Chapter Five: City of the Moon

"This won't do... this won't do either, let me think... Ah, that's it. Haha..." Tang Yi burst into laughter. After finishing his work, he returned to his seat, then resumed normal time.

"Eh... Fellow Daoist Tang, why are you suddenly sweating so much? Are you ill?" Old Lu, sitting beside Tang Yi, noticed that he was drenched in sweat.

"Oh, it's nothing, really. Just a bit hot!" Tang Yi tried to cover up.

Old Lu was speechless, thinking to himself, "When has the Talent Selection Peak ever been hot? I don't feel hot at all. Something's odd about Tang Yi."

And odd things did occur. On Arena Five, Gu Zhenzhen, who had been chasing Hua Shaojie around, suddenly tripped and fell, bumping her head against the protective barrier. With a hum, the barrier flashed red. The referee announced that Gu Zhenzhen had crossed the arena boundary, and Hua Shaojie was declared the winner.

After stepping down to rest, Hua Shaojie felt baffled, while Gu Zhenzhen thought her luck was too awful and Hua Shaojie's luck was simply ridiculous. Eager to get to the bottom of it—was Hua Shaojie pretending to be weaker than he was, or had he just been absurdly lucky?—Gu Zhenzhen hurried over and blurted out, "Did you do that on purpose?"

"On purpose? On purpose about what?" Hua Shaojie was utterly confused by the question.

"Uh... sorry, I was too impulsive. I just wanted to confirm something," Gu Zhenzhen realized her bluntness and softened her tone, a smile appearing on her beautiful face. That smile, combined with her gentle words and sweet voice, left Hua Shaojie dumbfounded and entranced. He was so taken aback that he nearly drooled.

Noticing Hua Shaojie's dazed expression, Gu Zhenzhen's smile faded and her brow furrowed. Only then did Hua Shaojie recover himself and quickly reply, "Ahem, it was really just luck. In terms of skill, Fellow Daoist Gu is far above me. Luck is unpredictable; I hope you'll forgive me this time." He finished with a polite bow. Seeing this, Gu Zhenzhen simply told him it didn't matter and left.

Seeing this exchange, Tang Yi used his powers to probe and muttered to himself, "Well, looks like this kid has fallen for Gu Zhenzhen. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to have a bad impression of him. There's hope, haha..."

That night, with the bright moon overhead, the three family compounds—Hua, Lü, and Ding—were gathered together, as their families had longstanding ties. Their residences shared a large courtyard. At this time, Hua Shaojie, Lü Zhengyang, and Ding Pengfei were drinking together in the courtyard.

"Brother Shaojie, I heard your first opponent was Gu Zhenzhen of the Gu clan, and you actually managed to defeat her. Tell us, how did that happen?" Lü Zhengyang asked after downing a cup of wine.

"Yes, tell us! And I also heard that Gu Zhenzhen came looking for you after the match. You have to tell us everything!" Ding Pengfei urged eagerly.

"It's really nothing special—maybe I was just lucky. At first, I was being chased all over the arena. Several times, I nearly hit the protective barrier, but strangely enough, each time my legs would go weak just enough for me to narrowly avoid crashing into it. As for defeating Gu Zhenzhen, it was pure luck. I was frantically throwing talismans, and maybe out of nervousness I grabbed a few too many at once and threw them all together. One earth talisman happened to land right where Gu Zhenzhen was about to step. As soon as her foot touched down, the earth spike from the talisman tripped her. She was already near the edge of the arena, so she crashed headfirst into the barrier. And that's how I inexplicably won. What puzzles me most is that there was sand where she fell—there shouldn't have been any sand in the arena at all," Hua Shaojie recounted, still confused by the events of the day.

"Hahaha, that just means your luck is in, Brother Shaojie!" Lü Zhengyang laughed heartily.

"Speaking of luck, you two had it better than me. The opponents you faced today weren't even close to your level," Hua Shaojie said, taking a sip of wine to moisten his throat.

"Haha, it's all luck. But your next few matches won't exactly be against weaklings either," Ding Pengfei replied with a chuckle.

"Alright, it seems the three of us are all blessed with great fortune. Let's have another drink!" Lü Zhengyang proposed.

"Cheers!" Hua Shaojie and Ding Pengfei responded in unison.

"Cheers!"

High above, on the moon, stood a square stone city. The ancient teleportation array leading to Mars was built at the very center of this city. To be precise, the stone city was constructed for the sake of this ancient teleportation array.

This teleportation array was enormous, capable of transmitting five hundred people at once. In contrast, current arrays could only handle up to twenty-five at a time. Centered around this ancient array, the city was filled with all sorts of establishments—taverns, inns, weapon shops, pharmacies, material stores—everything one could imagine. It was a bustling metropolis, all thanks to the ancient teleportation array, a masterpiece built by the legendary Kuafu, renowned for its enduring strength and stability. Since their construction, these ancient arrays had served as the backbone of interstellar transport. In the beginning, only cultivators at the Fusion stage or higher could use the arrays, as the surrounding environment was too harsh for those below that stage to survive for long. Moreover, the arrays consumed an enormous amount of spirit stones—transmitting one person or five hundred cost the same. The distance was also a factor; for example, teleporting from the moon to Mars required a hundred top-grade spirit stones, while traveling from Mars to Saturn's first satellite required a hundred and fifty.

For these reasons, the high-level cultivators agreed to build multiple arrays leading to Earth around the central ancient array, giving rise to Moon City. In fact, every ancient array was surrounded by a similar city, but Moon City was the most prosperous. The largest, however, was Mars City, because, for reasons unknown, the great Kuafu built an array from Mars to Venus, instead of placing it on the moon or Earth. Thus, Mars was home to two arrays side by side—one leading to Saturn’s first satellite, the other to Venus.

Moon City was situated precisely at the lunar pole, so with the array at its center, half the city was always in daylight, the other half in darkness. The city spanned ten miles in every direction, its walls constructed of massive blue stones, inscribed with three formations: Protection, Spirit Gathering, and Weight Enhancement. These ensured that Moon City was always under their safeguarding; even ordinary people inside would simply feel as if they were on a high plateau on Earth, experiencing only a slight difficulty in breathing.