NOVEL NEXT Chapter 241: Parz Game
Aiwass and his company did not stop at any other Oasis City State, but went directly to Holy Spring City.
Although they lacked enough food to fill Shasha, Aiwass, who was balanced on the Path nowadays, could use the Nurturing Skill. The energy contained within his flesh was far stronger than the likes of beef or lamb.
They traveled for nearly two days—if it were Leviathan alone, it wouldn't even take a day to fly back and forth.
The main issue was having to tow a cart with several people, which was much more troublesome... After all, Leviathan's talent is in high-speed mobility and tri-terrestrial navigation, with bursts of speed. Her load and endurance capabilities are indeed insufficient. Throwing the cart out in a moment wouldn't be a problem, but hauling the cart, plus carrying so many people over such a distance, truly takes some effort.
The straight-line distance from Heaven City to Holy Spring City is about over two thousand kilometers.
This distance is roughly four to five times the east-west distance of Avalon, and more than double that of Iris Flower.
Leviathan managed to carry two tons of weight from the fierce desert storm to reach the destination in just forty hours, which was already quite a feat.
Another who exerted effort was Aiwass—he replenished Leviathan's magic three times with the Nurturing Skill.
Actually, once was enough, but Leviathan's "fuel tank" was too small. Therefore, they had to stop multiple times for replenishment.
At seven in the morning on July 3rd, they finally arrived in the vicinity of Holy Spring City.
"—I can see the oasis ahead."
Hayna looked out the carriage window in awe, "It's really nice... truly worthy of being the largest city-state of Parthia."
It was a city that could be described as "magnificent."
This city-state boasted extremely high hundred-foot city walls, whose heights seemed to almost touch the clouds. The amber-colored walls looked like a cake drenched in syrup or a massively giant, brass signet lying horizontally in the desert.
Moreover, the walls were not made of bronze or brass—if you look closely, you'll find they're led, magnified with the preservation arts under the amber-colored Dusk Power. Even from afar, one can see the intricate engravings etched on the walls.
With Hayna's vision, she could easily discern the drawing's content on the walls.
On the west side of the city gate were numerous Winged Ones. Some were like Ligeia, with white and fluffy wings, even having small wings behind their ears and at their feet; some were giant Gryphons with human heads and magic wands in hand; some had bird heads but with human hands and feet.
Everyone's wings were different, and their appearances varied, but the commonality was that everyone had wings.
On the other side of the city gate were the scale bearers. Serpentfolk, Lizardfolk, and Merfolk gathered there. Just Merfolk had two variations, "human head fish body" and "fish head human body," with appearances equally diverse...
The only difference with the west side was that the scale bearers also had Dragons and a certain ocean creature quite similar to Leviathan—let's call them Dragon Sharks—they all had wings and scales, yet chose to stand with the scale bearers.
In the center, the city gate was only slightly ajar. Roughly opened to an angle spreading about a hundred and fifty degrees, allowing a clear view of the giant relief on the side of the outer gate.
Like the structure with lion heads or rings hanging from the door, but with two heads instead.
The ancient painting technique was evidently flawed, making it hard to discern facial features, nor distinguish gender. But one could broadly tell that one head was a Winged One, and the other was a scale bearer.
Beyond the city lay a clear and sweet river, which was the source of the name Holy Spring City. It served as the city's moat, but for the Parthians, this sweet river was akin to heaven on earth.
Upon entering the oasis area, the raging sandstorm ceased in an instant. It was like suddenly stepping from a noisy outside world into a silent, soundproof room, where the rampant storm became like a docile puppy, even the shaking carriage fell silent in that moment.
This phenomenon was something completely absent in other city-states.
Although in other city-states, storms rarely approached urban areas... but that's only "rarely" at best. There's no such experience of stepping through an invisible barrier, where one step leads immediately into two different worlds.
"What is happening here? Some kind of barrier?"
Hayna became alert, standing as if she heard the footsteps of strangers like a hunting dog.
"That's quite normal."
Aiwass waved without raising his head, signaling Hayna to sit down, "After all, this was once the capital of Parthia... having some ancient legacy is only natural."
He was playing chess with Zhu Tang—although Zhu Tang couldn't open his eyes, he could identify the pieces merely by touch. That's probably why he didn't play Go with Aiwass.
On the other side, Ibn was playing cards with Hayna.
Parthians loved card games, resulting in numerous card games. There were even modes similar to modern poker which Aiwass was familiar with.
Currently, he and Hayna were playing a simplified tabletop game, also the most widespread card game in Parthia, which could be likened to the "Fight the Landlord" of Aiwass's past life.
It's called Parz. If translated into the Avalon language, it implies the most straightforward "calculation."
A Parz deck contains cards of eight colors, depicting pomegranates, books, slaves, spices, carpets, silk, gold coins, and water, with values ranging from 1 to 8, numbered on them respectively according to value from low to high. Each type has quantities ranging from one to eight. Each of the eight types has four identical cards each, totaling thirty-two cards.
The gameplay involves players taking turns to act as the caravan leader, declaring any number, then from the banker, everyone draws cards in turns, using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to process their hand. The first to achieve the declared number wins, scoring one point, if the banker achieves it, they score three points.
If all cards are drawn, or everyone draws the ninth card but still couldn't achieve that number, all players lose a point, and the banker loses three points.
It's a game of Wisdom and Transcendence. The rules are simple, open and easy to understand, suitable for any number of players and any number of rounds. There's even a betting version where chips are used instead of points... and a version involving betting family members—truly betting family members.
Children from freepeoples families, provided their family's cultural level is adequate, play this game from an early age to learn counting, train mental arithmetic ability, and give them a general understanding of value distribution of common goods within a caravan.
If one plays well, it's easy to find a good job—the Parthians highly value Wisdom, and smart people can thrive almost anywhere.
Even as slaves, if they can calculate and write, they often get sold to relatively wealthier freepeople to help process jobs requiring higher thresholds, sometimes selling for more than some low-level Transcendents.
But to Hayna, as a native of Avalon, the game had another malicious purpose—
—it instills the notion that "slaves are a type of commodity" as an undeniable common knowledge among the Parthians from a young age!
And the value is not considered high, only higher than pomegranates and books!
Not even comparable to spices and carpets!