Chapter 104: Gathering in the Imperial City of Ice and Snow

In South Heaven Prefecture there are a hundred cities, with South Heaven City serving as the prefectural capital. Closest to it are three others: South Whirl City, South Separation City, and South Fire City. According to Lin Hongyi, she had been living in South Separation City all along.

At the gates of South Fire City, countless figures stood silently beneath the walls, staring up at more than ten corpses hanging from the battlements, their murmurs rising and falling in waves.

“Isn’t that the leader of the Green Hawk Mercenary Band?”

“Yes, that’s Green Hawk all right!”

“What a miserable death. Even after dying, his body was hung on the wall.”

“Who told him to offend someone he never should have? I heard the Green Hawk Mercenary Band was wiped out overnight four days ago, and then Green Hawk and several of his most capable men were hung on the wall.”

“And the city lord and those great families just let it happen?”

“You think they tried to stop it? If they had, would those bodies still be hanging there?”

“Fair enough...”

Among the crowd were two figures, one tall and one short: a pale, weak-looking youth of sixteen or seventeen, and a handsome child of around ten.

The little boy gazed at the corpses hanging from the wall. His small fists clenched until they turned white, his eyes bloodshot, tears gathering at the corners, yet he forced them back with all his might.

“Let’s go. When the time comes for revenge, I’ll add your Green Hawk uncle’s hatred to the score.”

The frail youth patted the little boy on the shoulder, then turned and walked away. The boy nodded, looked up once more at the corpses, and then abruptly turned to chase after the youth. At the very instant she turned, the tears in her eyes burst free, only to be fiercely wiped away.

“Uncle Green Hawk, rest assured. One day Hongyi will slaughter every last one of your enemies, leaving not even chickens or dogs alive. Within ten miles, the land will run red with blood and turn black with it, and I will avenge you and Uncle Green Luo to the very end...”

This child was none other than Lin Hongyi. Because someone was after her, Lin Fan disguised her features and dressed her in boys’ clothes, making her look exactly like a young boy.

After that, he had Xiao Jin subdue another third-rank ferocious beast, a Gale Wind Leopard, and brought Hongyi all the way to South Fire City.

Yet he had never imagined that the Green Hawk Mercenary Band, meant to meet them here, had also been annihilated, with their corpses even hung upon the city wall.

If Lin Fan were to abandon Hongyi, he simply could not bear it. The girl was so young and alone that he could not feel at ease leaving her behind, so without the slightest hesitation he kept her at his side.

He felt no conflict at all, as though caring for Hongyi were the most natural thing in the world. Likewise, Hongyi offered no objection to his words and simply followed after him, as if he had always been her pillar of support.

By then it was already evening, and there were only two days left before the Sky Scripture Academy would officially begin registration. Lin Fan did not dare delay for even a moment.

So he took Lin Hongyi riding on the Gale Wind Leopard, and after about a day’s journey reached South Heaven Prefecture City, where they used the teleportation array to head for the imperial capital.

Along the way, things went unexpectedly smoothly. No one saw through their identities, and they encountered no ambushes. In fact, Lin Fan found that rather strange.

One must know that the black-clad men who had previously tried to seize Lin Hongyi were no ordinary force. He had seen two groups of them, more than twenty black-clad experts in all, every one of them at the Meridian Unsealing realm.

Clearly, the power behind Hongyi’s capture was anything but simple. Yet if it was so formidable, with such strength and influence, why had they simply stopped?

At the very least there should have been wanted notices or wanted portraits. In the end, there was nothing at all.

...

The Snowheart Kingdom had a hundred prefectures and a thousand cities, with a population of a hundred billion.

Because today was the Sky Scripture Academy’s registration day, the imperial capital was utterly packed.

Snowheart Imperial Capital spanned five thousand kilometers and was divided into an inner city and an outer city. The inner city was split into four major districts: the east was where the Snowheart royal family resided; the south housed the kingdom’s imperial guard, directly under the emperor’s command; the west contained the imperial mausoleum; and the north was where the royal retainers lived.

The outer city was also divided into four districts. The east was the noble quarter, where the kingdom’s powerful and influential people lived, right beside the inner city, making it convenient for the daily court audience. The south was the commercial district, where all the taverns, inns, restaurants, brothels, weapon shops, blacksmith shops, silk stores, pet shops, auction houses, and more were located. Moreover, there was no curfew here at night, making it prime ground for raking in money.

The west was where the army was stationed, and not the kingdom’s imperial guard, but one of the four great armies of the kingdom: the Martial Peace Army. If the imperial guard could only be considered the force protecting the inner city and the royal family, then the Martial Peace Army was the army that encircled the entire imperial capital, directly commanded by Marquis Anwu.

Finally, there was the northern district, the largest of the four, because this was the territory of the Sky Scripture Academy, which included vast mountain ranges teeming with ferocious beasts.

When the Snowheart Kingdom first built the city, it had included these mountains within the city’s bounds. The forested ranges were said to contain countless beasts, even many at the River Realm.

Of course, within this forest known as the Sky Scripture Mountains, the fifth-rank and sixth-rank ferocious beasts had already been subdued. Only those of fourth rank and below remained unconquered, so that the academy’s students might temper themselves through battle.

At the gates of the northern Sky Scripture Academy, ten long lines of people stretched as far as the eye could see, all here to register.

