Close Combat Mage
chapter-191

Clearly, this wasn’t the Magic Automatons’ complete state. In reality, they weren’t like how they were described in the records, with their own intelligence. They were only machines that used magic spells, metal, and others in perfect combination to form a magic machine!

After half a month, the group finally arrived at Dawn City. When Suo Jia looked at it, his jaw dropped wide open, to the point where he could easily fit an egg in it. This…this was Dawn City?

The reason why Dawn City was a city was because of its city walls. However, these walls only guarded the outside and not the inside. The inner walls were only 2 meters tall, and beyond worn-down. The buildings within the city were also short and run-down, and looked as if they’d collapse any minute.

Dawn City was also called Dawn Fort, and was built in a ravine shaped like “人”. The line on top was the sole public path that led to the area. There were two towering mountains on either side, and Dawn Fort was constructed in the valley between them.

After entering the city that belonged to him, Suo Jia felt like crying. Although the area was very large, the buildings were all crumbling. While the road was paved with limestone, it was extremely muddy. From this, it could be seen that the management here was extremely disordered. Suo Jia even suspected that the streets here had never been cleaned!

There were quite a few people in the city, but they were all lifeless. When they saw Suo Jia and his group, they all looked on with dead, wooden stares. Seeing their tattered clothes and haggard faces, Suo Jia began to suspect that he had entered a refugee camp!

However, Dawn City still had highlights. The path near the outside of the valley had sturdy, two-story walls, which seemed quite new. This was a point that one couldn’t be negligent about; if the city wasn’t properly defended, it would be wide open for the countries. Wouldn’t that basically allow the enemies to freely enter and exit?

But Suo Jia wrinkled his brow in dissatisfaction at the sight of the new, 4-5 meter walls. Although these city walls were quite good, they could only block normal people. They were absolutely too weak to obstruct the way of a powerful warrior. If a powerful warrior wanted to enter, it’d be as easy as walking on level ground.

Suo Jia shook his head as their group walked along the muddy and filthy road, straight to the city lord’s mansion. What really went beyond Suo Jia’s expectations was that such a run-down city would have such a mansion!

Dawn City was a medium-sized city that could easily hold 200,000 people. The area of it was extremely large. The city lord’s mansion was built on top of a hill, far away from the city walls.

The most shocking part was that there was another set of walls that 4-5 meters tall around the mansion. They were entirely made of limestone, and incomparably sturdy. These walls even had soldiers making rounds on them!

The areas around the hills had been dug up to form a deep moat. One could only enter the city lord’s mansion through a sole suspension bridge. If they wanted to cross through the river, they’d definitely be shot into porcupines by the soldiers on the wall!

Standing outside the mansion, Suo Jia sighed in admiration at the luxurious building. Even Holy Light’s city lord’s mansion wasn’t as extravagant. When one compared the dirty, run-down city outside, then looked back at the lavish mansion, it was really the difference between two different layers of heaven!

One of the soldiers shouted out from the top of the surrounding walls, “Oi! What are you guys doing? Hurry up and leave!”

Suo Jia smiled and shouted in reply, “I’m Viscount Suo Jia, and I have come to receive Dawn City. Immediately notify your city lord to come out and meet me!”

The soldier on the wall froze for a while, before quickly pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket and inspecting it closely. He then sized up Suo Jia and knit his brows, “Then wait here. I’ll go call for the city lord to come out!”

The soldier quickly got off the wall. A while later, he returned with a fatty accompanying him, who walked up onto the wall with an ashen face.

The fatty had a cold look on his face as he said in a low voice, “Welcome to Dawn City, Viscount Suo Jia. The transfer of the city has already been completed. Everything is in the mansion behind you, so all you have to do is to directly take them. I’m feeling a bit unwell, so I won’t escort you out afterwards.” The fatty turned around to leave, his figure quickly disappearing somewhere on the walls.

“Eh!” Dumbstruck, Suo Jia stared at the empty walls, not quite understanding what had just happened. According to the picture the Emperor had given him, wasn’t this the city lord’s mansion? How come he, who was now the owner of this territory, couldn’t enter?

Suo Jia turned around and looked over at the building behind him instead. From his interpretation of the fatty’s words, the city lord’s mansion should be right behind him. But…how come he hadn’t noticed that place?

When Suo Jia saw it, he turned back around. It would’ve been better if he hadn’t seen it at all; after catching a glance, Suo Jia couldn’t help but feel anger rush to his head. This was too brazen….it was basically bullying to an extreme extent!

Behind Suo Jia was a short, broken-down, wooden shack. It was already inclined down towards the left at a 60 degree angle, and it looked as if it was going to collapse any moment. The door’s lintel had three unclear words written on it with something like charcoal: City Lord’s Mansion!

