Standing before the grand walls that pierced into the sky before her, Cely's surprise was reasonable. The wall was more than a hundred meters high, and from her senses, she could tell that it was multiple meters thick.
Not only that, but it was also made out of steel-reinforced concrete that was layered on top of each other, with each layer being inscribed with multiple shock absorption and reinforcement formations of Tier 6.
Even if an Immortal (Tier 6) attacked the wall, it could survive under their full power. This was a terrifying tier of defense for what seemed to be a random city at the border of the Demon Continent.
But on the other side, it made sense when looking at the backstory of this city. During their travel here, Dan talked a lot with Cely. Most of it was about this city. Grimm was once a fort built at the border to prevent demons and monsters from getting any further into the Central Continent.
Back then, the duke who had been managing the fort was pressuring the populace and used other races as slaves and forced them into military service. This led to a bloody revolt, and after years of hard work, the duke and all the officials who were present in the city were executed.
The one who played the most significant role back then was Edward, Dan's ancestor, who had personally fought the duke and five officials, ultimately winning only a narrow victory. A small thing to add here
After arriving at the gate with Dan, Cely was immediately led into the city by the respectful guards. The inside of the city was full of activity with masses of people moving everywhere. There were many races, from Dwarfs to a few Pixies that were flying around the crowd selling various snacks.
The architecture here was reminiscent of early German architecture with many shops and vendors lining the streets. Magic lanterns adorned street corners with their intricate designs, and a few street musicians stood at corners trying to make a living or to promote themself.
Not everything fit in, though. Occasionally, some people walked around with sci-fi-looking armor and rail guns. Though not many, their mere presence seemed weird in this medieval-esque scene.
Shops lined the street, and the smell of fresh warm food permeated the area. Now and then, carriages and cars could be seen driving through large gaps, created by the parting of the crowd, on the open street.
They were neat and clean, and combined with the hustle and bustle of the city, it all seemed harmonic and inviting.
As Cely and Dan walked through the busy main street, many people warmly greeted Dan. Everyone seemed to know him, with almost no one failing to smile. At the same time, they were curious about Cely. After all, who was important enough to be toured through the city by the de facto leader of said city?
Finally, after a few minutes of wandering the streets, they arrived at a large building near the city center. It was six stories high and dwarfed all but one of the surrounding buildings.
Even from the outside, one could already see its great status as hundreds of profound formations adorned the building. Their profoundness gave it a unique charm, seeming more like a fortress than anything else.
Although Cely wasn't well-versed in the field of Qi Formations, she did have a great foundation in the general art of formations.
She instantly recognized all but one of the formations carved on the walls, with most of them being energy-gathering, shielding, dispersion, and even atmosphere control formations.
Seeing how Cely was looking at the most intricate of the formations with interest, Dan began explaining. "This is a special formation that was created by the founder of the Adventurer Guild. It sends information to a so-called server formation, which is a terrifying Transcendent-level formation located in the Adventurer Guild's headquarters. Using this, any information can instantly be transmitted from any branch to the Adventurer Guild. There are more intricacies involved with this formation, but those are all kept under strict secrecy by the Adventurer Guild to avoid any accidents."
Cely was surprised by this. This kind of network of formations was only something they had thought of in theory but could never pull off. It seemed like it would be good to visit the headquarters and the one behind this at some point.
Thinking about the cost of such an endeavour made Cely's head hurt a bit, though. Since, although Earth was the strongest planet, it truly was not wealthy. They only occupied a single galaxy filled with mostly minor worlds. They truly lacked the kinds of strategic resources needed to build this thing, without using up a substantial amount of their reserves.
She gave no further remarks, though, and just nodded at Dan, who continued explaining.
"The building right next to the Guild is the Formation Organisation. They, as the name suggests, specialize in the field of Formations in any energy system you may think of. Their strength is terrifying to the extreme, as they have the backing of both humans and other races' higher-ups. Their studies, after all, are essential for both sides. Formations can easily increase the standard of living and act as almost anything you can imagine. Attack, defense, concealment, communication, trapping, sealing, or just the plain heating of your meal, they can do it all."
Cely nodded. Though she knew this information, it was always good to hear if there might be something new under all the common knowledge.
"Recently, a Void Badge Formation Grandmaster also made a discovery."
Hearing this sentence, Cely's eyes lit up.
