Chapter 420 Shadow City

Chapter 420: The Hidden City

Only Meng Wan and his group stood before the door. The stone chamber held no torches or oil lamps, but flanking the great door were two lion-like stone statues, each with a massive luminous pearl embedded in its mouth, giving off a faint white glow.

Two figures in black had appeared beside Sixth Granduncle, one male and one female based on their builds. Meng Wan glanced twice at the slender woman, feeling her height and build resembled the maidservant's who had fitted his mask.

Chi Yu's eyes were sharper than his. Almost as soon as Meng Wan noticed the woman, he whispered in Meng Wan's ear, "Fulang, she's a martial artist. And when I opened my eyes, I saw her pick something up off the ground and slip it into her sleeve."

Meng Wan kept his eyes down and listened without reacting.

Sixth Granduncle clearly knew the place well. He gave Meng Wan a brief nod and stepped forward to the purple-black door. The woman in black pulled something from her robes and handed it to him. Sixth Granduncle took it and fiddled with something near the chrysanthemum pattern. A harsh creak followed, and the heavy wooden door swung open.

Chi Yu watched Sixth Granduncle's movements with burning intensity, watching him remove a jade petal from the door and pocket it.

"Fulang, shall we?" Sixth Granduncle gestured for Meng Wan to proceed.

Chi Yu stayed close to Meng Wan, looking wary. The two black-clad figures beside Sixth Granduncle remained silent throughout, saying not a word—one took point, the other brought up the rear.

Meng Wan had figured that passing through the door would reveal the legendary underground city, but instead found another long corridor. Every ten meters or so, a pearl was embedded in the wall, and between the pearls, the walls were painted with cyan-green images of children.

Actually, calling them children felt wrong—even creepy. They had children's faces, but their limbs were slender, with abnormally long palms and feet, each hand had only four fingers, connected by webbing. On top of their heads was what looked like a sunken ring.

Meng Wan was sensitive to pictorial details. He leaned in and saw rippling water patterns inside the sunken ring, suggesting it contained some kind of liquid.

Looking further down at the body, it was just as strange—the "children" bore an entire turtle shell on their backs, and a short tail hung below.

Meng Wan's gaze met the frog-like round eyes in the mural, and he instinctively stepped back, a wave of weird unease and disgust washing over him.

"Fulang, are you alright?" Chi Yu immediately caught his reaction.

Meng Wan shook his head. "I feel like someone's watching us." That feeling of being watched had started the moment they walked in. The pearls only lit up so much—if someone was hiding in a corner, you wouldn't spot them easily.

The corridor wasn't long, but it kept curving downward. They reached another purple-black door just like the first, except this one was open. Inside sat a waist-high wooden stand with a silver basin full of water, guarded by four masked figures of different heights and builds, their masks a striking bright red.

Sixth Granduncle opened his pouch and took out two jade tokens, handing them to Meng Wan and Chi Yu. "Meng Fulang, keep this token safe. Whether entering or leaving, you must present it. Don't lose it, or else..." He left the sentence unfinished, but it couldn't have been anything good.

Meng Wan took the jade token. It felt warm in his hand, oblong, carved with three chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemums here were more distinct—he counted sixteen petals on each, and the craftsmanship reminded him of the jade tokens on Giba Island.

The four masked guards didn't move at the sight of the newcomers. Only when Sixth Granduncle walked up and tossed his token into the basin did the water ripple. The clear water suddenly turned pale yellow. Sixth Granduncle retrieved his token, then his two guards did the same.

Throughout it all, the four masked figures gave no reaction, as if they were merely statues guarding the door.

Chi Yu stepped ahead of Meng Wan, his back stiff with tension—a sign he was on edge. If he was tense, at least one of the masked guards had to be as skilled as him. He tossed his token into the silver basin, and the water again turned yellow. Curious, Chi Yu retrieved it as Sixth Granduncle had done—the chrysanthemum petals on the token had turned yellow. Three breaths later, the water in the basin somehow went back to clear white.

Meng Wan, having actually gone to university, wasn't about to be fooled by basic chemistry like that. Still, as he fished out his own token, he felt the three yellow chrysanthemums meant something deeper—just like the mermaid design on the Giba Island tokens.

This time, stepping through the door meant they were truly in the Hidden City. They went down another set of stone stairs—short but steep. After a turn at the landing, the space suddenly opened up: a vast natural cavern, with ceilings from about three zhang high to under two meters in the lowest spots, where taller folks would have to duck.

From up high, they could see half the cavern, while other areas stayed in shadow, split up by stalactites and stalagmites hanging down naturally. The cavern floor wasn't muddy—it was paved with smooth blue stone slabs that curved off in different directions.

