Chapter 856: Prism City
Trantor: TransN Editor: Meh
"This is..." Rnd looked at Garcia.
"It’s a lift," she proudly responded. "Wait a moment, soon you’ll be able to see."
No long after she had finished talking, the light outside of the window turned from red to green and then the curtains were automatically lifted, revealing the view outside.
Rnd immediately understood the reason for her pride. The bus was parked on a huge iron te, surrounded by yellow and ck warning signs painted on concrete walls with five or six metal orbits embedded in, which continuously issued a gear grinding sound.
They were traveling down a tunnel with each descending level marked by dazzling spotlights and huge number signs. Within a few minutes, they had descended more than 100 meters, but the numbers were still growing.
Seeing the continuously rotating orange alert lights in the outer edge of the iron te, which was like a scene from a sci-fi movie, he suddenly felt that aspared to this sophisticated way of entering, his way to get into Third Border City was way too backward, which was still reliant on hemp ropes and steam engines.
His respect for an organization that could construct something like that was instantly increased by a few levels.
Without substantial economic and political power in the background, a bunch of martialists would never be able to construct something like that.
No wonder Garcia was so proud of it.
Even those strange tempered wild Awakened were stunned by the scene. They started discussing in the bus while looking out of the window, as if they wanted to explore how deep the ce was actually hidden.
"This was actually a good move," Rnd thought. The closed curtains before were probably meant to keep new people from knowing the specific location of the headquarters, but after entering the ground there was no such need anymore, so they could let everyone admire this spectacr project, which could also pose as proof of the association’s power.
He was curious to see if Ling who was following them could find a chance to infiltrate.
When the number became 235, the iron te finally stopped descending and many holes appeared on the wall. Then, the bus moved again and headed into one of them.
The trip was very short this time as they soon reached their destination.
Rnd followed Garcia out of the bus and discovered that there was a wide underground square in front of him, being illuminated with dense headlights, almost as bright as daylight. If not for the previous part of the trip, it would have been hard to believe that he was deep underground. A sculpture was erected in the center of the square. At first nce, it looked like a big hand holding an irregr polyhedron. There were also several buses parked next to the statue. It seemed that they were not the only neers.
"Are these people from other cities?" Rnd pointed at the crowd around the sculpture.
Garcia nodded in agreement, "the association owns many divisions, but it’s only two Headquarters. In order to get into contact with the Erosion, one muste to these two ces."
He was briefly stunned, "The erosion from the outside world... Can it be seen directly from here?"
Not only it can be seen, but you can also touch it—though you would never want to do that." Garcia rolled her eyes. "Did you think that we’re just a cult which asks people to fight the evil? The purpose of visiting the headquarters is to show neers the real danger that the world is facing. Some things, unless seen by your own eyes, are impossible to believe them—disaster is close at hand."
Just then, the lights above them suddenly dimmed down and darkness suddenly came from all directions, making everyone’s vision to focus on a small area in the center of the square. As though a curtain was opened on stage, two bright beams of light fell from the dome, one shining on the sculpture and the other shining on a ck dresseddy.
She was standing on a tform at one side of the square, looked around thirty years old, wearing a ssic Martial Arts garment with her long ck hair tied up on her head. One of her eyes seemed to have been damaged and was covered by an eye patch. The Force of Nature in the Dream World was not limited to gender, and it did not have the kind of effect that the magic power had in affecting the appearance. She looked no different than an ordinary person, not too tall, but with more of an imposing manner.
The woman waved at everyone and then said loudly, "Dear Awakened ones, good afternoon. I am Lan, Chief Disciple of the Rock’s defender. Wee to Prism City!"
"Prism... did she mean the polyhedron on the sculpture? " Rnd thought and heard whispersing from the wild martialists, who appeared to be quite dissatisfied with her words.
Before he could ask Garcia, Lan continued, "Of course, weing the new students was the responsibility of Defenders, but unfortunately, Sky City encountered some problems so my master and the other three defenders all left two days ago. In order to avoid wasting time, I’ll be the one to wee you all."
"I know that some of you awoke many years ago and can’t be treated as real neers. However, the situation has changed drastically. Since you’re willing toe here, it means you’ve approved the ability of the association and you should naturally put all the past temporarily behind you. Combating the Fallen Evil should be your priority now. The association doesn’t care about your past identity and status, but only your future performance—the more critical the crisis is, the more the awakened should be united. If you don’t ept the practice of the association you’re still free to leave right now! "
While she was talking, the ck dressed woman made a waving gesture, but no one in the square moved, and even the noisy discussions quieted down.
"This Chief Disciple is quite adept," Rnd smirked. With the increase of the Fallen Evil, the endangered wild Awakened had no choice but to apply to join the Association. No matter who they were before, they could only follow this option now. The woman was aware of that, so deliberately acted as if giving them a choice, but in reality, gave them no choice at all.
Strength was an important criterion when persuading an opponent. Being the Martialist Association that could protect others, demonstrating their own strength would be the most effective way in this case.
Garcia looked at Rnd with a perplexed expression for a while and said softly, "She’s my master."
"What?" He was stunned. "Your master?"
"She’s the senior that I mentioned the other day," Garcia sighed. "Unless you have to, try not to be around her too much. My master doesn’t like irresponsible and not punctual people."
"Oh, so that was the case," Rnd thought.
"Since you’ve all made your choice, then the association wees any new blood." Lan gazed upon the square and nodded with satisfaction. "I’m not going to say much. Nothing is more impressive than personally experiencing it. Now, pleasee with me and see for yourselves the imminent crisis of the world—you’ll soon realize that the Battle of Divine Will isn’t far away from us! "