Chapter 677: Stories
The group did not instantly depart the battlefield. The Hui Yue’s group and the spirits spent quite some time healing themselves, and when they finally felt that they were fit to fight once more, they began harvesting the beast cores and other useful things from the beasts that had died in battle.
The spirits were at first not interested in the dead beasts at all. They lived off the Ancestral Worldpower of the world and used this for their attacks. As such, they had no use for the beasts’ bodies.
But when they noticed that these humans valued the beast cores, the horns, and even the skin and flesh. They started to gather them up and hand them over to Hui Yue and his friends.
It did not take long before the storage treasures of all the others were filled, and only Hui Yue had space in his Universe Box. The others regretted not bringing enough storage artifacts as they were forced to leave the rest of the beast carcasses on the ground.
Although all their storage artifacts were filled, it was possible to find storage stones randomly on any world that they visited.
Most storage stones did not have a lot of storage space within them, but there were some which contained quite some space, and these could be traded for at the city they were headed towards.
Every world in the entire galaxy knew about storage stones, and they were not rare in the slightest. However the ones which could hold a large quantity of items were fairly rare, and to trade for these stones, would require items of equal or greater value.
On some worlds, it was possible to trade food or materials, but this world was a place where they did not need the beasts at all, and the only thing he could think of was to offer them some of the many herbs they had found in the previous world.
Herbs were needed by anyone, even spirits. Herbs could be used for many many things, such as concocting pills, herbal extracts, and even something as simple as just planting them. This would ensure that the world gained more Ancestral Worldpower, something that the sylphs would be very interested in.
This world had herbs, but it was not like the previous world where there was a massive herb field, which produced an amazing amount of Ancestral Worldpower.
“Let’s get going,” the sylphs said, as they all stood up. Everyone had been nurtured back to health as they stood and got ready to move to the city.
Moving through the landscape, there was nothing dangerous around them, and everyone was joking with one another. They were all laughing and talking about their exploits in the last battle.
Friends compared who had killed the most beasts, or who had sustained the least injuries. Some would discuss Hui Yue and his friends’ arrival and their part in the result of the battle.
Some even walked up to Hui Yue and his friends and ask them questions about the outside worlds. Especially the sylphs, they seemed like they couldn’t help their curiosity and asked many questions. They knew they could never leave the world they were living on; therefore, they were very curious about the outside world.
No one mentioned their reason for traveling through so many different worlds, and no one told anything about the world they were looking for, but they would all tell stories about the worlds they had already visited.
“Many worlds we passed were on the verge of collapsing and those are ones we did not enter. When a world collapses, the protective barrier around it becomes unstable and you can look inside.”
“Some of these worlds were overflowing with magma that was coming from the core of the world whlie others were being torn apart by spatial tears.”
“A few worlds were slowly crumbling because the formation had lost its power and there was no Ancestral Worldpower left in the world.”
“While many worlds were collapsing, there were also many worlds that were stable. These worlds were filled with beasts and spirits, but no humans were able to survive on these worlds from the Archaic Era until now.”
“Some worlds the beasts were in control, others the spirits and yet some had power shared between the two sides.”
“Some beasts were mutated from different races. On some worlds there were insects as the strongest, on others the mammals were the leaders. Then we have the reptiles and even some worlds where all the different races had managed to merge together and create creatures that were not just reptiles and mammals but both at the same time.”
“On these worlds there are ruins of old civilizations. There are signs of humans living and controlling the different worlds, but only signs remain, humans are no longer present on any of the worlds we visited.”
“Spirits are not keen on interacting with the humans that travel through the worlds in the outer perimeter of the Archaic World. I think it is harder for spirits to survive the further they go in the outer worlds because the farther ones have less dense Ancestral Worldpower around them. With less Ancestral Worldpower, many spirits would find it harder to survive.”
“Although we did see worlds where ghosts were the dominant species, and other worlds where nymphs were as numerous as the sky, it was not until we reached the middle area that we even realized that there was a race called the sylph. It seems that their job is sustaining the world they live on. They were a new race and we had never encountered them before.”
