Chapter 417 - 416: Land of Divine Punishment

Chapter 417: Chapter 416: Land of Divine Punishment

Shi the Second clapped him on the shoulder. "Once we’re in Tongluo County, have fun on me. I’ll cover your expenses."

He had to repay Hee Lingchuan for saving his life on Wind Demon Mountain, little by little.

Walking across the plateau, Hee Lingchuan finally understood why it was called "Twilight"—it was a euphemism.

It was already mid-May. From the Yuan Kingdom to Beiga, every place was bursting with life—grass growing, birds taking flight, bees and butterflies flitting about. Even at the foot of Wind Demon Rock, which was battered by winds year-round, a patch of land was reserved for blooming flowers.

But the Twilight Plateau was truly steeped in gloom. The plants grew listlessly, a sickly yellow-green. There was clearly water here, but reeds that would grow ten feet tall elsewhere reached four or five feet at most. In the three miles the caravan traveled, they saw fewer trees than could be counted on two hands. It couldn’t even compare to the high-altitude Gale Plateau, which was full of beautiful flowery meadows and grasslands at this time of year.

The roadside farmland was even more pitifully scarce. The crops looked as if they had been hit by an autumn frost, just as lifeless.

Hee Lingchuan saw no one toiling in the fields, nor any sign of dogs on the ridges or smoke rising from farmhouse chimneys.

"What’s wrong with this place? Don’t crops grow here?"

"This is the Land of Divine Punishment." Shi the Second popped a piece of Chewing Tobacco into his mouth. "Almost two hundred years ago, wasn’t there a war that annihilated a kingdom here? That’s what did it. They say the Demon Emperor ordered the city to be slaughtered. Not even a chicken was left alive in Thousand Star City, the Capital City of the Yuanl Kingdom. Afterward, this place became forsaken by the Deities. You can’t grow crops or raise livestock properly. Some also say it’s because too many people died back then, causing the whole plateau to be saturated with resentment, which ruined its feng shui and spiritual energy."

"What does it have to do with the heavens? Sounds more like a punishment from the Deities to me. With so many Great Powers in the Beiga Kingdom, can’t they dispel the resentment here?" They had four National Preceptors alone, not to mention other Great Powers.

’Right, that captive I caught back at Zhao Pan’s camp was carrying a Punishment Dragon Pillar. He claimed to be a National Preceptor and said he was collecting resentment and hatred from battlefields to purify them. Why didn’t he succeed in purifying this place?’

"How would I know? It’s just a legend. It’s an old story from almost two hundred years ago, who’s going to get to the bottom of it?" Shi the Second gave a dry laugh. "But I think this kind of thing has happened elsewhere."

"Where?"

"The Panlong Desert in the Yuan Kingdom, of course. I heard it used to have cities and people, but they angered the Deities and it was turned into a desert impassable to the living. It’s even worse than here." Shi the Second suddenly remembered. "Hey, aren’t you from the Yuan Kingdom? Do you know about it?"

Hee Lingchuan nodded. "Couldn’t be clearer."

But the main reason the Panlong Wasteland was shrouded in raging sands was simple: the rampage of the Three Corpses Insects released from the Grand Square Pot. As Hee Lingchuan walked across this plateau, however, the sun was clearly shining brightly, yet its rays brought no warmth to his skin. If he walked on the bare ground, he could even feel a chilling cold seeping up from the soles of his feet.

A place like this had another name: Forsaken by gods, loathed by ghosts.

"Over the past five or six hundred years, quite a few Demon Kings have rebelled. Did their territories all end up like this?"

Shi the Second chuckled. "How would I know?"

"It’s truly strange that Tongluo County was built here."

"It’s not strange. The Twilight Plateau is huge, so there has to be a place for travelers to rest." Shi the Second didn’t seem to mind; after all, no matter how often they came, they were just passersby. "Besides, these outcasts can’t leave the Twilight Plateau. They have to build a place to live."

Hee Lingchuan’s brow furrowed slightly.

Shi the Second had a merchant’s natural perceptiveness. Seeing Hee Lingchuan’s expression, he quickly waved his hands. "That term, ’outcast,’ isn’t me insulting them. It’s their official designation."

"Official designation?" Hee Lingchuan asked, surprised. "Is this a place of exile?"

There were outcasts where Eldest Young Master Hee had lived, too. Black Water City was a borderland, and the Yuan Kingdom had always liked to exile criminals to the frontiers. As descendants of criminals, they were not registered in the local household records but only listed on a separate roll. They were the lowest class of people there, able to survive only by selling their labor or their bodies.

"Ah, you could say that," Shi the Second said. "These poor bastards are all descendants of the Yuanl Kingdom’s people. Over one hundred and ninety years ago, Thousand Star City was massacred and the Yuanl Kingdom was destroyed. The survivors became slaves of a vanquished nation. Because King Yuanl angered the Deities, the Demon Emperor punished their descendants: for generations, the men must be slaves and the women must be prostitutes. They can never rise up, nor can they buy their freedom. Later, when Lingxu City had criminals to exile, they would be sent here too."

Hee Lingchuan was stunned. "It’s been almost two hundred years, and the punishment still hasn’t been paid off?"

"The Demon Emperor has a long life. To us, that’s more than a dozen generations, but to it, that’s only half a lifetime. The last Demon Emperor had the longest reign, a full three hundred and eighty years. I wonder if the current one can break the record. Perhaps it’s just never gotten over being angry?"

"That’s too harsh a punishment. It looks like it was meant to make an example of them—to make sure everyone else watches, remembers, and gives up any similar ideas." The Demon Emperor allowed the various Demon Kingdoms to fight for kingship among themselves but would not tolerate them defying the Celestial Gods. Otherwise, it would casually hand out a "kingdom-annihilation plus eternal-slavery-for-your-descendants" package deal.

