Chapter 1227
Parlz Game
Eivass and his party did not stop in the other Oasis City-states but headed directly to Holy Spring City.
Although they lacked food to satisfy Sharky, Eivass, whose Path was now balanced, could use the Shepherd’s Method. The energy contained within his flesh and blood was far more potent than ordinary meat, such as beef or mutton.
They traveled for nearly two days. If it were Leviathan alone, it would not have taken even a day to fly back and forth.
The main issue was that they had to drag a carriage carrying several people, which made things much more troublesome. Leviathan’s talent was high-speed mobility and omni-terrain capabilities, excelling in bursts of speed. Her load-bearing and endurance were quite insufficient. While she could effortlessly send the carriage flying in an instant, pulling it and carrying so many people over such a long distance was genuinely strenuous.
The straight-line distance from Heaven City to Holy Spring City was roughly over two thousand kilometers.
This distance was about four to five times the east-west length of Avalon and more than twice the east-west length of Iris Flower.
Leviathan, capable of carrying two tons of cargo, managing to reach her destination from a fierce sandstorm in just forty hours was already a significant effort.
Another who exerted great effort was Eivass. He had replenished Leviathan’s magic three times mid-journey using the Shepherd’s Method.
In reality, once would have been enough, but Leviathan’s “fuel tank” was too small. Consequently, they had to stop multiple times for resupply.
At seven o’clock in the morning on July 3rd, they finally reached the vicinity of Holy Spring City.
“—I can see the oasis up ahead!”
Haina exclaimed while looking out the carriage window, “It’s really not bad… as expected of Anxi’s largest City-state.”
It was a city that could be described as “magnificent.”
This City-state possessed extremely high walls, a hundred feet tall, their peaks almost lost in the clouds. The amber-colored walls resembled a cake drizzled with syrup or a colossal brass signet ring lying horizontally in the desert.
However, the material was not bronze or brass. Upon closer inspection, one would discover it was lead treated with the Preservation Technique using amber twilight power. From a distance, the intricate patterns etched onto the city walls were visible.
With Haina’s eyesight, she could easily discern the content of the murals on the city walls.
On the west side of the city gate were numerous Winged Ones. Some, like Lixia, possessed pure white, fluffy wings, with small wings even behind their ears and at their feet. Others resembled Harpies, with human heads and giant Gryphons holding staffs. Some had entire bird heads but human hands and feet.
Each individual’s wings were unique, and their appearances varied greatly. The commonality was that everyone had wings.
On the other side of the city gate were Those with scales. Snake People, Lizardmen, and Fish People were gathered there. The Fish People alone had two variations: “human heads and fish bodies” and “fish heads and human bodies,” with their appearances also differing significantly.
The sole difference from the west side was the presence of Dragons and a marine creature quite similar to Leviathan—let’s call it a “Dragoon Shark”—on the side of Those with scales. These creatures possessed both wings and scales, yet they chose to stand with Those with scales.
The central city gate was only opened a crack, perhaps about 150 degrees inward, allowing a clear view of the massive bas-relief on the outer side of the gate.
It was structured similarly to how doors might have lion heads or rings hanging in front—except these were two heads.
Ancient painting techniques were clearly lacking, making it difficult to discern facial features or even distinguish gender. However, one could generally make out that one of the two heads represented a Winged One, and the other represented Those with scales.
Outside the city flowed a clear and sweet river—the very source of Holy Spring City’s name. It served as the moat for Holy Spring City, but for the Anxi people, this sweet river was akin to a heavenly paradise on earth.
Upon entering the oasis area, the ferocious sandstorm instantly ceased. It was as if one had suddenly moved from a noisy exterior into a quiet, soundproof house; the raging storm became as docile as a well-behaved puppy, and even the trembling carriage instantly fell silent.
This was an anomaly unseen in other City-states.
While storms rarely approached the city districts in other City-states, that was merely “rare.” There was never such an experience as crossing an invisible barrier, stepping into one world and immediately being in another.
“What… what’s going on? Some kind of barrier?”
Haina grew alert, standing up like a hound hearing the footsteps of a stranger.
“This is normal.”
Eivass said without looking up, waving his hand to signal Haina to sit down. “After all, this was formerly the capital of Anxi. It’s perfectly normal for it to possess some ancient inheritances.”
He was playing chess with Zhu Tang. Although Zhu Tang couldn’t open his eyes, he could identify the pieces solely by touch. This was probably why he didn’t play Go with Eivass.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Ibn was playing cards with Haina.
The Anxi people enjoyed card games, so there were many varieties. There were even games similar to modern poker that Eivass was familiar with.
The game he and Haina were currently playing was a simplified board game-like game. It was also the most widely circulated card game in Anxi, roughly equivalent to “Dou Dizhu” in Eivass’s past life.
It was called Parlz. This name, when translated into Avalon language, meant the most simple and direct “calculation.”
A Parlz deck consisted of cards of eight different colors, each depicting a pattern of pomegranate, book, slave, spice, carpet, silk, gold coin, and water. They were numbered from 1 to 8 according to their value, from lowest to highest. The quantity of each item also ranged from one to eight. There were four identical cards of each type, totaling thirty-two cards.
The gameplay involved players taking turns acting as a caravan leader, declaring an arbitrary number. Then, starting with the dealer, everyone drew cards. They would process the cards in hand using four arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The first person to reach the declared number won, earning one point. If the dealer themselves reached the number, they earned three points.
If all cards were drawn, or if everyone drew a ninth card and still couldn’t reach the number, everyone lost one point, and the dealer lost three points.
This was a game of wisdom and transcendence. The rules were simple and easy to understand, playable by any number of people and for any number of rounds. There were also gambling versions that used chips instead of points, and even versions that gambled with family members—literally gambling with one’s family.
Children of Free People, provided their parents had a decent level of education, played this game from a young age to learn numbers, train their mental calculation skills, and gain a basic understanding of the value hierarchy of common trade goods in a caravan.
Being good at this game made it easy to find a good job. Anxi people greatly valued intelligence, and intelligent individuals could generally get by anywhere.
Even if one became a Slave, if they could calculate and write, they would often be sold to wealthier Free People to assist them with tasks requiring a higher threshold. Sometimes, they were even sold for more than some lower-level Extraordinary individuals.
From Haina’s perspective as an Avalon native, this game served another malicious purpose:
—It instilled in all Anxi people from childhood the notion that “slaves are a commodity” as common sense!
And their value was not high, only exceeding pomegranates and books!
It didn’t even measure up to spices and carpets!
