After more than an hour of rapid travel, the towering silhouette of Zhenyue City finally appeared in the distance.

It wasn't a vague, flickering shadow, but a massive behemoth stretching across the horizon.

The grey-blue city walls seemed endless from east to west, with arrow towers piercing the sky like the fingers of a giant.

Even from over a dozen li away, one could feel the overwhelming pressure emanating from it.

The closer he got to the city, the more crowded the roads became with pedestrians and merchant caravans.

Vendors pushing handcarts, travelers riding Pack Beasts, Farmers herding livestock, and groups of Awakened—the official road was a weaving stream of people, with carriages and horses passing in an endless flow.

Lin Feng did not slow down, maneuvering through the crowd and weaving through them with agility.

Villages and towns were no longer scattered sporadically but were nestled side by side in a continuous line.

Some villages were quite large; although their perimeter walls weren't high, they were built neatly.

Some towns even had city walls seven or eight meters high, with guards standing at the gates to inspect the flow of people entering and exiting.

Most of these villages and towns were established spontaneously, without using a Village Establishment Order, without system recognition, and without a territory core.

Farmlands stretched out in connected patches as far as the eye could see.

Wheat fields, cornfields, and vegetable patches were divided neatly by wooden stakes driven into the ridges, with straw ropes stretched between them.

Farmers worked in the fields—some driving Pack Beasts to plow the land, some bending over to pull weeds, and others carrying buckets of water to irrigate the crops.

Sweat shimmered under the sunlight, and their faces bore a simple, satisfied expression.

Resource points along the road also increased in number. They were no longer tents but wooden houses, some even two stories high, with the signs of various guilds hanging outside: the Zhao Brothers Society, the Grey Wolf Guild, the Rust Blade Guild...

Thugs with slightly better equipment stood at the entrances, wearing uniform leather armor and holding spears or iron swords, their gazes alertly watching the passing pedestrians.

When those thugs saw Lin Feng sweeping past from a distance, they were first stunned by how fast he was running, then their pupils contracted sharply as they clearly saw the several pieces of equipment on him glowing with purple light.

They instinctively shrank back behind their thresholds and lowered their heads, not daring to look further, let alone make a sound.

As Lin Feng ran past them, he faintly heard someone whisper, "Another big shot..." their tone filled with envy.

As Zhenyue City drew closer, the details of the city walls became clear; the massive grey-blue stones were piled together with seamless precision.

Although the wall surfaces had been fully repaired by the system, charred marks left by the Nightmare Tide still remained.

Streaks and patches were etched onto the walls like medals of honor, silently telling of the countless bloody battles this city had endured.

The city enclosure was square-shaped, with a total circumference of sixty li.

The sixty-li city wall was forty meters high, equivalent to the height of a dozen-story building.

Looking up from the foot of the wall, one's hat would fall off; the top of the wall was eight meters wide, enough for two horse carriages to drive side-by-side.

An arrow tower was set every fifty meters, standing five meters higher than the wall, with heavy ballistae mounted on top, their thick bolts glinting coldly in the sunlight.

The East Gate tower was three stories high with upturned eaves and corners, its glazed tiles shimmering with a dark golden light under the sun.

In the center of the tower, three large characters were carved into a stone plaque—"Zhenyue City."

The calligraphy was vigorous and powerful, with strokes like the cuts of knives and axes, exuding an air of solemnity and slaughter.

The city gate was a giant ironwood door of purple quality, one meter thick, its surface embedded with dense defensive runes.

A barbican was set before the gate, with the city walls on both sides extending forward to enclose the gate in a semi-enclosed space.

Once an enemy breached the outer gate, they would fall into a trap surrounded on four sides, where those on the walls could look down and attack from all directions.

The barbican gate was also of purple quality, just as heavy as the main city gate.

From a distance, Lin Feng saw a group of people standing before the East Gate.

Leading them was a burly middle-aged man with a resolute face; it was none other than Liu Zhenshan, the Deputy City Lord of Zhenyue City.

Behind him stood over a dozen elite guards in uniform armor, along with several aides who looked like civil officials.

A red carpet was even laid out at the city gate, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} with two rows of ceremonial soldiers lined up on either side, their halberds pointed upward, solemn and orderly.

At the very front of the crowd, two soldiers held up a red banner with five large characters written on it—"Welcome Lord Lin."

When Lin Feng saw this scene from afar, his footsteps faltered for a moment, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

“A banner? Zhenyue City is actually doing this?”

He quickened his pace, walked to the front of the city gate, and cupped his hands in greeting: "Deputy City Lord Liu, I've kept you waiting."

Liu Zhenshan laughed heartily, strode forward to meet him, grasped Lin Feng's hand, and shook it vigorously: "Lord Lin, why so formal! It is an honor for our Zhenyue City that you could come! Come, come, let's talk inside the city!"

The two walked side by side toward the city gate, while the elite personnel of Zhenyue City followed in single file, their steps synchronized and their aura solemn.

The crowd waiting at the city gate began to stir.

“Who is that? Deputy City Lord Liu came out to receive him personally?”

“Are you blind? Didn't you see what's written on the banner? 'Welcome Lord Lin'—which Lord Lin?”

“Who else could it be? Lin Feng of Fenghuo County! The one who built a county-level territory just over a hundred days after awakening!”

“Holy crap! It's him? So young?”

“He's only been Awakened for over a hundred days, how could he not be young?”

“See that spear on his back? It's flashing with purple light, and he's got several pieces of purple equipment on him!”

“Tsk tsk, Deputy City Lord Liu personally greeting him, what a grand reception...”

“Nonsense, he's a Third Rank Lord, on equal footing with the vice city lord of Zhenyue City. Of course it's a grand reception!”

Discussions rose one after another; some craned their necks to look, while others stood on tiptoe trying to see more clearly.

A few young working Awakened squeezed to the front of the crowd, their eyes wide and mouths open in an 'O' shape, looking as if they had just seen their idol.

A youth in worn-out leather armor was even so excited his face turned red, repeatedly muttering "Lin Feng, Lin Feng, Lin Feng."

Lin Feng's expression remained unchanged, but his heart felt a bit buoyant.

To say he didn't care about this feeling of being looked up to would be a lie.

Liu Zhenshan glanced at him from the side, smiled, and said nothing more.

The two passed through the barbican and stepped into the main city gate. The gate passage was very deep, and the light shining in from outside cast a clear line between light and shadow on the ground.

Crossing that line, the view ahead suddenly opened up.