Stone houses lined both sides of the paths, not so much built as carved out of the natural cave, their roofs and walls still showing the raw rock texture. Coarse cloth curtains hung over the doorways—some pulled shut, others half-open, with faint shadows moving inside.

The air was thick with a damp, earthy smell mixed with something weird. Not far off, there was a faint sound of running water, like an underground river or spring deeper in the cave. The pearls' glow seemed almost insignificant here; many areas relied on oil lamps burning in niches carved into the stone walls, their dim yellow light flickering, casting long, wavering shadows of the stone houses and passersby.

Descending from the high steps, Sixth Granduncle's demeanor relaxed considerably. "Fulang, forgive me—this is my Luo family's Hidden City."

With the mask covering his face, Meng Wan didn't bother hiding his expression. His voice was languid as he asked, "And this place produces a million taels of silver a year for the Luo family?"

He couldn't shake the feeling that the Hidden City didn't belong to the Luo family—rather, the Luo family belonged to the Hidden City.

Sixth Granduncle's voice carried a smile. "Fulang, if you'll accompany me on a stroll through the Hidden City, you'll understand."

He led the way, and the male guard behind him suddenly cast a covert glance at Meng Wan. Meng Wan thought he might have imagined it.

His mind filled with question marks: "?"

From above, the area below hadn't seemed larger than the Earl's mansion garden. But once actually down there, he realized the natural cavern was vast beyond human expansion. The view below was murky, and they navigated between massive boulders by the light of oil lamps in wall niches. They encountered few people—the occasional figure in a blue mask, who would deliberately avoid them upon seeing the black masks on their faces.

"Meng Fulang, to move about the city, we need to exchange for the local currency." Sixth Granduncle pointed to a massive stone building at the edge. "This way, please."

A city with its own currency supporting the flow of goods—that alone proved its independence and completeness.

Meng Wan followed Sixth Granduncle toward the stone building. A two-meter-tall stone tablet stood at the entrance, inscribed with a square, bold character: "EXCHANGE." Pushing aside the animal-hide curtain, the interior brightened immediately. The stone building was far more spacious inside than its exterior suggested. The ceiling soared overhead, the stone walls densely embedded with pearls—smaller than those at the purple-black door, but so numerous they illuminated the space white as day.

The interior was divided into two sections: an open area on the right, and a row of small stone rooms on the left. These rooms had no doors, only small windows, where people occasionally approached to inquire, exchanging their gold, silver, and jewels for a crimson-red crystal.

Sixth Granduncle came prepared—he'd brought two pouches of gold. He walked to one of the windows and, in short order, exchanged them for two pouches of crystals.

He handed one pouch to Meng Wan. "Fulang, take a look. This is called Red Crystal—only produced in the Hidden City. In the city, one hundred taels of silver buys a single crystal."

One crystal for a hundred taels of silver? Even gold wasn't that expensive. Meng Wan finally began to believe the Hidden City's annual profit of a million taels.

He opened the cloth pouch and examined the contents. The red crystals were uniform in size, each about the size of a fingernail, crystal clear and translucent. They truly differed from rubies found outside—more like red diamonds.

"I happen to have brought some gold and silver as well. Why don't I exchange for a bit more?" Meng Wan said with a smile, pulling out a pouch of gold nuggets and heading to the stone room.

The person in the small stone room wore a red mask like the gate guards. It seemed the city's inhabitants identified each other by mask color. As Meng Wan queued up, those wearing blue masks actively stepped aside.

After leaving the crystal exchange, Sixth Granduncle led Meng Wan into several more stone buildings. Inside were all manner of exotic goods—rare items rarely seen outside, with the most numerous being various precious and unusual beasts.

A silver-white fox, a pheasant with rainbow-hued tail feathers, a monkey with three eyes, a crimson-red skink...

The Hidden City's business model centered on satisfying the wealthy's curiosity. Rich people's money was the easiest to earn—that was common knowledge.

Modern merchants clearly had the edge, understanding that money built on volume was what truly snowballed.

Emerging from the building housing exotic beasts, Sixth Granduncle passed by other establishments and led Meng Wan directly to the central plaza. Here, at last, was the vibrant pulse of a real town.

People in blue masks formed a massive circle—over a thousand of them, densely packed, leaning against the waist-high stone wall surrounding the plaza's center to watch a performance. Below was a great pit about one zhang deep and roughly a mu in area. But instead of the usual monkeys, rats, or parrots performing tricks, there stood a majestic king of the forest—a tiger.

When its roar echoed out, the front rows erupted in cheers, but Meng Wan only wanted to flee. He'd genuinely been hunted by wild beasts before—never mind a massive tiger or brown bear, even a single wolf could kill several people.

Sixth Granduncle seemed to read Meng Wan's apprehension from his halted steps and explained with a smile, "Fulang, don't fear. That tiger is bound by five thick iron chains, each as thick as an arm, deeply embedded in the central boulder. It can only move within a small radius—all show, no harm."

