The furthest distance between the northern and southern borders of the Empire was nearly seven thousand miles, which was more than thirteen thousand miles in Tanggulas units. The canal didn't originate from Phoenix, and it was also nearly five thousand miles long.
The ship Salin hired wasn't fast, and it could only travel about ten miles per hour. But if it worked day and night, it could travel nearly five hundred miles in a day. If it was a real fast ship, even if it only had sails, it could reach the speed of a thousand miles a day.
It was exactly five thousand miles from Ivantil to Pompeii. In the last few days, the captain sped up, and it took exactly ten days to reach Pompeii from Ivantil.
Salin had a great time in these ten days. On the last day, he and Rex finally mastered the skill of dispelling each other's magic bit by bit. This skill might not have any effect on others, but the synergy between the two of them would increase exponentially.
Pompeii was also a large port city. It was the intersection of the canal and the Emerald River, where the two rivers converged to form a wider river that flowed east into the sea.
Pompeii's geographical location was more important, and its commerce was more developed. The ship Salin hired was going to be inspected here, and it stopped to restock with fresh water and vegetables.
The captain came to find Salin, and he said, "Sir Mage, the Flandre Duncan has to be repaired and inspected in Pompeii. This ship is registered in Pompeii, and it will take a day. Would you like to take a walk in the city?"
Salin was about to refuse, but Rex already said, "Okay, it's a bit boring on the ship. Salin, let's go to Pompeii."
Since Rex wanted to go ashore, Salin didn't mind. Silva had been studying the necklace of bones these days, and didn't want to leave no matter what. Salin didn't feel at ease leaving Nelis on the ship, so he could only leave Silva alone. He and Rex disembarked the ship and walked to the dock with Nelis.
Pompeii's dock was larger than Ivantil's. It was connected to the largest port of the Empire in the east, and to the southern border of the Empire in the west. The Grand Canal connected the north and south, and the three intersected to form an extremely prosperous city.
Unlike Ivantil, Pompeii was an ancient city with a longer history than Qin Yin. However, the current Pang Pei City was built later.
Rex began to explain the history of Pompey to Salin with great interest. This ancient city originally belonged to a duke of the Fourth Dynasty. After the Chaos of the Dark Magicians, the Fourth Dynasty could no longer control the local nobles, and the city lord of Pompey became a local tyrant. Before the founding of Qin Yin, Panpei was one of the few cities in the south that were not immediately conquered.
In those days, countless soldiers died at the foot of Panpei City. In his fury, the founding emperor dispatched eight 9th Rank High Mages to cast eight Forbidden Spell Scrolls in different directions of Panpei City. An ancient city that had existed for thousands of years was destroyed in an instant. Today's Pompey had been rebuilt by the later emperors according to the alchemy blueprints they had seized.
When the city was rebuilt, millions of skeletons were excavated from Pompey's ashes. One could imagine how prosperous Pompei was back then.
Salin stood at the foot of the city and listened to Rex's narration of the history of this magnificent city. The white Pang Pei looked majestic. If the materials were not taken into account, the scale of the city was no less than that of Holy Rock City. The two sides of the main entrance were the most eye-catching. On the white city wall, there were vivid magic images drawn by mages.
It was a scroll of a real battle. On the long scroll, the situation when Qin Yin's army attacked Pompey was described in detail. This huge scroll was drawn on the white stone city wall with dragon-blood ink. The black and white were distinct, but Salin could smell the stench of blood.
Qin Yin's soldiers, wearing double heavy metal armor, stood on siege towers that were dozens of meters high and jumped toward Pompey's city wall. Huge magic beasts were pulling the siege towers. Qin Yin's armored cavalry faced the Pompey's army that was rushing out of the city gate. Huge flying puppets flew out of Pompey's city wall and rushed toward the siege towers.
Behind the battlefield, Qin Yin's army was assembling magic stone cannons. From within Pompey, catapults were attacking the magic apprentices who were assembling the stone cannons. Huge chariots were destroyed by the huge stones thrown by the catapults. Warhorses and magic beasts were rolling on the ground in pain. A soldier had to end his mount's life with a short sword.
The magic apprentices were so focused that they ignored the huge stones thrown from the city.
The scene was still, as if someone had cast a spell on the battlefield and fixed it for eternity. Qin Yin's mages had faithfully recorded the scene back then. No one was righteous. Salin only saw tragedy.
The city gate had two layers. There was a barbican, and above the barbican was a metal bridge. There were arrow holes on the bridge, and people could attack enemies who entered the barbican. This barbican was huge. In the center, there was a stone tablet that was even taller than the city wall. The white stone tablet was full of names.
