<h4>Chapter 131 ssford </h4>


    Adam slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by the familiar ceiling of his undergroundboratory. As he sat up, he looked down and found that therge leaf containing all the herbs was on hisp.


    Seeing this, he smiled in gratification. "That''s good. I thought for a second that I wouldn''t be able to get these things out with me."


    The youth didn''t know the intricacies of Spirit World Traversal fully as of now. However, with each journey, he would get to know more and more about it.


    He stroked his chin and mumbled, "So if I have to enter the Spirit World, I have to use the help of the runic formation. However, for my return journey, I only need the physicalponent and my soul body would instantly return to my physical body, huh?"


    As he pondered the mysteries of his new ability, he couldn''t help but be fascinated. He knew that time and space were meaningless in the Spirit World, so he couldn''t help but guess just howrge of a distance his soul body had covered while returning to the material world.


    Just as he was deep in thought, an extremely weak sound entered his ears.


    "Myuuu…"


    Adam turned his head in the direction of the voice, and when his eyesnded on Valerian, he was bbergasted. "EHHH?!!"


    Valerian listlessly sprawled outside the runic formation, his eyes had sunken in, and he seemed to have lost a tremendous amount of weight. To say that he was emaciated would be an understatement.


    "Val! What the hell happened to you?!" Adam hurriedly picked up the little guy in his arms, his face riddled with panic.


    Valerian weakly stretched out his tiny paw and touched Adam''s face. He then sent a mental transmission that was full of grievance.


    ''Me… no food… 2 days… Waahh...''


    Adam''s mind instantly short-circuited as he looked at Valerian like an idiot. "Huh? T-Two days?"


    Valerian weakly nodded as tears streamed down his cute little face.


    "TWO DAYS?!!" Adam was dumbfounded. He was sure that he''d only spent a few hours in the Spirit World, but in reality, two days had already passed.


    Seeing the little dragon''s teary eyes and pitiful face, Adam''s heart twisted into a tight knot. He couldn''t believe he had made Valerian starve for two whole days.


    He wiped the tears off Valerian''s face and hurriedly rushed out of hisboratory. "Don''t worry, Val. I''m going to feed you tons of food right now."


    "Myu…" Valerian nodded while sniffling.


    Adam then nced at his familiar and warmly smiled. "You didn''t leave for two days… You protected me, Val. Thank you!"


    "Myu!" Being praised by Adam, the young dragon felt deeply happy, momentarily forgetting about his hunger. But then…


    GROWL!


    The little fellow''s stomach growled like a ravenous beast. Feeling intense hunger once again, Valerian started to cry loudly.


    Adam gritted his teeth and hurriedly made his way to the kitchen.


    "Barry! Take out everything!"


    …


    The City of ssford was located on the western side of the Southern Federation. This city was one of a kind as it was jointly established and governed by the four major races—


    humans, elves, dwarves, and gnomes.


    There was only one main reason why this city wasn''t under the sole rule of a single race, and that was because this city was directly rted to a resource that affected the economy and strength of the entire Southern Federation, and othernds on this part of the Ulier Continent.


    Such power was too great for one single party to bear. However, the fact that the four major races were equal in strength was the driving factor for the joint governance of ssford.


    This city, however, was mundanepared to the other famous cities of the Southern Federation, the elven forest in the north, or even the dwarven mountain in the east.


    ssford was not even a major exporter of any preciousmodity that could be considered rare in this part of the Uleir Continent.


    So that begs the question, what exactly does ssford have that could affect the strength of the entire Southern Federation as a whole?


    For generations now, the Southern Federation has been able to sustain itself despite being cut off from the rest of the Ulier Continent because of the Murky Mountains.


    It has been able to fend off the attacks of orcs, ogres, and trolls from the mountains time and time again. Moreover, it has also sessfully defended against the powerful magic beast horde that urs every few years.


    Without external help, how did the Southern Federation manage to remain standing for all these generations?


    The answer to that could be found in the City of ssford.


    Currently, in the central square of the city, arge number of people hade together. The cobblestoned square was massive, having enough space for thousands of people to gather.


    At a cursory nce, one could find members from all four major races among the crowd. Now, in this part of the continent, such a scene could only be seen in Moon City.


    After all, most of the other ces in the Southern Federation would restrict entry to one or more races due to some sort of grudge or just direct racism. Not every ce was as open-


    minded and weing as the Jewel of the South.


    Another important thing to note was that the people that had gathered at the square were all Magi!


    They''d already been waiting here for thest couple of months. And today their wait would finally be over.


    RUMBLE!


    At the center of the square, the space suddenly started to distort. The skies above darkened as lightning streaked from time to time.


    Seeing such a drastic change, the Magi present weren''t apprehensive at all. In fact, they were filled with joy. They patiently waited for this grand spectacle to unfold.


    The space in the middle of the square suddenly tore open and arge fissure was formed. This tear in the void, however, was unstable. But soon, the fissure started to stabilize and turned into a circr doorway with a radius of fifty meters.


    Thisrge doorway was a portal that connected to an unknown location!


    After the portal was formed, the Magi surrounding it went into an uproar. They hurriedly sentmunication to their respective organizations, notifying them of this change.


    Amidst the boisterous mor of all the people present, there was one statement that was constantly repeated.


    "The Soaring River Secret ne has opened!"