Walking in Vicola, a city rebuilt from the ruins, on the wide streets leading to the dilapidated city walls, Qiyana couldn't help but wrinkle her nose in disgust: "What a bad smell."
It has been a week since Ji Xing left Ixtal. The two of them have been traveling in the yellow sand. This is the first time they have returned to the crowd.
Compared to the gorgeously decorated Ixocan, Vicola looks like a garbage dump, although there are indeed scenery here that Qiyana has never seen.
Nothing like the generally educated elements of Isuoken. People here gather in hundreds in a market, sweating profusely, laughing loudly and bargaining at a very fast speed, which looks like a quarrel.
warm.
The vendors kept selling and boasting, as if the products on the stalls were unparalleled in the world, but Qiyana, who was of noble birth, could see at a glance that they were just crudely made items imitating the equipment of the nobles of the Shurima Empire.
Some vendors even tried to pull her and Ji Xing's clothes and force them to the stall. Qiyana had disgust on her face and pushed them far away with a wind ring.
She did not use Yuanchu's axioms for this elemental magic, but relied on 'instinct'. This was what she had gained from following Ji Xing for seven days. Casting spells no longer required calculations based on Yuanchu's axioms.
In layman's terms, she used to have to do vertical expressions for two-digit multiplication, but now she can also get the answer directly for three-digit multiplication. This improvement made her feel that the shame of agreeing to be a 'maid' was gone.
The Queen of Elements is flexible and flexible, and... there is no shame in pursuing knowledge.
Of course, the main reason was that she heard the news that Azir wanted to rebuild the Shurima Empire, and Ji Xing did not regard her as a real servant.
"Isn't there any law here to restrict these vendors? If I were to drag customers by force, I would have been arrested!" Qiyana couldn't help but complain after passing through this smelly commercial street.
: "If they collide with me, I can even sentence them to death!"
"Maybe there are certain rules." Ji Xing shook his head: "But didn't you hear just now? Some people say that if they don't make money, their families will starve to death. What meaning do the rules have to them?"
Qiyana was startled: "Even an idiot can tell that it's just an excuse to sell products, right?"
Ji Xing looked at her: "What if I told you that at least half of it is true?"
"……ah?"
"The future Queen of Elements should have only seen how the so-called 'lower class people' live in books, right?" Ji Xing smiled and said: "People who really work hard are 100 times more miserable than that. Isu Okun's isolation
For the common people of Ixtar, at least from a certain perspective, it is a good thing."
Qiyana was silent for a while, then looked back at the market that was gradually getting away. This time, what she saw was no longer noisy and chaotic, but some people struggling hard and hoping to survive.
"...Since you can see it, why don't you just buy something? You must have money that you can't spend all your money, right?" she asked in a low voice.
"What does that have to do with me?" Ji Xing shook his head: "And believe it or not... It only takes 10 gold coins, and at least 20 corpses will be left in that market. If there are more, large-scale riots, say
There may be rivers of blood."
Qiyana curled her lips: "That's right, that has nothing to do with me."
But she couldn't help but ask herself, if I become the queen in the future, how can I make these guys live a prosperous life?
At least like the people of Ishoken.
It's not that she has a kind heart, but since she heard the news of Azir's resurrection, she has been holding back the urge to 'compare'. The dynasty she will rule in the future must at least catch up with the legendary Shurima Empire at its peak.
Period!
The future queen feels the pressure, and the ruler doesn't seem so relaxed?
She thought about it and became more and more distressed. She realized it and looked at Ji Xing who was smiling at her with some annoyance. After getting along for a long time, she always felt that there was something bad about Ji Xing that she couldn't explain, always teasing him like an adult.
You tease yourself like a 20-year-old child, but the key is that you are always fooled and fall into some verbal and thinking traps.
Not only magic, but also all aspects of thinking, experience, etc. were crushed, and the arrogance of the Queen of Elements was almost worn away.
"Let's go quickly. Didn't you use some divination magic to confirm that Azir's descendants are in this city? Where is the specific location? You can't figure it out, right?" She asked angrily.
Ji Xing smiled and said, "We're almost there, we've been on the right path."
Qiyana pursed her lips.
