Death… And Me

A few days before departing, Droman went to the Formation Guild he was part of to get permission for Rean to participate in the Capital Guild's competition. Once he came back, he found out that not only would Roan be going, but Elder Fauk would follow them as well.

"Elder Fauk is coming with us? That's great! I was afraid that bringing Roan away for the next two months would be a problem for you."

Old Worm shook his head.

"I also have my own things to do there."

Roan then looked at Rean before asking.

'Where is the Chicken?'

Rean shrugged his shoulders after hearing that.

'Malaka finally got rid of Mia's intense training schedule, so she went out on a mission with Calina straight away. What I didn't expect was that Kentucky would go with them too. Try to feel his presence. Kentucky is still close enough for you to perceive his position.'

Roan then closed his eyes and focused on his connection with the Minokawa. Sure enough, he could faintly feel the chicken's presence far away to the northwest.

'That's good. With the dumb bird's defense, those two shouldn't be at much risk.'

'Well, Elder Reliance wouldn't let us bring Kentucky to the Capital anyway. Don't forget that he said that he believes that no more than ten or so cultivators would be able to recognize Kentucky's Race. However, the Capital would definitely have some of these cultivators. We better not risk it.'

Rean nodded and then asked something else.

'Was it really okay to not tell Calina that we are going to the Empire's Capital? Her family is still living in the Imperial Palace, no?'

Roan snorted after hearing that.

'So what? Would you go there and tell them that she's alive? You can't possibly be that naive. Anyway, nothing good would come out if we told Calina about that. Let her focus on her training and the mission. I also left a menu of exercises that she and Malaka will have to complete before we come back, so they will be very busy themselves.'

Rean nodded. It seems like it will be only him and Roan this time. 

Droman and Fauk were both at the Soul Transformation Realm, so there wouldn't be much risk if both of them go out together. That being said, Zuan didn't leave his seclusion to follow him anymore. Especially after he gave the Imperial Family Version 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 of the Router Formation. With the information now public, he wasn't that important anymore.

Droman and Fauk talked for a bit before they took Rean and Roan and left the Sect through the Sect's Long Distance Teleport Formation. As mentioned before, these teleport formations couldn't teleport that far and were quite expensive. However, with the Sect's actual income from the Data Storages' Copyrights, it wasn't a burden for them anymore.

Of course, with those two in the lead, no one noticed their departure. Only Mia and Zuan were informed about the reason for them to go out. They knew it would be a good thing for both of them, so they didn't try to stop either one.

Their group went from one teleport formation after the other, passing by two or three countries per day. There were parts of the path where the teleport formations were not available, so they had to fly when it happened.

Just as Droman mentioned, the travel to the Capital took them half a month to be completed. 

---

Unsurprisingly, the Capital of the Sasamil Empire also carried the same name as the Imperial Family, Sasamil City. This was the biggest city in the Empire, with over one hundred million inhabitants. Without a doubt, a gigantic metropolis that expanded for over 1000 kilometers. Still, the entire city was surrounded by an enormous wall.

The wall wasn't only responsible for protecting those who approached by land. It had many Formations that worked together to create a gigantic Protection Formation that covered the entire city. It's said that the costs to keep this formation running every day were higher than a small country would get in a whole week in income. Don't underestimate this amount. We are talking about a single city here.

Thanks to that, the city was protected against attacks that could come from both air and earth. It made the protection formation of the Dalamu Sect look like a joke.

The city was divided into three different sectors:

First, the Outer City, where most of the populace resided. 90% of the city's size was the Outer City alone. All the visitors had to first pass through the Outer City's gates before entering it. Everyone had to pay a fee as well. As one could imagine, the majority of visitors were Cultivator Merchants who came to sell, buy, or exchange their goods in this place.

Of course, there were many other types: Mercenaries, Vagrant Cultivators, Clans, Side Occupation Guild Members, etc. Last but not least, the city's own citizens who went out to do their own things.

The Second Sector was the Inner City. From this point onward, one had to be a cultivator in the Energy Gathering Realm or above to enter. Of course, this only applied to new visitors. There were still things like young children from the cultivators who lived inside, their family members from outside the Capital, ordinary merchants who had an invitation letter, etc. Those ones could bypass this restriction and enter.

Still, more than 95% of the Inner City people had cultivations above the Energy Gathering Realm. After all, any person who had the conditions to live in this place wouldn't have issues with cultivation resources. At the very least, their families had enough to bring them up to the Energy Gathering Realm. This number became even more impressive when you remember that the majority still had a Gray Color Aptitude, the worst of all seven colors.

It was really a stark contrast with the life one had in the Tribes, where most of the residents wouldn't ever reach the Energy Gathering Realm. In fact, even the Outer City was much better since more than 20% of the people there would at least reach the Energy Gathering Realm in their lives. One must remember that in an entire Tribe, only around 1% would receive cultivation resources. Anyone with Gray Color Aptitude wouldn't usually receive any cultivation resources whatsoever.

Many sects liked to conduct their businesses in the Inner City. Even though the Inner Part had only around 7% of the total size of the Sasamil City, it was still a much bigger place than most of the cities outside the Capital. Dalamu Sect also just so happened to have a place of their own. As a Sect with a Saint Realm Cultivator, it would be weird if they didn't have at least a place to stay here. Nonetheless, compared to the real big sects, clans, etc., their state was somewhat unimpressive.

Last but not least, there was the Core City. That's where the ten Noble Clans and the Imperial Palace were located. As mentioned in the past, the Imperial Family had nine subordinate clans under their control. Samikil, Lavil, Taran, Fole, Susume, Dekaslo, Mantil, Porem, and Wavile. This is the place where others could find them.

The Core Part was only around 3% of the entire city's size. Still, that meant a length of over 30 kilometers occupied by nothing more than the guilds, clans, and Imperial Family. One could only imagine just how many members they had to fulfill all this extension by themselves. In fact, there wasn't enough space for everyone. That being said, many Clan and Imperial Family Members needed to be sent to live outside.

One could also find the Capital's many Guild Main Branches there. Due to the Capital's size, all Side Occupations had quite a few branches around the city to attend to customers. However, only the Main Branches had the repositories that Droman and Old Worm wanted to access. Joining one of the branches outside the Core City wasn't much different than joining a Guild Branch in other cities in the Empire.

---

Although Sasamil City had teleport formations inside the Inner and Core Parts of the city, those were restricted. Anyone who arrived outside had to use the Teleport Formations in the Outer City. All of a sudden, one of the thousands of long Distance Teleport Formations began activated. Just a few seconds later, the formation flashed with a silver light. The silver light only lasted for a second before disappearing as fast as it appeared. However, now one could see four figures standing above the formation. Naturally, those were Rean, Roan, Droman, and Old Worm.

"Phew... we're finally here."

Droman and Old Worm began to walk outside the formation straight away, not giving the twins time to check the things around.

"Come down. All the formations here are used constantly. If you block it for too long, you will have to pay a fee."

Rean and Roan nodded and followed them. Sure enough, just a few seconds after they left the formation, it flashed once more, bringing a new group of cultivators with it.

That wasn't the only one, though. There were hundreds of formations in that place, all bringing and sending cultivators or wealthy people back and forth.

"As expected of the Capital. This is only the teleport formation. Only those with enough resources would use something like this. I can only imagine how many people arrive by foot outside the city walls."

Droman laughed.

"This is just part of it. Wait until you try to spread your Spiritual Sense in the city."

Old Worm and Roan didn't care about any of that and kept walking, forcing Droman and Rean to follow them right after.