Chapter 933: Greatcrest City

Bang!

The massive ape-like beast crashed to the ground behind John, its weight violently shaking the land. John glanced over his shoulder towards the beast, which had been pierced directly through by the blast of energy coming from the city.

'Dead in one attack. How strong.'

That attack had been at the Late World Expansion level, and had cut down the massive creature instantly. He returned his gaze towards the large city atop the wide mountain, and narrowed his eyes as he noticed several figures speeding towards him.

The figures arrived quickly, encircling John.

'Seven cultivators. All at the Early World Expansion Realm,' he noted.

The group consisted of five men and two women, all wearing the same orange robes with yellow trimmings. They each wore a badge on the upper left portion of their chest, some words carved into the golden badges.

'Greatcrest City Guard.'

The guards stared at John for a short moment, then to the massive creature a short distance away. They studied the surroundings afterwards.

"All clear, sir," one of the women said to one of the men nearby. The man had a bald head and trimmed beard of black and gray. He appeared to be in his fifties, and had a rather serious look on his face as he studied John.

The man nodded, then took a step towards John.

"What is your purpose here?" he asked.

"Purpose?" John repeated. "I got lost in the forest, and was chased by that beast. I just happened to run into this place."

The man studied John with a raised eyebrow, then turned his gaze to the forest behind them. The pathway of broken trees and ruined land the beast had left behind a short distance away.

"You were lost in the Immortal Forest..." the man said skeptically. "How long were you lost for?"

"A few weeks," John answered.

"And how did you manage to get lost in such a dangerous place?" the man asked.

"I went in the forest to hunt beasts, and got chased deep into it by a beast I couldn't handle," John said, making up a believable story. "I then wandered around until I wound up here."

The man studied his face for a moment and then nodded, seemingly accepting his story.

"Forcing us to use the city's attack formation would normally cost you quite a bit," he said, his eyes shifting to the felled beast behind them. "But lucky for you, you managed to lure a valuable beast within the formation's attack range. The beast's corpse will be your payment."

He said it as if there was no room for negotiation. John nodded his head, not really wanting to get in an argument with this man.

"Move along now," the man instructed John, who nodded again and began to move towards the city. The man's commands instructing his group to collect the corpse faded as he moved towards the mountaintop city.

He arrived at the base of the mountain a short while later, and spotted a wide road several miles to his right, away from the river. The road contained quite a bit of traffic on it, from people walking to massive carts pulled by beasts traveling along it. The road zigzagged up that side of the mountain towards the city above.

"I guess that's the path I need to take," John said as he stared up at the city above him. The mountainside he was at was a sheer face cliff miles high, with high walls lining the city's edges. The only way into the city was to take that pathway, as the sky was most likely defended by a formation barrier.

He quickly made his way towards the road and joined the others moving along it. They didn't even notice his presence, and didn't seem to consider the commotion of the beast being attacked to be anything worth looking at, indicating that such an event was most likely a common occurrence.

As he arrived on the road, he stared up at the zig-zagging road leading up to the city. It was several hundred yards wide, allowing for a great deal of traffic to flow in both directions. Thousands of cultivators moved up and down the road, entering the city, or leaving for places unseen. The side of the road was lined with makeshift stalls and marketplaces, with traders hawking their wares to passerby's.

John ignored those stalls and made his way up the pathway, as any worthwhile information was most likely to be obtained there. He arrived at the top of the mountain a while later, and after standing in the long line at the city's gate for several hours, finally made his way to the front of the line.

There, he was stopped by a guard, one wearing the same clothing as the other guards he had encountered.

'Another Early World Expansion guard!' he noted.

An Early World Expansion cultivator on the Divine Martial Continent could be the leader of a relatively powerful sect, yet here they were merely guards. However, all the guards he had seen were on the older side, appearing to be in their forties or fifties. They had most likely reached their peak cultivation level they would ever obtain, which gave him a baseline for the power structure of this world, or at least this area.

'About a full realm higher than the Divine Martial Continent,' John mused, as on the Divine Martial Continent, guards like these would usually be in the Dao Transformation Realm.

"What is your purpose for entering the city?" the guard asked John, eyeing him up and down.

"I have no specific purpose," John said. "I'm just looking to stay here for a few days and resupply before moving on again."

The guard studied him and then nodded his head.

"The entry fee is ten spirit crystals," he said.

John raised an eyebrow, surprised at how cheap the price was.

'Ten spirit crystals? That's almost nothing at all.'

He took out ten spirit crystals and handed them over to the guard, who frowned at John with a look of displeasure.

"Are you trying to be funny? I don't have time for your jokes," the man said.

John raised an eyebrow in confusion, and then glanced to the side, where another traveler was interacting with a guard. The traveler took out ten spirit crystals and handed them to the guard, and was then allowed to enter within. John's eyes widened as he realized why the guard was displeased with him.

'Ten High-Grade Spirit Crystals! To enter a city?'

A Medium-Grade Spirit Crystal was worth a thousand Low-Grade Spirit-Crystals, and a High-Grade Spirit Crystal was worth one Medium-Grade Spirit Crystals. Ten High-Grade Spirit Crystals was the equivalent of a million Low-Grade Spirit Crystals, which was a staggering amount to merely enter a city.

John shifted his gaze back to the guard, who seemed as though he was about to tell John to leave. John sighed and took out the Ten High-Grade Spirit Crystals and handed it over to the man. The man accepted the crystals with a pleased look, but then frowned as he studied them.

John instantly realized why the man was staring at the crystals with such a skeptical expression.

'My spirit crystals are all from the Divine Martial Continent, containing the Qi of my homeworld.'

Just like his cultivation which had been detected by Furi, these crystals were indications that they were not of this world.