God Of Crafting

As weird as it might be, this really was my first trip into the depths of the cultivation district. Save for the short stretch of the main road I walked through before taking the turn to where Claire's shop was hidden, the rest of this place was just one, big mystery to me.

Normally, exploring this place would be a tall order for me, given how out-of-place I would feel in a world I merely tipped my toes in. Surrounded by people who knew things I had no idea about and had considerations I wasn't any wiser about, I was bound to, sooner or later, make some sort of mistake or make myself otherwise visible.

But with Claire by my side, this consideration ended up flipped on its head.

"Come on! Quickly! It's just behind this corner right there!"

Caring not for the public peace or the cultured, elegant silence of the others on the street, Clarie just stormed all over the road. Even though it still felt strange, we started our trip by holding hands… Only for Claire to soon let go, when her excitement at the idea of sharing the wonders of this place got the better of her, making her run all over the place.

And surely enough, as soon as I took the nearest corner and looked down what turned out to be a much bigger road than what I took to be the main path…

For but a second, I forgot how to breathe.

The path stretched out as far south as I could see, slowly angling up as it followed the terrain only to end up at a massive gate of the walled-off foothold of the lone peak of the entire city.

'From what I remember, getting this mound done was one of the biggest engineering projects ever completed in the city,' I thought, recalling what little bits of knowledge I had about the place, this time ending up with the news I'd read all the way back when I was still in the middle school.

"Welcome to the temple street!" Claire called me over after running up a few steps ahead only to swirl around on her heel and spread her arms out as if to present this beautiful street in all of its glory for me.

And there surely was a lot on this street for my eyes to take.

Paying no mind to the steep incline of the land prizes within the city, especially in its inner districts, this whole street consisted of nothing but temples that only grew bigger and more elaborate the further up the main path one went.

At this point of the road, the temples consisted pretty much of just a simple altar standing at a heightened platform and surrounded by a garden of flowers. But just a few meters away, another temple had its altar fully hidden within a special enclosure.

Just a few steps further, and the enclosure turned into a proper building only to turn into a structure no lesser than a cathedral roughly halfway down the road.

From that point on, rather than building up or adding more and more flair to the temples, each of the plots came up with designs further and further away detached from what an engineer would ever consider a sound construction, all the way to the point where the temples near the gate at the mound's base appeared to all be levitating in the air!

But if there was one thing that applied to every last plot on the side of this street… then it would be…

"Beautiful…"

I wasn't an architect so I couldn't really appreciate the great ideas that led to both the smaller and more mundane and then the bigger and much more elaborate parts of this place. Yet, even without this kind of expertise, I could simply enjoy the pristine, peaceful, and outright dignified looks this place offered.

"Feels like a whole other world, doesn't it?" Claire smiled when she saw the awe painted all over my face.

What's more, she must have sensed something, for she quickly hurried back to my side only to jump on my arm and then wrap herself around it again, becoming a sort of reality anchor for me, definitely proving that even with all those otherworldly temples down the road… it was still all real.

"You know, I don't think I've fully internalized the fact that cultivation actually goes beyond science," I muttered, getting into a strange mood when faced with levitating structures of hundreds if not thousands of tonnes in weight.

"I mean," I turned my head to the side to look down at the cutie wrapped around my arm, "ever since you entered the picture, it was hard for me to think of anything else, but still…"

"It doesn't feel real?" Claire finished up my thought while climbing up my arm just far enough to let her lips reach my cheek on which she happily planted a small kiss. "It is real, though."

For a moment, we just stood in the middle of the road like that, not caring for the fact that if there were any cars around, we would most definitely be obstructing the traffic… Still, despite how wide the main road of the district was, there wasn't a single car around, turning this entire width into a domain exclusive to passersby.

"Now, I wonder if you are ready for the biggest shock of this place…" Claire suddenly whimpered in a fashion that made it pretty obvious her words were still meant for my ears.

"The biggest shock?" I asked while turning my eyes down to the playful expression on her face only to then bring my head back and look down the street again, where planning genius, architectural overindulgence, and outright magic continued to baffle my mind with stuff that clearly went against the science I knew.

The floating buildings, random balls of light simply floating through the streets, random boulders chained down to the ground with thick, metal restraints as if those rocks would otherwise flow away into the sky if not restrained…

"Just what else there is to this place for there to be an even bigger shock waiting for me?" I asked, in a full-disbelief mode.

'I know cultivation doesn't strictly adhere to science and all… but how could there be even more to it? Or what, if I turn around will I be able to see tamed dragons or something?'

Full of doubt, I looked back to Claire's face, only to see her grin so hard, she showed me the white of her teeth. And while staring down at her lovely, positive expression was a treat all in its own right…

"Just turn around," Claire whispered, climbing onto her tiptoes once again to kiss my cheek…

This time, however, I wasn't going to let her do as she wanted. Instead of waiting with my cheek for her lips, I turned my face and reached out, grabbing Claire's face as she moved up, holding it in place and then leaning in to press my own lips against her mouth.

For a moment, all the glory of this place, all the surprises it could still hold, all of those things moved to the second plan, with my mind filling with Claire and the delicious, slightly sweet taste of her lips.

If I were to be in this place alone, I would cover by the side of the street, doing my best to both sink in the views but also not to stand out. But with Claire… I simply couldn't care less about how our sloppy-make-out session performed right in the middle and open of the street quickly became a tourist attraction for all those who just happened to be walking around.

Our lips pressed against each other, allowing one to indulge in the warmth of the other, all the while our bodies coiled in a way that only served to spark the flames of our instincts.

I pulled down on Claire's waist, pressing myself into her, as if not even our ongoing kiss could save me from the withdrawal syndromes of Claire's closeness. And it wasn't until we both had to pull out just to catch a breath that I finally allowed both my head to turn around and my eyes to draw to whatever it was that Claire expected to still take me by surprise in this weird place.

And so, I looked down the other side of the main road of the cultivation district, only for my face to tense up as…

As if my mind bugged out?