Spells Grinding: From Basic Sparks to Divine Arts

Chapter 294: The Center of Jiuzhen

One month later.

The high-grade spirit boat gradually decelerated, carving a sweeping arc across the sky. With a piercing screech of parted air, the massive vessel came to a steady halt at the docking port.

A gentle female voice echoed evenly across the ship’s decks. “Fellow Daoists, we have arrived at Qinghua City. This is the terminus of our route. Please disembark in an orderly fashion. We hope you will entrust the Heavenly Star Sect with your future travels.”

As the announcement faded, the ship hummed with activity. Cultivators emerged from their cabins, gathering their belongings to disembark. Qin Lu and Liu Sangeng, already packed and waiting, joined the steady flow of passengers.

The moment the spirit boat’s Defense Formation deactivated, the crowd surged. Cultivators took to the sky like a flock of scattered birds, either riding their flying Magical Artifacts or treading on the wind itself, dispersing in every direction.

Taking in his surroundings, Qin Lu immediately noted two stark differences between this port and the one in Shuntian City. First, the sheer scale of it was staggering—easily several times larger, with far more opulent architecture. Second, the raw, bustling energy of the place was overwhelming.

The air vibrated with a chaotic din. Countless vendors had pitched small stalls across the vast stone expanse, hawking all manner of Supplies and hot food. From a distance, it looked no different than a bustling mortal bazaar. More surprisingly, a significant number of these merchants were actually ordinary mortals.

“A transit hub where immortals and mortals rub shoulders…” Qin Lu clicked his tongue in mild amusement.

“Heh. Mortals are strictly forbidden from entering Qinghua City proper,” Liu Sangeng explained, adjusting his bamboo hat. “Every resident inside is a cultivator. If these mortals want to earn a living off the cultivation world, scraping together business at the docks is their only option.”

“Makes sense,” Qin Lu nodded.

Liu Sangeng gestured toward the sprawling bazaar with a grin. “Don’t underestimate them, though. They might peddle mundane goods, but they’re often rare treasures from the mortal realms. I’ve heard tales of cultivators snagging overlooked fortunes from these very stalls. Fancy a walk? Who knows, maybe you’ll stumble upon a diamond in the rough!”

“Save your breath. I’ve never been blessed with that kind of heaven-defying luck,” Qin Lu replied with a self-deprecating chuckle. “But stretching our legs couldn’t hurt.”

It was the unvarnished truth. In his four years navigating the brutal cultivation world, he had never once stumbled into one of those legendary, cliché windfalls. Despite his frequent trips to the Scatter Cultivator Market and various underground auctions, he had never “accidentally” purchased a priceless, unrecognized relic. Every ounce of power, every spirit stone, and every technique he possessed had been clawed from the jaws of death or earned through grueling, meticulous effort.

He was a pragmatist, fundamentally unsuited for fairy-tale fortune.

Immersing themselves in the chaotic energy of the dockside market, the two men wandered the aisles. The goods were overwhelmingly cheap, with many mortal vendors even accepting ordinary gold. Feeling generous, Qin Lu casually bought up a small mountain of items. Among his purchases were several finely crafted women’s accessories—delicate hairpins, elegant wrist bangles, carved wooden combs, jade pendants, and earrings.

Small, thoughtful gifts for Gu Yue.

Seeing Qin Lu spend so freely, Liu Sangeng caught the shopping bug and bought a few finely forged mortal utensils just for the novelty of it. Satisfied, the two finally left the dock and took to the air, heading toward the legendary Qinghua City.

“The docks are about a hundred miles out from Qinghua,” Liu Sangeng said, a mysterious glint in his eye. “Since it’s your first time, prepare to have your breath stolen.”

“Oh? What makes it so special?” Qin Lu asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Heh. You’ll see.”

“If you say so.”

They rode the wind side-by-side. The sky was practically a highway; the aerial traffic was exponentially denser than anything Qin Lu had seen in Shuntian City. A veritable river of cultivators was flowing toward the horizon.

