City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

Order Crystal River

“You’re up,” Apeiron eventually let go of Richard, allowing him to look ahead. They were at a crossroads between a river of crystal order and a whirlpool of chaos. Only up close did one realise that the river was composed of countless cuboidal beams floating about, maintaining a subtle balance as they supported and repelled one another to maintain their distance at mere centimetres of inaccuracy.

Those crystals didn’t once touch each other in the river, but at the crossroads things were entirely different. The beams were shot out from the river, charging towards the whirlpool of chaos with killing intent. The whirlpool countered this with raging currents of pure purple fog, and the moment they clashed the beam’s speed slowed down rapidly. The fog was visibly depleted by the process as well, and sometimes a beam would explode violently and trigger a chain reaction that wiped out everything in the vicinity. Near-transparent flames burst forth from these explosions, shining brighter than the sun.

Fortunately, those flames weren’t nearly as terrifying as what Richard had witnessed from the outside. Regardless of speed, it would be impossible to survive million-degree fire that spanned just as many kilometres or more. A calamity like that made any human might seem insignificant in comparison.

According to the path Apeiron pointed out, the stonelord resided somewhere close to the inner swirls. They would need to traverse quite a bit of distance to get that far. However, she had suffered constant injuries whenever she had to cross the river of order, and even when she got close to the central vortex she had reached her limit and had no choice but to return. Had she simply gone on anyway, she would have died soon after.

However, Sharon was different. As a descendant of the primal celestials her body was hardy and neutral to both order and chaos. Although there wasn’t a particular place that suited her, no environments were too dangerous either. She was more than capable of crossing both the whirlpools of chaos and the rivers of orders, while the flames resulting from their fusion would only be able to kill her if she was caught in the eye of the storm.

Richard was starting to feel several complicated emotions towards Apeiron at this point. It was clear that she had no intent to harm Sharon, and had in fact pointed out the stonelord for her own good. It was like she was giving a present to a girl she liked. It was just that this was the girl he liked as well, and the girl that liked him. Regardless, she had confirmed that the stonelord was genuine before handing the map over, and once news broke about Sharon’s disappearance she had rushed back here as quickly as she could to try and confirm things. In some ways, this felt like more than he had ever done for Sharon himself.

Thinking about this, he could only heave a sigh, “Let’s go. Protect!”

He stretched an arm out to grab her as he spoke in divine order, a translucent glow enveloping the two of them. Drawing a portal in the empty space, he ported them into the depths of the river.

Within the river of order itself, they were surrounded by white fog on all sides. The huge crystal beams sparkled in the distance, looking like enormous mountains that a pair of birds were zipping between. Every crystal emitted a dull glow, and the combination of them all created a beautiful world.

Richard’s mind suddenly stirred, and he turned around to teleport to the top of the crystal peak. Descending down to the surface, he grabbed a huge crystal and examined it. To his absolute shock, his suspicions came true. This was an enormous magic crystal!

All of the pillars around were made entirely of magic crystals, each more than a kilometre tall. Even as perhaps the wealthiest individual in Norland, Richard couldn’t help but shudder at the sheer amount of energy here. Every rune he had ever crafted wouldn’t combine in value to compare to a single peak, and there were an uncountable number along this river! And this wasn’t even the only river of order in the Eternal Vortex!

Unfortunately, he couldn’t move entire mountains of magic crystals yet, and the amount that he could move was insignificant compared to his wealth. In fact, nobody who could come all the way here would particularly lack in magic crystals. This frozen energy was an abundance of wealth to all but the people who qualified to see it.

While he was appreciating the view, Richard suddenly realised that there was a problem with Apeiron’s aura. He turned around and saw that she had paled significantly, purple smoke being emitted from her skin and vanishing into the glow of the crystal peak. He froze up as he realised that the power of order here was wreaking havoc on her internals, and she was combating it with her foundational chaos energy. Without using such energy, she would be turned to ash even with his barrier reducing the power of this river by a full half!

Just how had she crossed this place the last two times? It must have been like swimming naked in boiling oil!

Apeiron sensed his frustration, her gaze turning icy, “If you’re done fooling around, we have to continue our journey. Mere order of such pitiful level can’t hope to harm me!”

Richard didn’t argue with her, knowing she was bluffing all the way through. What was worse than having to use her foundational energy? He stared with full attention, muttering a divine chant under his tongue before finally saying out loud, “Screen of Order.”

The surroundings darkened at once, a purple screen enveloping the two of them within. Although the light from the crystal river still pierced through this new barrier as well, they had less than a tenth of their energy left.

Apeiron immediately felt more relaxed. She turned to Richard and moved her mouth for a while, but it took nearly half a minute for her to blurt out a “Thank you.”

Richard laughed, grabbing her and continuing to speed through the river. She had already shown him the way to go.

The path to the core might be fixed, but the locations of the rivers and whirlpools was always changing. This was a problem that plagued generations of strong warriors; they had to follow particular paths in here to keep themselves from getting lost, so any obstacle would have to be faced head-on. Apeiron’s second attempt to get here had been blocked by a number of rivers of order, ultimately burning her to the point that she had no choice but to return.

However, Richard’s title from the Eternal Dragon still held sway even in this dangerous region of space. With the ability to know just where he was at any time, he didn’t need to follow the path as rigidly as most others. He swiftly travelled across the river in the general direction, adjusting whenever he veered too far off-course. With the light of order not posing much of a threat to Apeiron anymore, he would much rather stay in the zones of order where the power of his well of stars was amplified tenfold. There wasn’t any need for him to return to his demiplane to rest, his mana pool remaining full the entire way.

After he’d crossed a few rivers, Richard suddenly froze mid-flight as he sensed a powerful will locking onto him. That being seemed to be close to an epic being, and from its bloodlust as it approached him it was clear that it didn’t have good intentions.

He snorted at the interruption; if not for the fact that he simply didn’t have the time to fight against this opponent, he would have destroyed even an epic being in this space. However, he activated his elven bloodline and burst forth with mana, drawing a portal that was twice as big as normal to travel tens of thousands of kilometres away in one jump. The figure chasing him was shocked at the sheer distance, and before it could react he ported a few more times to disappear from its perception entirely.

However, that wasn’t the end of it. The alligator-like beast suddenly saw a deep blue orb of light shooting towards it, a distant yell ringing out, “SCRAM!”

The orb of light exploded into hundreds of rays, sending a combined attack to the beast’s body. The sparkling rays of light protecting it shattered apart, the light carving through its skin to form hundreds of crossed cuts. After a terrified cry, the reptile blinked away.

Richard laughed coldly, returning to his original path and continuing at a steady pace. That creature had been a being of order, but an orb of astral energy had taught it a good lesson.