Chapter 47: Heaven's Demise City

  In the old-fashioned wing room, Shi Yan's expression was a bit dazed, and he stared at the window for a while before slowly closing it.

  Returning to his seat, Shiyuan looked somewhat listless and didn't continue to make advances on the girl in his arms, instead focusing on drinking.

  "Master Iwao, was that the North Sea Household's troops just now?" asked Karl, a Stone House warrior inside the house.

  "Hmm." Shi Yan replied with a sentence and continued drinking silently.

  Han Zhong stood by the window, frowning as he gazed at Shi Yan, his eyes somewhat strange. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Yan Ge, that woman on the war horse just now... do you know her?"

  Shi Yan nodded, downing the wine in his cup in one gulp. "Yes, I can confirm that. I was traveling with her when we left the Dark Forest together. You know how it was back then - monsters were rampant and a person's power is limited, so we had to find someone to travel with."

  Han Zhong was a seasoned person. Seeing that he had no interest, his eyes rolled around and guessed that there must be something between him and Diya Lan.

  He walked over and waved his hand at the women beside him, saying, "You all withdraw first, we have something to discuss."

  Several charming girls, all very self-conscious, stood up with bright smiles and quickly left the compartment.

  When only a row of Shi family warriors were left in the wing room, Han Zhong said: "Yan Ge, I don't know where that woman came from, but it seems that Bei Mingce has some interest in her. If she is also willing to be with Bei Mingce, then you shouldn't think too much about it."

  "Yes, there are so many women in the world, no need to make an enemy of Beiming Ze because of one woman. The Beiming family is the most overbearing family in our business alliance, their power is really too strong. And Beiming Ze, that little kid, is also the treasure of Beiming Xiong, provoking him is not wise." Karl sincerely advised.

  Karl is a small leader in this line of martial artists, with a cultivation base at the Second Heaven of Innate Dual Heavens. Because Shi Yan won his favor, he advised him kindly.

  "Lao Han, what's the story with those two old men?" Shi Yan didn't answer, but instead looked at Han Zhong.

  Yin Kui and Jiu Shan were master brothers, with cultivation at the level of Nirvana in one heaven. No one knew where they came from. Previously, they had served as attendants to the master of the North Ming family, Bei Ming Shang. After Bei Ming Ce was born, due to possessing two types of martial souls and having an extremely rapid cultivation boundary, Bei Ming Shang feared that Bei Ming Ce might encounter some mishap during his growth, so he arranged for Yin Kui and Jiu Shan to protect him.

  Nirvana's first heaven realm! Shi Yan's heart was shocked.

  The master of the Shi family, Shi Jian, also had a cultivation base that was only at the Three Realms of Nirvana.

  In a vast commercial alliance with a population of millions, there are countless warriors practicing martial arts, but those who can truly step into the realm of Nirvana and achieve great things are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and can be counted on two hands.

  Two powerful beings in Nirvana, doing nothing, protecting Beimu Ce closely, and Beimu Ce is indeed favored.

  "In our business alliance, the strength of the Northern Ming family is stronger than that of two other families combined. The Northern Ming family has a multitude of top-notch experts, and their younger generation is also bursting with talent. And as for Northern Ming himself, he's at the Tianwei boundary, so provoking him will only lead to trouble."

  Han Zhong saw Shi Yan not speaking, and was afraid that Shi Yan would make a mistake, and again made it clear how powerful the North Ming family was.

  "Uh-huh, I understand." Shi Yan fell silent for a moment, nodded his head, and his expression returned to normal. He smiled and said: "Don't worry, Old Han, I have my own plans in mind, I know what can be done and when to endure temporarily."

  "Hmm, as long as you understand." Han Zhong let out a sigh of relief and said: "Do you want to let the girl outside come in again?"

  "Never mind, I'm not in the mood, let's just drink."

  "Alright, let's drink then! Come on!"

  ……

  The Shang Alliance is a unique nation managed jointly by the nobles, warriors, mercenaries, merchants and various folk groups.

  There is no formal army, no various official positions, and no various official structures here.

  The Shang Alliance has many aristocratic families, hundreds of large and small mercenary groups, tens of thousands of merchants, wandering warriors, and civilians tired of war...

  The Shangmeng has never participated in the wars between the Lihuo Empire and the Shenyou Empire, and is much more peaceful than those two countries.

  However, once a foreign nation tries to make trouble in the merchant alliance, all forces within the merchant alliance will unite to resist.

  In the history of Shangmeng, both the Lihuo Empire and the Shenyu Empire had coveted Shangmeng's wealth and had precedents for sending troops to invade, but all were directly defeated by the coalition forces formed by the major families of Shangmeng and hundreds of mercenary groups!

  This strange country of merchants is usually very scattered and doesn't even have a manager, but once they encounter a common enemy, they will immediately gather together.

  Here, because of the presence of many powerful families, hundreds of fierce mercenary groups, and merchants with heavy gold, once these people unite, the power formed is extremely terrifying, even the Empire of God's Blessing and the Empire of Blazing Fire can only admit defeat.

  If it weren't for the merchant alliance, they would only unite when encountering external enemies, and the combined strength of all forces would be enough to defeat either the Lihuo Empire or the Shengyu Empire!

  The terrain of the business alliance is special, with a dark forest in the south, a silent swamp in the north, a mountain range of cloud-shrouded peaks in the west, and an endless sea to the east.

