Chapter 313 Mark’s First Stop - The City Of Lunaris
<strong>Kunyu Mountain Range;</strong>
The light multirole vehicle was slowly and steadily moving through the mountain trails and came to stop at the foot of Lan Mountain's Violet peak.
Looking at the trail ahead, Mark mumbled, "Just like I expected, I guess it is no longer possible for the vehicle to go. Plan B."
He glanced to his side. Song Yue was sleeping with her head resting on the window glass.
She looks damn beautiful from the side angle. For a while, he just stared at her in silence. Unknowingly, a smile appeared on his face.
However, it didn't last long as he heard a couple of knocks from behind. Mark turned his head but he couldn't see the Black Knight because of the monitor and all the other wirings in the middle.
Mark slowly opened the door without disturbing Song Yue and got outside. He opened the door and looked at the sleeping manticore and the Black Knight.
He first spoke to the Black Knight in a low tone, "We will wait here."
The Black Knight replied through his usual writing in the air with ether energy, "Alright."
Mark then woke up the beast king, giving it some real work for the first time. Since its loyalty toward him is still 38%, he had to talk with it beforehand.
And the manticore understood as soon as it woke up.
Mark pointed at the top of the peak, "He is there."
Baltrow got out of the vehicle and flapped its wings to the graveyard located above at the peak of the mountain, carrying Mark's message to Zheng.
Before the zheng beast left his place, he also talked about this trip but didn't tell the time as he wasn't sure whether the second prince will visit the store after three days or seven days.
Whatever the case, the beast emperor has already agreed to his plan, and the moment he met with the Baltrow, Lan Ju understood that it is time and he didn't even bother to ask the manticore about its identity. Lan Ju scanned the surroundings and found Mark's position immediately.
After saying goodbye to the graves, he followed the manticore back to the vehicle.
The five-seater vehicle's strange appearance surprised Lan Ju at first but the latter also knew that there was nothing ordinary about Mark. So, he tried adjusting to the situation and went on with the flow, "So, where are we headed first, Lu Zhen?"
Mark answered, "We'll go to Lunaris City to meet King Shen Niu. From there, we'll sail in the ship."
"Ship?" Lan Ju was curious to know what Mark is planning but he wasn't the type to dig into the details just to satisfy his curiosity anyway. "Okay." As he nodded, Mark asked the manticore to shift to the 5th seat behind the left backseat. As for the space behind the right backseat, it was allocated to the storage chamber.
As Lan Ju entered the vehicle and took his seat, he became more confused about the wirings, control systems, and the monitor that is displaying the outside world. He felt fascinated yet confused at the same time. Nevertheless, he didn't question anything and just said hello to the other passenger beside him.
Song Yun was already uncomfortable with a legendary-realm beast king sitting beside him. And now, there was even a stronger expert sitting beside him.
When he heard the news of a mysterious Supreme realm expert who helped Mark in defeating the lava golem, a few days ago, Song Yun thought that this guy might be the same.
But, what is he doing at the Lan Sect of the places? Song Yun has no idea but he knew that he isn't in a position to ask something. So, he kept his thoughts to himself and stayed quiet. Meanwhile, the manticore was staring at the back of Lan Ju's head and it looked a bit confused. Lan Ju looked like a human from head to toe but he smells like a mighty beast to it. But, at the same time, due to Lan Ju's contract with Mark, the manticore didn't sense any threat from the stranger either. If anything, it felt that Lan Ju is an ally.
Mark got back into his seat and started the engine. Taking a deep breath, he thought, "Okay, adding with the suit and the new skills, I have enough protection now. Let's think about the next breakthrough, a month later. I don't need to be in a rush. Alina will take care of Feng Wu's matter. I just need to spend these 30 days wisely."
Opening the stat panel, he proceeded to click on the upgrade.
<strong>*Ding! The system will be upgraded from level-3 to level-6 and needs 30 days of time. During this time, all the system's functions will be turned off. Proceed?</strong>
"Yes"
<strong>*Ding! The system upgrade has started.</strong>
With the required things stored in his platinum-grade storage ring, which was earlier given by the second prince, Mark doesn't feel like he would miss the inventory function. So, the impact this upgrade would fall on him will be negligible. Or so he thought as he reversed the vehicle and then continued his journey to his first destination.
He drove for a few hours and then set up a tent with a bonfire nearby a river in the Western Moon kingdom before having dinner and resting until the morning.
Of course, Mark and Song Yue didn't sleep together in one tent. Song Yue slept alone with the beast king guarding her. Song Yun accompanied the manticore while Mark and Lan Ju took a rest in the bunker bed, located in the back chamber of the howitzer.
The next day, at 3 o'clock in the morning, they packed up and continued their journey.
In three hours, they reached the city and entered a prestigious inn named after the moon goddess, Chang'e or Chang Er.
***
𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢
<strong>Lunaris City, Western Moon Kingdom;</strong>
The royal palace was looking sparklingly clean even from a distance with hundreds of servants giving their best for the past three days.
King Shen Niu looked anxious as he was walking back and forth in the entrance hall of the palace while kept glancing at the door.
Shen Ling came to him and reported, "The preparations for the lunch were done and the chief cook Wang confirmed that there are no problems with the taste. Our fabled Crescent wine was also carefully brought to the kitchen."
"What is its age?" asked the king.
The princess answered, "78 years."
"Good." Shen Niu responded with a satisfactory nod and commented, "Crescent Wine tastes best when preserved for 75-80 years. I hope the guests would like it."
Shen Ling shook her head with a smile, feeling that it is so stupid, "Baba, my husband doesn't care about such things. You don't need to be too nervous."
"Your husband?" The king glared at her. "I have yet to talk to him about it and you already decided that he is yours? This is the problem with you, intellects. You get too overconfident in your schemes that you don't even worry about failure."
"Baba, we should turn even a miserable situation into an opportunity for success," replied the princess. The King shook his head, feeling that his daughter lost her IQ because of her crush on the weapon seller.