The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 140: Arriving At El Cairo

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It was a bit surprising for them; Urbosa, Merkite, and Fiery Hair all expected we would end up landing back in our city, but we ended up appearing somewhere else completely. Indeed, a lot happened here regarding giant golden pyramids flying in the sky, another gray-colored gate, and ancient Egyptian princes piloting huge machines themed after their gods.

“So that’s what happened here?” wondered Urbosa, looking around her surroundings curiously. “This city is quite beautiful, though! There’s a lot of similar architecture back in your city, Bing Xue. Though there’s also a few other larger buildings as well…”

"Also, it’s in the middle of a whole desert, which is even more surprising,” said Merkite, wagging her tail as she wandered around the busy streets of El Cairo.

People of all kinds walked everywhere; there were large markets we passed through, selling many magical items, monster materials, and other things. I don’t know if everything was legally regulated here; there were a lot of suspicious sellers.

“Ooohh… So many people… Gathered here, in desert?” Fiery Hair wondered. “How live in desert? Isn’t desert hot and dry? No food or water!”

“All over the planet, people have thrived in almost every ecosystem,” I explained. “Even before the Tower appeared, humans explored every corner of the world and adapted to it. Mursha, what do you think?”

“A-Ah! Well, I’m quite shocked…” she said, still looking around.

She and Fiery Hair were even taller than me, so they caught the attention of most passersby, who glanced at these two goddesses in awe.

“Mommy, look! That lady’s big! She has green skin!”

A kid ran around the streets with their mother.

“Don’t get too close to her, Muhamed.”

As they passed by, Mursha blushed a bit. I guess she wasn’t used to being around so many, well, small people. Fiery Hair was as tall, if not slightly taller than her, but she was still a human, so maybe that worked at not bringing as much attention as my beautiful orc wife.

“I-I’m a bit nervous. I feel like if I step badly, I’ll end up crushing someone,” she sighed. “Fiery Hair, how can you be so calm?”

“Ooh?” Fiery Hair tilted her head as she was eating an ice cream I bought for her. “Hmm! Fiery Hair just doesn’t care! Hehe.”

“E-Eh?!” Mursha was shocked by such a simple response.

“I mean, she’s not wrong; you’re very strong, but I am sure you can handle this. See it as training, perhaps?” I asked. “Just stay by my side. There’s lots of people here, yes, but just take small steps.”

“Okay…!” she nodded. As I held her hand, she was nervous and sweating a lot. My poor Mursha; she must be very nervous. She’s a gentle giant, worried about crushing the mortals here. How cute.

“Wooaah! Really? You’re going to show me the interior of a pyramid?”

Suddenly, I heard Peperina’s voice from afar. I had just lost her for a moment, and then I glanced in the direction where her voice came from.

She was surrounded by three suspicious-looking men looking down at her while smiling; there was also an old lady with them.

“Yes, of course, girl.”

“Come with us; we’ll bring you there.”

“You don’t see rabbit-eared people like you so easily around here!”

“They usually have rabbit faces; you’re pretty, huh?”

“Hmm? P-Pretty? I mean… I’m half dwarf!” giggled Peperina. “Can I take a selfie with you guys first?”

“No photos!”

“Eep! Okay…”

They were about to bring her away until I stepped forward.

“Peperina! Don’t go with those people; they’re obviously suspicious.” I stepped in, and the four people almost had a heart attack as they saw my presence, even more than my height.

“W-Who’s that?!”

“Is she your friend?!”

“W-We didn’t do anything!”

“Run, run! Quickly!”

They quickly ran away. I was about to interrogate them, but I decided to leave that to the Doppelganger I sent after them.

I suppose this place is definitely not free of crimes or suspicious organizations yet, unlike my city. I’ll have to take matters into my own hands and make this city a bit safer, if possible.

“S-Sorry! I didn’t know they were up to no good; they looked like such nice people!” Peperina sighed.

“They weren’t being nice at all…” I sighed. “Well, I guess even if you got kidnapped, you would have easily beat them to death.”

“Hehe, yep!” She smiled cutely. “Oooh, what’s that?!”

The little rabbit quickly ran away from my sight, taking pictures with her phone of anything she saw, from shops, merchants, large buildings, and the ice cream and Arabic snacks we ate.

At least she was having a good time, so it’s fine, right?

“So where’s Hekita?” wondered Urbosa.

“We’re almost there; sorry for taking so long, but everyone wanted to see more, me included,” I sighed. “You see, I never visited this country before. So I’m kind of a tourist as well!”

"Oh, that makes sense now.” Merkite nodded. “It’s a nice and beautiful place, though, so yeah…”

“Anyways, it’s up there.”

I pointed into the distance, and there was a large golden building. It was a mall with many shops inside, recently built, and fully equipped with many official and legal shops for Hunters.

“That giant tower of gold… That’s where they were?!” Urbosa wondered.

“Incredible, who built this?” wondered Merkite.

“Probably some rich guy,” I shrugged. “But I’ve heard it received the help of the Hunter Association; the building is right behind this one, so let’s go meet with everyone first.”

“Are we going into that big thing?” Mursha gasped.

Through her life, she had never seen gigantic buildings like these, I guess, so she was indeed very shocked and afraid.

“Yeah, it’s a building where you can buy a lot of things! There’s also a lot of food places, so we can buy delicious food. Want lunch?” I asked.

“Sure, okay,” she nodded. “I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

“That must be the Tower of Nefertiti! Oh my gosh! Let’s take some pictures of that too!”

Peperina, in the other case, ran to the tower and started taking a million pictures. We were forced to take some photos with her; she was really that type of girl.

“Big building, more food?” Fiery Hair wondered.