…
Azir was resurrected because Cassiopeia and Sivir unsealed the emperor's tomb, more than three months ago.
The royal capital that had been lost for three thousand years has reappeared, and countless people have seen it. The news has actually spread throughout the Shurima continent except for Ixtal.
Even in the distant continent of Valoran, Ionia and other places, there are rumors of the Shurima Emperor's resurrection in taverns on the streets.
After hearing the news, even without confirmation, Taliyah, who was in Ionia, immediately rushed back to Shurima.
She was a girl from the Shurima nomads. She awakened to magic when she was very young. Because the power of magic was very strong and she did not know how to control it, she caused some damage to her family members and had to stay away from her hometown.
She wandered in the continent of Valoran, was hired and deceived by Noxus, and narrowly survived in Ionia. Finally, she found a master who could teach her to control power - the wind swordsman Yasuo.
In the year they spent together, she had improved a lot, both physically and magically, but when she bumped head-on into the Ascended Nasus, she still suffered a severe fall.
"He's really tall. He doesn't seem to be standing upright yet. He's at least...two meters?"
While rushing towards the temporary shelter, Taliyah gently rubbed her butt and murmured, curious about the giant whose face she couldn't see clearly just now.
But what made her even more anxious at this time was the goal of finding her family.
Nomads are always chasing water sources and will often change their living locations. At this moment, most of the rivers in Shurima are flowing backwards towards the capital of Shurima under the power of Azirna, building the legendary Oasis of Dawn.
She knows that her parents must also move in that direction.
Not far from here, the abandoned city of Vicora has prospered again because of this.
But she was held back.
Soon, she returned to the abandoned house on the east edge of Weikaola. When she saw the still unconscious woman lying under the shade of the tree, she quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
She picked up the woman in the desert. At that time, she was covered in wounds and dying and buried in the sand dunes. Of course, the situation is not very good now.
The wound she had sutured had gradually scabbed over, but Taliyah could not forget the bloody look. Ordinary people would have died long ago from such an injury. This woman must be a warrior.
She knelt down next to the woman, helped her take off her armor, and cleaned her body as much as possible. The intricate scars on her body that looked like a map made Taliyah's hands tremble, and she was even more sure.
.
After cleaning, she put a new bandage on the woman. She heard several painful moans coming from the woman's mouth, and she murmured in her sleep: "Azir...Emperor..."
Taliyah had often heard her murmurs about the emperor and death during this period, although she still didn't understand what happened.
After finishing everything she could do, Taliyah sat in a daze and missed her hometown for a while, then she lifted the black hair from the woman's forehead as if out of boredom.
Unlike her body, which is covered with scars, the woman's face is very beautiful, and the Shurima's typical light brown complexion carries a hard edge.
"May Weaver Mother bless you." She murmured.
At this moment, she suddenly heard the sound of hard boots stepping on the yellow sand not far behind her. She quickly turned around and saw a young man with a gentle and handsome face who was definitely not a Shuriman, and a man with eyes
A girl like an eagle.
The sound of stepping on the sand came from the feet of the girl wearing high boots. Taliyah was stunned for a moment and said quickly: "Hello, this abandoned house is already occupied. If you need a place to stay, there should be one next door.
No one."
"Who would rush to live in a place like this?" Qiyana expressed disdain for Taliyah's caution.
Ji Xing said kindly: "We are looking for someone."
"Looking for someone?" Taliyah was briefly confused, then realized that since she didn't know them, they could only come here to find one person.
She turned half of her body to block the unconscious woman, and asked: "Are you... her friends? Or her enemies?"
"It doesn't count." Ji Xing said: "The explanation may be a bit complicated, and it seems inconvenient to look at her condition... Well, to put it simply, I heard that she is a descendant of the Eagle King, and Azir died because of her blood.
Resurrection, I want to ask her for some blood to do research and find out the secret of the Ascended One."
"...Huh?" Taliya was stunned.
Descendant of the Eagle King? Emperor Azir was resurrected because of her? This woman I rescued actually has such a powerful background?!
"No, doesn't it mean that... all the bloodlines of the Shurima royal family died with the ascension disaster that year?" She couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know that either."
