Chapter 155: Running Toward the Vast Outside WorldTranslator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Ning had been curious what Faith actually was.
Even when the System first transformed into a dragon, someone had misunderstood it to be an appearance of the Celestial Dragon. There were also many a time where the System Notifications showed the Celestial Dragon Favorability Points being increased.
He knew the Celestial Dragon was a manifestation of the collective Faith of the people of China, but he did not know how Faith was collected, he could not find information anywhere. Most importantly, he was too lazy to look it up…
‘Now that there is a perfect specimen, I wouldn’t let go of the opportunity to have a good look at it.’
As Fang Ning was rationalizing to himself, the eagle had brought the dragon to the top of a tall, steep cliff.
The whole of the peak was only as large as a standard-sized master bedroom on which an eyrie was located.
Sky Eagle said, “Please wait here, Brother Dragon. I’ll go and fetch the key item I have prepared a long time ago that can help me absorb Faith.”
It immediately dove into its huge eyrie after finis.h.i.+ng its sentence. Some moments pa.s.sed before it finally returned with a little trinket in its beak.
Fang Ning was fascinated by the key item, thinking, ‘Could it be some kind of treasure?’
When the eagle let go of the item and pushed it, it floated toward the fire dragon. Fang Ning saw the trinket and was stunned speechless.
It looked just like a normal rock that was picked up haphazardly and sculpted into a sibuxiang 1 .
Fang Ning stared at it for longer than he should have before he finally recognized a beak, two claws, and a pair of wings that all mysteriously reminded him of a roast chicken…
Speaking of which, it had been such a long time he had eaten with his body, he somehow started feeling hungry.
The fire dragon asked, “What is this?”
Sky Eagle replied, “I have spent ten years working on this statuette of mine. Every stroke, every ridge, I have carved them myself with my beak and claws. Have a look, Brother Dragon. Don’t they look exquisitely lifelike?”
The fire dragon commented, “I really don’t see it…”
The System said, “What exactly is this thing?”
Fang Ning offered his opinion, “I think it looks like a roast chicken. Sir System, what do you think?”
The System said, “Great minds think alike…”
Fang Ning had an idea. “Oh, forget about it. Don’t you know the four arts? Just make a portrait of it. From what it said, I think it wanted to use the statuette as a conversion medium. A portrait would probably have the same effect, since normal people also wors.h.i.+p pictures of their deities.”
System Notification: [The System consumed 500 Experience Points and produced the portrait Sky Eagle with the skill Beginner-level Drawing Skills.]
The System instructed, “Persuade the silly goose to use this instead, I don’t feel too good about the statuette.”
Fang Ning resumed control of his body and said, “Fellow cultivator, your statuette is really nice, but since you’ve worked on it for ten years, I think you should keep it. I have just used my power to make you a portrait, do you think it would be sufficient to replace your intricate statuette?”
Before he even finished, a scroll of drawing with the dimension of ten meters by three meters appeared in the air.
In the drawing were a giant mountain and a vast gra.s.sy plain. A male eagle was roosting atop the peak of the mountain, exuding a sense of majesty and eminence while holding its head up high.
It only took the giant eagle one look to be charmed to speechlessness.
It jumped all over the place, occasionally getting really close to the picture while exclaiming, “That’s such a handsome-looking eagle! I didn’t know I look that good!”
The System said, “Hey, look. Our dude turned green almost immediately.”
Fang Ning glanced at the System Map. As expected, the circle that represented the giant eagle had turned green, a sign of alliance.
Fang Ning told the System in relief, “Looks like this guy is much simpler than the king cobra. It didn’t have as many tricks up its sleeves, so it turned green so easily… I do have to wake it up though. Looking at its self-indulgence, it might stare at itself for a whole day if we don’t interrupt.”
Fang Ning said out loud, “What do you think of the painting, fellow cultivator?”
Sky Eagle only nodded and said, “That’s really, really good.”
Fang Ning continued. “Can it serve the same purpose as the statuette that you carved?”
Sky Eagle turned around and looked at the floating statuette it had spent ten years on. Now that it had a comparison, the statuette looked rough and ugly, and it resembled a really intricate roast chicken. Sky Eagle felt a sudden rising hatred toward it…
“What is this statuette supposed to look like? Go away.” It flapped its huge wings, sending the chicken statuette into the sky that disappeared in a black dot.
Fang Ning said in amazement, “Fellow, cultivator, you’re really decisive.”
Sky Eagle gave the drawing a final glance with reluctance and said, “Brother Dragon, you have used up so much of your power to produce such a masterpiece. Just for this, I will help you in whatever way I can. Nothing would better represent me to receive the Faith from the people than this masterpiece. It completely captured my elegance and eminence, which I think would definitely increase the Faith received exponentially. I just need to apply a Spiritual Brand on it now.”
Again, Sky Eagle glanced at the picture of itself before a faded projection of the giant eagle appeared from its body and charged into the picture and merging with it.
The Sky Eagle portrait was only a normal painting that captured, in detail, Sky Eagle’s features.
To Fang Ning’s surprise, after the giant eagle projection entered the scroll, it was immediately adorned with a certain je ne sais quoi that made the giant eagle in the portrait seem like it was about to take off.
After a while, Fang Ning was even more shocked as the giant eagle really took off in the limited wilderness of the picture. It went far and wide before closing in again, flew high and swooped low, as well as circling the sky as if the picture was an animated movie.