“Yeah, we’ll find more food there, babe.” I patted her arms; I couldn’t reach her shoulders quite easily. “Are you still hungry?”

“Yes! Fiery Hair very hungry! But prefer food made by mate Bing Bing,” she smiled.

“Aww, really? Well, my food’s pretty tasty, eh?” I giggled. “But for now, let’s try other foods. Come on, it’ll be fun!”

“Sure!” she nodded happily. “Fiery Hair happy! Heheh!”

She was enjoying herself, which was good.

Well, I wasn’t just with the girls, though; there were two little gods accompanying me.

“This place’s sure surprisingly huge!” Estrella said, walking around in her child form, that her dazzling appearance brought the eyes of many as well. “Would you look at this? There are many jewelry shops; they were made for me! Did they know I was coming?”

“Nobody knew you were coming, sister…” Umbra sighed. He was on his small skeleton, wrapped around some Photon Illusion Veils to make him look like a human child with pale white skin and black hair. “This place wasn’t made for you either…”

“Hmph! W-What do you know anyway?" Estrella was trying to cope, but her brother wasn’t wrong.

“Now, now, children, don’t get lost; come with me.”

We walked across the interior of the huge Golden Tower of Nefertiti, its halls glistening with platinum colors. Every shop looked fancy, and there were also many bodyguards here and there.

There were shops selling fancy jewelry, other shops that sold armor and dresses of all kinds, and some that sold weapons and even firearms enchanted to kill monsters.

However, there were also many normal shops for normal people, and with that, there were also a lot of restaurants of all kinds.

Some restaurants sold authentic Egyptian food; others sold more varied Arabic food; there were even a couple restaurants that specialized in authentic Indian curry, and so on.

There was a wide variety of all kinds of foods; we even found Chinese, Korean, and Japanese restaurants, all with authentic chefs from such countries.

Whoever arranged this place must indeed be one of the richest men or women of the city to go so far and make a whole tower covered in gold too.

“So many different foods…” Mursha was drooling. “C-Can’t we try out some of these foods from your people, Bing Xue? I never imagined you had such varied cuisine!”

“Fiery Hair hungryyy!” Fiery Hair started complaining.

“Just be patient; we’re almost there. The rest of the family must be… there!”

We reached the tenth floor, where all these fancy restaurants were gathered together, and stepped into the fanciest restaurant where they had gone eating.

There, the whole restaurant was reserved for the day, and there were four rows of tables with a dozen people eating together.

Indeed, it was quite an incredible gathering of hunters from all over the world.

We quickly recognized some familiar faces: my disciples Nicholas, John, Francisco, and Yanisse.

Then, there was my mother and my sister with her boyfriend Juan.

Aside from them, there were also the hunters from El Cairo, four distinguished S-ranked Ranked Hunters that had helped save the city when the invaders arrived.

And, of course,

“Ahh! Mamaaa!”

Little Hekita! She was eating a big piece of roasted camel meat, covered with many spices, a curry-like sauce, and also roasted potatoes. However, the moment she saw us, she stopped eating and came running here, even with her mouth a bit covered with the juices of the meat.

“Hekita!”

Urbosa quickly ran towards her, greeting her with a big hug. The little girl literally jumped over her mother as she received many kisses from her mama.

“Mama! You came back quickly, like you said!”

“Of course, dear, I can’t leave my girl alone for too long!”

Hekita is definitely a mama’s girl, so she can’t be just with my family, or she’ll get upset very quickly.

“Oh, mommy!”

Hekita then quickly ran towards me and hugged me.

I was very touched; she saw me as her second mother.

"Hello, Hekita, did you behave while we were away?”

“Yes! I did all my homework!”

“Well done!”

I patted her head gently.

By homework, she meant all the cultivation and meditation techniques I told her to do while we were away.

Although it was only two days, it was still a lot for her to do, and she definitely got stronger. I could feel her Aura.

“Everyone is eating a lot of food, and there’s some nice people from this place!” she said. “And I made a friend! Her name is Sara, and she’s so nice! She has the power of healing, likes my hair, and says I’m fluffy!”

“Sara?” wondered Urbosa.

“Oh, that must be Sara Asmaa, “The Sacred Child,"  an S-Rank Hunter from this city,” I explained. “She specializes in healing, protecting, and buffing magic! She’s also a very good-natured girl, and I’m glad you became her friend, Hekita. That’ll be a friendship that will last your whole life as long as you treat her well.”

“Sure!” she nodded. “She let me dress in her clothes too! Do I look cute?”

She was wearing a cute Arabic dress made up of many colorful clothes wrapped around her body; they all had beautiful, golden decorations, and she was also wearing some gold accessories, earrings, necklaces with colorful emeralds and rubies, and rings.

“S-She let you wear this? It looks quite expensive!” I said, surprised.

“I agree…” Urbosa nodded.

"Yeah, she has a lot of stuff in her house; it’s like... like a whole palace!” giggled Hekita.

“I never thought Sara was actually a rich girl; she’s so good-natured and not spoiled at all.” I was surprised.

“It means her parents are good people who taught her well,” smiled Urbosa. “Anyways, should we go join everyone else too, Hekita?”

“Yeah! Come, come! And… Oh! New people? Rabbit girl…? And… green lady? An orc!” Hekita gasped. “Woow! This is the first time I have seen an orc in person! Hi Fiery Hair!”

“Hekita! Hello,” Fiery Hair smiled, waving her hand. She was good and very gentle with children.

As we made our way to greet everyone, suddenly, a cute young woman glanced at me and gasped.

“You’re finally here! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting!” She said angrily. “I order you to come here and sit down by my side!”

This bossy young woman was Merneith, an Egyptian princess from parallel Earth.

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