Ji Xing smiled and said: "But Azir, as an emperor who has been in power for decades, has dozens of wives, plus some maids and slaves who have not been made public... By chance, he left a trace of his bloodline.
Normal things.”
He walked aside, bent down and picked up a unique cross blade, weighed it gently, and soon discovered something unusual.
This 'wheel mother's wheel' is inherited from the weapon Charikal, the founding queen of Shurima, Setaka. It is not a magic weapon, but it is filled with an extremely powerful force, making it a weapon containing terrifying energy.
Artifact!
The power of ascension?
The essence of this power even exceeds magic power. The difference should be similar to that of celestial chakra and ordinary chakra. It is blended with other things.
Qiyana, whose inheritance has never been cut off, hesitated and said: "Is this... Chalikar?"
"Charikal?!" Taliyah, who had not yet recovered, was even more surprised. Apparently as a Shurima, she had also heard of this legendary weapon.
She looked at Ji Xing and Qiyana, but she still couldn't tell whether they had malicious intentions, and said: "You also said... Her current condition is not convenient, can you wait until she wakes up and come back?"
"She's already awake." Ji Xing said.
"Why?"
Taliyah heard movement behind her.
As expected, Sivir opened his blue eyes and struggled to sit up. It seemed that the injury on his body was involved. There was a trace of pain on his beautiful face, but he still showed no weakness and even made a move to pounce at any time.
The way of killing the enemy.
"Give me back my knife!" She stared at Ji Xing and said: "Or are you going to use my weapon to cut open my body and take my blood for research? You can try to see if I can still do it now.
Bite out the throat of a pretty boy!"
Qiyana couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth. Sivir's threat sounded really funny to her, pretty boy? Hahaha... That's great, the Queen likes this title!
Ji Xing also smiled and said, "Am I white?"
He let go of the cross blade that was beginning to struggle, allowing it to be summoned by Sivir's bloodline and return to Sivir's hand.
Holding the weapon, Sivir seemed to have gained some confidence. She wanted to stand up, but she couldn't help but cough a few times and sat back down as soon as she made a move.
"Be careful of the wound." Taliyah hurriedly supported Sivir and said, "Thanks to Mother Weaver, you finally woke up, but you still need to rest."
She looked at Ji Xing and Qiyana again, her boyishly handsome face became solemn, obviously saying that she would protect Sivir.
Sivir glanced at her.
There are too many people in this desert who want to take her life, because she is a mercenary who only cares about money and has offended too many people over the years.
Originally, she had enough power to run rampant in this desert, but most of her close followers died under Cassiopeia's plot. Other large forces heard that she had the blood of the Shurima royal family. Azir because of her
After his resurrection, he dreamed of reviving Shurima and becoming a noble.
Her injury was caused by this. She didn't want to go back to the capital to see the crazy emperor, and she wasn't interested in the royal family at all.
Now she is alone, and the girl who saved her could not gain her trust quickly, but Taliyah's behavior when she pretended to be fainted made her relax a bit.
"Those sons of bitches, who usually eat my food, are more ruthless than anyone else." She said: "It seems that my threat is indeed weak now. If you two dare to cross the desert to come here, you will always
I should have some confidence. Although I still don’t know where I am.
Well, if you want to fight, you won't say much just now. I will assume that you have no ill intentions. In this case, do you want my blood? Buy it with money, one gold coin per drop."
She sold the money for a sky-high price and waited for Ji Xing's reaction, but she saw Ji Xing casually reached into his pocket, took out a gold ticket, and activated his money ability.
"Then buy ten thousand drops first."
"……ha?"
Sivir took it with dumbfounded eyes, and Taliyah also looked over with wide eyes. The largest bill ever invented in Piltover's treasury, 10,000 gold coins, came into their eyes.
They have never seen it before.
Taliyah had never seen so much money.
There are some that Sivir has dealt with, but the desert earns desert flowers, and the cents are not saved, and he has never seen such a large amount of gold tickets!
She sipped it hard to confirm its authenticity, and for a moment she felt that the injury was less severe.
"It's true..."
She looked at Ji Xing again, her eyes radiating greedy light, and suddenly she was startled: "Wait, ten thousand gold coins... buy ten thousand drops?! Are you planning to put me in a cage like a pig and take me with you?