Chapter 59 Re-entering Black Rock City

Tang Zhen waited for three days, and true to expectation, all the ordered goods were delivered in full. He moved all these slingshots and steel balls into the cave, while deliberately avoiding Murong Ziyan.

When Murong Ziyan walked into the cave from outside and saw the plastic bags that had appeared out of thin air, she only showed a slight flicker of astonishment, then gave Tang Zhen a deep look, but did not say much.

Seeing this, Tang Zhen knew that she had already guessed something and simply chose not to ask.

After taking stock of the slingshots, Tang Zhen notified the management of the Wanderer Town and the special envoy of Black Rock City to collect the goods. The town personnel quickly collected the slingshots and paid the full amount in a single transaction.

However, the special envoy from Black Rock City made a request, hoping that Tang Zhen could help transport these slingshots and steel balls into Black Rock City. Of course, this would not be free, and a certain remuneration would be paid.

Aside from Tang Zhen, he had also hired dozens of people to act together.

If it were just Tang Zhen alone, he was confident he could break through the encirclement of the death birds and enter Black Rock City. However, with dozens of people moving together, goodness knows whether they could evade the siege of the death birds, especially since he could not use his special abilities in front of these wanderers.

The special envoy of Black Rock City told Tang Zhen that they had already devised a method and should be able to enter the city without mishap. Tang Zhen followed the special envoy to the center of the town and saw dozens of rectangular, shell-like objects.

The front, back, left, and right of these shells were shielded by monster leather, which could effectively withstand the attacks of the death birds. When connected end-to-end, they could form a passage for people to pass through quickly.

After studying them for a while, Tang Zhen found that these turtle-shell-like objects could indeed withstand short-term attacks from the death birds. However, if the time dragged on, the sharp talons and beaks of the death birds would surely destroy this monster leather.

Tang Zhen agreed to the request of the Black Rock City official. This time, his role was that of a technical advisor. Although slingshots were simple, hitting a target required a certain level of skill and technique. The special envoy had seen Tang Zhen teach the wanderers how to aim, and since he was the seller of the slingshots, he naturally wanted to invite him to instruct the residents of Black Rock City.

The situation in Black Rock City was critical and brooks no delay. The special envoy immediately organized everyone to distribute the necessary supplies, and then, with each person carrying a turtle shell on their back, they hurried toward Black Rock City.

From afar, they could see Black Rock City shrouded in a layer of black mist. As they drew closer, they saw death birds blotting out the sky and the earth, with arrows piercing the ground and the corpses of death birds littering the terrain.

Seeing Tang Zhen's group approach, a flock of death birds immediately swooped down. The group quickly lowered their turtle shells and advanced closely hugging the ground.

The turtle shells were battered and tossed about by the impacts of the death birds, but everyone tightly gripped the handles underneath the shells, because once a turtle shell was knocked open by a death bird, certain death awaited them.

They spent a full ten minutes traversing the nearly hundred-meter-long dense zone of death birds before approaching the gates of Black Rock City. As the Black Rock City special envoy drew near the small gate of the city, the metal door immediately opened, revealing an entrance just large enough for a turtle shell to squeeze through along the ground, while the rest was sealed tightly with monster leather.

The turtle shells crept in one after another, and not a single death bird managed to squeeze inside during the process. When the last turtle shell entered, the metal door slammed shut with a heavy thud.

Inside the huge passageway of Black Rock City, everyone dropped their turtle shells with looks of exhaustion on their faces. The torrential onslaught of the death birds moments ago had drained almost all of their strength.

Fortunately, there were no casualties; all of them had safely entered Black Rock City.

Dozens of Black Rock City cultivators surrounded them and led them into a large room to be kept under watch. Wanderers were not permitted to enter Black Rock City, and although they had been hired by the city this time around, wandering about freely was strictly prohibited.

The wanderers sighed dejectedly. They had originally thought they would get a glimpse of the interior of Black Rock City, only to find out that rambling around was not allowed at all. If not for the death birds outside, they probably would have been driven out of Black Rock City by now.

