Chapter 142: Purple Dream City (3)

Meanwhile.

Through soul-searching, Jiang Chen had already obtained the information he desired.

Just as Jiang Chen had guessed, although this planet lacked a star to provide illumination, under the influence of some mysterious force, it was still divided into day and night.

The daytime belonged to the world of humans, and the power of ferocious beasts was suppressed to its absolute minimum.

A few star-level martial artists working together could even kill universe-level ferocious beasts.

The night, however, was the complete opposite. Human power was suppressed, while the power of ferocious beasts skyrocketed.

A level one or level two universe-level martial artist might not even be able to defeat a star-level ferocious beast.

Whenever daytime arrived, the natives of Viska Planet would hunt ferocious beasts on a large scale, storing their meat as food reserves.

Whenever night fell, the power of ferocious beasts surged, and their aggressiveness soared to an astonishing degree, launching frantic attacks against humans.

Humanity, in turn, could only retreat within the city walls, relying on the city's defenses to withstand the assaults of the beasts.

Each alternation between day and night, converted into Earth's time calculation method, was thirty days.

Fifteen days of daylight and fifteen days of darkness.

"Does the change in the sky also cause changes in strength? But it seems to only affect the strength of ferocious beasts, leaving humans unaffected."

Information gathered from the native's memories flashed through Jiang Chen's mind. "When night falls, the strength of the ferocious beasts increases about tenfold compared to the daytime. If it's only to this extent, my main body doesn't need to deliberately hide inside the city. With sufficient strength, even if the beasts are enhanced, they pose no threat to me."

"However, my clone can go into the city to take a look. According to the information in their memories, entering and leaving the city doesn't require any identity verification; one only needs to pay an 'entry fee'. Although I don't have the currency of Viska Planet, universe crystals can be used here as well, and they are extremely valuable currency..."

Jiang Chen pondered to himself.

Universe crystals were crystals formed by the high condensation of the universe's primal energy.

As long as one was within this universe, regardless of how civilization evolved, as long as an "extraordinary system" had been born, no one would reject universe crystals as currency.

As for not recognizing universe crystals?

Any being who reached the realm lord level could directly extract the origin from the universe's primal source and condense universe crystals.

A civilization that had birthed realm lords could not possibly be ignorant of this item.

Unless this civilization had never even birthed a realm lord, it was possible they might not recognize universe crystals and would reject transactions using them.

Yet on Viska Planet, there were numerous immortal existences, so naturally, there was no issue with universe crystals failing to circulate.

Glancing at the sky, which was beginning to darken, Jiang Chen leaped into the air and sped towards the distant city at full velocity.

As the distance closed, the details of the city came into view in Jiang Chen's eyes.

Towering city walls several thousand meters high were pitch black in their entirety, emitting a faint metallic luster.

There were uneven marks on the city walls, as if they had been left by the terrifying impact of some giant beast.

Yet that was all.

At least with a glance, Jiang Chen could not spot any signs of repairs on any part of the city walls.

The deepest crater was only one or two meters deep, which meant nothing at all to such a massive and thick wall.

Compared to the city walls, the city gates were not particularly tall, standing at just over a hundred meters high and thirty meters wide. Above them, the characters for "Purple Dream City" were inscribed in the Viska Star common language.

This design seemed to be intended to prevent attacks from ferocious beasts and avoid making the city gates a vulnerable link in the defense.

Due to structural limitations, compared to the solid city walls, the defensive strength of the city gates was always somewhat inferior, unless stronger materials were used, but doing so would cause costs to skyrocket.

A long queue was forming at the city gate, with groups dragging large cargo carts arriving from time to time.

However, the pace of movement was quite fast. Clearly, the guards watching the gate knew that these martial artists could not be allowed to "spend the night" outside the city and had to let them in before dark.

Jiang Chen joined the queue heading toward the city gate. After waiting for about half an hour, his turn arrived.

"A lone traveler?" The guard glanced at Jiang Chen and said, "The entry fee is fifteen purple coins. If you don't have money, you must work for the City Lord's Mansion to pay off the debt."

"Keep the change." Jiang Chen produced a single universe crystal and tossed it over.

"A Saint Crystal?!" The guard's face lit up with joy. Catching the universe crystal, he repeatedly bowed and scraped, saying respectfully, "My lord, please enter!"

Compared to the "purple coins" and "red coins" in daily circulation within the city, the value of a "Saint Crystal" was far too high.

