three turned to look.

The moment they turned, they saw a flock of birds in the sky diving down. They looked like birds at first glance—that’s why you’d call them birds—but they’d already gotten close in their dive, so their forms were magnified, turning out to be big, flat-billed birds, neither too large nor too small, with wingspans of over four meters. They resembled black-faced spoonbills from Earth, and their presence was powerful. Around their necks were collars, with reins held in the hands of riders on their backs. Each of these riders had a half-round shell-like mask over the upper half of their faces, with different patterns on them, their clothing flamboyant. As they swooped down, they shouted loudly, extremely wild. Several of them swung staffs or blades downward, throwing out attacks from above. Their targets were irregular—whoever was close got hit first. When those dozens of people struck, explosions and slicing sounds erupted, instantly turning the originally only slightly noisy but still orderly port into chaos. Many Riding Beasts were spooked and started rampaging...

One could imagine: if the average strength of those dozens of people reached SS level, then bombarding the same place as a group would create quite a significant effect.

Taking advantage of the chaos, those skyborne riders swooped lower, flinging out hooks from their hands. The hooks flew out, directly snagging the cargo on the backs of beasts in front or below, or the goods that had just been unloaded. The hooks were highly adhesive, sticking directly to the cargo. With a yank from those burly, uninvited guests, the goods were taken.

Because of the chaos, the owners of those goods couldn’t even tell which cargo was theirs, much less whether the stuff being taken up was theirs or not. From the perspective of human weakness, not everyone is willing to shout at the first moment. It’s like someone being robbed on the street—so long as that person isn’t your relative or friend, who really wants to step in right away to help?

If even one out of ten does, that’s already pretty good.

Let alone a crowd of merchants who all seek profit and avoid harm.

Right now, they watched as dozens of large cargo units were dragged upward....

Watched as those riders were about to swagger off...

"It’s the Pi Lu Flying Thieves!! Damn it, they were just here half a month ago, and now they’re back! Are they trying to kill us?!"

"Their appetite’s getting bigger and bigger! This is killing us!"

"Whose goods are those?"

"Don’t know, looks like..."

Outside the park, some merchants and workers started talking, and their words reached the ears of Sui Yi and the others. Meanwhile, in that chaotic area, someone finally shouted loudly, "Mine, those are my goods! Please, no! That’s all my assets! My family depends on that to survive! And these workers, they haven’t been paid yet... Masters of Pi Lu, please, I beg you, spare me!!!"

The fat man wailed endlessly, kneeling on the ground and pleading. The Pi Lu thieves above burst out laughing, and one of them, wild-eyed, raised his long whip.

"Get lost, you fat pig. Us taking a batch of East Border Wood off your hands is already giving you face. Now scram!"

A 4S-level man cracked his whip downward. A regular merchant not even at S level had no chance of withstanding it. That single lash sent the man flying...

Blood and flesh sprayed...

Before he hit the ground, a streak of Green Fire shot into the sky, spreading out in midair, then exploding....

Dozens of people were bound and burned, without even time to utter a word before being reduced to ash, leaving dozens of riderless Pi Lu birds circling in the sky. Naturally, the cargo they’d taken fell back down...

The sudden turn of events left many people stunned. The grievously wounded fat man was helped up by a crowd of workers. Seeing this scene, he was overjoyed; ignoring his injuries, he hurriedly told the workers to gather up the goods...

Just as the cargo was collected, the port Guard arrived belatedly. They casually asked a few questions and then dropped the matter...

In the park.

"East Border Wood—even the cargo is perfectly clear. Does this count as collusion between officials and merchants? No wonder the flying thieves are so rampant." Pu Qinghan didn’t have some bleeding-heart savior complex, but she was extremely disgusted by this sort of thing.

"Just profit-seeking. There’s mention of East Border Wood here." Sui Yi pointed at a page in the book. On the color illustration, the timber looked very thick and dense. The notes said East Border Wood was a special type of lumber whose weight rivaled heavy iron; each piece weighed up to a ton and could be used as gate pillars for Noble Clan Gate Valve estates—each three-meter length worth a thousand Spirit Currency.

"Just now, there were at least twenty bundles of East Border Wood among that cargo. Ten pieces per bundle, that’s two hundred thousand Spirit Currency. For a small merchant, that’s a bet-your-entire-fortune shipment; for a flying thief group, it’s easy money and quite a haul... why wouldn’t they?"

Sui Yi’s words made Yi glance toward the spot where Ye Zixu had been sitting.

"So you sent Ye Zixu over to ask for compensation?"

"Is that unreasonable?" Sui Yi smiled.

Of course it was reasonable. That fat man was probably even delighted.

One look and you could tell he had no martial backing; otherwise he wouldn’t have been picked out as the soft target.

But the fat man was a decent person—otherwise he wouldn’t still be thinking about his employees, and they wouldn’t be helping him like that.

It was precisely for that reason that Sui Yi had Ye Zixu step in.

"If we’re short on money, being bodyguards isn’t a bad option—assuming the port Guard doesn’t come back later to settle accounts."

The three watched as the port Guard didn’t pursue the Pi Lu thieves at all, but instead started looking around for whoever had just made a move... clearly they meant to be accountable to the Pi Lu group.

But their attitude wasn’t exactly rigorous—they were just casually asking around...