This just showed how strong the Deities’ control over this country was.

Soon, the caravan entered the "Gold-Dissolving Cave" that Shi the Second had mentioned.

Tongluo County was built on the bank of a river bend, making it easy to get water. The scenery on the shore was unremarkable, but the water was very clear. As a result, many painted pleasure boats were moored at the docks. The tallest were three stories high and looked like floating houses when they moved.

The county had inns, restaurants, opera houses, casinos, bathhouses, the Red Hall, Bewitching Arrays... Any form of entertainment you could find elsewhere, you could find here, and they aimed to make it bigger and better.

This was because there were simply no other industries here.

Of course, enjoyment came in all different classes. On the main street Hee Lingchuan had just walked down, the signs on either side competed to be the biggest and most magnificent. They were all brightly lit until dawn, filled with the clinking of cups and the sound of continuous music and song.

The men and women in the shops were all forcing smiles.

If you had money, you could eat the freshest live seafood, drink the finest mellow wine, and of course, find a fallen beauty to "discuss ideals" with under the covers. If you only had two Copper Plates clinking in your pocket, you were only fit to find a streetwalker behind a small eatery.

Hee Lingchuan saw a man standing on the roadside, haggling with one such streetwalker.

These streetwalkers usually conducted their flesh trade directly from their homes. Their husbands, all of them lowly slaves, were even responsible for serving tea and wine to the clients and holding the towel and spittoon.

The moment the caravan settled down in the county, the hands scattered in a flash. Even the groom had vanished—just as Hee Lingchuan was about to tell him to feed the Rock Sheep some extra bean cakes and old wine.

After their ordeal on Wind Demon Mountain, Shi the Second had given them some money to calm their nerves. They were eager to spend it before it could even warm their pockets.

Shi the Second advised Hee Lingchuan, "You can have fun anywhere on the main street, and the two streets behind it are fine too. But don’t go any further than that. It’s dangerous."

"It’s dangerous here?"

"The places at the front are all properties of the officials and gentry from Lingxu City, with dedicated guards. As long as you’re a paying customer, your safety is guaranteed." The two were on the second floor of an inn, and Shi the Second pointed down from their vantage point. "See those pitch-black places with no lights in the back? That’s most likely where the outcasts live. It’s full of all sorts of shady characters and god knows what else. Two years ago, one of my caravan hands got drunk and wandered in there. I still haven’t found him."

He saw Hee Lingchuan start to walk away. "Decided where you’re going to have fun?"

"No. You go on ahead, Shi the Second."

"Huh? You’re only seventeen or eighteen, at that hot-blooded age. How come you’re not into this sort of thing?" Shi the Second stroked his chin, looking him up and down. He belatedly recalled that Hee Lingchuan hadn’t seemed to seek out any women during their entire journey.

’Could he have some... hidden ailment? Ah, what a pity. Such a handsome face gone to waste.’

Hee Lingchuan could tell from his expression what he was thinking. "My family’s Cultivation Technique forbids this before the age of eighteen."

"Oh, I see." Shi the Second pretended to believe him and didn’t press the issue. "Come on down whenever you change your mind. Also, that Jinquan Bathhouse across the street is a legitimate place. You can take a bath or a soak. No girls will throw themselves at you unless you give the nod."

With that, he sauntered downstairs.

Hee Lingchuan shook his head. He looked out at the debauchery of the main street. He didn’t want to go to any pleasure dens, but a man’s got to eat.

He had been eating dust for two days in the wilderness, and now, seeing the sign for the Jinquan Bathhouse, his skin suddenly started to feel itchy.

So, a quarter of an hour later, he was soaking in a large wooden tub at the Jinquan.

Tongluo County offered a complete, one-stop service for food, drink, and entertainment—the only thing it lacked was a real hot spring. When customers wanted a soak, they were just soaking in hot water, with a sprinkle of Medicinal Powder at most to pass it off as a medicinal bath.

But while the hot springs were fake, everything else was real. The service was impeccable. You could get a haircut, a shave, a manicure, and a massage. There was plenty of wine, tea, and tobacco, and the kitchen chefs were on standby for all twelve double-hours. You could order a steaming bowl of fresh-boiled pork liver congee or a few steamers of pan-fried buns at any time.

The establishment was divided into private baths and communal baths. The private baths were individual rooms with a table, chairs, a bed, and a wooden tub. As for the communal baths... well, that was for group fun.

Hee Lingchuan, of course, requested a private bath. However, the soundproofing in the private rooms was mediocre at best. What’s more, the large wooden tub was placed by the window, and looking out, he could see the "backstage drama" of the Red Hall across the way.

The rooms opposite him were lit. The ones with closed windows showed intense shadow puppet plays, while the ones with open windows featured live-action performances. The exaggerated, distorted cries of women drifted in through the billowing steam, sounding unreal.

’It’s not easy to earn a living. You have to put your all into the performance.’

After soaking for an hour, Hee Lingchuan got hungry. He changed his clothes and was about to go to the front hall to order some food when the door to his private room was suddenly smashed open with a CLANG. Three men burst in, demanding fiercely, "Where is he hidden?"

An owl also flew in with a FLUTTER, landing on a beam and looking all around.

Hee Lingchuan was completely baffled. "Who?"

The three men seemed to be out of breath from running. They checked behind the screen, on the beams, and under the bed. They even lifted the lid of the toilet, as if afraid someone was hiding inside.

One of them went to look out the window but was immediately captivated by the live-action performance across the way, staring without blinking.

Hee Lingchuan leaned over for a look. ’Indeed, a very difficult position.’

The other two walked over and smacked their companion hard on the head. "What the hell are you looking at? Keep searching!"