A vast desert.
All around lay a scorching sea of sand stretching for thousands of miles, yet at its center, the ground dipped eerily into a circular deep valley. The wind and sand let out a low, hoarse hum as they swept past.
Was this godforsaken place really where the God of Darkness said the Crown of the Divine King would appear?
[Dear!]
The Book of Sages suddenly materialized in front of Ning Busan, giving him a fright.
“You're always popping up out of nowhere. What do you want?”
"[This is too bizarre! Absolutely bizarre! In my entire database of knowledge, there is actually no record of this place whatsoever!]"
“If the Silver-Crowned God really placed the Crown of the Divine King here before his fall, he must have set up a restriction,” Ning Busan said. “For even you to meet your Waterloo here means this place is definitely not simple.”
"[You must be extremely careful once you go in, dear!]"
The Book of Sages was deeply worried.
All fear stems from the unknown. For its proud omniscience to actually lose its efficacy here was a truly terrifying thing.
Ning Busan stood at the peak of a sand dune, gazing down at the eerie, circular deep valley below. Squinting slightly, he leaped straight down.
He spotted an almost transparent barrier. He had expected some powerful restriction, but to his surprise, he slipped right through it with ease.
However, the moment he crossed this barrier, something terrifying happened.
Ning Busan's head spun with dizziness. Immediately after, all the magic element particles in the surrounding air vanished, and the mana inside his body completely disappeared along with them, reverting him back to an ordinary human body.
His spatial ring could not be opened, and the Book of Sages gave no response. It was as if magic could not exist here at all.
When Ning Busan finally landed on the ground, he discovered that there was actually an ancient city nestled at the bottom of the deep valley.
Ning Busan stood at the entrance of the ancient city, looking up at the towering steel walls that pierced the clouds, and couldn't help but hold his breath.
“The City of Steam...”
Ning Busan read the city's name word by word, feeling a massive shock from everything before his eyes.
The surface of the city walls was covered with rusty gears and pipes. Steam gushed out from the gaps, condensing into a white mist in the air.
The rumbling sound of rotating gears echoed faintly from within the city walls, intertwining with the low, hoarse hum of the wind and sand.
Ning Busan's fingers trembled. He murmured, “This is too absurd.”
“Enemy attack! There's an enemy attack!” a roar echoed from atop the city walls.
Before Ning Busan could even react, he was surrounded by a group of city guards clad in silver armor and wearing metal masks.
The weapons in their hands were devices made of gears and pipes. The front end featured a circular muzzle, inside of which flickered a dangerous red light.
Ning Busan was far from unfamiliar with this kind of thing.
Wasn't this just a low-spec version of a gun?
The guard leader barked, “Are you in league with that winged fellow?”
Ning Busan slowly raised his hands and shook his head. “I don't know who you're talking about. I'm just a traveler who stumbled in here by accident.”
“Don't listen to his lies! We can't trust outsiders anymore!” another guard said with a solemn face. “Have you forgotten the chaos that angel caused in the city after he arrived?”
Ning Busan guessed that the angel they mentioned must be Michael.
After a moment of thought, the guard leader ordered, “Take him back and lock him up first!”
Two guards stepped forward and locked Ning Busan's wrists in shackles. The shackles were covered with tiny gears that clicked as they turned.
Throughout this process, Ning Busan made no attempt to resist whatsoever.
What a joke!
With magic disabled, only a fool would go head-to-head against a gun!
Ning Busan was escorted into the city.
The streets were lined with uniform steel buildings. The exterior walls of every house were embedded with massive gears that rotated slowly, driven by steam.
Metal vehicles spewing steam blasted shrill horns as they careened through the streets.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of coal smoke and engine oil, causing Ning Busan to cough uncontrollably.
No wonder almost every resident wore a metal mask; they were likely used to filter out the coal smoke and impurities in the air.
Moreover, their masks varied in design—some resembled bird beaks, others looked like mechanical beasts—but without exception, they all exuded a cool, sharp aesthetic.
Ning Busan guessed that if this level of technology were placed in modern society, it would probably correspond to the era after the First Industrial Revolution.
After walking for a long time, Ning Busan couldn't help but ask, “Where on earth are you taking me?”
The guard replied, “The temple.”
Ning Busan asked in surprise, “You believe in gods?”
The guard said devoutly, “The City of Steam was built by God. We are all God's children.”
“The Silver-Crowned God?”
“The Silver-Crowned God.”
Before long, a massive structure came into Ning Busan's view.
The temple stood majestically, surrounded by twelve bronze pillars. A massive steam valve at the top connected to a towering chimney, spewing white steam straight into the sky.
The guards brought Ning Busan to the prison.
Locked inside the prison was a tall, robust angel clad in gleaming silver armor and a crimson cloak draped over his shoulders, his face handsome and solemn.
However, his condition was not good. There were bloody holes in his calf and chest, and blood seeped through the bandages wrapped around them.
The six-winged angel, Michael.
The guard asked Ning Busan, “Is the angel inside your accomplice?”
Ning Busan flatly denied it. “I don't know him.”
Upon seeing Ning Busan, Michael was slightly dazed.
Fearing the guards wouldn't believe him, Ning Busan specifically explained, “He has wings and is an angel, but I'm a human, just like you guys.”
“I'm not with him. If he did something, you should take it up with him.”
“I'm innocent!”
Michael's lips couldn't help but twitch.
He was clearly desperate to avoid any association with him.
Though he looked very similar, how could a guy like this possibly be Phoenix?
Although Ning Busan was also thrown into prison, his treatment was much better than Michael's.
The guards said that as long as they observed him for a while and confirmed he posed no threat to the City of Steam, they would release him.
Thus, Ning Busan settled into the prison with peace of mind.
The interior of the prison was also full of mechanical devices. Gear-driven fans hung from the ceiling, and hot water and food slid out of a metal pipe in the wall, served on iron trays.
It was extremely mechanical, industrial, and high-tech.
But extremely un-magical.
Ning Busan suddenly burst into laughter.
He recalled how, when he first arrived in this world, he had spent a long time mentally preparing himself, gradually forgetting the existence of technology to fully accept magic.
Yet now, he was actually seeing steam engines!
Why would the Silver-Crowned God create such a place?
The existence of the City of Steam was simply too absurd, completely out of place in this magical world!
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