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Ding Ze stood up, reluctantly bidding farewell to his desk mate, and walked over, taking Mi Xiaonan with him. Cui Ming tossed two hundred yuan onto the table and left with Li Qing.
As they stepped out of the nightclub, a woman stood to the side. Ding Ze paused for a moment before setting Mi Xiaonan down and moving forward; the two headed to a nearby café to talk.
"An adept," Cui Ming remarked.
"I sensed it," Li Qing replied. "Ye Shi?"
"It should be. Graceful and emotional. How does Ye Shi know Ding Ze is here?" Cui Ming answered his own question. "Let’s ask Evelyn; she can notify the police to check a few nightclubs."
After half an hour of discussion, Ding Ze and Ye Shi emerged. They turned around, just about to speak when a girl covered Ding Ze's eyes. "Guess who I am?"
"Miss, don't joke around," Ding Ze said, sweating profusely.
"If I’m not coming back, last time you guessed who I was just by feeling my cup size, right?" As she spoke, the girl playfully rubbed Ding Ze's back.
Ding Ze quickly pushed her away. Ye Shi had been watching from the side; without saying a word, she walked straight to a car. The driver opened the door, and Ye Shi said, "Drive." She sat in the back seat without even glancing at Ding Ze. He didn’t chase after her, merely shrugging.
Due to Li Qing's eye issue, Cui Ming took charge of explaining the situation on site. Li Qing commented, "If Ye Shi slapped him, it means there's still hope for them. If she just walks away... Can Ding Ze handle this? He needs to head to Hero City while carrying this burden."
Though this was just an episode, Ding Ze felt somewhat downcast. Beiyue had already worried about Cui Ming's abilities and then about Mi Xiaonan; he didn’t want to worry about Ding Ze anymore since Ding Ze had self-healing abilities.
In the last two days, they engaged in theoretical learning. Beiyue acted as the teacher, introducing content from various past Assessment Matches he had collected. With Li Qing's explanations, everyone gained new insights into the Assessment Match: no two matches had ever been the same.
The final conclusion was that the Assessment Committee was quite idle, spending two years devising an entire set of evaluation content.
However, Beiyue's collected information also had highlights; as of now, seventeen teams would participate in this Assessment Match—eighty-five adepts in total. Even accounting for the five-year term from Eastern Continent reasons, this was still the largest number of participants in any Assessment Match history. The alliance placed great importance on it; this time the President would oversee the competition throughout. This was good news for Beiyue and his group because the chief examiner for this Assessment Match was Dina from the Ding Family—a newcomer from the last match—who reportedly intended to make things difficult for Ding Ze. However, with important figures like the President involved now, that wouldn't be an issue anymore.
Speaking of Dina led them off-topic. She was very young—possibly even younger than Cui Ming—but she was one of the most outstanding adepts among the younger generation of the Ding Family. Beiyue didn’t bother maintaining classroom discipline; if they strayed off-topic, so be it. In such an atmosphere, they finally set off as promised toward Nordo City to board an airship.
……
At home, a thousand days are good, but going out for just one day is difficult. Dawn City has very convenient transportation. Trains and buses can take you anywhere. In the Eternal Sphere, leaving the City-State often means facing inconvenient travel. To reach Nordo City, one must take a nearly day-long ferry heading north. Practitioners could also use a compass to traverse mountains and valleys to get there, but Cui Ming and Ding Ze definitely wouldn't manage; their small frames couldn't handle it. Beiyue and Li Qing might be able to make it, but they probably wouldn't arrive any sooner than the ferry.
After an eighteen-hour journey, the boat finally docked at Nordo City. Among the five of them, only Mi Xiaonan had acquaintances in Nordo City. Before their arrival, she had arranged through letters for her friend Mi Big Head to pick them up.
However, Mi Big Head stood her up.
At five in the morning, the five waited at the dock for a long time. Mi Xiaonan felt embarrassed and shouted into her phone, but still couldn't find Mi Big Head. The other party said Mi Big Head had gone to the dock to pick up friends. Reluctantly, they waited another two hours until Mi Big Head finally arrived.
Mi Big Head was about the same height as Mi Xiaonan but had a notably large head and wore a white laboratory coat. His entrance was quite unique; he arrived in a hot air balloon. Mi Xiaonan didn't want to ask him why he was hours late since coming from Nordo City to the dock in the early morning was completely against the wind.
Mi Big Head wore glasses that made him look very scholarly. After inviting them aboard the hot air balloon, he instructed his assistant on the lower level to operate it while he went up to greet his friends as they headed towards Nordo City.
Nordo City is not by the sea; the nearest ocean is over eighty kilometers away, which is why Mi Big Head came to pick them up. "Nordo" means "City of Hope" in Elvish. Thousands of years ago, after the elves perished, humans began to dominate this fertile land, and the name of the city has been retained.
The group sat in a circle inside the hot air balloon as Mi Big Head pulled out a long antenna from his backpack and took out a telephone receiver, starting to dial: "Hello, I would like to book four rooms..."
