Chapter 2338: Chapter 2339: Confirming the Hypothesis

The city of Lordman in this era does not have the tidy and beautiful ancient architecture that comes to mind when thinking of modern travel. After all, for the people living in this time, this is simply their home and place of residence.

During this era, public sanitation might be important in some places, but that doesn’t include Coletos.

What unfolds before Feng Yuan is a city full of the spirit of the times, yet utterly filthy and untidy.

Feng Yuan did not make a point of avoiding the filth on the ground. Being in the Northern Snow Plain, this sludge has long been frozen by the cold weather, not to mention Feng Yuan is now dressed like an Ascetic.

If an Ascetic exhibited an unusual cleanliness, that would be a major problem, especially in this era, where outsiders are generally more scrutinized. Were it not for the reputation of Ascetics, Feng Yuan probably would have been apprehended by guards the moment he appeared.

Ascetics do not intervene in local disputes, and due to their prolonged activities in the wilderness, they are often accompanied by Spirit Beasts, which are both their companions on their path of practice and a crucial guarantee for their wilderness activities.

Precisely because most Ascetics have Spirit Beasts alongside them, no one easily provokes them. As long as it isn’t anything excessive, the local soldiers typically turn a blind eye.

After all, Ascetics generally do not intervene in local affairs, and with their strength being formidable, it’s unnecessary for them to provoke those people, though monitoring is unavoidable.

No one can guarantee whether someone might exploit the name of Ascetics to conduct certain activities.

Ascetics don’t mind this, after all, without it, they would find it difficult to enter different cities for rest. Although they spend most of their time in the wilderness, this doesn’t mean they only hang out with the wild. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The privileges of Ascetics are a result of mutual compromise, which is also why Feng Yuan cannot simply act recklessly under the guise of an Ascetic.

While strolling through this ancient city, Feng Yuan is not only absorbing the atmosphere of the era but also checking the things that he is most concerned about.

Unlike the modern era, while there were street stalls in this era, the things Feng Yuan wanted to verify were located in those shops. Surprisingly, shops utilized ice blocks to create window displays akin to glass.

Although these windows do not have high transparency, they can barely allow one to see the merchandise inside. Moreover, the doors were especially made relatively narrow.

When Feng Yuan pushed open a shop door and entered, he did not attract attention. Although Ascetics are called Ascetics, that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy life; they merely temper themselves through suffering for the sake of cultivation.

In cities, Ascetics appearing in shops is not unusual, and often, those shops welcome the arrival of Ascetics.

Because they possess special resources obtained from the wilderness, these resources serve as currency recognized across nations.

Of course, due to the nature of goods sold by this shop, the shopkeeper had no interest in attending to Feng Yuan upon discerning his attire.

Well, Ascetics occasionally make purchases but rarely choose handicrafts, let alone this shop’s crafts...

After scanning around, just as Feng Yuan expected, seeing nothing of interest, he left the shop, not surprising the shopkeeper, who had already guessed that Feng Yuan was unlikely to buy anything from them.

Next, Feng Yuan walked from shop to shop like a curious child, but no matter what store it was, he merely walked around without buying anything.

When Feng Yuan reached the outskirts of the city, Milos Lulu couldn’t resist asking,

"Did you discover something?"

"Sort of. Many of those crafts contain cultural elements of Kastantos; you know what this implies."

"How is that possible? How could they secretly conduct such activities behind my back!"

Milos Lulu looked shocked and incredulous, unable to believe the humans it trusts would secretly do such things behind its back, but Feng Yuan wouldn’t bother to deceive it; could it be...

"Behind your back? Probably not, it’s probably a civic action and not anything major, so there would be no need to inform you."

Glancing strangely at Milos Lulu, Feng Yuan didn’t quite understand the situation. Staring at Feng Yuan, Milos Lulu angrily said,

"No! Such secret cooperation can’t be considered minor! Plus, collaborating with that formidable group is asking for trouble!"

"Cooperation? There shouldn’t be any, it’s probably just regular trade dealings."

"Huh?! Trade dealings?"

Milos Lulu was taken aback; it felt like it had misunderstood something. Feng Yuan shrugged and said,

"Yes, seeing so many crafts earlier, I felt something was amiss. It’s not as if Kastantos integrated into Coletos, so why would traditional cultural decorations seep in."

"Moreover, it seemed like they were trying hard to diminish Kastantos’ unique cultural traits and awkwardly learn Coletos culture."

"Now, it seems my guess was correct; those crafts showed up in Lordman City through trade with Kastantos Remnants."

"To find their location, one just needs to trace the trade route. These items should be produced from a settlement of the Kastantos Remnants."

Feng Yuan said with a mysterious expression. He had a feeling the Kastantos Remnants weren’t as dangerous as one might think; at the very least, with legitimate trade occurring, they were unlikely to commit world-ending deeds, perhaps.

"Trade? Are the Kastantos Remnants nearby?!"

Milos Lulu’s face changed; it never thought these powerful and dangerous elements were right around Lordman City!

"Hard to say. Theoretically, if trade is feasible, they should be nearby. However, given the unique nature of Mythical Era technology, it might have been delivered by other means."

Shaking his head, Feng Yuan didn’t provide a definite answer, although he felt this possibility was highest; after all, crafts with Kastantos cultural characteristics were discovered only in Lordman City so far.

But that doesn’t mean they absolutely live nearby, as given the abilities of the Kastantos Remnants, establishing a covert spatial passage isn’t impossible.

"What are you doing here?"

Agunas returned to the rendezvous point but couldn’t find Feng Yuan, following traces in time and space he tracked here, finding Feng Yuan and Milos Lulu standing in the snow, feeling puzzled.

"Well, I came out to investigate some things and just happened to end up here. Have you finished the investigation?"

Feng Yuan touched his chin and looked at Agunas curiously, and the latter nodded saying,

"Indeed, the Salontos do possess much technology from the Mythical Era, but strangely, it’s not particularly complete. Moreover, an odd point is that all the Divine Runes are integrated using Kastantos technology."

"Integrated? Difficult to combine and utilize together? Yes, since they are technologies from different nations, merging easily would be strange."

Feng Yuan wasn’t too surprised at this. Those aspects aren’t particularly complicated; perhaps their origins are suspicious, but in terms of usage, there isn’t much of an issue.

Though the Divine Runes are more numerous compared to modern times, many runes are used as backup measures.

The Divine Runes from various nations aren’t easily utilized together, hence the Salontos chose to center around Kastantos to integrate other nations’ runes.

This isn’t a problem; however, why insist on this approach?

Feng Yuan couldn’t quite understand; many Divine Runes are indeed excellent, but these runes don’t have an obvious strong-weak distinction.

It’s not a case where more Divine Runes yield better effects. Theoretically, using strictly Kastantos’ own runes shouldn’t result in poor effects.

After all, they are their own runes, unmatched by the familiarity of other runes.

Using Kastantos’ runes would entirely avoid the current situation where a large number of runes cover the entire Cave of Garomar.

"Their actions are strange, and it seems they haven’t fully grasped the Mountain Divine Runes, which is peculiar. I suspect someone might be stirring trouble under the guise of Kastantos."

Agunas expressed its view while flicking its tail, prompting Feng Yuan to contemplate, he then shook his head saying,

"Hard to say, can’t exclude that possibility, but I have discovered something..."