novel bin Chapter 114 Desperate City
Chapter 114 Desperate City
Chapter 114 Desperate City
After traveling for most of the day, the outline of a colossal object finally emerged on the distant horizon.
Desperate City.
The city was larger than Xu Hao had anticipated.
The city wall was built entirely of gray-white boulders, with some kind of dark silver molten metal poured into the gaps. After freezing, it spread across the wall like a spider web.
The city wall was fifteen zhang high, its top covered with a thick shell of ice, which gleamed coldly under the low, leaden-gray sky.
The city gates were wide open.
There is no drawbridge, no moat, because this city never closes its gates.
Closing it down won't help. Juejing City doesn't belong to any faction. It's a gray enclave built on blood and bones after a thousand years of fighting between the Daheng Dynasty and the Northern Barbarians.
Two iron pillars, each three zhang tall, stood on either side of the city gate.
On the left hangs a fragment of the Daheng “Zhen” military flag, while on the right hangs a wolf skin battle flag covered in claw marks.
Both flags were tattered beyond recognition, flapping loudly in the cold wind.
There were no guards inside the city gate.
Instead, there were two rows of hunched-over old men and women wrapped in rags, with a dirty felt cloth spread out in front of them, on which were placed bone knives, dried meat, frozen herbs, cloudy liquor, and a necklace of animal teeth of dubious origin.
As soon as Xu Hao stepped into the city gate, the nearest withered old man approached him, speaking in broken Daheng Mandarin through his toothless mouth.
"A gentleman from the south? Want to buy some information? The rules of Desperate City, which streets you can and can't walk on, whose territory you can't tread on—one silver coin will save you from three cuts."
Xu Hao ignored him and walked straight inside.
Undeterred, the old man jogged after him, lowering his voice even further: "Three months ago, a group of nobles from the barbarian royal court arrived in the city. They're important figures in the golden tent, accompanied by several hundred beast guards. If you have any questions, this old man has connections—"
Xu Hao paused for a moment.
The barbarian royal court.
He took out a small piece of silver from his pocket and flicked it to the old man.
The old man caught it with lightning speed, his teeth practically splitting from laughing, and quickly stuffed the loose silver into his leather pouch.
"That's satisfying!" the old man said in a low voice, gesturing towards the city. "Desperate City is divided into three sections. The South City is our Daheng people's territory, with gambling dens, brothels, and blacksmith shops. If you have money, everything is negotiable. The North City is the territory of the barbarians, which they call 'Wolf's Den.' Once you're inside, don't expect to reason with them. The wealthy barbarians will fight you with their blood and guts, while the less wealthy ones will just gang up on you. The main street in the middle is called 'Throat-Breaking Road.' It has people from all sides, and nobody cares about anyone else. They kill and set fires whenever they feel like it."
"Where do the people of the barbarian royal court live?"
The old man shrank his neck, his voice barely audible, "At the very back of the northern city, there's a huge tent made of the ribs of a giant beast, called the 'Bone-Eating Tent.' After those barbarians arrived, everyone on the entire street was driven out. Nobody dared to approach. A few days ago, some foolish fallen warriors tried to steal something, and the next day—tsk tsk, they died a horrible death."
"Who's leading this?"
"No one dares to ask." The old man rubbed his fingers together. "But this old man is cheap and has sharp ears. I heard someone call out a name, 'Wuyan.' In the barbarian language, it means 'White Bone King.'"
White Bone King.
Xu Hao pondered the title, his eyes beneath the mask darkening.
The barbarian royal family's purple eyes, the Great Heng Navy's ghost ship blood sacrifice, the white bone totem beneath the Wanghai Tower, plus a "White Bone King" from the barbarian royal court.
A hidden thread has been connected.
Bone Girl is not fighting alone.
Behind her stood the entire royal family of the Northern Frontier Wolf Court.
Why are the people from the Barbarian Royal Court coming to Desolate City?
The old man shrugged, looking completely innocent: "This old man doesn't know. But there's been quite a commotion in the North City lately. Every few days, barbarian hunting teams from the snowfields are bringing things in. The teams are incredibly long, and everything is wrapped tightly in animal hides. I wonder what kind of treasure it is."
Xu Hao lost his second piece of silver.
"Are there any shops in town that sell furs and dried food? Could you give me directions? Also, which road is the shortest to the Endless Snowfield if I head north out of town?"
The old man accepted the money even more skillfully this time, and his mouth was as smooth as if it had been greased.
"Go to 'Old Bear's' fur shop at the east end of the south city. It's run by people from Daheng, and their stuff is really good. For dry rations, go to 'Donkey Noodle Shop' next door. Their frozen noodles can last for half a month without spoiling. As for leaving the city—" The old man pointed north with his thumb, "There's a gap at the end of the north city wall. It's not a proper city gate; it's a hole blasted out by the barbarians when they attacked the city. No one repaired it, so it became a wild path in and out of the snowfield. However, barbarian cavalry and snowfield beasts often roam this road. Out of ten people who go there, three come back, and those three are usually missing an arm or a leg."
Xu Hao nodded, asked no more questions, and strode into the city.
The old man watched him walk away, then tucked the silver into his pocket and shrank back behind his felt blanket, muttering, "Another southerner looking for trouble."
The streets of the southern part of the city were more bustling than I had imagined.
The stone path was worn smooth and slippery from being walked on, and the sides were crowded with messy shops.
There were vendors selling weapons, medicine, and slaves.
Three or four barbarian boys were locked in an iron cage, their bodies covered in whip marks. The price tag read, "Forced slaves, eight taels each, discounted."
Next door, in an iron cage, were several refugees from Daheng, all paid the same price.
In Desperate City, there is no distinction between races, only between the strong and the weak.
Those who can be locked in cages are the weakest at the bottom of society.