Seeing the three words that had clearly been written quite recently, Suo Jia couldn’t help but chuckle darkly. He knew that the opposite party was definitely bullying him. Since he still looked like a child, the other party wasn’t afraid of him being able to overturn seas and rivers. However…was Suo Jia really that easy to bully? Man…even the old man Emperor wouldn’t dare to owe him anything, let alone others.

Suo Jia wordlessly pushed open the wooden shack with an overcast expression, entering the so-called “City Lord’s Mansion”. Suo Jia knew that the opposite party wanted to seize the original mansion by force. After all…although the map noted the mansion, it was simply indicated with a circle. Thus, one could say that the the city lord’s mansion was the luxurious building opposite him, or the run-down, wooden shack. Both were within the drawn area.

When he pushed open the door to that wooden shack, he saw a completely empty little room. The room was dark and damp, and the floor was actually still wet. With one step, one could sink down five centimeters Moreover… the mud on the floor exuded an extremely foul odor that would make anyone vomit.

Suo Jia swallowed his discomfort with great difficulty, and arrived in front of the wooden shack’s only piece of furniture: a tattered wooden table. He picked up the pile of documents there and closely examined them.

Dawn City had a total of 20,000 buildings, two army camps, and no permanent residents. The entire city was really just a fort; those that lived here were all soldiers. Among them were 100,000 slave soldiers and 10,000 from the regular army. Although the military force wasn’t that large, it was more than enough to protect Dawn City. After all…the city walls near the outside of the valley were only 100 meters long. 10,000+100,000 soldiers was more than enough. If the strategic value of this place wasn’t so high, even 1000 elite troops would’ve been enough.

After carefully examining the documents on the table, Suo Jia was shocked to discover that on the balance, only 213 gold and 100 bags of army provisions remained. Aside from the weapons the 10,000 Empire’s soldiers had, there were only 17 tattered swords. The 100,000 slave soldiers only had these 17 broken weapons! They didn’t even have armor.

“Bang!” In anger, Suo Jia kicked the table in front of him into pieces. This was beyond bullying. The other party had really looked down at Suo Jia as dough he could knead whenever he wanted. Even bullying someone wouldn’t use this kind of method, right? He was the owner of this place after all!

Seeing Suo Jia’s expression, as well as the surrounding environment, the Angelic Phoenixes also realized the situation. After all, it was something that even idiots could figure out, so how could the intelligent Angelic Phoenixes not understand?

During the past year, they had seen countless scenes. They had run unhindered across the land of the Gold Triangle, swept by the wind, and forced even the Great Tri-Alliance to retreat. Their power and influence were matchless for a while. Now that they had suddenly encountered such belittling and humiliation, they immediately burst with anger.

The Angelic Phoenixes were fire wind warriors. Due to their attributes, their angers were both short and explosive, and were thus easily ignited. Now that they had clearly been bullied and shamed, their eyes all grew red with rage, and were about to immediately charge over and wring their opponent’s heads.

However, everyone knew that Suo Jia was the boss here. No matter how bitter they were, they had to follow Suo Jia’s intentions. Instantly, 38 girls looked at Suo Jia and awaited his instructions.

All the girls watched as Suo Jia strode out of the wooden shack with an overcast expression. They all followed out behind him, wondering what exactly Suo Jia would do next!

Seeing that everyone had left the wooden shack, Suo Jia abruptly turned around and double-kicked the wooden pillars on either side of the door lintel. Immediately…pieces of wood flew through the air, and the entire wooden shack gave a faint, painful groan before collapsing with a bang.

With a sinister smile, Suo Jia fiercely waved his hand and shouted angrily, “Goddamn, they dared to pick on me just because I’m young. Let’s go…we’ll get back at them!” Suo Jia took large strides towards the luxurious mansion opposite them. At the same time, the 36 Angelic Phoenixes, as well as Aimi and Aila, powerfully dashed behind him with excited expressions.

“Oi!” Suo Jia stood in front of the walls and indignantly yelled, “Summon your city lord out immediately. I need to speak with him.”

The soldier swept a scornful gaze across Suo Jia and said in a voice of disdain, “Sorry, Viscount Suo Jia. Our Master has already said that he’s not the city lord anymore, so he is no longer responsible for any matters here. In addition, he is feeling unwell. Thus, he won’t come out to meet you anymore.”

Suo Jia tightly gritted his teeth together. Although the soldier’s words had been pretty respectful, that cold and mocking tone was clearly ridiculing Suo Jia. The soldier wasn’t paying any mind to Viscount Suo Jia at all.

Facing such humiliation, Suo Jia took a deep breath and shouted, “I am the master here. This is my territory. As long as I am within my own land, every single person must listen to me. I don’t care how well your previous master is; if he doesn’t come out to meet me within 5 minutes, then don’t blame me for acting!” Suo Jia crossed his arms across his chest, looking as if he were waiting for something interesting to happen.