Watching his master's receding back, Lin Hui narrowed his eyes, paused for a moment, and then followed closely behind.
As his steps crossed into that white radiance, his eyes were momentarily dazzled, but they quickly adjusted.
What reflected in his field of vision was an endless plain dominated by hues of brown and white.
The position where he stood appeared to be a shovel-shaped gray cliff.
Looking forward from this vantage point, the color of the plain below the cliff was formed by vast swathes of buildings—brown and white pavilions arranged in dense, tight formation.
The structures stretched out like wild grass, extending to the furthest reaches of his vision; their numbers were impossible to count.
Between the pavilions, neatly planned white carriage roads sliced all the architecture into blocks shaped like tofu.
"Go down this way," Master Mingde reminded him from the side. "The permit allows us to stay in the Inner City for one shichen (two hours). We must leave when the time is up; otherwise, our bodies will suffer damage."
"Mn." Lin Hui followed his master, merging with a convoy of freight wagons as they descended the mountain path on the right.
"Why?" Lin Hui’s gaze constantly swept over the countless blocks in the distance below.
Looking from afar, he noticed that the people on the streets seemed to dress very coolly. Many men wore only trousers and a cape, with just a belt to hold them together.
Many women wore only tube tops and ultra-short shorts. There were even some wearing only three-point style sets—revealing and provocative—sitting in carriages, chatting lazily, and drinking tea.
In some street corners, one could vaguely see pairs of men and women engaging in vigorous exercise, completely undisguised.
In broad daylight, on the busiest streets, they were actually going at it!
Lin Hui was dumbstruck.
"The Inner City encourages reproduction; the more children, the more welfare. Besides, the Inner City itself has an atmosphere that stimulates human desire," Mingde said. "Returning to the earlier topic—wait until you reach the Moon Towers and see those gigantic towers with thousands of floors piercing the sky. Then you will know just how vast the gap is between the Inner and Outer Cities."
"Thousands of floors!" Lin Hui’s brow twitched. He felt that compared to the Outer City, the Inner City was fundamentally a different world.
The Outer City was like an abandoned old town—backward, dangerous, and desolate. This place was the true new world.
Descending to the bottom of the cliff, the two followed the convoy onto the streets between the vast clusters of pavilions.
The people on the streets were extremely polarized.
The majority walked in a rush, their carriages and horses moving swiftly as if whips were driving them from behind.
A small minority were incomparably leisurely. Even when traveling, they strolled as if on a promenade, leading pets like cats, dogs, or foxes. Some rode in carriages, others walked, their expressions reserved and noble.
"Corps mount transit, everyone make way!"
Suddenly, a shout came from the street ahead.
From a distance, Lin Hui looked over and saw a squad of exaggerated figures, ranging from two to three meters in height. Clad in full-body silver armor and gripping Horse-Chopping Sabers, they marched slowly and deliberately down the street in formation.
Behind these towering figures was a gray monster that resembled a rhinoceros.
The monster was six meters tall and over ten meters long. Pale red patterns on its skin lit up and extinguished intermittently.
Seeing this squad, everyone retreated to the sides of the road.
Master Mingde also pulled Lin Hui aside to make way.
"Be careful. It’s the Pacification Corps of the government office on patrol," he whispered.
"Pacification Corps..." Lin Hui looked at this squad, whose bulk far exceeded that of the commoners, and fell into momentary silence.
Compared to them, the tallest civilians on either side were at most two meters; they looked like bean sprouts, utterly lacking comparability.
"In the Inner City, you must be cautious in all things. Any accidental provocation can result in real danger. Although this place is considered safe—utterly free of mist— the Called Ones here have immunity when it comes to killing, let alone the Trueblood Nobles," Mingde warned in a low voice.
"Additionally, aside from the Three Major Powers and the Trueblood Nobles, the experts from the Three Sects and Six Gangs are also significant threats."
"Because they practice Extreme Martial Arts?" Lin Hui understood instantly.
"Precisely. It is all forced by the environment. The Inner City is safe, but the people here also need to go out to execute various cleaning tasks and gathering missions. These require a massive amount of manpower. If one cannot meet the requirements of the nobles, their status will fall step by step until they completely lose value, are eliminated, and are driven out of the Inner City."
Mingde sighed, watching the Pacification Corps squad pass before them. "And once driven out of the Inner City, wanting to return is almost impossible."
"I feel the Outer City isn't too bad. Why are the people here so afraid of going out?" Lin Hui whispered his doubts.
"Do you really think the Outer City isn't too bad?" Mingde glanced at his disciple. "Or do you really believe that because the people disappearing in the Outer City every year aren't you, it doesn't matter? Or perhaps, do you think the Jade Talisman hanging in your home will truly be effective forever?"
"Master... do you mean!?" Lin Hui understood instantly, his face turning extremely ugly.
"It is exactly as you think." Mingde's voice dropped lower, and he bowed his head. "Whenever the Inner City factions need living people to do some testing or whatever, they go to our Outer City and grab people at random. That is the so-called 'disappearance.' And that Jade Talisman is also controlled by the hands of the Three Major Powers. They can remotely control the Jade Talisman to activate or deactivate it at any time and place. Maintaining the Outer City population is merely their method of buffering the erosion of the Inner City by the mist zone and the night mist."
"In other words, our Outer City is just a buffer zone? It exists to use living people to test the reactions of the mist and the mist zone?" Lin Hui said in a low voice.
"Yes. It is said there are other functions, which I am not clear on, but that is the main purpose. Rumor has it that more than a hundred years ago, the Outer City was even abandoned." Mingde sighed. Waiting for the Pacification Corps to leave, he continued to lead the way forward.
