Chapter 296
Is Chapter 296 a bit too far off?
Shops lined both sides of the street, with all sorts of signs, but their business scope was highly uniform—almost all of them were closely related to Soul Masters and adventures in the Star Dou Great Forest.
The weapons shop was filled with the constant clanging of metal being hammered.
The shop windows and weapon racks by the door displayed gleaming swords, spears, bows, crossbows, and arrows.
A Soul Master was carefully selecting a longsword imbued with the aura of frost, haggling with the shopkeeper.
The armor shop offers a dazzling array of items, from heavy plate armor and lightweight chainmail to chest guards, arm guards, and leg guards inlaid with spirit beast scales or tough leather.
There are also backpacks made of soul beast hides that are sold in a special way. They are covered with a dozen or even dozens of pockets of different sizes. The design is ingenious and makes it convenient for soul masters to carry various medicines, tools, dry food and even soul beast materials in a classified manner.
Ning Rongrong looked curiously at a dark green leather armor hanging in a conspicuous place, its fine scales gleaming faintly in the sunlight.
In the pharmacy, the strong smell of herbs mingled with the pungent smell of chemicals.
The shop window was filled with crystal bottles or ceramic jars of various colors, with labels clearly stating: "Highly Effective Antidote", "Powerful Soul Power Restoration Potion", "Secondary Hemostatic and Muscle-Regenerating Ointment", "Insect Repellent Powder", "Olive Interference Spray", and so on.
Several Soul Masters were anxiously inquiring about the price of a rare antidote at the counter.
The material purchasing point has a relatively simple storefront, but there's a long queue at the entrance.
The Soul Masters carried bulging bundles on their backs or dragged simple trailers piled with various items that shimmered with the light of Soul Power.
Sharp fangs, a hard horn, colorful feathers, strangely textured minerals, and roots or herbs still covered in fresh soil.
The experienced workers at the purchasing point had a keen eye and quickly inspected and appraised the items, while the sounds of bargaining rose and fell.
There were numerous inns and taverns, each with an increasingly impressive signboard—"Forest Weasel," "Bear Claw," and "Hall of the Soul Hunter."
These places are the busiest, with the tempting aroma of roasted meat and the sour smell of cheap beer wafting from the entrance, and the place is bustling with noise inside.
Exhausted Soul Masters rest here, exchange information, and boast about their adventures. Notices recruiting temporary team members are also posted on the bulletin board.
Even clothing stores and general stores sell special clothing with many pockets, durable and dirt-resistant, suitable for outdoor activities, as well as outdoor survival necessities such as ropes, grappling hooks, flints, water bladders, and simple tents.
The town is like a sophisticated organ built around the giant heart of the Starry Sky Forest. Every shop and every person is working tirelessly to provide services for those who enter the forest to hunt for resources or to serve the soul hunters.
The air was thick with a primal, naked sense of the law of the jungle: "power equals wealth."
Lin Xia's deep gaze swept over the noisy and unique scene. He did not stop walking, but let out a barely audible sigh, which carried a hint of worldly wisdom.
"Those who live near mountains live off the mountains, and those who live near water live off the water."
This Starry Sky Forest is the mountain and water that nourishes this town.
A complete and efficient survival chain naturally emerged around it.
There are probably many towns like this around the forest.
His voice was calm, yet it clearly reached Ning Rongrong's ears.
Ning Rongrong was curiously looking at the shops selling unusual adventure costumes on both sides of the street. Upon hearing this, her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, and a clear look of confusion flashed in her glass-like eyes.
She quickened her pace, approached Lin Xia, and looked up at her face, which had lost some of its childishness and gained more maturity, asking earnestly with a thirst for knowledge:
“Brother Lin Xia, I understand what you mean by ‘living off the land.’ But…” She pointed to the depths of the town, then to the vast outline of the Starry Sky Forest faintly visible on the distant horizon.
"This place is at least a hundred kilometers away from the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, right? Why build the supply point so far away? Shouldn't it be as close to the forest as possible? Wouldn't that make it easier for Soul Masters to come and go, and for supplies to be delivered more promptly?"
Her question was direct, carrying the ingrained mindset of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's little princess—the pursuit of maximizing efficiency and convenience.
In her view, building the trading center at the entrance to the forest seemed to be the most "economical" choice.
Lin Xia paused slightly and turned her head to look at Ning Rongrong.
The earnest confusion in her eyes was no longer the self-righteous willfulness of the past, but a sign that she had truly begun to think about real-world problems. This caused a faint hint of approval to flash deep in his eyes.
He didn't answer immediately, but instead turned his gaze back to the Soul Masters hurrying along the street, who looked bloody and exhausted, and to the dazzling array of highly targeted goods in the shops.
"Far?"
Lin Xia's lips curled into a meaningful smile, her voice remaining calm yet carrying a guiding tone.
“Rongrong, you only see the ‘far’ distance, but you’ve overlooked the ‘near’ safety. Think about it carefully, what would be the consequences of placing such a complex trading center with huge wealth flows directly on the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest?”
Ning Rongrong was slightly taken aback and followed Lin Xia's gaze. She saw several mercenaries arguing loudly about the ownership of some kind of soul beast material, and the atmosphere was somewhat tense.
I saw the desire for wealth in the eyes of the Soul Masters queuing outside the acquisition point.
Seeing the adventurers in the tavern, their faces flushed from drinking, banging on the table and shouting... several thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant.
Conflict, looting, chaos!
"You mean...safety?"
Ning Rongrong asked tentatively.
"Because the edge of the forest is too dangerous, not only because of powerful spirit beasts, but also... people?"
"good."
Lin Xia nodded slightly and began to analyze in detail the underlying logic of the town's existence:
"The first line of defense: the safety buffer zone."
"A hundred kilometers is not a long distance for a powerful Soul Master, but for the Soul Beasts in the forest, especially those ten-thousand-year-old Soul Beasts with a strong sense of territory and terrifying strength, it is a relatively safe distance. They rarely leave the core area of the forest to attack human settlements."
"Similarly, this distance can also largely isolate the miasma, poisonous fog, and the influence of certain mental interference-type soul beasts that permeate the forest, providing a relatively stable environmental foundation for this town that gathers a large number of non-combatants."
"Imagine if the town is right on the edge of a forest, a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast suddenly goes berserk and charges out, or a battle between soul beasts with a wide impact could instantly raze the entire town to the ground. No one can afford to take that kind of risk."
"Second, the establishment and maintenance of order."
Lin Xia's gaze swept over a group of patrolling guards in uniform at the street corner, their auras formidable.
"The fact that Xingluo Town can exist and prosper in the chaotic world of Soul Masters must mean that there is a powerful force backing it and a force maintaining order. Maintaining order requires power, and power needs space to deploy, react, and buffer. The distance of 100 kilometers gives this 'order' time and space to react."
"The edge of the forest is a chaotic zone of survival of the fittest, but here, at least superficially, basic trading rules and a safety baseline must be maintained. Imagine, if killing and robbery occurred at the trading point itself at any time, who would dare to trade here? With order collapsing, this supply point would lose its very foundation." (End of Chapter)