  Whether it's the silent swamp, the cloudy mountain range, or the endless sea islands, they all contain rich resources such as minerals, spiritual medicine, metals, and so on. As a country with trade as its main focus, Shangmeng is naturally situated in the center, making it easy to thrive.

  In the silent marshes, cloud-shrouded mountains and endless seas, rich resources are hidden, accompanied by terrifying dangers.

  Miasma, demonic beasts, poisonous fogs, and ferocious alien tribes...

  Also for this reason, wanting to venture into those areas requires extremely strong military power, so the merchant alliance is never lacking in various mercenary groups and warriors.

  The nineteen cities of the Merchant Alliance, but the largest and most important city is still Tianyuan City.

  The Heavenly Falling City is located in the center of the Merchant Alliance, surrounded by eighteen small cities. The area of the Heavenly Falling City alone is almost equal to the total area of eight nearby cities, and its population is also several times that of those small cities.

  Therefore, Tianyun City can be said to be the center of Shangmeng, and all major families also regard Tianyun City as the main point of family activities.

  The Shi family is no exception. Although the Shi family has industries and courtyards in major cities of the Merchant Alliance, their foundation is still in Tianyun City.

  The Shi family's estate is located in the northern part of Tianyuan City, covering an area of nearly 100 acres. It has thousands of buildings, with artificial mountains, courtyards, lakes and streams everywhere. The main branch of the Shi family is located in a quiet place at the back of the courtyard, where there is a central artificial lake, surrounded by pavilions on all sides. Behind the pavilions are cultivation grounds, gravity rooms, ascetic temples...

  The direct members of the Shi family are not many, but there are hundreds of collateral relatives and servants. Adding to that the maids and guards, the entire Shi household has nearly a thousand people living there every day.

  Every morning, regardless of whether they are from the Shi family's direct lineage, the shrine, or the martial artists, they would all be practicing in the various training halls.

  The rooster's crow had just sounded, the sky was still dimly lit, and many warriors had already begun to exercise their muscles in various ascetic grounds.

  Shi Jian also walked out of the Panshi Temple and came to Yang Hai's attic, shouting loudly, then he and Yang Hai went together towards the gate of Shi's house.

  All along the way, there were constantly warriors bowing and paying respects, Shi Jian was indifferent and nodded slightly, his footsteps didn't slow down for anyone.

  Shi Jian and Yang Hai arrived at the entrance of Shi's house, not long after, Han Feng also quietly appeared behind them, standing silently beside Shi Jian, narrowing his eyes to gaze at the corridor outside the stone gate.

  "According to the message from Han Zhong, they should have arrived last night. Since they didn't arrive last night, they must be back today." Shi Jian furrowed his brow and muttered: "In order to see if that kid really entered the First Heaven of the Pre-Heaven Three Realms, I waited until dawn yesterday, but that little scoundrel didn't show up..."

  "Maybe he was delayed by something on the way." Yang Hai silently scolded Shi Yan for being impolite, but still helped to explain.

  "Are you kidding me? You're telling me about Han Zhong's news... Is it possible that there's been a mistake?"

  Shi Jian turned around, looking at Han Feng with a slightly puzzled expression: "It's true that there are precedents for the awakening of martial souls in one's youth, I don't doubt that. However... that kid had never practiced martial arts before the age of 17, and suddenly he reached the realm of Xiantian Third Heaven, it's too unbelievable! I've thought about it for several nights, but I still can't figure out what's going on, what do you think?"

  Han Feng curled up the corners of his mouth, narrowed his eyes and said: "Although Han Zhong likes to be reckless, he is still reasonable in major events. I think he doesn't have the guts to lie about this matter. Although...I also can't figure out what's going on, but since he said so, it should be correct."

  "Hmm, I hope it won't go wrong this time. This kid has disappointed me for 17 years, and I hope he won't disappoint me again."

  Many of the Shi family's warriors, after their morning training and meal, heard that the master was waiting for someone at the gate and curiously followed over, gathering together at the gate, whispering to each other in hushed tones.

  They didn't know who the newcomer was and guessed that it might be an important figure from the Beiming or Zuojia families, otherwise Shi Jian wouldn't have come out to greet them.

  However, after waiting for a long time, no one came, and those Shi family warriors gradually became impatient, secretly scolding that person for being too arrogant, actually making the master of the Shi family wait all this time.

  As the sun rose higher and higher, the person they were waiting for still hadn't appeared. Shi Jian was getting worried too, and turned to Yang Hai beside him: "It's been so long without them coming over, could something have happened?"

  Yang Hai shook his head with a bitter smile, indicating that he didn't know either, but in his heart, he let out a sigh.

  Although Shi Jian had occasionally mentioned Shi Yan in the past, he had never shown too much concern and only asked casually.

  Even this time Shi Yan's disappearance in the dark forest was reminded by Yang Hai, and he remembered it.

  Now that Shi Yan has entered the Realm of Three Heavens, he has been asking about Shi Yan's news every day for the past few days. Today, he came over early and waited anxiously...

  Shi Jian's sudden change in attitude made Yang Hai feel somewhat unadapted for a while.

  After a long time, the sun was high in the sky, and it was almost noon when the huge body of Dilong slowly appeared on the long corridor.

  In front of the earth dragon, two people were chatting and laughing, neither in a hurry nor slow, it was Shi Yan and Han Zhong.

  ……;