Lin Fan held Hongyi’s small hand and waited quietly in line. There were still more than a hundred people ahead of him. He did not see Xiao Shuiran and the others, but through their communication jade talismans, he learned that they were already in line.

It was said that the number of people registering for the Sky Scripture Academy this time exceeded one hundred thousand, and even registration alone would take three days and three nights. The academy’s efficiency was high; within an hour, it was Lin Fan’s turn.

“Name, prefecture, age, cultivation level.”

The man seated before Lin Fan was in his forties, somewhat unkempt, and he looked up at Lin Fan as he asked the question.

“Lin Fan, Qingxue Prefecture, seventeen years old, early Spirit-Attracting realm.”

Lin Fan replied. He would have liked to say he had already broken through to the Qi Meridian realm, but the conditions did not allow it. Being able to barely gather spiritual energy was already not easy for him, so he could only claim Spirit-Attracting realm.

“Mhm. This is your jade token. Keep it safe. In five days, take part in the Sky Scripture Academy examination. If you pass, you may become a student of the academy.”

The scruffy man handed Lin Fan a jade token about half a palm in size. Lin Fan accepted it, knowing this was now his symbol of identity.

“Next!”

The scruffy man spoke, and Lin Fan quickly pulled Hongyi forward.

“Oh my, it’s a child!”

Seeing Lin Hongyi’s appearance of eleven or twelve, a flash of surprise passed through the scruffy man’s eyes.

However, he did not question it. After all, with this academy admissions round, there were more than a hundred thousand applicants across the kingdom, and geniuses were countless.

Not to mention children applying, even twelve- or thirteen-year-olds at the peak of the Spirit-Attracting realm were common, and there were even thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds in the Qi Meridian realm. So seeing Lin Hongyi at eleven or twelve merely surprised him a little.

“Name, prefecture, age, cultivation level?”

“Lin Hongyi, Qingxue Prefecture, eleven years old, early Spirit-Attracting realm.”

Lin Hongyi answered calmly, and then received her own jade token. Throughout the process, the scruffy man did not question her at all, nor did he ask to test her cultivation.

After all, his duty was only to handle registration and distribute the Sky Scripture jade tokens for recordkeeping.

As for whether these applicants were telling the truth or lying, that was not his concern. Five days later, the examination would reveal everything. The real could not be false, and the false could not be real.

“Brother Fan! Brother Fan, over here!”

Just as Lin Fan had finished registering Hongyi, a shout came from afar. Looking over, he saw the figures of Xiao Shuiran and the others.

He led Hongyi over and smiled at them. “You’ve all finished registering?”

“Of course!”

Hearing this, Xiao Shuiran and the others smiled back, then looked at Lin Hongyi. “And this little girl is...?”

“Let me introduce her. This is my little sister, Hongyi, Lin Hongyi.”

Lin Fan said seriously. He could feel that whenever Hongyi saw strangers, her little hand would tighten around his. It had been the same from South Fire City to South Heaven Prefecture City, and now to the imperial capital—she was always especially guarded.

He knew this was because of the terrible upheaval she had suffered, which had changed her character greatly. She was no longer innocent and carefree, but wary of others, trusting no one except him.

One had to know that many of her dead uncles and elders had been slain by other uncles and elders—people who had once been her closest kin. Her heart had become somewhat closed off.

“Little sister?!”

Xiao Shuiran and the others were stunned. They all knew Brother Fan’s background, and naturally knew he had no little sister. But hearing him say this, they hurriedly began rummaging through their storage rings for gifts.

“My brother’s little sister is my little sister. Come, I don’t really have anything else to give, so take this!”

After searching through his ring for a long time, Xiao Shuiran still could not find anything suitable for a girl. In the end, gritting his teeth, he took out a small dagger he had prepared for his own little demoness and handed it to Lin Hongyi.

This dagger was no ordinary item; it was a mid-grade treasure weapon. Back when Xiao Shuiran was training, he had nearly lost his life beneath this dagger’s edge.

“This necklace is for you. Brother Ji prepared it to court his goddess, but the goddess is not more important than little sister!”

“This is mine...”

Next, Li Ji took out a pendant shaped like a heart, crimson red, threaded on a fine silver chain. Meanwhile, Shangguan Feihong, Qian Jin, Sun Hao, Ohu, and the others also produced gifts in turn.

A treasure-grade silver-thread glove, a purple card, a jade hairpin, and a wolf-tooth club...

At once, all eyes gathered on the wolf-tooth club, then on Ohu. The sight made Ohu’s face burn bright red with embarrassment.

“This... is the weapon I used to kill my first early Qi Meridian realm opponent. I kept it as a memento!”

Giving Lin Hongyi a gift was truly difficult for him. He was not like Xiao Shuiran, who had a little demoness sister and thus always carefully prepared presents, nor like Li Ji, who was dashing and carefree and always had gifts in his storage ring for flattering girls.

Nor was he like Qian Jin, who had now gained the approval of his family and was rich and powerful, or Shangguan Feihong, who was cold-faced but warm-hearted, or Sun Hao, whose schemes and plans were always firmly in hand.

In their storage rings, besides the things they used themselves, there were always a few other items.

But whatever he himself could not use, he would sell immediately, keeping only some cultivation manuals, beast flesh, coins, and weapons.

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