The City of Marble

There were towers and massive structures without end. It was a sea of white, a world of it. Cain saw no end.

"My god....."

Everything was made of marble, moving platforms floating through the vast sky never rising higher than the clouds pierced by infinite towers reaching into the heavens.

A false sun shone its light. It was the first time Cain had ever seen one, hidden behind the clouds, its rays cascaded down and dyed the land in an eternal holy radiance. 

Not to mention the towers, massive buildings stretching the span of cities littered the world like grass. The architecture was foreign with pointed and circular roofs. They all held semblances to the churches Cain had in Netherane and the Union Headquarters, a design popularized from ancient records.

"Each of these buildings are hundreds of times bigger than the Union Headquarters. This is no doubt a holy land...."

It was a vast land of white, with small amounts of other colors giving a contrast. The biggest player in the grandeur was the sun, anyone would agree.

Cain's breath was stolen. "Amazing..."

Across the vast city, other doors opened, revealing different lights and giving away their locations.

Beep!

Cain's head twitched to where the sound came. His eyes narrowed on one tower, unlike the rest. Dyed in a multitude of colors. This tower stood out, it was much smaller than the rest too, not reaching past the clouds.

From the tower, a husky voice reverberated throughout the world.

"Explore, have gains, kill each other. There are no rules. This is the gift you're ancestors gave you, a gift to keep cultivation strong. Now grow and spread your wings."

Holes opened in the tower, releasing a colorful mist. A haze was created that blocked the tower off from the rest.

"So, we just explore?" Cain looked around, the nearest building was in front of him.

Made from low-quality white marble, the building was akin to a shack, having fewer details and even a simplistic structure no different from an ugly mansion. It was in no way grand like the countless buildings in the distance.

"This must be the poorer area of the city. Starting small it seems."

All the explorers were sent to hovering rooms lingering on the edge of the Ancient City. Behind them was a wall of crystalline marble, reflecting the sun's light. To progress, they would have to go forward, through the city towards its center which is primarily concentrated to the left of where Cain was.

"From the look of it, I got one of the better locations. I'm on the edge of the slums, near what would be the middle class. The slums are mostly to my right."

Cain looked over and saw an amalgamation of platforms of varying sizes to his right. Anywhere in the city, if someone were to look down they wouldn't be able to see the ground, but the slums were different.

It was possible to slip and fall, and they may not see the ground but they will meet it in a few minutes.

The City of Marble was huge, the lower levels were hundreds of times larger than the upper levels where Cain was now. The lower levels were the largest area unless you counted the infinite towers, they stretched on forever, and no cultivator ever reached the top of one.

Out of all the sections of the city, the slums were the worst. Only the weakest cultivators lived there and gathered in one direction instead of around the city.

Looking at the city from above, the slums were like a pimple growing at the top of the city, a gathering of rotten pus.

It was a place of layers placed on top of each other with no real loot to speak of. In the past opening of the Ancient City, it was an area of death, cultivators would cull the weak before heading to the city, and this made it hard for the sects to sprout their seeds.

In front of such a treasure, even lone cultivators became demonic, no one gave the sects face and killed their disciples, anything to increase their potential benefits.

'I wonder if Fang Yuan came here....' Cain smiled, jumping off his platform and teleporting out of the slums, he was that close to the next section.

"Well, seeing all those other lights deep in the slums, I guess I get some free time to loot. This should only be the poorer areas but there should at least be information I can use."

Cain hopped to a moving platform with a small block structure, it was an old store.

"Daily Needs - We have what you need for cultivation!" Reading the sign, Cain wasn't impressed.

Forcing the doors open, Cain entered a marble interior with red wallpaper walls and a wooden ceiling. Halfway in, the marble turned to a carpet floor.

'Let's see what we got.'

The storefront was empty, past excursions left this place desolate. But what remained were writing and papers, some on the floor, others still on desks and counters.

"These are mostly financial reports in Spiritual Stones. But here's a note, but it just says to lock up the store for the night. A bust."

Failure was expected, only the titanic interior regions could still be brimming with loot. Even the middle-class area will have scraps. It's to be expected. The opening of the City of Marble was throughout the Spirit Lands, entire generations entered, and such an event has happened many times before.

Leaving the platform, Cain entered some of the lower-class buildings below. He came up with nothing. There were some trinkets like Artifacts or Spiritual Stones, but they had no use for him.

"Hah, looks like I have to continue deeper if I want anything good. Luckily I'm ahead of the game."

As he opened his mouth, a figure tore through the sky behind him, rushing straight for Cain.

"Imperial Demon!" The Inquisitor roared!

Cain's eyes widened, "What the hell, how did you find me so fast?!"

One of an Inquisitor's main tools was a tracking powder that was hard to sense. Inquisitors trained relentlessly to follow this powder successfully and to hide the powder within their attacks. Once an enemy escapes, it is not hard to track them.

"Become my prisoner!" White dust gathered around the Inquisitor's bone knuckles as a white ray propelled through the air upon release, grazing Cain's side.

"Tch!" Cain clutched his waist as it healed at an ample pace.

"To think you Inquisitors are such pests!" Bloodletter appeared in his hand as red sword energy attacked the wielder of the bone knuckles.

"We've done this before criminal, surrender and the Imperium will reduce your sentence!" The inquisitor sent out another attack.

'What did I ever do to offend the Imperium!' Dodging, Cain scrunched his face as his brain processed his thoughts.

There was nothing, he could come up with nothing when thinking of a reason this Inquisitor was trying to arrest him.

The reason the Imperium had to begin with was related to Cain escaping the destruction of one of their farms. The Inquisitor was only to get answers but because he had to put in so much time tracking his target and his hated Cultivators, he wanted to beat Cain to a pulp before getting the answers he was sent to find.

Red and white clashed. Cain started to use other attacks while the inquisitor used more trinkets. Their fight caused shockwaves, however with their surroundings being of the legendary Marble City, their fight didn't affect their surroundings at all, like flies.