Meng Wan followed his gaze and indeed saw the massive tiger, its body imposing as a mountain, with heavy chains around its neck and all four limbs. Though its eyes burned with ferocity and it let out low, continuous growls, its body couldn't break free an inch. It could only pace restlessly in place, kicking up clouds of dust.

The masked onlookers around the plaza, seeing the great beast trapped, felt a morbid curiosity rise within them. Some even threw stones at the tiger, letting out shrill, mocking cries that drove it into greater frenzy—which only made them laugh harder.

Numerous natural stone pillars rose from the pit, some thick, some thin. Most of the thin ones had been snapped in half; the thick ones barely offered footholds for two feet.

Just as the atmosphere reached its peak, a man in red robes and a red mask suddenly leaped from the crowd. Unafraid of the agitated beast below, he landed steadily on one of the stone pillars in the pit. His voice was cold and soft: "Same rules as always—spectators pay one Red Crystal. Anyone who enters the pit, live or dead, earns a hundred Red Crystals. Kill the tiger, and you earn five hundred!"

The watching crowd fell instantly silent. Watching and participating were two very different things—who but a madman would fight a tiger?

A tall figure beside Meng Wan suddenly spoke up. "I'll go." He wore a blue mask, and his voice sounded like a young man's.

The red-masked man turned toward him. There were no contracts or written agreements—he simply said directly, "Enter, then."

The young man in the blue mask pointed to another blue-masked person beside him. "After I go down, give the crystals to her." Being close by, Meng Wan could hear the slight tremor in the man's voice.

The blue-masked person next to him seemed taken aback at that, saying, "You... why must it come to this?" She was a frail young woman.

The young man smiled bitterly. "Otherwise, neither of us can get out."

His tone was so final that even Meng Wan felt a twinge of unease.

They were clearly a couple, and from the meaning of their words, You City wasn't a place you could just waltz in and out of. Red Crystals were an extremely important currency here, and earning them was brutal and hard.

The red-masked person said flatly, "Get down there."

Looking down into the pit, there were no steps or ladders, but the slope wasn't very steep, and a regular person could just slide down.

The man took a step forward, shrugging off the woman's clinging arm, his resolve firm. "Tiger fights aren't every day. Don't hold me back. If I don't make it, look after my family!"

"A hundred Red Crystals still won't cut it. I'll end up in You Er anyway." She might have been crying under that mask, for her voice at this moment was so fragile and despairing. "These are the ten Red Crystals I've saved up. You've got a better shot at surviving than I do. Promise me you'll live..." Her last word trailed off as she vanished from the platform, then she shouted, "Give my Red Crystals to him!"

He reached for her, but only grazed the rough hemp of her clothes. He roared in disbelief, "No!"

"That was quick! We didn't even get to bet!"

"Who would bet on her winning?"

"Who said anything about betting on her winning? It's betting on how long before she gets eaten."

A few grumbles rose from the crowd, like they'd missed out on a great bet.

Meng Wan's heart sank heavily. Looking down, he saw that the frail young woman actually had some skill, dodging the pouncing tiger and scrambling up nimbly. Unfortunately, within only five breaths, her throat was torn out by the giant beast.

The power gap was too huge. It was over the second she jumped. The masked crowd sighed all around. Only a few felt bad for the lovesick girl; most just thought the show wasn't worth the price.

Reluctantly, they each took out a Red Crystal and placed it on the stone platform before them, and Sixth Granduncle was no exception.

Meng Wan had no intention of challenging the rules upon arrival, so he likewise placed a Red Crystal on the platform. The black earth in the pit was covered with a fresh layer of blood, and the sounds of the beast feeding were amplified at the bottom—disgusting and cruel. He turned his head away, unable to bear watching any longer.

The red-masked person's lightness skill was extraordinary. Meng Wan didn't see how he moved; he only felt a red blur flash before his eyes. Chi Yu's arm had just crossed in front of him when the Red Crystal on the stone platform vanished.

By the time the red-masked person stood again on the stone pillar in the great pit, he already held a huge cloth sack in his arms, filled with a clattering load of Red Crystals—at least two thousand by the count of people present.

The grief-stricken man beside him had long since stopped his anguished cries, his eyes fixed intently on the cloth sack in the red-masked person's arms. His voice no longer carried the tenderness from before, revealing a greed that had been well hidden. "She's dead. That hundred Red Crystals is mine now, isn't it?"

The red-masked person glanced at him, a hint of a mocking curve seeming to appear at the corner of his mouth. He pulled a cloth pouch from his bosom and casually tossed it to the man.

The man caught it in a fluster, not daring to linger even a moment, and slipped into a certain passageway, vanishing in an instant—clearly a regular patron of the city.