"He found a way to automate alchemy recipes using formations. Using this, he has set up multiple factories to mass-supply the world with medicinal pills. Sadly though, it was not able to create any pills above the Divinity level, but it still crashed the prices of all other medicinal pills. This is good though, as it made important things such as healing pills easily accessible."
Hearing this, Cely's eyes widened. Damn! Even on Earth, no one has ever come close to automating medicinal pill production. It was too complicated after all!
Without a sentient being controlling the process, refining even the simplest of medicinal pills should be basically impossible. How far had the field of formations progressed in Neal?
Quickly composing herself, Cely's gaze lingered on the Formation Organisations building before she returned to comprehending the formation on the Adventurer Guilds' walls.
A few minutes passed, and after she had had enough, she followed Dan inside.
"So", Dan, who was sitting in the seat of the guild leader, began, "Why are you here?"
"Me? I did not intend to come here, but some circumstances forced me."
"What circumstances?"
"Circumstances whose weight surpasses what those two can carry."
Dan was shocked by this statement, but it only took him a moment to calm down again.
"I see. So, what are your plans then?"
"Recover and wait."
Dan nodded in understanding before taking out a map from his storage ring.
"This is a house located near the center of the city. Servants can be provided at any time. You can live there for now. If you have special needs, you should be able to contact me easily."
He pointed at the map before he took out a key and a badge from his ring right after.
"This is the key to the formation, and this is a gold badge from the guild to give you the chance to take missions on your current level."
Cely raised her eyebrow as she looked at the stuff handed to her. It seemed those two prepared Dan well for this conversation. They were sensible after all.
Even if she lost her cultivation, her soul still had enough power to deal a heavy blow to a Quasi-Primordial one time. That, though, is something she would not want to waste on beating the life out of either Lucifer or the old antique. It would also greatly damage her soul's foundation, which would also not be ideal. She didn't want to have to deal with the same cultivation problems she had before reincarnating after all.
Only a sturdy and strong foundation could reach the peak. She couldn't rush... ignore how she was rushing. It was controlled... well... under control.
Thinking about this, Cely waved goodbye to Dan and made her way to the location the latter had pointed out to her on the map. Here, she stopped and looked at the house Dan provided. It was a relatively unassuming house with a small fenced-off courtyard.
Looking at the houses around it, most seemed similar, though none of them had a formation quite as high-level as the one that seemed to be newly engraved on this one. Taking out the formation key, a small hole was created in the barrier formation, through which she slipped.
Arriving at the inside of the barrier formation, she noticed the higher density of different energies in the surroundings.
"They truly are sensible."
She muttered, a small smile hanging on her lips as she made her way inside.
The inside was just the interior of a normal house, though next to the kitchen, she found a small room with a mat and an additional layer of energy-gathering formations.
Sitting down on the small mat in the middle of the room, Cely slowly closed her eyes as she started drifting off into a meditative state.
'Time to stabilize my Foundation Establishment cultivation. Even though this devouring ability from my bloodline may increase my cultivation, it does not stabilize anything. Without a stable foundation now, my future will be limited. I can't get stuck like before!'
As her face slowly shifted to one of calm determination, she started to stabilize her foundation.
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Meanwhile, Lucifer looked through the roof of the underground chamber towards the cultivating Cely in deep contemplation.
"What do you think might have caused her death?", Edward interrupted Lucifer's thoughts, the old man's eyes staring at the Demon God.
"She has said it is above our pay grade, so I would tend to trust her in this matter. Due to her parents, she tends to come into contact with stuff even I can only dare to imagine. Not to mention that organization she created to collect anomalous things might have uncovered something terrifying.", Lucifer spoke, his voice a bit grave nearing the end.
"Edward. Don't pry into it. You know that some knowledge has weight and power you can't even begin to comprehend, so stay in your lane. I will contact Nicholas to ask him some questions. You, just manage your city. Just be sure to treat her fairly and stay out of her business otherwise. Have I made myself clear?"
Lucifer's aura began to pressure Edward at full force. The old man, though slightly strained, was still managing under it. He was a Greater God after all.
"No problem, Your Majesty. I did not plan to anyway. I am too old to adventure anymore, so I won't pry."
"You better hold that word."
And with that, Lucifer dissipated as quickly as he had materialized before.