The Explorer slowly docked at the simple, natural pier, and Yu Yuanchen and his party stepped onto the land of the Sun Moon Continent.
Underfoot lay slightly damp gravel, and the air was filled with a sea breeze that felt similar to the coast of the Douluo Continent, yet carried the scent of unfamiliar vegetation. The group's gazes turned, as if by unspoken agreement, toward the village in the distance that was quiet to an excessive degree.
"Let's go, let's ask about the situation." Yu Yuanchen took the lead, and the others followed closely behind.
The village was very small, with low, dilapidated houses built from rough stones and mud, their thatch roofs thick but clearly aged. Fishing nets were scattered at the village entrance, and several broken wooden basins were overturned on the sand, clearly indicating that the villagers had evacuated in a great hurry. The entire village exuded an atmosphere of poverty and isolation.
Yu Yuanchen secretly released a gentle mental fluctuation to soothe the villagers' tension before revealing that they meant no harm. After a long while, the door to the largest stone house was cautiously pushed open just a crack. An old man wearing patched coarse cloth clothes, his face etched with the wrinkles of time and hardship, his eyes filled with fear and vigilance, stepped out tremblingly, supported by several young men who looked equally terrified. He was the village chief.
Communication went more smoothly than expected. Perhaps due to the invisible influence of the God Realm, although the languages of the two continents—separated for countless years—had their differences, the grammar and core vocabulary were surprisingly sixty or seventy percent similar. With some guessing and gesturing, combined with the peaceful aura that Yu Yuanchen and his group deliberately projected, they were barely able to converse.
"A... are you noble lords... from, from the sea?" The old village chief's voice trembled, his gaze involuntarily drifting toward the massive metal sailing ship anchored at the shore, which clearly did not belong to the craftsmanship of this world, and then to the group of extraordinary, well-dressed men and women before him. In particular, the faint, heart-palpitating aura they exuded made his legs shake.
"Old man, there is no need to panic." Yu Yuanchen's tone was gentle as he stepped forward, trying his best to make his aura even more peaceful. "We are travelers from elsewhere, passing through this place, and would like to ask about the local customs and traditions."
Under Yu Yuanchen's patient guidance, the old village chief began to speak, stumbling over his words. His knowledge was limited and his information fragmented, but the picture of the Sun Moon Continent he pieced together caused the expectations in the hearts of Yu Yuanchen and the others to sink bit by bit.
According to the old village chief, this vast continent was not a unified empire, but was ruled by countless "tribes" of varying sizes. The village he belonged to was part of a medium-sized tribe called the "Oak Tribe." The most powerful entities on the entire continent were three behemoth tribes—the Purple Blazing Tribe, the Golden Sun Tribe, and the Silver Moon Tribe.
"The... the three great tribes are very powerful. They have... have god-given weapons that can glow and strike with thunder..." The old village chief struggled to gesture, attempting to describe the "soul tools" he had heard of, but his vocabulary was poor, and he could only use vague terms like "very powerful" and "can protect big cities." He had never left the hundred-mile radius of the coast in his life, and his understanding of soul tool technology was limited to legends.
What made the hearts of Yu Yuanchen and the others sink even further was the old village chief's description of the continental situation. Unlike the Douluo Continent, where human soul masters held absolute dominance and drove soul beasts into specific forests, the humans of the Sun Moon Continent seemed to live forever in the shadow of soul beasts!
"The... the beast tide is terrifying..." Fear appeared on the old village chief's face. "Only the main cities of the three great tribes, and the cities of large tribes like the Oak Tribe, can hold them back by relying on... relying on those glowing stones and weapons. Small villages like ours..." He shook his head bitterly. "We can only hide, set some traps, or rely on the young people to fight for their lives. Fortunately, this place is remote and there aren't many powerful soul beasts; at most, some ten-year or few-decade ones come, which we can still handle."
According to him, there seemed to be a tacit understanding between the three great tribes; although there were occasional frictions, they had never erupted into large-scale wars, and instead often joined forces to resist the incursions of powerful soul beasts.
As for the other small and medium-sized tribes, they struggled to survive in the cracks between the threat of soul beasts and the three great tribes. The Oak Tribe possessed three cities and was considered a relatively strong force in the Black Stone Mountain Range area, but looking at the continent as a whole, it was merely mid-tier.
The old village chief's knowledge was limited to this; he knew nothing of advanced soul tool technology, the specific strength of the tribes, or the detailed geography of the continent. His life trajectory was a cycle of fishing on this barren coastline, growing crops that could withstand the poor soil, defending against the occasional weak soul beast, and paying meager taxes to the Oak Tribe.
