Chapter 352 The Base City of Jiangnan (2/2)

”Do you still remember the story 'Journey to the West'?”

”Yes, I remember,” replied Stripey, blinking its huge red eyes innocently.

”Do you remember those monsters in the story that are capable of changing their sizes as they please? As long as you continue on your evolutionary path, there will come a day when you'll be able to shrink yourself down. When that happens, you'll be able to travel alongside me once more,” said Gao Peng.

Stripey's eyes lit up.

When Gao Peng left, Stripey assumed a stance and extended its earthy-colored feelers into the ground, where it began madly sucking up all the energy in the ground.

I, Stripey, will continue leveling myself up! Once I attain the ability to shrink myself, I'll be able to play with Gao Peng every day! swore Stripey silently.

...

A private airplane from Yuzhou landed in Jiangnan's airport.

The plane's rear door opened. Dumby bent forward slightly and stepped out of it. A prayer beaded Goldie, Flamy, and Da Zi came out after it.

As soon as Gao Peng stepped out of the plane, the first thing he noticed was how different Jiangnan's airport seemed from the one in Yuzhou.

Jiangnan's airport seemed far more exquisite, at least in terms of architecture.

When they exited the airport, Gao Peng led Da Zi and the others to the Southern Sky Group's Jiangnan branch.

Basically, the Southern Sky Group had a branch in all the major southern base cities, including Jiangnan.

After resting for a while, Gao Peng tapped into the Jiangnan branch's information network in order to get a better handle of the state of the swamp on the western side of the city.

It took two days to gather all the information that Gao Peng requested from his subordinates.

He Wei was the name of Jiangnan's mayor. Compared to the mayors of other base cities, he was still quite young, no older than 40 years old.

As of now, there were twelve Lord-tier trainers in Jiangnan: three working in an official capacity, two in the army, five from the top four families (Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li) in the region, and the remaining two, who were independent trainers.

Even though the base city of Jiangnan had more Lord-tier trainers than any other city in the entire Huaxia region, only the base cities of Di Du and Mo Du surpassed it in that respect.

This was because the base city of Jiangnan had been the Huaxia region's economic center even before the Cataclysm. It boasted a large population and fast-paced development. The wetlands and forests around it were practically stripped clean by the city's inhabitants.

A wide variety of animals and plantlife thrived in the Jiangnan region's tropical environment. The fact that the Jiangnan base city was one of the few cities who had suffered little damage during the Cataclysm had also contributed to the base city's further development.

The three official Lord-tier trainers in Jiangnan were Mayor He Wei, Finance Minister Bai Liuguang and Treasurer Li Changmin. The city's smaller companies were constantly kept on their toes by these three.

Among the four major families in the city, two Lord-tier trainers were from the Qian family.

One of the remaining two independent trainers had joined the Monster Trainer League, while the other had formed their own monster trainer guild that allowed its members to help each other out in their training routines and such.

In other words, no Lord-tier trainer in Jiangnan was truly alone. Each of them were influential in their own way. Even a trainer without any influence could slowly build it from the ground up. Instead of training by themselves, these trainers could become even stronger at a faster rate with the help of others.

The information that Gao Peng had requested concerned native crane-type monsters, crocodile-type monsters, and the swamp in general.

There were a number of crane-type monsters living in the region. However, judging from the pictures he had seen, Gao Peng could tell that they weren't from the same species as Flamy. He had even asked Flamy for confirmation.

Could it be that Flamy's entire species had been annihilated by the attack last year?

Gao Peng frowned. It seemed almost impossible.

One of them must have survived the tragedy. The thought of a flightless species driving a species that could fly to extinction was just preposterous.