Emerging from the teahouse, I watched the passing automatons. Bizarre and outlandish, yet they seemed so natural. The automatons had long adapted to their lives, their labor filled with the shadows of humans.
“I told you Proprietor Huaming would be able to help you,” Jasmine said with a grin. “Speaking of which, where exactly did you come from? Is it Qianji City in the east, or Juque City in the west?”
Qianji and Juque were both places where automatons lived. After Jasmine's tireless popularization efforts, Jiang Wen had gained some understanding of the automaton world.
Automatons were distributed in five locations: Modu, Qianji City, Juque City, Yudun City, and Yuyun City.
Among them, Yuyun City was located in the center of the five cities and was the largest and most important city for automatons.
Modu, on the other hand, was located in the northern region, near the Dead Sea Desert. It was a place with scarce spirit crystals but abundant metal minerals. Thanks to the rich metal resources, Modu's mechanical engineering was very developed. Whether it was mechanical horses or mechanical cities, they were all symbols of Modu's mechanical craftsmanship.
Because of this, although Modu was located in a relatively barren area, it was also an important commercial metropolis.
As for the other cities, besides Yuyun City, they each had their own characteristics.
The five major cities had become the five major forces of the entire automaton race. For thousands upon thousands of years, they had only changed once or twice, and afterwards, they continued to operate as before.
“Neither,” Jiang Wen shook his head. He couldn't easily reveal his origins. Although he knew Jasmine was righteous and had a straight character after spending a short time with her, he was, after all, not from this world, and there would always be risks in telling the truth.
Rather than gamble on that small risk, it was better to be honest after investigating everything. Besides, he couldn't leave this place in a short time anyway.
“That’s really strange.” Jasmine blinked, scratching her head in confusion.
Automatons didn't have hair, but that was only relative to commoners. The higher the class of an automaton, the closer its appearance was to a human. And automatons seemed to have a problem: they were extremely obsessed with becoming a real human.
It was like Jasmine's reaction when she first saw Jiang Wen's true face. At that time, her soul core almost collapsed.
As for why this was the case, Jasmine herself couldn't explain it clearly. She could only explain that it was because the Mechanical Holy Mother looked like that, so the automatons eagerly desired to become beings of the same kind as the Mechanical Holy Mother.
Moreover, there was also a phenomenon: the closer the appearance was to the Mechanical Holy Mother, the less dependent they were on spirit crystals. Instead, they pursued ordinary food. Therefore, the automaton nobles despised the lower-class automatons who ate iron and copper, believing they were all uncivilized automatons.
Regarding this situation, Jiang Wen had a guess. Perhaps it was because they looked like humans that these evolved automatons needed to eat, thereby reducing their dependence on spirit crystals.
“It’s not convenient to stay at your place. I’ll have to trouble you to find a place to live. The rest will be considered as guide fees, after all, I still have a lot of things to trouble you with.” After Jiang Wen finished speaking, Jasmine didn't decline anymore.
She took the spirit crystal and examined it carefully, an avaricious look unconsciously appearing on her face.
“What a good spirit crystal! I can actually touch such a high-quality spirit stone in my automaton life.”
Looking at Jasmine's honest and happy expression, Jiang Wen couldn't help but smile wryly. This spirit stone was the smallest one he had tried to take out. There were countless larger ones in his storage bag.
They were all obtained from Da Gan, and many were given to him by Li Yunshang. That little rich woman didn't care about spirit stones at all. After all, she was a member of the Da Gan royal family, so she had the confidence.
I just don't know how she is now, whether something has happened.
Thinking that the communication talisman he sent to Li Yunshang after arriving in Da Gan had not received a reply, Jiang Wen felt a little worried. Da Gan was now in constant turmoil, with the God-Worshipping Society and those mysterious people wreaking havoc on the world, leaving behind too many troubles. As a royal daughter, could Li Yunshang have encountered the same troubles?
With some worry lingering in his heart, Jiang Wen led Jasmine to the outside of Modu. When Jasmine saw the puppet driven by Jiang Wen, her eyes lit up: “Heaven-Supporting Giant Spirit!”
“Heaven-Supporting Giant Spirit?” Jiang Wen didn't expect the bronze puppet to have such a name.
“It is! How do you have a Heaven-Supporting Giant Spirit?!” Jasmine looked very excited, and it could be seen that she liked this bronze puppet very much.
“I picked it up.” Jiang Wen explained.
“Picked it up? Impossible! The Heaven-Supporting Giant Spirit is the city-guarding giant spirit of Yuyun City, and it is difficult to see outside. I have only heard of it, but I have never seen it before. It is said that the Heaven-Supporting Giant Spirit is immensely powerful and can also emit divine light. Even the most sturdy and powerful automatons cannot withstand their attack. Only by entering the forbidden area can you see the traces of these giant spirits. I didn't expect you to have a Heaven-Supporting Giant Spirit.”
“Let’s go in and take a look.” Jiang Wen didn't say anything more, after all, what he said was the truth. He did pick up this bronze puppet. It could be seen that this kind of tall puppet was rare in the automaton world and could be considered a weapon of war.
Hearing that she could go in and take a look, Jasmine was even happier. After opening the puppet's chest compartment, Wuming was sitting inside, closing her eyes to rest.
Hearing Jiang Wen's voice, she opened her eyes, and upon seeing a strange female automaton, Wuming looked at Jiang Wen with confusion.
“Her name is Jasmine, and she is a guide I found in Modu.” Jiang Wen explained, and by the way, told Wuming everything he had seen and heard in Modu.
“She is Wuming. Because she can't remember her name, she is temporarily called this name.” He also told Jasmine about Wuming's background. When Jasmine heard that Wuming was also picked up by him, she found it really interesting.
“How exactly did you pick them up? I think that Sister Wuming is also a Holy Child, right?” Jasmine said softly. “Fortunately, she covered her face, otherwise I think my soul core couldn’t stand this kind of stimulation.”
“Don’t worry, she won’t take off her hat easily.” Jiang Wen responded.
“Wuming just wants to find her memory and remember who she is.”
His and Wuming's goals were different, but they could be considered a coincidence. The direction Wuming wanted to go was where Yuyun City was located, where there was something she needed.
After hearing Jiang Wen's account of various matters, Wuming's reaction was still indifferent. As far as her personality was concerned, it didn't matter what the world was like.
He put the bronze puppet into the storage bag, and the twenty-meter-tall puppet instantly disappeared on the spot. Jasmine stared wide-eyed for a long time, but in the end, she couldn't find where the puppet had gone.
She looked at Jiang Wen, who smiled without saying a word.
In the end, she didn't ask any more questions. After all, everyone had their own secrets. For example, she herself also had many stories of her own.
Following Jasmine back to her residence, what they saw was a messy house. It seemed as if it had been ransacked, with all kinds of things scattered everywhere.
Jasmine frowned and was a little angry. A sneering voice came from outside the house: “I’ve finally waited for you, brat.”
As the voice fell, dozens of tall automatons surrounded the entire house with weapons.