‘It definitely likes flying freely, it wouldn’t even let go of a chance to fly in a drawing…’
‘However, to obtain the wors.h.i.+p of people and their Faith, it was willing to follow my order as a dragon. There must be something going on behind this.’
At this point, Fang Ning had a vague instinct, ‘Maybe Sadi didn’t know the real secret behind spadehead’s desire to have the Indian wors.h.i.+p it. It wouldn’t have told Sadi the truth, so it might be more than just advancement that it was chasing after.’
“Alright, Brother Dragon, the only thing you need to do now is to transport this to your arcane realm and let those in there wors.h.i.+p me. Within the hour, I would be able to sense if the Faith that they provided is going to work for me…”
Fang Ning nodded and let the System hang it up in the Draconic Penitentiary. He instructed Anderson to share its elegance with everyone and ask them to wors.h.i.+p it, calling it the Divine Eagle of Purgatorial Harmony and that it should not be slighted.
Time could move as fast as an arrow or as slow as a snail depending on what the activity was.
Fang Ning and the System were not hurried, but the giant eagle kept flapping its wings, bobbing up and down in the air as if it could not wait but was trying its best to suppress its anxiety.
While waiting, Fang Ning asked, “I see you have accrued some cultivation base, enough to roam freely in this Land of Heritage. So why do you want to emulate the king cobra and obtain Faith from the humans?”
Due to it becoming an ally, the giant eagle only hesitated for a little before answering, “With your status and power, you would have known about this sooner or later anyway. Do you know why the Land of Heritage is named such?”
Fang Ning did not.
He asked, “Don’t the Chinese call it that? I’ve seen them planting herbs and opening up cultivation bases over here, it looked like they were trying to use this as a base and leave a legacy for future generations.”
Sky Eagle shook its head. “It was us who told them the name. It’s fine if they wanted to leave this place for their future generations, our only requirement is that they don’t get to cultivate to our level. In the Chinese’s words, they are not allowed to achieve Grade-A status over here.”
Fang Ning was stunned silent, wondering if the Truth Department knew about this.
“Why?”
Sky Eagle answered, “Brother Dragon, do you know how those bloodthirsty mutated demons under the king cobra’s control come about?”
Fang Ning thought, ‘It’s obvious they weren’t sp.a.w.ned the way those in games were.’
The fire dragon shook its head.
Sky Eagle explained, “They were all mutated from Grade-A powerhouses like me. At my level, we would start worrying about catastrophes that might one day land on our laps. By then, we would lose our rational mind and our memory, becoming bloodthirsty monsters…”
At that point in its speech, a grin spread across its face. “That’s it, it’s so quick! Your drawing is indeed wonderful! I can already feel the summon from the outside world. This is fantastic! I can finally leave this cramped h.e.l.lhole toward the open world outside!”
Fang Ning congratulated it and continued asking, “Congratulations, my fellow cultivator. Could you please explain what you meant by ‘catastrophes’?”
Sky Eagle still did not answer directly. Now that it was relieved, it answered the questioning with another of its own, “Brother Dragon, do you know how tall and how wide this place is?”
Fang Ning was dazzled, he did not expect the giant eagle to like beating around the bush. “I’ve just arrived, so I have yet to circle the place. But I heard from the Indians that the Land of Heritage is limitless in landma.s.s without uncountable monsters.”
Sky Eagle giggled. “Those short-sighted idiots said it is limitless. I’m guessing they were so weak that they kept running into tribes and had never reached the border of the Land of Heritage. This place is tiny, it can’t compare to the world outside.”
Fang Ning asked again, “So can you tell me exactly how big this landma.s.s is?”
Sky Eagle grinned with pride. “Other people might not know, but I do. After learning the calculation method and unit measurement of the Chinese people, I have spent a whole month flying from side to side a few years ago.”
“According to the calculation, the Land of Heritage is about one hundred and sixty thousand square kilometers. With my speed of four hundred kilometers per hour, I only used one hour each flying from east to west and from south to north.”
Fang Ning was not able to manage a single quip. He thought, ‘Dude, you’re really patient…’
Fang Ning nodded his dragon head even though the eagle kept running off course and avoiding the main question.
However, this solved another question of his — when he looked at the System Map earlier, Fang Ning realized the Land of Heritage was surrounded by layers of white mist.
That clashed with his questioning of the Indian spirits, as they had said that the s.p.a.ce stretched limitlessly.
‘Sir System could fly after transforming into a dragon, but it will never waste its time for the sake of measuring the land. Sky Eagle’s hobby really is just ‘flying freely’.’
‘The Land of Heritage does look a little small for an eagle which hobby is to fly everywhere.’
‘One hundred sixty thousand square kilometers, that’s slightly larger than the province Qi City is in. If they could permanently lay claim over it, it would be the modern equivalent of territorial expansion.’
‘No wonder the Truth Department accepted my suggestion without hesitation and poured all their manpower into building this walled city to prevent the Indians from coming in. They wanted the whole place to themselves.’
‘This might be a historical event.’
In ancient eras, this would only add to one’s reputation. However, in this era of Vitality Restoration when even G.o.ds can appear, Fang Ning would hesitate to believe that nothing supernatural happened in an event of historical significance to the Chinese.
Fang Ning continued asking, “We haven’t finished. What do you mean by ‘catastrophe’?”