504: Chapter 497: Arrival 504: Chapter 497: Arrival The city walls undulated continuously, incredibly thick, and based on their height, they should be over ten meters.
On top of the city walls, at every interval, one could see squads of soldiers patrolling back and forth nearby.
The surface of the city walls was pockmarked in many places, and occasionally, some dried bloodstains could still be seen.
A bit of thought would reveal that these must be traces left by the war.
As for the city behind the walls, the majority of buildings were extremely low.
Standing on the Spirit Ship, the people of Liuyuan County looked down from a high vantage point, scanning for a long while, and within the city, there were very few buildings taller than the walls, hardly a few to be found.
“Is this Jinshan City?
What a huge city!”
“The entire city is enclosed by these walls, such thick walls; those Fierce Beasts outside will definitely not be able to breach them.”
“Leaving Liuyuan County and coming here, this move must have been the right one.”
“Just seeing these walls makes me feel a lot more at ease.”
…
The deck of the Spirit Ship provided a broad view.
The numerous people, who had been frightened and anxious all along the way, were now mainly standing upright, gazing towards the huge city not far away.
Knowing that they were about to reach their destination, many gathered together and began to whisper amongst themselves.
Once the bow is drawn, there’s no turning back; having chosen to leave Liuyuan County for this place, they could only accept their reality, there was no way back.
They spoke among themselves, believing that coming to Jinshan City was the right decision, with no regrets whatsoever.
But what they truly thought, only they themselves knew.
Honestly, their journey on the Spirit Ship to Jinshan City was safe, without any fright or peril.
However, the situation in the wilderness, most people had already seen with their own eyes.
Insects bigger than vehicles, giant beasts as big as hills, birds of prey darting through the sky like fighter jets…
The people from Liuyuan County, already anxious and fearful, upon witnessing such scenes of extreme fantasy and terror, many turned pale, completely shaken with fear.
Even now, the deck of the Spirit Ship was still filled with an indescribable smell of fear.
It seems that more than just one or two people had been scared to the point of wetting themselves by those strange insects, fierce birds, and giant beasts.
Fang Jun, near Chen Hai, aside from being startled by the sight of those ferocious giant beasts initially, remained relatively composed for the rest of the journey.
In the former world, social strata had solidified, making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to rise.
The society, though seemingly peaceful and stable, was actually incredibly tough for those at the bottom.
Fang Jun was a clear example of this.
Perhaps, in his view, the more chaotic the world, the greater the opportunity he saw to make something of himself.
Days filled with creditors’ threats, constantly being threatened to have a hand or leg chopped off—it was a life more terrifying than death.
Inside Jinshan City, even if he did poorly, it couldn’t possibly be worse than before, could it?
At any rate, that’s what Fang Jun thought.
Of course, there were definitely others who shared his mindset.
Seeing that they had reached their destination, among the people on the deck of the Spirit Ship, those who seemed a bit excited—Chen Hai had already noticed ten or twenty such individuals.
The Spirit Ship slowly descended, not stopping at the city gates, but directly flying into Jinshan City, landing on a barren plot near the western city wall.
The soldiers patrolling the walls were naturally very familiar with the Jinshan.
Seeing this Spirit Ship, they had no extreme reactions.
If it had been another Spirit Ship, flying in so boldly without prior notification, perhaps they would have been ready for battle, calling out an enemy attack.
“What are you standing around for?
Hurry and get down!”
“This barren area nearby is where you’ll be settled.”
“Once you disembark from the Spirit Ship, you’re on your own.”
The Spirit Ship had barely steadied when Yan Song and a few others who had stayed on deck started shouting, herding everyone aboard.
They naturally couldn’t be oblivious to the foul stench permeating the air.
The fierce beasts and birds of prey hadn’t even attacked them yet, yet they had already scared everyone present into looking like this.
Earlier, Yan Song and his group merely despised these denizens of the New World for their physical weakness, but now, their gaze toward the crowd had clearly gained a hint of disgust.
Since such thoughts had already arisen in their minds, their treatment of the people on deck was naturally not going to be favorable.
Including Chen Hai and Ye Qingqing, nearly all the people from Liuyuan County had brought numerous large and small bags, carrying a considerable amount of luggage.
After all, in Jinshan City, they had nothing and owned absolutely nothing.
The items they had brought from Liuyuan County could definitely be regarded as their entire current possessions.
As long as they could carry it, they would naturally bring as much stuff as they could.
Carrying heavy luggage, even with Yan Song and others repeatedly cursing behind them, the speed of disembarking from the ship was still slow!
It was over half an hour later when Chen Hai and Ye Qingqing disembarked from the Spirit Ship.
The area around where the Spirit Ship was docked wasn’t exactly appropriate to be called barren.
To call it a ruin would indeed be more apt.
Broken bricks and shattered tiles could be seen everywhere, charred wooden beams and broken planks were also plenty if one paid a bit of attention.
However, in terms of area, this region was not too small.
Surveying the ruins, Chen Hai roughly estimated that even if it wasn’t a hundred acres, there definitely were dozens of acres.
Judging from various traces left on the ruins, this place was originally supposed to be a residential area.
It appeared to have undergone a major battle, which had turned it into its current state.
Dirty, chaotic, poor…
If one ignored these factors and only needed a place to settle, there was still space within these ruins.
The people from Liuyuan who had gotten off the Spirit Ship earlier had already preemptively occupied some of the relatively flat locations within the ruins.
Setting up straw huts or the like was temporarily impossible as they lacked materials, and most people from Liuyuan County didn’t have the skills.
However, some people had brought luggage that contained sleeping bags or simple tents.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of makeshift tents were already set up amidst the ruins.
Fang Jun, who had initiated a conversation with Chen Hai on the Spirit Ship, carried relatively simple luggage.
Following closely behind Chen Hai and Ye Qingqing, after getting off the Spirit Ship and scanning around,
he slowly took out a broken bowl and a fishing rod from the luggage he carried.
Merely extending two or three sections of the fishing rod, he held it in his hand like a stick.
Then, with luggage on his back, holding the broken bowl in one hand and leaning on the stick with the other, he walked towards the road outside the ruins.
Even when he had walked a dozen or twenty steps away, he turned back and glanced at Chen Hai’s direction with a sort of boastful look.
What’s meant by being a step ahead is every step?
While others were still searching for a place to stay, Fang Jun had already taken a step ahead and ran outside the ruins to actively make money.
With one hand on a broken bowl and another on a stick, don’t assume he would end up just begging his way down a dead-end alley.
In fact, this was merely his initial attempt at making money.
If begging didn’t earn money, he had a second plan.
On the Spirit Ship, he had noticed an inner river that ran through the entirety of Jinshan City.
The stick in his hands, if not used as a crutch, could have its tip extracted to become a fishing rod.
With a rod in hand and already possessing bait, spending a night by the river—provided there were fish—he needn’t worry about not making money.
“Among the several thousand people who came from Liuyuan County to Jinshan City, the first one to achieve a class leap will definitely be I, Fang Jun.”
“Now, these people look down on me, but later, I’ll make them unable to reach me!”
With swagger and pride, Fang Jun quickened his pace and strode towards the front.