Those were refined and produced solely by "Saint-tier powerhouses."

A single "Saint Crystal" was equivalent to a full ten thousand "red coins."

Let alone the mere entry fee, it would be more than enough to live comfortably in the city for a full year.

Of course, this was limited to living and pleasure-seeking. If one wanted to purchase cultivation resources, that was another matter entirely.

In any extraordinary civilization, resources concerning "strength" were incomparably expensive.

Able to casually tip a "Saint Crystal," anyone could guess without thinking that this was definitely a person of great background.

Such a person must never, under any circumstances, be offended.

Unconcerned with the petty thoughts of the city gate guard, Jiang Chen walked into the city, asked someone for directions, and headed straight for an inn within the city.

"Give me the best room you have." Before the staff inside could ask, Jiang Chen tossed out another universe crystal.

From the memories he had previously searched, Jiang Chen knew that staying at an inn on Viska Planet did not require "identity registration."

Naturally, a relatively primitive planet like this had no way to enforce strict management and could only choose to let things take their course.

The employee caught the universe crystal, a hint of pleasant surprise crossing their face, and quickly said respectfully, "Sir, our top-tier 'Sky-Cloud Pavilion' costs sixty thousand red coins per day, or six Saint Crystals."

A "day" on Viska Star was a single day-and-night cycle, equivalent to a month on Earth.

Placed on some ordinary planets, this price certainly could not be considered cheap, but to Jiang Chen, it was not worth mentioning.

"No problem, get me one." Jiang Chen produced several dozen more universe crystals and tossed them over. "Book it for ten days first. If I still need to stay after ten days, we'll talk then."

Catching the universe crystals thrown by Jiang Chen, the attendant's attitude became even more respectful: "Sir, please follow me!"

"Do powerhouses in the universe all love things to be 'huge'..."

Led by the inn employee to the so-called "best room," Jiang Chen could not help but feel speechless.

This so-called "room" could completely be considered an estate, covering an area of nearly one hundred square kilometers.

In the outside world, of course, that was nothing, but within this "Purple Dream City," it was exceptionally vast.

The entire "Purple Dream City" was merely a square with sides a few thousand kilometers long.

Countless people lived within the city, and averaged out per person, space was tight.

Even the City Lord's Mansion barely exceeded ten thousand square kilometers in area.

As for the rest of the buildings, considered individually, not a single one exceeded one thousand square kilometers.

However, although the estate was quite large, the luxury level of its interior was not particularly impressive. It merely featured a hot spring, a cultivation chamber, and a martial arts training ground, lacking excessive functional facilities.

The living quarters also looked quite ordinary—comfortable, indeed, but having nothing to do with the word extravagant.

One had to admit that Viska Planet was indeed very primitive.

Although its power tier was not low, its architectural style, technology, and so forth were extremely backward.

The best inn in the city had rather average conditions, completely incomparable to Jiang Chen's estate in the Primordial Secret Region.

Yet Jiang Chen was not someone overly fastidious about the quality of life.

If there were good things, naturally he was willing to enjoy them.

If not, he would not force it.

"You may leave first. I will call you if anything arises." Jiang Chen waved his hand, signaling the employee and the other estate servants to withdraw.

"Understood, sir." The attendant bowed respectfully, pointing to a thin rope by the wall, and said, "If you have any needs, simply pull this bell, and we will satisfy your requirements at the earliest possible moment."

With that, the attendant bowed once more and departed with the remaining servants.

They dared not provoke someone who could casually toss out a pile of "Saint Crystals."

If they were beaten to death, the other party would only need to pay a small sum in compensation to easily smooth the matter over, and their deaths would be in vain.

Obediently following orders and turning a blind eye to some of the "odd quirks" of guests was the survival strategy of these "insignificant figures."

Jiang Chen was unaware of the messy thoughts flashing through the attendant's mind.

After dismissing the miscellaneous personnel, he connected to Jarvis through his consciousness and instructed: "Jarvis, scan and check if there are any traces of surveillance around me."

Jarvis's main body resided with Jiang Chen's main body.

However, separated by more than ten thousand kilometers, given Jarvis's capabilities, it was entirely capable of "multi-tasking" while controlling some of Jiang Chen's technological equipment on this side.

Jarvis reported swiftly: "There are a large number of powerful individuals in the city utilizing sensory surveillance, but their directions are all aimed outside the city. Monitoring the interior of the city are only a single domain lord and a few universe-level beings. Do you need to shield their perception?"

