Chapter 570: Chapter 290: Shadow Factory

A young man climbed a statue in the square to a height, holding a flag and waving it, with a Magic Amplifier around his neck, he shouted loudly, “Beautiful ladies, I am your beloved Ryder, welcome to gather for another training race with our ace speedsters!”

This person wasn’t very popular; the reaction was lackluster.

Undeterred by the awkwardness, he continued, “Alright, in front of me are these twelve airships, every speedster you are familiar with, they are all extraordinary. You might as well guess, who will win today?”

A wave of banshee screeches erupted around, ordinary people grinned and covered their ears, retreating.

Zoe covered her ears, “Are these people crazy?”

“Pretty much,” Dorothy elegantly covered her ears, sighed, “Oh, there are people like this everywhere, why are they so excited?”

Li Ang frowned slightly; his first instinct was that the youth hosting the training race was the same person as the one in the port earlier, but upon closer look, it was just because they were both wearing the Soul Peak Cloak and flaunting a flamboyant demeanor.

Farina gave him a glance; he nodded, indicating he understood. Both realized that the Soul Apex was deeply intertwined with matters here.

“And, you can also place bets on who will be the ultimate victor of the official race; the wager is open, located—”

Ryder announced several places in succession, which Li Ang identified as shop fronts from some Great Shipyards.

“And now, for the tourists who have just arrived on the island, allow me to introduce the speedsters and their airships.

“The first ship, our Sky Flame ace Gel’s ride, The Flame of Skybreak! Everyone take a look; it’s crafted with the exclusive smelting technology from the Sky Flame Shipyard…”

As the host spoke a few sentences, Li Ang quickly discerned that the speedsters were not important. Those interested in them were audiences led by the nose, needing an idol from somewhere. The focus was on the airships beneath them.

These airships came from various significant shipyards, clearly aiming to promote themselves through this.

Listening to Ryder, excluding Zoe who harbored interest, others around Li Ang were largely disinterested.

However, Andasu was different; she listened intently.

“The first ship is the most decent, but there are still many problems; if I were given these materials, I could make it better.”

White Wolf asserted, “Even so, it’s still not up to the level of my Howling Wolf.”

Speaking of the Howling Wolf, it was also biding time in Li Ang’s Dimensional Rift.

When the affair at the Flashing Field concluded, it was Elaphia’s Weapon God that transported Li Ang and Andasu. Due to Elaphia’s request, the Howling Wolf was also brought aboard.

Initially, Li Ang planned to have Elaphia store the Howling Wolf and Dorothy’s small boat at the Order Flame Corps’ base for later, but he had mastered the Rift-creating method upon leaving the Holy City, thus packing the Howling Wolf on the ship.

Since then, he felt that Andasu occasionally wished for him to take it out, but was restrained by some sort of… obedience, not wanting to ask him for it.

Of course, another reason was she spent more time researching Cormac’s golems and Imperial Armor, although she held deep affection for the Howling Wolf; new things often drew more attention.

For every racing airship the host introduced, Andasu criticized each one.

“That one is total trash; do they think making such a structure means it defies resistance? As proven, this slender type’s stability is atrocious; it’s complete industrial waste.

“This one is all about appearance; a third of the engine power is wasted.

“And this one—”

Li Ang and the other young girls longed to leave, but Andasu showed no sign of wanting to move.

This prompted Li Ang to consider assembling a set of communication equipment, allowing them to separate without the fear of losing one another.

“…Each of the racing airships here was specially crafted by our proud Great Shipyards in the City of the Ship’s Rudder for our Double Eagles’ Helm festival, rejecting numerous commercial orders for it. Okay, with the last airship introduced, let the training race begin today!”

As soon as host Ryder finished, the surrounding crowd became even more excited. Though his attention was mainly on “ladies,” quite a number of others not in his focus also joined in the commotion.

It was at this moment Li Ang learned the festival’s name here; Double Eagles—what could that signify?

But he understood that this had clearly been deliberately publicized for a while, presumably since his time in the Holy City. Anything that has been through some form of promotion typically has an audience that rarely mentions its full name, yet with an air of profound familiarity and pride.

“Wow, I can’t take this anymore.” Zoe rushed behind Li Ang, who was already standing at the back, relying on stepping on invisible air masses to see the whole scene.

Memei and Dorothy followed Zoe, the former murmuring about “such a decadently falling atmosphere, without knowing where the enemy lurks,” the latter wearing an expression of disgust.

They bumped into Meluna as they came over.

Dorothy immediately froze—not because there was a conflict between them, but because she already saw Meluna’s hand on the sword hilt.

“W-what are you going to do?”

Li Ang spoke without looking back, “These people cannot be killed.”

“Oh.” Meluna obediently loosened her grip, switching to covering her ears.

“What do you mean?”

Dorothy was utterly shocked, “Was she really going to cut all these people down if you didn’t stop her?”

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