After listening to the old village chief's account, the group fell into silence for a moment. Tang Chen couldn't help but click his tongue: "What is this? It sounds like the humans of the Sun Moon Continent are having a pretty miserable time? Being suppressed and beaten by soul beasts? And those soul tools don't sound like much, either."
Qian Daoliu frowned slightly; he was more concerned with order: "Tribal fragmentation, surrounded by powerful beasts... the living environment here is far harsher than in Douluo."
Yu Yuanchen also sighed inwardly. The gap between this and the highly developed, prosperous Sun Moon Continent he had imagined was truly significant. It seemed that the Sun Moon Continent of this era was still in a relatively primitive and difficult stage.
Disappointment was disappointment, but the exploration had to continue. Yu Yuanchen left behind some of the dry rations and cloth stored on the ship as a token of gratitude for the old village chief, and secretly left a wisp of pure dragon might around the village. This dragon might was harmless to the villagers, but it could effectively deter soul beasts below the thousand-year cultivation level, ensuring peace for this place for several years.
After bidding farewell to the small fishing village with its limited information, the mood of Yu Yuanchen's party was quite complex. Their first impression of the Sun Moon Continent was far from the image of prosperous soul tool technology they had expected; instead, it felt more like a backward, savage land.
However, the group was not discouraged. Yu Yuanchen properly hid the Explorer in a remote bay and set up exquisite concealment and warning restrictions before the group traveled light toward "Black Stone City," one of the three main cities of the Oak Tribe, as indicated by the old village chief.
Their speed was extremely fast, and even though they deliberately slowed down to observe the local customs and traditions, they were far beyond the reach of ordinary travelers. Along the way, they passed several slightly larger villages, where the situation was much the same as the small coastal village.
The houses remained simple, the villagers looked sallow, and life was hard. The number of soul masters was sparse, and their cultivation levels were generally low, mostly only at the first or second rank, serving as the guardians of the villages.
On the way, they happened to encounter an "Earth Splitting Mountain Pig" soul beast with about five or six hundred years of cultivation attacking the simple fence of a village. The villagers were terrified, and the only soul master, who was at the tenth rank and possessed only a single white soul ring, led some young men in a desperate defense, but they were already in imminent danger.
Yu Yuanchen flicked a finger, and the mountain pig collapsed and died with a wail. The rescued villagers were extremely grateful, but when asked about soul tools, they looked blank, saying only that those were "treasures" that only big shots in the city and powerful soul masters could access.
This scene made Tang Chen shake his head: "The people here live much harder lives than ours back home. The threat of soul beasts is almost everywhere."
Qian Daoliu's gaze swept over the shaken villagers, and he nodded slightly: "It seems the village chief was not lying. The humans of the Sun Moon Continent are indeed living in the shadow of soul beasts. Soul tools may be the survival reliance they have groped for in desperate straits."
Yu Yuanchen remained silent, but a guess began to form in his mind. Perhaps it was this severe survival pressure that gave birth to the unique development path of soul tools on the Sun Moon Continent?
After all, in a situation where individual power could not be quickly improved to fight against powerful soul beasts, using external objects (soul tools) to bridge the gap was a more realistic choice. It was just that, from what he had seen so far, the level of these "external objects" seemed to be at a relatively primary stage.
In less than a day, a gray-black city built against the mountain appeared at the end of their vision. The city walls were over twenty meters high, built from a type of hard black stone native to the area. Every certain distance along the walls, one could see metal objects embedded in the masonry—these were one of the targets of their trip: soul tools.
These soul tools had a simple, archaic design, mostly tubular or crystal-like devices, with chaotic patterns engraved on their surfaces, emitting energy fluctuations. The most conspicuous were several thick cannons mounted behind the battlements, as well as a layer of white energy light film that enveloped the entire city.
"We've arrived, Black Stone City." Yu Yuanchen stopped, and the group looked at this important border town of the Oak Tribe from afar.
"Is this a soul tool?" Tang Chen narrowed his eyes. As one of the top blacksmiths in the world, his gaze instantly focused on the materials and structure of those soul tools. "Tsk, this forging technique... it's too rough! They are just relying on the inherent properties of the metal, removing impurities slightly, and then engraving arrays on it? The guidance of the spirit within the metal and the structural reinforcement are almost zero! A waste! What a waste!"
His tone carried undisguised disdain, like a top master seeing a clumsy work by an apprentice.
Qian Daoliu was more concerned with the energy light film: "The energy level of this barrier... can it withstand a full-strength attack from a Soul Ancestor? If it's a thousand-year soul beast, unless it has a top-tier bloodline or is specialized in breaking defenses, it won't be able to break through for a while. For this city, it is barely enough."
Yu Yuanchen did not speak. His powerful divine sense spread out like mercury, silently sweeping over every soul tool on the city wall. In his perception, the core array structures, energy circuits, and material ratios of these soul tools were clearly presented.