"Let's go. Time is limited. I'll take you to stroll around the small market here. There are some small items sold by other races that are quite good."
The two walked forward, turning left and right. After crossing two streets, they arrived at an unusually lively and crowded commercial block.
In the center of this block were several circular stone platforms. On one of them stood a Lion-man, over two meters tall. He wore a gray long robe, his golden mane flowing in the wind. A black belt cinched his waist, and he wore a blue jade scholar's hat. With arms spread wide, he was loudly giving a speech.
Below the stone platform, passersby stopped to listen from time to time. Some were ordinary pedestrians, but there were also quite a few Lizard-men holding wooden staffs, dressed like travel-worn monks.
Lin Hui scrutinized the Lion-man carefully. He discovered the other party was loudly preaching about how all living beings should unite and help each other under the mist, interspersing some mysterious superstitious theories about believing in a deity named Pan.
"This is Sundry Street. It's a special block present in every district and every town, dedicated to trade and activities for all races and ethnicities. Nothing done here is regulated, nor is it illegal," Mingde explained softly from the side. "So this is also the best place to strike gold."
"Then these aliens..." Lin Hui still looked at the Lion-man and Lizard-men with novelty. These were sights he basically couldn't see in the Outer City.
"Lion-men are like that. Their population is small, but every one of them is eloquent and chatty, so they are often hired to preach doctrines here. The Inner City is like this; you'll get used to it after seeing more," Mingde explained.
"What about those?" Lin Hui looked toward the group of Lizard-men.
These Lizard-men wore tattered, dust-covered robes, but the look in everyone's eyes revealed a clarity that seemed to see through the world.
"Those are the ascetic monks of the Xi Clan. They follow the merchant caravans here every year to purchase supplies and return," Mingde said.
"It's easy to encounter other races here on Sundry Street, but there are fewer as you go further in. Because the Trueblood Nobles of Tuyue are pure-blooded humans, pure-blooded humans are revered here. If other races go too deep, they might be attacked and captured as slaves. It's not safe."
Lin Hui followed Mingde past the side, the Lion-man's rough voice still echoing in his ears.
"Then why do we rarely encounter them in the Outer City?" he whispered.
"It happens. Occasionally, you can run into them. It's just that they don't enter the towns of the Outer City; they enter and exit the Inner City directly from other gates, so encounters are rare. To them, only the Inner City is the true Tuyue City. The Outer City is desolate, backward, and dangerous—it's the wilderness. Naturally, no one would run around there for no reason." Mingde smiled. "Lion-men, Xi Clan, Python Clan—these are races often seen in Tuyue. You'll get used to them in time."
The two wandered around the shops on one side of Sundry Street. The small shops mostly sold a mess of various monster materials and local specialties from other races, such as Python Clan snake shed, Xi Clan handmade weavings, and consecrated amulets.
Lin Hui spent money to buy a few as collectibles, then, led by his teacher, exited from another outlet of Sundry Street and circled back.
Looking at the hurried Inner City people on the street, ninety-nine percent were humans with normal appearances. Non-human races were extremely rare; they looked more like outsiders passing through, mostly carrying a thick rural air. Some looked around in all directions, wearing expressions of shock and awe at everything they saw.
Teacher Mingde said that among these non-human races, only the Python Clan, Lion-men, and Xi Clan were somewhat developed. The rest were still in the tribal era. Upon first arriving in the Inner City and seeing the contrast, the shock was naturally immense.
Aside from these normal crowds, Lin Hui noticed some unusual details.
While sitting down to order food at a cold drink stall, he noticed a dark street corner far to the right of the stall. There, a skinny young man was kneeling, constantly prostrating in worship toward the stone wall.
The man was dressed in rags. His gray robe was full of holes and stains, and he wore a shoe on only one foot. The skin exposed at his wrist was pitch-black, the original skin tone indiscernible.
"Master, what is he doing?" Lin Hui sat on the bench, pointing out the man's direction to his teacher.
"Just a madman. Ignore him. He will disappear automatically in a few days; no need to pay attention." Mingde's expression didn't change as he took out the jade permit to check the color on it.
"Disappear automatically?" Lin Hui narrowed his eyes, keenly sensing an underlying meaning in those words.
"No permit, no Feather Blood, identity proof expired, bloodline dropped to a certain level—people who lose their Inner City qualifications will end up like this within a few days. The people from the Three Sects and Six Gangs assisting the government will clear them out very quickly, driving them to our Outer City," Mingde answered. "These are the so-called 'eliminated ones'."
"What happens to them in the end?" Lin Hui asked in a low voice.
"Those lightly eroded can still maintain normality and live as ordinary people in the Outer City. Those heavily eroded may suffer the onset of illness. The Blood-Body Afflicted you killed before? That's them," Mingde said.
He sighed and wanted to say more, but suddenly a hairy, large hand slapped him hard on the back.
Thud.
The slap was heavy enough that Mingde sank down fiercely, nearly exhausting his Internal Force for defense.
Just as he was about to explode in anger, he stood and turned, only to be enveloped in a fierce bear hug.
"Mingde! When did you get to the Inner City? Why didn't you tell me?"
The one hugging him was a burly, strong black-furred Lion-man.
The Lion-man carried a longsword on his back and wore a tight black suit that accentuated the contours of his powerful muscles. At this moment, his eyes revealed a look of obvious pleasant surprise.
"You are... Ouyang Kai?" Mingde's voice also revealed a trace of surprise. "I thought you went back?"