The Free Trading City of Anthryl

The free trading city of Anthryl is a small and neutral city within the Aegean Alliance. 

It isn't controlled by any cultivation sect and instead, most of the cultivation sects of the Aegean Alliance have a branch in this place to exert their influences.

It is also one of the very few trading cities of the Aegean Alliance where the cultivators from the cultivators would come here to do their trading with the merchants of Anthryl. 

It is also the nearest trading city that is near the Ancient Desolate Black Mountains.

Most of the population of Anthryl are not cultivators and therefore not aligned to any of the celestial cultivation sects in the Aegean Alliance.

Rather, the trading city of Anthryl is loosen ruled jointly by several powerful merchant houses.

The city however has no army except for the necessary guards and instead is protected by the cultivation sects of the Aegean Alliance and has to pay a yearly tribute to all the cultivation sects within the Aegean Alliance.

The tribute of course is not equally distributed and it depends on the influences of the cultivation sects.

The cultivation sects within the Aegean Alliance will typically host a martial tournament to determine their cultivation sect's ranking and this will determine the amount of tribute that they will be collecting.

Typically, the top cultivation sects are almost always the Morjinn Martial Sect, the Lineart Sword Sect and the Divine Mist Peak.

The reason why the Aegean Alliance did not take over the trading city of Anthryl directly is because trading cities not only provide a source of steady revenue for them but also acts as a gateway for the other alliances to trade their cultivation resources with. 

This gateway is important especially when two alliances are at war with each other and the cultivation sects needed to trade some rare cultivation resources.

Because trading cities are so important where almost all the territories of the Dragontooth Continent are divided by the various cultivation alliances, all the cultivation alliances usually have a couple of trading cities that are bordering the other cultivation alliances.

Technically, the cultivators from the other alliances would be allowed to visit the free trading cities since it is 'not owned' by any cultivation sects. 

But this is but a façade since the free trading cities are usually owned by the entire alliance rather than a single cultivation sect. 

When Ye Fan, Fairy Xuan Xueqi and Little Xuefeng had entered the free trading city of Anthryl, they were immediately noticed by the scouts of the various cultivation sects that were at the gates. 

Firstly, they were obviously strangers and were not wearing any cultivation robes that belonged to the Aegean Alliance.

Secondly, Ye Fan was too handsome and Fairy Xuan Xueqi looked too heavenly astonishing even though she was veiled while Little Xuefeng was too adorable with a white bunny in her arms.

In short, they were too noticeable. 

"Who is this handsome man and heavenly maiden?"

"Although she is thinly veiled but you can see from her delicate features that she must be a great beauty…"

"She wearing a straw hat that veils her entire face…"

"The air that she exudes already marked her as a great beauty…"

"This man… did you see that? He has golden eyes…"

"He is a high level cultivator…"

"He is a golden celestial…"

"He is at least the 5th realm True Origin or above…"

"That kid that is with them, she is so adorable…"

"They are a couple with a kid?"

The scouts of the various cultivation sects would constantly be monitoring strangers or other cultivators from the other alliances to see what they were up to. 

These scouts would not be wearing the robe from their cultivation sects as they were operating incognito and would be disguising themselves as commoners.

Usually, these scouts are outer protégés that are also low in cultivation realm as well since most higher level cultivators could also read the cultivation realms of their opponents. So having high level cultivators to disguise themselves as commoner is a bad idea.

Ye Fan had a number of things that he wanted to do in the free trading city of Anthryl such as collecting the latest news, finding a medicine shop to search for a cure for Fairy Xuan Xueqi, to find lodgings and to sell some of his cultivation resources that he had found in the Abyssal Chasm of Death or to exchange it for some other cultivation resources.

He randomly stopped a stranger in the street and asked politely, "May we know what year of the Common Era is now? And are there any major events recently?"

Ye Fan roughly knows that he had been away for 100 years but he was unsure of the exact number of years as it was hard to track time inside the Abyssal Chasm of Death. 

The stranger, who was a middle age man was startled by Ye Fan as he was stopped by Ye Fan when he had just turned a corner.

But when he saw that Ye Fan had golden eyes, he panicky answered. "Respected Celestial…"

Celestial is the title for cultivators that are 5th realm and above. 

"Respected Celestial, you must be cultivating for a long time or been in the mountains for too long. The Common Era calendar is no longer in use. We are now using the Divine Aurora Era calendar. This is the Divine Aurora Year 333 now."

A startled Ye Fan turned to display a look of surprise at Fairy Xuan Xuefeng as he muttered, "The Divine Aurora Year 333?"

It was the Common Era 11893 that he had left for the Abyssal Chasm of Death; the Common Era had been there since the dawn of history and as far as anyone could remember. Therefore, there was no reason to have a new calendar.

Then he turned to ask the man, "How long has it been since the Common Era 11893?"

The man blinked his eyes and began to count anxiously as he did not want to offend a golden celestial. 

Ye Fan waited impatiently for him to finish counting but he noticed that the man was taking a little too long and he seemed to be terribly weak in his math.

Finally, the man answered anxiously, "1108 years ago."

When Ye Fan had heard him, he was stunned…

Fairy Xuan Xueqi then said to him, "The time flows differently inside a trial, especially in the Abyssal Chasm of Death."

There was a calm look on her as though she had already known about it. 

Ye Fan asked again, "Why was it that the Common Era was changed to the Divine Aurora Era?"

The man replied respectfully, "It is to mark the year that the Holy Saintess Chen Yuyan becomes a great saintess."

Ye Fan was once again shocked; his junior sister has become a 7th realm great saintess now?!