A moment later, he withdrew his divine sense and shook his head slightly: "The structure is simple, the energy utilization efficiency is low, and the stability of the core array is average. The highest of those soul cannons have power roughly equivalent to a Level Four Soul Tool, and this city-protecting light film is also at the mid-level of a Level Four. From this, it can be inferred that the highest soul tool technology this Oak Tribe can master probably does not exceed Level Five, and at most touches the threshold of Level Six."
Level Four, Level Five soul tools... in the soul master system of the Douluo Continent, this was roughly equivalent to the attack or defense power of a Soul Ancestor or Soul King level soul master. For Yu Yuanchen and the others, who possessed Titled Douluo or even Limit Douluo, this level was indeed difficult to take seriously, and even somewhat disappointing.
"It seems that the soul tool technology of this Sun Moon Continent is... quite a bit behind what we expected." Ye Zhilan said softly, her tone carrying a hint of regret.
Avril and Yang Xueqi also nodded. Everything they had seen and heard along the way was far from the imagination of a "high-tech continent."
"Since we are here, we must make the best of it. Let's go in and take a look; perhaps there is more to the city than meets the eye." Yu Yuanchen said calmly. Although he felt a slight letdown, he had not completely lost interest. The level of technology was only one aspect; the development ideas and system architecture behind it might be more valuable for reference.
The group restrained their auras and walked toward the gate of Black Stone City like ordinary travelers. The guards at the city gate wore leather armor and held spears, their cultivation levels all around the first or second rank, and they looked at the passing pedestrians with vigilance.
Seeing this group of outsiders who were extraordinary in temperament and well-dressed (relative to the locals), the guards were clearly nervous, but sensing that there was no soul power fluctuation on them (the group had deliberately restrained it), and seeing their empty hands, they relaxed slightly and let them pass after collecting a small entry tax.
Stepping into the city, a clamor mixed with the smell of metal, smoke, and faint soul power fluctuations rushed toward them. The scene inside the city was different from outside. The streets were paved with stone slabs and were quite clean, with stone or wooden buildings of varying heights on both sides.
Most of the pedestrians walked in a hurry, their clothes mainly in dirt-resistant colors like gray and brown, and their faces carried the exhaustion of struggling for a living, but their eyes lacked the fear of soul beasts that the villagers outside the city had, and instead held a trace of stability from living under the protection of the city walls.
Most notably, soul masters could be seen on the streets from time to time. Their cultivation was generally at the first or second rank, and occasionally one or two Soul Elders or Soul Ancestors could be seen. And these Soul Elders and Soul Ancestors wore one or two soul tools on their bodies to varying degrees.
Some were crystals embedded in bracers or belts, flickering with a faint light; others were metal boxes carried on their backs, their purpose unknown; some people's weapons even clearly had the characteristics of soul tools, such as swords or blades with engraved soul guiding arrays, or bows and crossbows with added aiming and acceleration devices.
"The popularity of soul tools is actually not bad." Qian Daoliu observed his surroundings and said in a low voice. In the Douluo Continent, soul tools were still high-end, rare equipment, and were basically all storage soul tools.
Usually, only elite disciples of large sects and families or soul masters with high cultivation levels could be equipped with them. But here, it seemed that any soul master with a bit of strength could possess one or two pieces.
By evening, the group checked into what appeared to be the best inn in the city. The rooms were simple, but clean enough.
"It seems this Oak Tribe is merely an ordinary power on the Sun Moon Continent," Qian Daoliu concluded. "While their Soul Tool Technology has its unique features and decent accessibility, the level... is somewhat lackluster for us."
Tang Chen took a swig of the locally produced, somewhat bitter wheat wine, smacked his lips, and said, "What a waste of such good materials! If I were the one forging them, using the same materials, the effectiveness would increase by at least thirty percent!"
Yu Yuanchen stood by the window, gazing at the scattered lights powered by soul tools gradually flickering on outside, his eyes distant. "Improving technical standards is not a task for a single day. The development of soul tools on this Sun Moon Continent seems more focused on practical combat, which differs from the path of pursuing the pinnacle of individual power on the Douluo Continent. However, we can still draw some inspiration from it."
He turned around and looked at the group. "There is not much left here worth delving into. We will rest for the night and set off tomorrow for the main city of this Oak Tribe—Oak City. Once we obtain the map of the Three No Tribe there, we will head directly to find those three major tribes. I believe that any power capable of standing firm on this continent, surrounded by soul beasts, will certainly not be limited to the level we have seen so far."
The group nodded in agreement. Although their initial experiences upon arriving on the Sun Moon Continent were somewhat disappointing, it did not dampen their curiosity. The true face of this continent might be hidden within those more distant and powerful tribes.
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: GodKun-Chan