About the time it took an incense stick to burn down, the silhouette of Qinghua City finally breached the horizon.

And just as Liu Sangeng had promised, Qin Lu froze mid-air. His pupils contracted, his pragmatic mind short-circuiting as he stared in absolute, unadulterated disbelief.

“How… how is this even possible?” Qin Lu murmured.

This was no conventional city rooted in the earth. It was a megalithic archipelago suspended entirely in the heavens. Hundreds of colossal mountain peaks and titanic boulders floated in the sky, densely clustered yet sprawling like a volumetric starfield.

Each suspended landmass was impossibly massive, some thrusting thousands of meters into the clouds. Thick, cascading mist wreathed the floating islands. Enormous, airship-sized flying fish and serpentine wind-dragons swam through the open sky alongside thousands of glittering Magical Artifacts, shuttling seamlessly between the tethered peaks.

Atop these floating monoliths sat sprawling urban districts. Towering, elegant wooden pavilions pierced the heavens, connected by a complex web of suspended, arching covered bridges. The sheer architectural weight of the interconnected metropolis defied all logic—an entire civilization drifting among the clouds.

Rainbow hues from thousands of defensive arrays and decorative lights shimmered across the districts. Dozens of torrential waterfalls cascaded freely from the edges of the floating mountains, plummeting into the misty abyss below. It was a flawless, terrifying fusion of man-made structural genius and ethereal, heaven-defying power.

“They built the entire city in the sky?!” Qin Lu gasped, his usual calculated composure entirely shattered.

“Hehe! I made that exact same face my first time,” Liu Sangeng chuckled, clearly enjoying the show. “That’s right. Qinghua City is an airborne dominion.”

“The sheer scale… it’s spectacular,” Qin Lu whispered, his eyes locked onto the breathtaking metropolis.

Hundreds of mountains, each the size of Everest, just floating there… No one back on Earth would ever believe this, he thought, a profound sense of cosmic awe settling deep in his chest.

Breaking the spell, Liu Sangeng patted his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go line up at the gates.”

Qin Lu blinked, scanning the open sky around the islands. “Gates? I don’t sense a localized Defense Formation. Does a city this important really not have a grand barrier protecting it?”

“Heh, what use do they have for a barrier?” Liu Sangeng grinned. “This entire domain is overseen by a Soul Formation stage Senior. Tell me, who in their right mind would dare cause trouble here?”

“Soul Formation stage…” Qin Lu muttered, his awe morphing into a cold, sobering realization.

These were the apex predators of the world—beings possessing such heaven-defying might that a casual sword strike could carve a permanent geographical wonder like One Line Sky. To the vast majority of bottom-feeding cultivators, these entities were walking gods.

As they drew closer, the city’s “entrance” finally became clear. Floating at the vanguard of the stone archipelago were several colossal screens of white light. Thousands of cultivators, suspended on their Magical Artifacts, were neatly queued in front of these shimmering gates.

The endless, orderly stream of high-level cultivators flowing in and out of the volumetric checkpoints was a stark testament to Qinghua City’s immense prosperity. Finding a relatively short line, Qin Lu and Liu Sangeng took their places in the aerial queue.

Staring at the massive landmasses hovering silently above them, Qin Lu couldn’t hold back his curiosity. “Old Third, do you have any idea how these megaliths actually stay airborne?”

“Word is, the spatial laws in this specific region were always dangerously unstable,” Liu Sangeng explained. “A Soul Formation Senior arrived, forcibly subjugated the spatial anomalies, and laid down an impossibly massive Formation. That array tethered the fractured earth, lifting these mountains into the sky to create the city you see today.”

“Is that so…” Qin Lu nodded slowly, a dark, burning ambition igniting in his eyes. He stared at the cascading waterfalls and floating peaks, the raw magnitude of it searing into his mind. “Soul Formation stage cultivators… are truly terrifying.”