Chapter 668 - Tempest (III) (Patreon)

The man didn't really walk so much as he continued to wobble like a drunk penguin. Even so, as we made our way over the land bridge, rubbing shoulders with thousands of other people, he never did. Not once. Whenever it looked like he'd rag someone, they'd just... move. As if by magic. It would be funny if I wasn't fuming over the fact that we were moving quarter a mile a century.

Then again, it did give us the time to soak in everything about this place. The land bridge, at its narrowest, was about a mile and a half wide, almost tripling at its widest. There were no rails or fences or walls to guard against the sheer fall on either side into the lake, and considering that I've seen like seven people just slip and fall without so much as screaming, perhaps there's another mechanism containing everything.

Or perhaps it's just the good ol' ambivalence.

The crowds were packed with young, with old, with men, with women, with all manner of strange and weird characters and caricatures, to the point it felt like I was in some strange painting. I never took a deeper interest in the cultural zeitgeist of this world beyond the surrounding aspects of martial arts, but looking out now... yeah, it really does affirm that it's a world.

Beyond the colors of the robes, which were plentiful, there were the designs, the subtle differences that likely denoted the regions people came from, then there were the hats, the belts, the boots, the everything, really. There was no one 'uniform' design to how people dressed, and a good chunk didn't even wear robes. Some wore a simple combo of pants and shirts, with a rope string slung around their shoulder and a small bag hanging off just beneath their waist.

A good number had weapons rattling about in scabbards, sometimes tied by the belt, sometimes on their backs, and sometimes across their lower backs, forcing everyone to sort of dance around them.

And I'm sure there'd be odors to have nightmares about for years to come were I not plugging my nose with Qi. Especially as it's a scorching hot day, and I can't cross a foot without spotting those delightful darker spots around the armpits.

All in all, it took us some nine hours to reach the halfway point, which was also where the land bridge was at its widest. Here, there were quite a few 'rest' stations, small stalls with very basic assortment of chairs and tables strewn about, and we decided to rest at one of them. It was suspiciously empty, since it looked like the kind of a place where livestock wouldn't live and eat let alone people, but since the man led us here... screw it.

The server didn't even ask us what we wanted, bringing each a bowl of noodles in suspiciously gray water.

"They're the most delicious noodles in the world, I dare say," the old schemer said, slurping up the first bite. I followed suit, keeping Qi at a ready to purge whatever repulsive horseshit was in them.

... but, goddamn, these are some good noodles. They're soft but not spongy, they're just salty enough without overwhelming the buds, there was some kick to them with spices, and they were perfectly boiling which is why I immediately began to sweat.

"They're really good," I exclaimed, slurping up another mouthful right after. Seeing as I couldn't detect anything untoward in them, and as the system wasn't firing off any warnings, it was safe to eat... probably.

"If you don't mind me asking, o' Great Senior," I nearly spat out the mouthful at his words, barely holding back. "Why did you come to the island?" to kill you, among other things.

"Hmm," I pretended to mull over it for a moment before answering. "Curiosity? My kids and I have been traveling the world for the past few years, and we've been to many places. However, no matter where we went, we'd hear stories of the legendary Nirvana Frontier Island. The beauty, the serenity, the dangers. I'd always wanted to visit it, and it just so happened that we were near here when I heard one of the ways to get to the island is precisely here."

"Curiosity, huh?" he looked at me strangely for a moment, slurping up the noodles. "I hardly ever meet young heroes that are so carefree."

"We are a dying breed."

"If you need to know anything about the island, let me know and I'll help as much as I can."

"Ho ho, thank you very much, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose?" I asked. "We haven't come to fight or to seize treasures, where beforehand knowledge would be bountiful. When you've come to enjoy the place, knowing of its majesty and secrets beforehand, however, dulls it." the answer looked to have surprised him, but I pretended not to see it.

There's no way this will assuage him, but whatever. I really don't need to know any of the details, and it's not like he would have told me anything super-duper secret anyway. Best I could have wrang out of him would have been some random tidbits that everyone else knows already.

We finished our fine dining in some thirty minutes or so. While they weren't the best noodles I ever had--shoutout to the small shop with a very racist name of Mr. Chang's that I frequented in high school--they were pretty high up there, to be honest. Feeling energized, I was less peeved and annoyed about the fact that he crawled across the second half of the land bridge, leading us to the wide berth. There was some magic happening here as ropes and pulleys formed a line that literally pulled boats up and down along the cliff side.

People at the top would get into the boat, then the pulley system would lower them into the water, and they'd then sail onward. I was honestly kind of shocked that it wasn't just some setup with arrays and whatnot, but it made sense; while I was being escorted by the island's owner, most of the ferrymen weren't actually cultivators, and even if they were, they were mostly in Qi Condensation Realm.

Which also let me know that they were somehow protected, as there's no way in hell that somebody in this world wouldn't have tried to take over this lucrative spot and charge an arm and a leg to cross the lake.

"The Great Alchemist's Decree," the man, as if reading my thoughts, said. "Anyone who harms a hair on any of the villagers' heads will be declared an enemy of the island."

"Hm. Makes sense."

"Follow me." and thus we did as he led us far left, beyond the scope of shacks and hovels, and past where the people were, all the way to the edge where a small, awfully old-looking pulley resided, holding up a boat. "This is my mistress," he said. "Tempest."

... you call this rickety old shit a boat?! Oh, we are so gonna fucking sink. Absolutely, unmistakably sink.