I continue to take a look out the window as I see the exterior bounds of the outer city reveal walls of red and white that rise imperiously in the distance.

Hills I had not seen in the distance before now seem to dominate the landscape beneath the mountain, replacing the sky behind it.

In fact, the closer we get to the city, the bigger the mountain appears. To be specific, you would obviously expect that the mountain would appear bigger the closer you get to it.

However, for this one in particular, the scaling is all wrong.

If for normal mountain, when you get one step closer it would appear one times bigger, then for every step toward this mountain, it appears 1.01 times bigger. And the multiplication is growing higher as we get closer.

Look at my scan, reveal that this scaling isn't an illusion. It really is that big.

Which should be impossible.

To figure this out, I use my inactivated scan to come back on, to review the previous information I knew about this mountain.

The size still looks to be the same as before, having a base of 1200 square kilometers and being 44 kilometers tall.

With that said, the space inside that space is much denser and bigger.

To put it into sci-fi terms, I just walked into an extra dimensional space.

I think I should stop here, though. I'm getting that feeling again: if I go any deeper into the secrets of this mountain, I'll hit up on something that will alert people much more powerful than I am.

Focusing back in on the architecture side, I look at the walls surrounding this outer city. One of the first things I can notice is that it's not a singular wall separating the inside from the out. In fact, the wall structure seems to be like a lattice of interweaving structures. The coloring of it appears to be mostly gold, with some hints of red.

It looks a little strange, though, like I can't look at it for too long. It feels vaguely similar to staring at the sun.

Like I can do it, it feels uncomfortable.

I quickly shut off my scan when I discover something that doesn't feel bad to know, but would definitely make people curious about why I know.

The walls of the city seem very similar to magnifying glasses, and are made of an extremely hard glass-like structure. The lattice structure forms a bunch of seemingly perfect mirrors…

Based on the setup of this and the right techniques, they could fire giant beams of light onto someone or something.

What's even crazier is that the height and depth of this structure is enormous. At least a half kilometer long on both sides.

And I mean, at least, in a literal sense of the word. Some portions of this wall extend deep into the city stretching on for thousands of kilometers.

Considering how the area is also compacted by the extra dimensional space, that also means that it could be even larger than I can currently see.

This is probably one of the sect’s defensive super weapons.

As I continue to look out the window towards the city, Mei Lin decides to speak up.

“Are you looking at the wall too?”

I freeze for a moment, but then automatically relax when I realize that's a perfectly normal question.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

She seemingly continues without noticing.

“I really like the history of this city. One of the things you can see from the walls, is a big difference in color between sections. Those are actually the newer sections, that needed to be replaced after demonic sects all banded together to try to wipe the sect out.”

She’s right and putting aside the crazy characteristics of the wall shows it has quite a difference in colorings. Seemingly random ones, in fact.

I take the opportunity to look away from the wall and at her, which shows that she actually is quite excited about this.

Her eyes still sparkling, she continues as if remembering the words of a ballad.

“Waves and waves of demonic cultivators threw themselves against the shining walls, tearing their blinding defenses asunder. Clouds of ash and light dancing in the sky, the remains of both sides turned to dust.

“When all was completed and the battle was won, to remember their fallen and to acknowledge the sacrifices made, they swore to build the new sections in remembrance of their allies and in spite of their enemies.”

She takes a breath, and actually points to one of the portions of the wall that had a little more depth than the others.

“In each of those sections, is a memorial to millions of the names of people that sacrificed their lives during those wars. Each name fuels the power of the defenses, for times in the future. So those sacrifices, of that amount, never need to be made again.”

So, that kind of explains why some of the defenses seem so excessive. They didn't do as a good job the first time, so they rebuilt it so that would never happen again.

Her voice once again breaks up my thoughts, but provides something I wouldn’t have guessed.

“The reason you don't see any farms on the outside of this city, is because they are all underground. If there's ever to be another assault like that, they will never be starved or have to destroy their own food sources. The sect cultivation techniques allow their farmers to do such feats quite easily.”

Oh, that's helpful to know. Maybe I can use that, when making excuses for the demi humans being able to grow things underground.

Of course, that’s only after we get past the ‘you're not supposed to have cultivation anyway,’ type of thing.

Her face seems to brighten a bit, as I realized she might have seen my change in emotion regarding her words.

If that's true, that also means she's been able to tell when I do and don't know something.

I feel like everywhere I go, there's at least one person who has an ability that allows them to get some idea of what I'm thinking.

Can't a guy just have some mental peace and quiet?

Putting those feelings aside, I'm surprised by how much Mei Lin knows about the area and various other things. My scan shows the ballad isn’t exactly common knowledge. Some aspects of it are known, such as the battle, but not as much as you would think.

Now that I think of it, if not for her, I could have made some mistakes in public that would have been a bit embarrassing.

The briefing by Ai, Lin, and Gong was helpful, but was more centered on sect-based interactions, rather than what to do in merchant spaces and other various types of situations.

I should congratulate her on that, it sounds like she worked hard to gain this knowledge and is not usually praised on it.

Making sure to look straight at her, I nod my head in approval subconsciously.

“Wow. You really know your stuff.

“It really sounds like you looked into this pretty deeply and it definitely couldn’t have been easy to find. I’m very impressed…”

My words stall as for the briefest moment.

It feels like the world practically stops, as her face and deep blue eyes happily shines like the sun.

Time seems to slow down and my eyes catch a glimmer of light shining onto her silvery hair, illuminating the area around her. Her cheeks emanating a soft red glow, while her hand brushes back a sliver of her hair back onto her pointed ears.

She quickly looks away in embarrassment, her eyes beginning to glance up and down at, as she fights to keep a constantly returning grin from her lips.

My scan shows it's not due to some sort of magic, Illusion, or even hypnotism like I faced in the past.

Just a show of pure happiness, that someone has acknowledged what she's worked hard for.

From just these small words of mine.

And it's absolutely adorable.

So adorable, that my body subconsciously wanted to catch every moment of it and used its considerable mental reaction speed to do so.

With this, it’s easy to see why even young masters were pursuing her at her age. When she grows up, she’ll be one of those peerless beauties I’ve always read about in the novels. That doesn’t even include when she starts cultivating.

Further refining that beauty.

It’s honestly frightening to think of.

Luckily for me, I don’t feel any of that sort of attraction to her.

Because she’s a child.

But not only for that reason now.

What I do feel, deep in my heart and in a way that I'm not willing to completely acknowledge, is that I swear that this girl was now my true little sister.

Cuteness of this level has to be protected.

If before I was protecting her out of simple, common, human decency… now it is like I’m fighting for family.

Let’s see if anyone wants to test this daddy.

I, your grandfather, will show you the difference between Heaven and Privilon!

… I’ve spent too much time on this world.

Sigh.

Let’s move on.