Chapter 4940: Mercenary City

Two heads flew into the air, and their bodies slowly collapsed.

“What kind of bullshit is this? How are you so unskilled at robbing people? How unprofessional,” grumbled Long Chen. He just shook his head and tossed the sword fragments to the ground.

“You guys are the worst robbers I’ve ever seen.”

Power? They lacked it… Skill? Nonexistent… Cooperation? Forget it... They had lived like a joke. Long Chen couldn’t understand what they were thinking.

After Long Chen left, a group of black-robed experts appeared by the bodies. Laughably, some of them had dressed so hastily that they hadn’t even covered the markings on their sleeves and collars, exposing the dragon mark.

“What happened? How did they die so quickly?”

“It seems that they targeted someone tough this time. Take the bodies away,” said their leader, and his followers quickly cleaned up any traces of trouble before vanishing.

If Long Chen had simply used his divine sense, he would have seen everything happening behind him clearly. However, he couldn’t even be bothered to do so.

These people were the absolute bottom rank of the Heavenly Desolation Domain, weak and untalented. They could only live day by day like bandits and pick their targets randomly. As they weren’t intentionally targeting Long Chen, he felt no need to bother with it.

However, this assassination attempt did make Long Chen sigh. No matter how strong one was, no matter what level they reached, the essence of cultivation remained the same.

That essence was to fight. It was the same whether in the immortal world or the mortal world. Commoners had to fight for food, the rich fought for profits, the bureaucrats fought for authority, and rulers fought for territory. The higher your position, the more things you fought for.

The people envied gods and immortals, all without realizing that the so-called gods and immortals were even greedier, even more barbaric, and even more brutal than them. In fact, their lofty lives might be even more painful.

However, this was the essence of the world. No one could live solely by being benevolent. Some people said not fighting was the correct path, but if they didn’t fight, they would lose everything they had when people came to take it, including their lives and loved ones. Would they just sit by while that happened?

The answer was no. At the very least, Long Chen couldn’t accept it, so he had to fight. He didn’t have wild ambitions, simply wanting to live freely and with dignity. However, this simple thing was a wild fantasy in this filthy world.

Long Chen continued onward, occasionally encountering someone flying past him. After the failed assassination attempt, some people had temporarily sealed off this path, leaving Long Chen speechless. They were acting so openly while attempting such a dirty deed. Just how far had the Long clan fallen?

This path quickly opened up, with no obstacles in Long Chen’s way. However, ahead of him, he heard people grumbling. They complained that this path was a normal one, but it was blocked by bandits.

Long Chen rolled his eyes. It seemed that these people were completely brazen.

Long Chen found that most people on this path seemed impoverished, with some even wielding weapons in disrepair. Long Chen’s clothes were actually unremarkable and needed some patching, but amidst this crowd, he seemed well-dressed.

After another half day of traveling, a city appeared before him. In truth, it failed to live up to the name of ‘city’. It had no walls, relying solely on a square moat around for protection. Without it, this place couldn’t possibly be called a city.

Though there were quite a few buildings, they lacked organization. Many areas were not paved with bricks but instead consisted of soil with wild grass growing. It definitely looked like a bleak and poor area.

After asking around, Long Chen learned that this place was Mercenary City. It wasn’t the first city that the transportation formation outside would bring people to; that city was still half a day’s travel away. That place would be considered a true part of the Heavenly Desolation Domain. This place was only called Mercenary City by the rogue cultivators who inhabited it, while the true experts simply referred to it as a mercenary outpost.

Mercenary city served as a gathering place for poor rogue cultivators. Here, they had a place to rest, and there were also notice boards where they could accept missions for modest rewards. These rewards were barely enough to sustain them.

After all, cultivation was like rowing a boat upstream. If a cultivator wasn’t progressing, they were regressing. Furthermore, once one’s realm fell, climbing back up would be very difficult.

Thus, no one dared to let their realm regress, or their cultivation base would be limited to that level for the rest of their life.

Long Chen stared at the busy people in the city. Their robes were in tatters, their eyes full of wariness toward this world. When he saw a young man and woman holding hands walk past him, he was lost in his memories.

He suddenly recalled the scenes of the Phoenix Cry Empire. Back then, he was at the lowest point of his life back then. He was a nobody with no backing.

However, back then, a young maiden had brazenly expressed her love for him, willing to share life and death with him.

“The Dragon swims across the four oceans; the Phoenix flies throughout the nine lands. Seas of blood may block us, but we will never give up our path; Dragon and Phoenix will both live to old age,” Long Chen murmured their promise to each other. The woman had been a budding beauty, while he had been a wild youth. At the time, they didn’t know about this world’s cruelty, but they still made such an oath to each other. Perhaps it was a bit childish, perhaps it was a bit foolish.. but they dared to express the sincere thoughts in their hearts.

“The dragon doesn’t just swim through the four seas, but it also roams the nine heavens. The phoenix breaks free of its shackles and continues to drift. It’s my fault. Chu Yao… are you still doing well?”

Long Chen was suddenly overwhelmed by an immense sense of longing. His heart ached as he yearned for Chu Yao and all those he cared about.

He hated himself for being unable to be with the women he loved. Despite being hailed as unrivaled within the same realm and being the youngest dean in the High Firmament Academy’s history, he still couldn’t accomplish a simple thing.

“Little brother, why are you crying?” Just then, a shy voice rang out, and Long Chen looked up to see a woman. It was the young woman who had just walked past him.

She carefully handed Long Chen a handkerchief. It was already thin and worn out, but still clean. “If you don’t mind…”

Only then did Long Chen realize that tears were streaming down his face. He felt instantly embarrassed. Politely, he declined her offer, instead wiping his face with his hands and forcing a smile. “Thank you. My eyes suddenly got a bit uncomfortable, but I’m fine.”

The man was a four-star Heavenly Doyen whose cultivation base had reached the sixth Heavenstage of the Divine Venerate. Here, his power was actually quite formidable. He appeared to be a simple person, and with concern in his voice, he asked, “Little brother, are you in trouble? Just tell us. If we can help, we will.”

Long Chen shook his head. He was about to bid them farewell when a group of people came running over.

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