As they traveled, they talked about how they had been captured inside a world for more than a year, about how they had fought multiple humans all over the Archaic World, and the many wonders they had seen while entering and exiting world after world.
The plains that they had been traveling on turned to mountains and after a while the mountains turned to forests. After the forests, came valleys, and a large city was located deep within one of these valleys.
This city was beautiful. It was one with nature. There were massive trees that had been carved out and made into houses, and the mountain walls had buildings etched onto its sides. Stone houses had been built where there were no trees and a large wall surrounded the entire city.
On the way towards the city they did not find any smaller villages, neither did they see any fields or signs of having to sustain a city anywhere close by.
It was obviously because that these spirits did not need to eat. They just absorbed the Ancestral Worldpower, and although food could be considered a delicacy for Gods, it was not something that the spirits would ever consider eating as it would taint their pure bodies.
They might consume pills or medicinal herbs if they were injured, but only if it was incredibly severe as they would otherwise focus on just absorbing Ancestral Worldpower from the surrounding world.
The roads to the city were also deserted. Although they could hear sounds from within the city, the majority of all the spirits had left to participate in the war, and thus not many were free to travel the world.
When they entered the city, they saw small child-like ghosts and nymphs. Although they were child-like, everyone knew that they were not children.
Spirits were not born as humans or beasts. They could not reproduce either. They were born from Ancestral Worldpower or similar energies, and thus the child-like spirits were not actually children.
“We left some behind in the city to look after it in case the beasts decided to launch another attack.”
The city was large, but it seemed deserted. As the spirits returned they all split up, most heading to their own residences.
The army split up, but Hui Yue and his friends continued to follow the sylph who had talked about a spirit that had traveled the worlds and seen many things.
This city was strange. There were no marketplaces and no merchants yelling out prices for their wares; no one was selling or trading things.
There was no dining places, no taverns with drinks, and no inns. The city was just a big gathering of buildings.
Hui Yue was astonished to see this city and was shocked at the differences between a spirit city and a normal city composed of God ranked cultivators.
“We do not have inns because we rarely have guests,” the sylph explained as he noticed the confusion on the faces of Hui Yue and his friends.
“When a guest arrives, the guests will just stay with us. Every spirit is always more than willing to welcome guests as we wish to hear about the outside world.”
“When a new spirit is born, they are able to find a new home within the city. Although many spirits reside here, there are many more houses than there are spirits therefore there is always a home free.”
“Now that many spirits have sacrificed their lives during this last battle, many more houses have been made ownerless. Many spirits will start fighting for the best residences over the next many years.”
“Anyway the spirit that you are looking for happens to be staying at my mansion. Follow me, and I will lead you all to him,” the sylph said with a smile as they went through road after road, street after street, and alley after alley before they arrived in front of a massive manor.
This manor was built within a large tree. It had its own fence around it and a few spirits were standing in front of it, looking around.
“Don’t even think about it!” the sylph’s voice boomed through the air. “This is my manor and I survived the battle. Go find your own mansion!”
Only then did Hui Yue realize that the spirits that had gathered in front were there to see if the owner of the mansion returned or if the mansion would become ownerless.
As soon as the spirits heard the sylph they instantly turned to look at him. The fear in their eyes was apparent and they quickly bowed deeply before they scurried away.
“The stronger you are, the more magnificent a residence you can occupy,” the sylph explained. “I am a sylph, and therefore, I am able to live in one of the most prominent mansions within the entire city.”
“Unfortunately many people are unable to go against the temptation of trying to take over such a mansion, and so they all hoped that I would not return.”
“But here I am, back with my life, and the saviors of our entire army!” He said loudly as a smile appeared on his face. Clearly, he was very proud.
“This spirit comes from the innermost regions of the Archaic World. I am not sure if he will tell you anything without gaining something in return, but I will tell you what we spirits value the most are stories.”
“Since you have come from the outside world then I am sure that you can tempt him with stories from the outside world.”
“We spirits don’t usually trade in anything. We have no interest in worldly possessions, however what we do value is stories. Whenever we have visitors from the outside world we want to get as much information as possible, and we will trade what we have for these stories.”