"Can it be done to deceive their perception, making them think there is not the slightest anomaly here?" Jiang Chen already had a judgment in his heart, but still inquired of Jarvis.

Regarding the performance of these technological devices he had designed and manufactured, apart from the main combat forces of the mechanical legion, Jarvis actually understood the auxiliary equipment even better than Jiang Chen himself.

After all, Jiang Chen would not constantly "digitize" his spiritual force to operate these devices.

Most of the time, they were utilized by Jarvis.

"No problem, E-grade detectors can completely fool a domain lord with ease," Jarvis replied immediately.

Jiang Chen nodded in satisfaction and instructed: "Then begin. Do not let them perceive any anomalies here. Afterward, release the nano-detectors to gather intelligence."

"Understood, master. Activating anti-surveillance system... Activation complete. Deploying nano-detectors to search for all intelligence."

While repeating Jiang Chen's instructions, Jarvis executed them.

Within a mere few seconds, from Jiang Chen's world ring flew countless invisible micro-detectors resembling dust; carried by a slight breeze, they drifted away into the distance.

Each detector was extremely minute, yet equipped with numerous functions such as audio recording, video recording, and remote transmission, capable of transmitting everything monitored back to Jarvis.

The cost of this gadget was not high, but on certain occasions, it could produce miraculous effects.

Unfortunately, Viska Planet possessed a mysterious and special magnetic field that exerted a strong suppression effect on detection, signal transmission, and the like.

Only within a range of tens of thousands of kilometers could the area be incorporated into the "surveillance network."

Otherwise, Jiang Chen could completely utilize satellites, nano-detectors, and various other disparate devices to monitor the entire planet in a short period.

Jiang Chen, primarily focusing on technological development, might not be the strongest in pure combat power, but possessed immense advantages in many other aspects.

Unless enemies grasped an equal or even superior level of technology, or possessed special "anti-reconnaissance methods," there would be no secrets before Jiang Chen.

No matter how powerful a powerhouse might be, as long as one grasped sufficiently detailed intelligence on them, the probability of defeating them through targeted strategies could be vastly increased.

Such powerhouses who possessed absolutely no weaknesses and feared no targeting were extremely rare existences under any extraordinary system.

In conflicts between factions, the value of intelligence was even more crucial.

Naturally, for Jiang Chen at present, pondering these issues was somewhat premature.

The most important thing was still to clandestinely control this "Purple Dream City" as much as possible and explore the secrets of "Viska Planet."

Compared to some super mega-cities in the universe, the scale of "Purple Dream City" was not particularly massive.

Even with Viska Planet's bizarre magnetic field suppression, Jiang Chen deploying the "nano-detectors" across the entire city was entirely sufficient.

According to Jarvis's scans, the population within the city was somewhat smaller than anticipated, numbering roughly seven to eight hundred million people.

Among them, the vast majority were between the star-level and universe-level.

The bloodline rank of Viska Planet's natives was not low; upon reaching adulthood, they inevitably attained the star-level, and with a little diligent cultivation, the possibility of breaking through to the universe-level was also quite high.

Aside from a very few children, most clansmen existed somewhere between the star-level and universe-level.

Yet while the universe-level was easy to break through, reaching the domain lord level was far from simple.

Even for a level one domain lord, one had to master a "domain" at the very least in order to break through.

Do not be fooled by the Genius Tournament, where Jiang Chen's opponents all mastered domains and laws; out in the universe, such heaven-defying geniuses remained exceedingly rare.

The vast majority of universe-level beings found it extremely difficult to comprehend a domain.

According to the intelligence gathered by Jarvis, within the entire "Purple Dream City," there were merely six domain lords. Two of them resided within the City Lord's Mansion, while the other four were scattered across different locations in the city.

As for realm lords, not a single one existed.

The strongest among them, based on the detector's feedback, was a domain lord within the City Lord's Mansion who had reached the fifth tier of the domain lord level, possessing a genetic multiplier of over fifty times. This made him the most outstanding individual in the entire "Purple Dream City."

Jiang Chen intentionally had Jarvis avoid the locations of these domain lords, refraining from deploying "nano-detectors" near them and relying solely on large detectors to monitor them from afar.

Aside from the areas where the six domain lords resided, every single corner of Purple Dream City was occupied by "nano-detectors."

Within a few hours, Jiang Chen had placed virtually every living being within the entire city under surveillance.