The journey after this went similarly smoothly.
Some bandits here, some weak monsters there. Truly, nothing of note. One thing did change along the way, though.
The roads changed from simple stone-paved paths to asphalt. And the closer they got to Xilia, the more the people seemed to change in style as well. From the rather simple, older style of clothing that was common around Grimm to shirts, jeans, and suits.
Noticing the switch-up, Cely began to adjust her own clothing as well. From her previous clothes, modeled after the ones the Great Hero Maria wore, her clothes transformed into ones from her Earth.
A simple, clean lab coat accented with a light blue shirt beneath and some tight sweatpants. The front of the coat was open, and her hands rested in the pant pockets. Her hair was bound into a ponytail, and her entire demeanour had transformed.
The heroic fierceness that came with the clothes a hero would wear became aloof and authoritative.
The moment Cely looked at her daughter, though, that entire air about her broke, as her face bloomed into a smile. Aria was, again, chomping down on some new bird legs. These, though, were from a Tier 2 monster bird.
She didn't even notice that her mother had changed her appearance. Nor would she have really cared much.
She just wanted to enjoy her food.
Soon, the outline of Xilia emerged on the horizon. And comparing it with Grimm, it honestly gave Cely some whiplash.
It was a modern city, not unlike places like New York back on Earth. The only difference was the flitting of figures in the upper regions of the city.
Yes, this city had flying cars.
Cely had seen some of them overhead on her way here as well. They weren't allowed in Grimm, as the city banned flying and had formations to prevent it.
Xilia, though, was different. Flying was completely allowed, and cultivators and mortals alike could enjoy the privilege inside the city. A major difference from Earth's modern cities as well was the ability to enter and exit on higher floors, since any person could get the means to fly within the city.
Hoverboards, flying cars, and cultivators riding flying swords, books, or just straight up levitating. It was... unique, to say the least.
But this is just what high-level cultivation cities tended to be. Older school cities like Grimm were actually, just like their relative strength, very abnormal.
With age comes wisdom, as long as the one aging does not reject it. And Immortals and Gods will just kind of acquire knowledge on the side along their lives. This is the same reason that, although Gods tend to specialize in one law, they acquire a lot more over their lives just by mere proxy.
With so many gods living for countless billions of years, technology comes naturally. The reason Grimm is still so old-school, then, is because they do it out of necessity. First off, if they changed the buildings, they would have to remake the original formation made up of the entire city.
Second is price. Every building in Grimm is part of the formation and, therefore, needs a minimum requirement of quality to be usable in it.
For skyscrapers like this, the material cost would skyrocket immensely, due to the sheer size of Grimm.
It just wasn't worth it.
For the first time in this journey, though, Aria slowly stopped stuffing her mouth and started looking at the monolithic buildings that came into view.
"So cool!"
She exclaimed as she watched the figures zipping all throughout the sky. Unlike Grimm, there was no identity check here. Though Cely could tell, she was being watched. Everyone was. The city was lined with cameras around every corner, and she honestly didn't mind that.
Unlike in a modern society, here, no one dared to sell location information they gathered through cameras of any random stranger on the street. After all, that random stranger might just be a Demi-God, who, at this point, starts to be aware of information about their person being shared.
Making enemies out of any random Demi-God and above is a surefire way to get yourself killed, so the practice stopped long ago.
The cameras are equipped with an automated system to track people, though. It's just that the information isn't sold. It truly is just used for investigations. This practice, though still causing them discomfort, is accepted by Demi-Gods and above.
The atmosphere was naturally completely different compared to Grimm as well. Many races mingled on the sidewalks. Similar to Grimm, discrimination wasn't really a thing here. Be it humanoids, Demi-Humans, Anthros, or even Ferals, none were discriminated against.
The sidewalks were wide enough to fit any body type, and even entire rivers led through below it to allow aquatic races to move around comfortably. Honestly, it was way more inclusive than Grimm, where large ferals tended to be forced to adopt humanoid forms to avoid clogging up streets.
Also, yes, I meant rivers, and not streams. The sidewalks were 50 meters on either side, while the street in the center was only comparable to a 4-lane one on Earth.
