Dragon Whale Island

Tie Ruonan was a direct subordinate of the Island Lord of Dragon Whale Island, so the city they were heading to was naturally the one where the Island Lord resided... which was also the economic and cultural center of the island, its most important city.

As such, the dock they arrived at was the busiest on Dragon Whale Island. It was afternoon, the busiest time of day, and Qin Ran's ship, being a routine patrol vessel of no great importance, had to wait quite a while before finding an open berth to dock.

During this time, the Captain gave Qin Ran a taste of what constituted the basic qualities of an old sea dog, never ceasing his stream of profanities from start to finish, yet never repeating himself... It truly dazzled Qin Ran, allowing him to experience the local culture of this maritime realm. Pirate culture, most likely.

After disembarking and leaving the dock, the sailors from the ship either went home or headed off to drink, eat, and visit brothels. In any case, they quickly dispersed. Only the Captain and Tie Ruonan accompanied Qin Ran as they walked into the city.

The overall tone of this city was dark and damp.

The reason for this was likely that the stones used to build the city had been dredged from the sea. The color of the stones was rather dark, and they always seemed to retain a lingering dampness.

Not only the city walls, but even the buildings were constructed from these stones.

One could imagine that the entire city was dark in color, made of stone, and permeated with moisture, giving an overall unpleasant impression.

"Whale Fall City."

Qin Ran learned the name of this city as he looked at the city walls, which appeared cold and bore some inexplicably terrifying patterns.

He could roughly guess the nature of those patterns - they were variants of formation markings, similar to the talismanic scripts written on paper when creating talismans. These patterns likely served to reinforce and bind the structures together.

Perhaps when combined, they would form a large-scale formation. Seeing that all the buildings in the city shared this style and bore these patterns, Qin Ran, with his deep knowledge of formations, naturally came to this realization.

The aesthetic design of this city did not agree with him, and the building patterns made him feel uneasy... In short, this port city called Whale Fall City made him very uncomfortable.

Being a port city, and considering it was just an island, the buildings within the city seemed a bit cramped, and the streets were rather narrow... It fell far short when compared to national cities like Wuyi City or Mo City.

The Captain and Tie Ruonan led the way, quickly passing through the outer city and arriving at the inner city.

Perhaps it shouldn't be called the inner city, but rather use the corresponding term "imperial city" to describe it. If the emperor's residence is called the imperial city, then the Island Lord's residence should be called the island city. This was a very peculiarly styled island city... or rather, building.

Previously, there must have been a rather tall stone mountain here. But now the mountain had been hollowed out, the entire mountain carved into a building.

The principle was probably similar to how cultivators in the Lingnan Region built their cave dwellings. But this pure stone structure gave Qin Ran a feeling reminiscent of the dark Gothic castles of the Western world from his previous life. While castles were built up, this structure was directly carved out of the mountain rock.

It was indeed quite unique.

Around the stone mountain, or rather around this "castle," a few low buildings were scattered about, and walls had been erected, roughly forming the "imperial city"... or island city.

At the city gate, the Captain stepped forward to explain the situation. Someone went inside to report, and after a long wait, that person came back out to lead the three of them into the city.

...It did feel very much like entering a palace for an imperial audience.

Following their guide through many twists and turns within the "island city," the three of them finally arrived at a place that resembled a training ground.

Many guards with swords surrounded the training ground. Qin Ran observed that all the guards had fluctuations of spiritual energy, indicating they were all cultivators with some level of attainment.

In the training ground, a shirtless man was tossing around a huge boulder. The boulder was cuboid in shape, significantly larger than Qin Ran. It seemed he was tempering his strength... training his body.

The three of them entered the training ground and stood to one side, waiting.

Qin Ran watched the man juggling the boulder, forming a guess in his mind that this was probably, possibly, likely the Island Lord of Dragon Whale Island. It was just a guess, not necessarily correct.

After tossing the boulder several more times, the shirtless man seemed satisfied and threw it to the side.

There were other boulders of various sizes but similar shapes nearby. Qin Ran looked over and saw weight markings in front of those stones, ranging from thousands of catties, tens of thousands of catties, to two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, and even a million catties for the heaviest ones.

In the middle, there was an empty space marked... one hundred thousand catties.

So this Island Lord was a body cultivator who could casually toss around a hundred-thousand-catty stone.

What level of cultivation would this represent? Qin Ran silently calculated that this was probably a third-grade body cultivator. This would correspond to the Nascent Soul stage in the Lingnan Region.

Having finished tempering his strength, the shirtless man was covered in sweat. An attendant handed him a towel, and he wiped his body while walking towards Qin Ran and the others.

Before he even arrived, a strong odor of sweat reached them first.

His piercing tiger-like eyes immediately fell on Qin Ran. He jerked his chin and asked in a rough voice, still panting, "Who's this?!"

"Reporting to the Island Lord, his name is Li Feiyu. He's a cultivator who practices both mental and qi cultivation, and his alchemy skills are also very high," Tie Ruonan bowed with clasped hands, quickly introducing Qin Ran in the simplest terms. "The spatial fluctuation this time was caused by him."

So it really was the Island Lord.

"Mental and qi cultivation..." The man sneered, looking Qin Ran up and down. "You traveled all this way just to find him? How good can his alchemy skills really be?"

The Captain and Tie Ruonan actually didn't know much about alchemy, so they weren't sure just how high Qin Ran's alchemy skills were.

Seeing this, Qin Ran cupped his hands in salute and replied neither humbly nor proudly, "Third-grade pills are no problem for me."

By his estimation, so-called first grade probably corresponded to the Foundation Establishment stage in the Lingnan Region, second grade to Core Formation, and third grade to Nascent Soul. He could indeed refine pills related to the Nascent Soul stage.

"Third-grade pills?!" Only now did the Island Lord truly look at Qin Ran with respect. Seeing that Qin Ran didn't seem to be lying, he waved over an attendant and said, "Find Mr. Zhai and bring a set of materials for third-grade body tempering pills."

It seemed he was going to have to demonstrate his pill refining skills again. Qin Ran quickly said, "It would be best to have an alchemy furnace and some heaven and earth anomalous fire. I'm accustomed to refining pills using the fire method."

"Alright!" The Island Lord waved his hand magnanimously and said with a smile, "Whether you use the water method or the fire method, as long as you can refine pills, that's what matters."

Qin Ran's eyes flickered. It seemed this island was lacking in alchemists... or at least, lacking high-level alchemists like himself.

The Island Lord personally led the way, and they went directly to an alchemy room within the island city.

In the alchemy room was a man who appeared to be in his forties, with a goatee. He had a scholarly air about him, and even the Island Lord showed him respect, addressing him as "Mr. Zhai."

Qin Ran glanced at him, recognizing him as an alchemist, probably the Island Lord's personal alchemist.

Without saying much, he accepted the medicinal ingredients handed to him, tested their efficacy, then stepped forward and directly opened the furnace. With practiced ease, he spent a short time refining a batch of body tempering pills.

He showed the body tempering pills to Mr. Zhai, whose face was full of approval. Then he had the Island Lord try them, and he too showed respect towards Qin Ran.

The Island Lord said to Qin Ran, "Mr. Li, you may stay here in my island lord's mansion from now on. If you have any requests, feel free to let us know."

Qin Ran bowed deeply, not refusing, and accepted the Island Lord's invitation.

"Thank you, Island Lord," he said.

Thus, within this "island city," Qin Ran had also found his place.

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