It was a wireless phone; Mi Xiaonan had mentioned that Mi Big Head was researching it, but she didn't expect it to be successfully developed already. As everyone looked on enviously, Mi Big Head first humbly acknowledged their admiration before launching into an enthusiastic lecture. The Ghost Gate wireless phone utilized intercom principles to simulate signals through high-altitude base stations using electromagnetic frequencies... Currently, this wireless phone weighs three kilograms and can maintain a conversation for three hours but is only effective within Nordo City. Improvements are underway to reduce its size; however, this backpack-style phone has already become essential equipment for many trendsetters in Nordo City.
The prospects looked very promising; with enough investment for his laboratory, he could almost buy a city. As the lead researcher, Mi Big Head turned down various offers for shares and chose instead to collaborate with Nordo City's government. The downside was less funding, but the advantage was that the government could sell it at lower prices and promote wireless phones more widely.
Listening to him speak so passionately, Mi Xiaonan couldn't help but slap her hand down to bring the topic back around: "I heard you signed up for the competition."
"I know; the league notified you about it," she replied as Mi Xiaonan recalled that Mi Big Head had written to Mi Xiaobo boasting about his high scientific status. Even if he failed this Assessment Match, he could still become a member of the league directly. Scientists can often be eccentric; alchemy is considered a form of science that involves mixing various substances to create desired products. However, many use these methods for self-enhancement or harming enemies. In contrast, all of Mi Big Head's countless inventions serve humanity; he holds significant status not just in Nordo City but also as one of the top scientists and inventors in Eternity League.
Mi Big Head also had a team composed of exceptional individuals; he had even joined elite teams from both Cao Family and Liu Family among the Four Great Families. This title has been around for quite some time; currently, Ding Family and Ye Family are thriving while Cao Family and Liu Family are declining. However, this generation of young people from Cao Family and Liu Family is quite impressive.
This generation of young practitioners aged between eighteen and thirty-five—whether ordinary practitioners or those from Four Great Families—are outstanding individuals; it truly is an era rich in talent.
"Limitless Swordsmanship? What's that called?" Li Qing suddenly interjected.
Mi Big Head replied: "Cao Yi."
Li Qing nodded silently. "This person is very strong; he is the top expert among the younger generation that I know."
Cui Ming asked, "Isn't strength among practitioners relative?"
"This person is different. He specializes in the Warrior Class. A precious sword or a bamboo stick in his hands has the same power. His style is somewhat similar to mine, but I focus on techniques rather than intent. For example, my Golden Bell Shield can withstand most attacks, and even in ordinary times, my Force-trained Iron Cloth can enhance my resistance. He emphasizes intent over technique; he has no fixed moves and flows like water. Beiyue, it’s hard to hit him. Ding Ze, his Limitless Swordsmanship allows him to walk on the wind. Although it’s not as fast as your teleportation, you cannot teleport continuously."
Just like Cui Ming's flying cards, the Force contained within them loses lethality when speed increases. Ding Ze's teleportation works similarly; he can teleport again immediately, but the distance is very short. To achieve a larger range of teleportation, he needs to replenish his Force energy. The amount of Force available is crucial in actual combat.
Cui Ming, ever the optimist, said, "What are you thinking? This is an Assessment Match, not a competitive arbitration. It doesn’t matter who the other team is."
"The junior brother makes a good point, but if we do end up facing Cao Yi, remember we must gang up on him."
...
After a brief rest at the hotel and lunch, everyone went to visit Mi Big Head's laboratory. Nordo City was filled with technology, from simple light bulbs to dams, all vastly different from other City-States. For instance, light bulbs came in various types: fluorescent, energy-saving, standard, soft light, and eye-protecting varieties. Different groups have different needs; for example, students cannot choose fluorescent lights due to flickering that is imperceptible to the naked eye. However, in the wild, fluorescent lights are preferred for their long-lasting power.
Hydropower, thermal power, and wind power exist in other cities as well, but here they are more advanced. For example, smoke from thermal power plants is nearly invisible. Agricultural technology is also highly developed with various cold-resistant and heat-resistant high-yield seeds that must be cultivated in seed farms. While there are some that can be grown outside, the quality of seeds harvested from the first crop diminishes significantly when replanted; after one more generation, they become indistinguishable from ordinary crops. Why? Because seed farms have the technical means to select the best seeds.
The applications of technology in agriculture, medicine, communication, and more are vividly reflected in Nordo City. Airships are just one example. The operating costs of airships are very low; however, their construction costs are quite high. Initially using hydrogen due to past disasters caused by static electricity during landings that led to explosions, airships now use helium instead. Airships are not slow; they can reach speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour and carry loads of up to sixty tons. Comparatively speaking, transporting goods by airship costs half that of trains and is unaffected by terrain—speeding up logistics significantly and making it a major force in future aviation. However, airships are greatly affected by wind; they cannot take off in severe weather conditions and can only operate when wind speeds do not exceed thirty knots. Additionally, tailwinds and headwinds can create significant differences in speed. Currently, under full load conditions, their range is only over two thousand kilometers; thus airship stations need to be built for refueling purposes. Because of this limitation, airship tickets are expensive and routes are restricted.
Nonetheless, airships cater to high-end users who do not mind spending extra money; thus they have also become mobile hotels. (To be continued.)
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