Xu Hao didn't look around much and went straight into "Old Bear's" fur shop.
The shop was small, and behind the counter sat a burly middle-aged man, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with a face full of fat and a piece missing from his left ear.
He was using a short dagger to carve a bone hairpin on the counter, his knife skills far more refined than his appearance.
"Are you from the south, sir?" The man glanced at Xu Hao, his gaze lingering on the whale-skin cloak he wore. "This material is standard issue for the Zhenbei Army. Did you arrive by water?"
"Pick two sets of full-body, cold-weather gear, the thickest ones possible. And a pair of snow goggles too." Xu Hao placed a small bag of loose silver on the counter. "Is that enough?"
The man weighed the silver in his hand and grinned with satisfaction.
"That's enough. I'll get you a polar bear skin lining, and then cover it with a gray wolf skin on the outside. It'll keep you warm and won't attract attention. On the snowy plains, all white people are dressed in red and green, which would just make you a target for the barbarian archers."
He turned around and pulled out several furry leather jackets and trousers from the back shelf, along with a pair of goggles made from thinned animal horns.
"These goggles are really good stuff." The man neatly arranged the goods and pushed them in front of Xu Hao. "When the sun comes out on the snow-covered plains, the white light is so bright that you can't open your eyes. You'll get snow blindness after walking for half a day. With these goggles, you can last for three days."
Xu Hao changed his clothes.
The polar bear fur felt warm against my skin, like being wrapped in fire.
The gray wolf fur cloak covered him, making his figure indistinct.
The pack on its back was tightened again, and the black tortoise huddled obediently inside, letting in no light.
"One more question," Xu Hao stopped at the doorway. "What's been going on with the 'Bone-Eating Tent' in Beicheng lately?"
The man paused in his work of carving the hairpin, then looked up and sized him up.
"If you're looking to cause trouble for the barbarians, I advise you to turn back," the man said in a low voice. "The one from the Bone-Eating Tent is extremely powerful. A few days ago, the leader of the largest group of fallen warriors in the city, the 'Blood Spider Cave,' a tough guy at the mid-stage of the Inner Strength Realm, led more than twenty skilled fighters to try and get a share of the spoils. And then…"
He took the short dagger he used to cut bones and made a cut on the counter.
"More than twenty people, overnight, only twenty-odd human skins remained, neatly stacked in the middle of the severed throat. All flesh and bones were gone."
Xu Hao's eyes darkened beneath the mask.
Peel.
It's exactly the same as the molting ghost under the Wanghai Tower.
"Thank you." Xu Hao pushed open the door and stepped into the snowstorm.
We passed through the southern part of the city and embarked on the Broken Throat Road.
This main street truly lives up to its name.
Dark red bloodstains, impossible to wash off, were frozen in the cracks of the bluestone slabs. Wine jars and broken bones lay scattered on either side, and occasionally a frozen, severed hand could be seen, with a few fingers peeking out from the snowdrift.
The people on the street were all different.
There was a barbarian hunter, covered in thick skin and exuding a bloody stench, who was a full head taller than Xu Hao, with a string of dried human ears hanging from his waist.
There were fallen warriors with ashen faces and scales or bone spurs on their bodies, who walked furtively along the walls.
There were also a few scattered Jianghu people with faces from Daheng, in groups of three or five, their hands on their weapons, their eyes darting around.
Nobody gave anyone a second glance.
In Desperate City, even a glance is considered provocation, and provocation leads to bloodshed.
Xu Hao walked unhurriedly along the Broken Throat Road, his dark blue qi gathering within his meridians.
As he passed a fork in the road, he caught a glimpse of something amiss out of the corner of his eye.
There was a string of fresh footprints on the snow at the corner of the intersection.
They are not human footprints.
Three toes, claw marks deeply embedded in the stone slab, with extremely large gaps.
The footprints of a giant beast in the snowfield.
But this is inside the city.
Even more bizarrely, the footprints did not lead outwards from the north city, but rather directly into the north city from outside the city—heading straight towards the Bone-Eating Tent.
Someone is transporting live snowfield behemoths into the Bone-Eating Tent.
Xu Hao didn't stop walking; he calmly walked past the fork in the road.
Deep within the sea of consciousness, the compass turned quietly.
The pointer was firmly fixed at due north-southwest, and the light spot of the Martial Ancestor's Divine Skill Fragment was clear and stable.
The direction was deep within the endless snowfield. His goal was clear: to obtain the remaining scroll and leave quickly.
As for what those barbarian royal court people in Desperate City are up to, that's not his concern for the time being.
But he had a gut feeling.
This trip to the snowy plains means that Bone Lady and the Northern Frontier Wolf Court behind her are bound to clash sooner or later.
The northern edge of the city.
The breach created by the barbarian attack is still there.
A crack more than two meters wide ran across the city wall, with several inches of ice frozen on the rubble.
The wind rushed in through the gap, howling and whistling, carrying with it the unique emptiness and desolation of the snowfield.
Beyond the gap was a vast, white wilderness.
There is no way.
Only endless snow stretched to the horizon.
Xu Hao stood in front of the gap, tightened the collar of his gray wolf fur cloak, and put on his goggles.
Take a deep breath of the icy air that makes your lungs ache.
I glanced back one last time at the greyish-white walls of Desperate City and the wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys above them.
I don't know when I'll be able to step into this place again.
He stood tall and strode into the wind and snow.
With one step, the snow didn't reach my calves.
The footprints behind them were quickly filled in by the wind and snow.
The figure disappeared into the vast white expanse of heaven and earth.
The enormous silhouette of the city behind him grew smaller and smaller until it became a blurry gray dot on the horizon and disappeared completely.
An endless snowfield, a truly bitterly cold and desolate wasteland.
coming.