All buildings were equipped with special spatial compression formations, also present in Grimm, that would affect large individuals and make them smaller to fit the interiors of the city.
This would not cause discomfort and was in no way considered rude or weird. Rather, it would be weird if this formation were absent. Would be hard to fit the population of this city, with non-human races, if you don't use some tricks.
Cely's plans for this city were simple: Stock up and continue their journey after a short rest. They would continue on foot, with their next destination not being a city, but rather a forest aptly named "Rotten Death Forest".
It was a forest filled to the brim with the undead. Most of them were not intelligent and generally fine to travel through as long as you did not bother the center of the forest. In the center, a powerful undead Demi-God called Samuel was resting.
Samuel used to be a human knight. A long time ago, he had become an Immortal Saint, before later perishing in a drawn-out fight against a Skeletal Dragon in which both parties died. His body was infected with the Death Energy, mutating into a Zombie. Later, he broke through to become a Demi-God.
If he isn't bothered, he doesn't bother others.
As Cely and Aria continued through the City, the latter kept being wowed by the surroundings. Be it the towering skyscrapers, the countless figures of cars, cultivators, and flying Ferals in the sky, or the large number of new races she had never seen before.
"What is that?"
"That's a Forest Fairy."
"And that?"
"That's a Tree Spirit."
"Oh, oh! And that?"
"That's a Specter."
Aria kept on pointing around the crowds as her curiosity took hold. There were just too many races. And although it was kind of rude to keep pointing at people, Cely let her. She was just a child, after all, and no one here really minded upon noting this fact.
Honestly, most were more surprised by the fact that Cely knew literally all their races at a glance. Some of them, like the Tree Spirit and the Forest Fairy, were rare races. Not many, even among the immortals, know about them, and even those who do would be hard-pressed to identify and differentiate them from similar races.
After almost half an hour of walking through Xilia's streets while Aria happily asked about every race, the two arrived in front of a particular skyscraper.
"Floralmycelia Hotel And Spa"
That was the name displayed proudly above the doorway of the skyscraper. She had received every bit of info Grimm had, so she knew the best hotels in Grimm for her daughter and herself.
This one in particular, as the name suggests, specializes in plant-type Ferals. Yes, plants and mushrooms, when they gain sentience, belong in the race category of Ferals and don't have their own category.
Walking through the entrance, Cely could instantly tell the difference. The air felt so rich, and OH, THE SOIL ON THE FLOOR!
Cely couldn't resist having some of her mycelial roots slip into the earth. The feeling of energy filling her from the ground and the immense relaxation she felt that instant was beyond compare. Aria wasn't doing any better. Rather, her form had practically dissolved on the spot the second she arrived in the lobby.
The next second, though, both were forcefully reconstituted to their humanoid form as a voice echoed from the tree behind the counter.
"Dear guests, please refrain from rooting yourself in the lobby unless you have paid. Also, avoid the entrance area so we can keep a clear path for guests."
A humanoid female figure made of bark bulged out of the tree trunk, gesturing to a large sign in the lobby saying the same thing she had just explained.
Seeing the price of a high-grade Energy Stone per day for a spot in the lobby, Cely couldn't care less about the expense and instantly paid for a week for both her and Aria. Though she knew from the information that this was probably the best resting place for people like her for the rest of her journey, she didn't think it would be THIS good.
Every fiber of this building was overflowing with Life Energy, and the soil below her was Three Heavens Soil. It's a type of mid-grade Immortal Tier soil usually used to house low-grade Immortal Herbs.
Another special thing about the ground was the large amount of Soul Tier insects and worms running around. All of them helped to keep the soil fresh and improved it even beyond its previous level.
She knew that it was basically at no cost for this place to maintain all of this, but the initial cost for setting it up was immense. And this was only the lobby! She could imagine there even being rooms fit for Immortal Saints, Demi-Gods, and maybe even Gods among the plant-type Ferals.
In fact, she knew it, as she already had the info.
Hearing that her mother had paid for an entire week's stay here, Aria could only exclaim in delight as she hugged Cely's leg.
Stroking her daughter's head, Cely smiled.
'A small break won't hurt.'