Even so, it wasn’t until near evening that he approached the Eternal Day City.
By this time, it had entered "Frost Month," the penultimate month of the cold season, with nighttimes stretching over twenty hours and the weather turning even colder.
The Eternal Day City was built upon a relatively flat highland terrain, sprawling across millions of square kilometers. Its interior boasted few mountains, none too tall, offering an expansive view, a rarity on the Bloody Plateau. Multiple rivers flowed down from the surrounding mountains, freezing into ice rivers that writhed like silver snakes upon the earth.
Ji Xinghuo stepped onto this highland, gazing at the land’s wave-like undulations.
He felt a twinge of regret.
If it were the warm season, the area would surely be an endless green prairie, magnificent in view and pleasant in climate. But it was the cold season, and all he saw was a vast expanse of snowy whiteness, with cold winds howling through the sky, making it impossible to find a spot for shelter from the wind.
When electromagnetic induction revealed the presence of others, Ji Xinghuo immediately tucked away Qing Hong and proceeded on foot through the wind and snow.
An hour and more passed.
The golden glow at the horizon sank behind the mountains, and darkness fell at once.
Ji Xinghuo, still able to see at night, found a road extending westward, its surface paved with stone slabs, wide and smooth like a highway.
He looked ahead, seeing a bright light in the pitch-black night sky in the distance, an area that was very large.
A straight beam of light shot up into the sky.
Even amidst chilly winds and frosty snow, and from dozens of kilometers away, he could make out the pillar of light like a beacon in the darkness, guiding travelers.
Ji Xinghuo continued along the road for over ten kilometers, and gradually, the light ahead grew larger and brighter. With his vision, he could already see that it was a huge city lit up like daytime, sitting upon the land and beckoning enticingly.
As he drew closer, roads converged from all directions, and more travelers appeared.
Ji Xinghuo covertly assessed these members of the Alien Race.
Highlanders, Biao Clan, Deserted People, Forest Patrol Clan—these were common races on the Bloody Plateau, along with many Alien Species.
Many were his first sightings, and although most resembled humans in form, they each bore distinct characteristics.
Ji Xinghuo could only recognize three or four types of aliens.
Like him, they were all headed for the Eternal Day City, but in the wilderness, everyone kept a safe distance from each other.
Ahead, a massive silhouette appeared against the night sky, a translucent bubble approximately thirty kilometers in diameter, like a giant bowl turned upside down on the ground, covering the entire city. The cold wind and frosty snow were barred outside this bubble, while inside was a completely different world!
Seeing this, Ji Xinghuo was greatly shocked.
The city of the Alien Race gave him the immediate impression of being luminous and grand!
On the outermost perimeter stood a hundred-meter-tall city wall, not made of common stone, but of seamless white crystal. The bubble that enveloped the city seemed to be emanating from the wall, as though it were its base, with a subtle flow of light.
Within the city, numerous spires hundreds of meters tall soared into the sky, arranged in an organized, tiered fashion.
The design style of these spires was completely distinct from Earth’s skyscrapers, both majestic and ornate, adorned at the edges with bright decorations like gold.
All the buildings in the city, including the spires, were constructed of crystal.
In the sky, multiple platforms and plazas floated, and countless bright crystal lights illuminated every corner.
Most of the urban area was flat, wrapping around a central mountain peak in the middle of the city, with a vertical height of about three thousand meters. Compared to other peaks on the Bloody Plateau, this was modest. The entire surface of the mountain had been modified, divided into layered terraces connected by smooth steps, all supporting numerous spires that resembled a forest of crystal reaching to the summit.
Atop the peak stood a Crystal Palace, from which a great beam of light shot out, piercing the bubble and fading into the night, stretching unknown heights into deep space.
"It’s too amazing!" Ji Xinghuo couldn’t help but exclaim.
One could hardly imagine such a resplendently brilliant city existing without having seen it for oneself. If he had to choose a word to describe it, "paradise" came immediately to his mind.
"Eternal Day City, truly lives up to its reputation," Ji Xinghuo quickened his pace, drawing closer to the city as the city wall came within the range of his Electromagnetic Induction.