"These are the people of Qin Yin who died in Pompey's battle. On the back is the list of Grand Duke Pompey's soldiers who died. That's how Qin Yin was built. "Rex stood under the stone tablet with respect in her eyes.
She respected the founding ancestor, and also Grand Duke Pompey who died in battle.
"I wonder what the nobles in Jialoulan will think when they see this stone tablet. Heh …" Rex's tone became cold. At this moment, she finally showed the temperament of a royal princess of the empire.
Looking at the white stone tablet, Salin suddenly said to the emotional Rex, "The Skochinyan wouldn't do this."
"Oh?" What would the Skochinyan do? Erase history?
"The Skochinyan will surround these paintings and stone tablets and build a city. Whoever wants to see it will have to pay at least one silver coin."
"Hahahaha …" Rex laughed loudly. Salin's joke was a bit cold, but it eased her gloomy mood. "Salin, I didn't expect you to joke too."
"I didn't expect you to laugh like this either." Salin looked around. Many people were already attracted by Rex's laughter. Rex and Neris were both beautiful. She laughed without restraint, not caring about other people's gazes. Salin, on the other hand, did not like being stared at. There were many people looking at the stone tablet. Salin pulled Rex's sleeve.
There were Qin Yin soldiers standing guard beside the stone tablet. A few of them looked at Salin's magician robe, but did not come up to stop Rex's rude behavior.
"Let's enter the city. Pompey has a trading company from the Cloud Flow Empire, and there are also Skochinyan doing business here. Maybe we can buy the goods we need. "
"I think we should buy some clothes first. Our clothes are too eye-catching."
Salin had already felt something was wrong. He was a level-four magician, and he wore a white magician robe. Rex's colorful robe was more eye-catching. Neris followed behind him. It was late summer, and Neris was still wearing winter clothes. Luckily, they did not bring Scica. Scica's weapon was also quite shocking. The four of them would attract attention no matter where they went.
"What are you afraid of? There are all kinds of weird clothes in Alchemy City. There are even magicians wearing animal skins, just like Caucasians."
Seeing Salin's gloomy expression, Rex laughed. "Then get Scica a beautiful set of clothes. As for you, I can give you a set of magician robes. There are three spells fixed by the teacher. You can wear it until level-six."
Rex was used to being generous to the people around her. She said this casually, not realizing that the gray magician robe was what she used to wear. It was more or less inappropriate to give it to Salin.
Luckily, Salin would forget about Rex's identity as a princess and a beauty once he got involved in the word magic. He remembered that Rex used to wear a gray magician robe. That was good equipment. Moreover, there were three spells fixed by a level-eight magic shooter on it. It was very important to him.
"Why don't we find a place and wear it now?" Salin did not stand on ceremony with Rex. The secret between him and Rex was very valuable. A magic robe was no longer a bribe.
"What's the rush? You think you can bargain with people when you wear a gray magician robe?" Rex brought Salin and wanted to walk to the center of Pompey City.
Pompey's prosperity was different from Holy Rock City. There were too many foreign merchants here. There were people from Cloud Flow who came from both land and sea, and people from Scotia who came from the canal in the north. What surprised Salin the most was that there were people from Tanggulas here.
The two empires were already at war. These merchants were not afraid of being killed by the emperor to vent their anger, so they still stayed in Qin Yin. They really cared about money more than their lives. The current emperor's father died in the hands of the Holy Church.
"Rex, I think you are familiar with the roads. Have you been to Pompey before?" Salin followed Rex and left the main road. After making a few turns in the alleys, they arrived at a district with old buildings. The shops here were not big, but they all had huge crystal display windows. These crystal display windows meant that the shops were special. Except for valuable items, most of the shops here were places to trade commodities, so they didn't need to be big.
This style was passed down from the Scotia Empire.
"I have memorized the map of every city with a population of more than 10,000 in Qin Yin." Rex was a little proud. This was the advantage of the royal family. Only by knowing the details of every city could they better control the local nobles. Qin Yin's city construction couldn't be done at will. It had to be approved by the royal family, complete alchemy blueprints, and less than 30 fixed layouts.
These more than 20 layouts could play a huge role in a war, and there were many variations. However, for a great mage like Rex, the basic layouts wouldn't change no matter how much Pompey changed.
The three of them arrived at a small square. The ground of the square was paved with dark-red bricks, and there were a few bronze statues. There were low shops on all sides, and none of them were more than two stories high. In Pompey where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, such houses were even more expensive.
"Which one should I choose?" Rex looked around. There were more than 40 shops here, and those who could open a shop here were all powerful.
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