LIII: Xian City

Upon arriving in the capital city of Qugan — which Wukong knew by the prince's memory to be named Xian city — he didn't really see anything too amazing. Of course the flight was a nice touch, but oddly reminiscent of his traversal with his cloud.

Though one thing to somewhat pique his interest, was seeing the world upside down, then, seeing a landscape which seemed to stretch on forever, with no sign of a horizon in sight. This, Wukong found somewhat intriguing, but nothing too spectacular for a god.

Now fully aware of his location, he had kept his attention on Judith, who was behind him and seemingly lost in thought. In this moment, he could feel the fear she had for him completely none existent.

At first he thought that she had finally understood that he wasn't here to bring her harm. But thinking on it, he realized she was just too astounded to even be afraid.

With a sigh, Wukong looked ahead, only to find an elegant looking middle aged woman approaching them.

Upon reaching them, she had greeted Qui Lin before doing the same to him. After which she had told Qui Lin that their carriage was on its way. At once Qui Lin refused the offer, and instead decided to go on foot for now. After all, the castle was not too far from here.

Of course, Wukong would have liked the option to chose, as it seemed the nobles behind him in their floating carriages were seemingly enjoying the cushions under their backsides, while he was struggling to find how any man could endure having their groins pummeled by the saddle that clothed these mounts.

Wukong was just happy that now he was on his feet, but still, he didn't want to be walking either, as he found that equivalent to having his groins pummeled.

He wanted to ask for a carriage just for himself, but before he could talk, Qui Lin had already made her way forward. Gently pulling on her mount's reins, she came down the stairs, leaving Wukong to follow behind, which he did so begrudgingly.

Heading down the Way-Point, through the circle of Tethereds and onto the busy streets of Xian city, Wukong had removed his thoughts from his grievances and placed it on the world around him. Instantly, he was taken by the busyness of it all.

In every way he turned, carriages, mounts and people were moving in all direction. Voices resounded into the air as though he was in a market place, smells of all kind had hit his olfactory senses and lights of different colors had bloomed from different locations due to Utility Tethereds either lifting cargo, producing certain items from Vortexes, expanding the size of objects for inspection and so on.

Amongst an array of things in this world to find strange, Wukong was particularly drawn to two things. The first was the strange architectural design of the buildings. They looked as though they were from this time period as they should be, but the odd fact about it was that their heights and certain aspects of their design seemed reminiscent of a modern day city rather than a city of old.

The houses stretched out into the sky like storey buildings. Balconies protruded from many sides of different buildings, windows etched them from all corners, telling tale that these were not just owned by a single person but rather a collective whole.

This feature of the buildings surrounding him, made him think of the modern human world, if they were knee-deep in magic and fantasy. This did not sit right with Wukong as he found he was more comfortable with the human world he knew and loved, albeit from a distance.

The second thing Wukong found strange, was the busyness of it all. Though he knew this was common place on earth, he never really found himself around it as he always watched from above, never really attempting to enter the realm of humans. Which was why he found himself trying to adjust to this.

Following this line of thought, a foray of children had rammed into him from the side, almost knocking him off balance. Or rather, he was actually knocked off his feet. He almost fell onto the ground had Qui Lin not grabbed his clothing in the first minute.

Turning to the children, who had frozen in place, unsure of what to do, Qui Lin had summoned her purple rings around her arms and snorted a burst of flames under the children's feet so they screamed and ran in the opposite direction.

Wukong had watched them scurry off while screaming.

"Don't you think that was a bit unnecessary?" Wukong had voiced his concern, which did not go unnoticed by Judith.

'Evil god cares about children?' Judith had thought to herself before Qui Lin could respond to Wukong.

"It's obvious those children lacked discipline. They should consider themselves lucky I didn't bring them in for a thrashing."

Upon hearing this, Wukong had gulped, then a sudden flood of memories had hit his neurons, and at once, he remembered moments in the prince's life when Qui Lin had tortur...reprimanded the prince, or, was that just training?

Wukong couldn't tell the difference, but one thing was for sure, the images were harrowing. He was just glad that was all in the past, and now he was fully trained. Or, trained enough.

Thinking on this, Wukong had looked at his hands, and wondered if this was the extent of power at which this body could reach. He didn't know this world's power levels, he didn't know what was deemed as strong or weak. At least, he didn't know first hand, that is, apart from the prince's somewhat hazy memories. But compared to his true self, this body didn't even hold a candle to a grain of sand to the power Wukong held.

He further thought on the possibilities of growing stronger, but thanks to the prince's memory, he found that the prince had reached a bottleneck common to this world, with no possible way to improve beyond this.

'Quite a shame.' Wukong thought, but it didn't really matter to him, because he wasn't planning on staying in this world for much longer. He had only one priority, once he was done, he would return to his own realm, to face exile after being usurped.

Thinking about this had caused Wukong's demeanor to fall, causing him to not say or think anything for the remainder of the trek.

It didn't take them too long, but after what seemed like an eternity, most especially to Wukong who found he really hated walking, they had finally arrived. The castle walls stood in front of them. It towered high into the sky, and held fast and strong as though made up of some indestructible material.

Tethereds were lined atop the wall and in front of the lifting gate that had separated them from the castle on the other side.

Upon walking up to the gates, a grinding sound resounded into the air and at once, the gate began to rise.

On the other side of the gate stood the front of the castle that — like a colossus — towered into the sky high above the walls and almost reaching lengths of up to seventy meters. The castle itself took on the width and breadth of three castles combined into one.

As they all walked through the gates, half of all eyes were pointed toward the top of the castle, trying to find where it peaked. While the other half were searching to the far right or the far left, trying to see where the castle ends. After three or four seconds, both parties of sight finally found the peak and edge of the castle. Their discovery had hammered home the fact that, this castle was practically a titan in and of itself

This discovery had caught Wukong by surprise. Here he was, feeling the tall buildings in an ancient fantasy setting was a large pill to swallow, and now before his very eyes, an even taller and far far greater building reminiscent to skyscrapers plus a little extra, stood before him.

'This is why this world is a rip-off.' Wukong thought with gritted teeth. Removing his gaze from the castle, he rolled his eyes and kept Qui Lin's pace, while Judith, Tsai and the rest all followed behind.

Making their way toward the monument of a castle, they couldn't help but admire its grandeur. Even the nobles from the West, who initially thought Qugan's riches were just blotted for international presence, had found themselves in awe upon seeing this Kingdom with their own eyes, which in turn had really humbled them to their core.

The walk toward the castle had stopped when Qui Lin stood in front of the massive, ornate and mighty doors that led into the monument of a castle.

Wanting to scratch his head but suppressing this urge, Wukong wondered why they weren't going in. Then, taking him by surprise, the castle began to slide into the ground. No, in actuality, they were rising off the ground.

Looking down, Wukong had realized the ground underneath his feet was some kind of circular platform with strange markings that glowed, just like the Way-Point. Except, this platform did not transmit them from one point to another. Instead, it was acting as a lift, carrying them off the ground and toward a higher point in the castle.