He suddenly faltered.
In his Electromagnetic Induction, there were many blind spots within the Eternal Day City.
These areas were not empty, but the magnetic field was filled with interference, as if covered by a mass of junk information, obscuring the true situation and making it indiscernible.
It effectively shielded the changes in the magnetic field.
Although these blind spots were not many, accounting for less than one-tenth.
But Ji Xinghuo was still very surprised in his heart.
This was the first time that his electromagnetic induction failed to get any information. Those areas, including the interior of the city walls, those magnificent crystal spires, as well as some internal spaces and underground areas of buildings, were obviously key places within Eternal Day City.
Approaching the vicinity of Eternal Day City, the light dispelled the darkness.
There were tall city gates beneath the walls.
Ji Xinghuo walked towards the city gate, and standing close by, the grandeur of the gate seemed even more impressive. That huge transparent bubble in the sky must be a kind of protective shield.
The cold wind and frosty snow blowing on it seemed to hit a wall; all were blocked.
He withdrew his gaze and looked outside the city gate.
Even though the magnetic field was shielded around the walls where the city gate was located, the fluctuations of Ether Energy could not be hidden. In Ji Xinghuo’s eyes, behind those pristine crystal walls flowed a tremendous amount of energy, abiding by some pattern, clearly an artificial creation.
However, what attracted his attention the most were the guards at the city gate.
"Crystal Elite Clan!"
Although Ji Xinghuo had already read about them in the materials, seeing this Alien Species with his own eyes still made him very curious.
This group of Crystal Elite Clan guards numbered six, but their appearances varied greatly.
Three of them had human forms.
Their heights varied considerably, with the shortest around 1.7 meters and the tallest nearly 3 meters.
However, these three Crystal Elites had torsos and limbs like humans, standing on two legs, with very broad and thick figures. Their skin shone like crystal, as if their bodies were made of it. They were clad in a layer of exquisite metallic armor, which was not "worn" but seemed to be one with their bodies, as if the armor had grown from them.
They had heads, but no necks.
Their entire faces were also crystal-like, with features so blurred that at a cursory glance, one might think the face was blank.
Even amongst the three humanoid Crystal Elites, the differences were vast, but at least they appeared humanoid in comparison to the other three.
The other three resembled large scorpions.
They had six legs, supporting a strong torso; the upper body was upright like humans, with four upper limbs. The top two were arms holding weapons, and the lower two were gigantic pincers, with a thick crystal sharp tail in the back for balance.
The last Crystal Elite resembled a fierce wild beast, with limbs on the ground, a massive jaw filled with sharp teeth, and a crystal body covered in thick metallic armor, making it seem invulnerable.
Ji Xinghuo was amazed.
Indeed, just as the materials had said, the Crystal Elite Clan had no specific form.
They were all identical at birth, sexless, and during their growth, they could choose different forms according to their preferences.
About half of the Crystal Elite Clan chose humanoid forms.
In addition, the mainstream forms were scorpion-shaped, spider-shaped, snake-shaped, and beast-shaped. There were many variations within each form.
Beyond the mainstream, there were many strangely shaped Crystal Elites.
Ji Xinghuo had a deep memory of one sentence, "You can’t find two Crystal Elites that are exactly the same in the world."
All six Crystal Elites were of the Fifth Rank Legendary class!
They stood motionless on either side of the road at the city gate, not even breathing.
They were like six statues.
"Using Legendary powerhouses for gate duties is too extravagant!" Ji Xinghuo shook his head inwardly. Eternal Day City had more than a dozen gates, and if each one was guarded by six Legendary guards, that meant a hundred or more Legendary Crystal Elites.
This was unimaginable on Earth.
For Alien Races entering and leaving the city gates, the Crystal Elite guards just watched and did not stop them for inspection.
The people in front had all entered the city smoothly.
Ji Xinghuo also walked towards the city gate with confidence, but unexpectedly, one of the humanoid Crystal Elite guards suddenly moved, looking in his direction.
"Please stop," said the guard as it approached.
Ji Xinghuo stopped in his tracks, his face showing astonishment. He didn’t understand why others could come and go freely, but he was stopped.