Tang Zhen was called out separately and began teaching wave after wave of fortress residents how to use a slingshot, until his throat became parched and dry. Among these people, he caught sight of the teenage boy named Xiaorui. When Tang Zhen demonstrated how to use the slingshot, the boy kept staring at him with a strange look in his eyes.

Tang Zhen guessed that perhaps his voice had given him away, but he did not pay it too much mind, simply continuing his instruction as if nothing was amiss.

When the boy left, he secretly made a gesture toward Tang Zhen, which among the wanderers meant "good." It seemed the boy had already grown suspicious of Tang Zhen and intentionally used this gesture to test him, or perhaps to notify him that the mission had been accomplished.

Late into the night, most of the people in Black Rock City had entered dreamland. Tang Zhen sat in the pitch-black room holding his nose; the place reeked abominably, and the sound of snoring echoed endlessly.

It was no wonder the fortress residents looked down on the wanderers; the stench on their bodies alone was enough to make anyone keep their distance.

Confirming that no one was paying attention to him, Tang Zhen checked the map, verified the positions of the Black Rock City cultivators guarding the wanderers nearby, and activated the quantum invisibility screen.

Using the map's teleportation function, he entered the corner of the corridor, and then passed through a small, concealed door within the corridor straight into the interior of the fortress.

Moving slowly along the way, when Tang Zhen arrived at the residence where Xiaorui lived, he gently knocked on the door.

The door was opened almost immediately. The wary-looking boy glanced at Tang Zhen, who was in a state of invisibility, and sidestepped to clear the path. Tang Zhen stepped directly into the room.

"Where is what I want?"

Tang Zhen did not waste words and asked the boy directly.

Xiaorui was equally direct, tossing a roll of parchment toward Tang Zhen. Some secrets were best understood in one's heart without the need to spell them out explicitly.

Tang Zhen opened the animal skin and saw a script he did not recognize. A trace of annoyance rose in his heart; goodness knew what these ghost-like symbols meant.

However, Tang Zhen quickly recalled that there was an application in the application store that seemed capable of deciphering text.

[Mysterious Text Decipherer: Can decipher various mysterious texts and translate them into language understandable by the user. Download cost: fifteen thousand gold coins.]

The brain pearls in his spatial storage were plentiful. After exchanging for enough gold coins, Tang Zhen downloaded and installed it.

Once the text decipherer was activated, those ghost-like symbols automatically transformed before Tang Zhen's eyes into text patterns he could recognize, making reading them extremely effortless.

As he read on, a hint of joy appeared on Tang Zhen's face. He retrieved a thousand brain pearls from his spatial storage, tossed them over, and said indifferently to the boy, "These are a thousand brain pearls as a reward for this time. Keep up the good work in the future!"

The boy caught the brain pearls, gave them a brief inspection, and then silently opened the room's door. Tang Zhen thought nothing of it. Stepping out of the room, he headed straight for the upper-tier area of Black Rock City.

Avoiding the Black Rock City cultivators who patrolled by from time to time, Tang Zhen arrived before the sealed iron door that isolated the upper-tier administrators from the lower-tier residential area.

This iron door was extremely sturdy; forcing it open with brute force would surely alert the Black Rock City cultivators. Since Tang Zhen did not want to draw their attention, he had no choice but to wait quietly.

The map teleportation function could ignore any obstacles to transmit within the current map range, but unfortunately, the cooldown period had not yet ended, so he could only wait patiently. Time trickled by slowly, and as soon as the cooldown expired, Tang Zhen instantly passed through the iron door and entered the upper-tier area of Black Rock City.

This was the place where the power-holders of Black Rock City lived, and the environment was considerably better. However, on the floor housing the treasury, Tang Zhen encountered yet another iron door.

Needless to say, he continued to wait.

Another hour passed. Tang Zhen crossed this iron door and entered the corridor where the treasury was located. The entire floor was completely deserted, and a thick, heavy iron door appeared before Tang Zhen once again.

Looking at one iron door after another, Tang Zhen felt rather speechless, yet he could only quietly wait once more.