The tavern waiter appeared excited. "Haha, dear customers, you are all too early. From how you are all dressed, you all aren't locals, right?"
"Yeah." Chen Feng nodded as he feigned a casual expression on his face before asking, "It seems like I wasn't able to see anyone in this city earlier?"
"Sigh, it's the night curfew." The waiter curled his lips. "Apparently there were some escaped convicts. The authorities are still on the hunt for them."
"Oh." Chen Feng put on the expression of someone who had learned something new, pretending to accept this explanation.
"Please be seated."
The waiter arranged a table for Chen Feng's group. After taking their orders and some idle chat, the waiter left, leaving Chen Feng's group that was exchanging glances with each other behind.
Regardless of this tavern or this whole city, everything here was too bizarre!
Chen Feng looked at Shen Yi. "Is this an illusion?"
"Nope." Shen Yi's eyes were glowing. She could easily see through all illusions. Everything here seemed incomparably real and did not appear like an illusion at all. Everything they were witnessing was real! The whole city and the residents here were real!
"Perhaps this is an independent place that exists beyond the influence of the outside world?" Wang Chun said with astonishment. In this world, such a place truly existed?
Perhaps due to the chaos and disorder back then, these people had escaped and come here. Subsequently, they had gotten some super expert to set up some array to cut off all contact with the outside world and create such a safe haven here? This was possible, right?
But then… several centuries had passed. This place shouldn't have maintained its original appearance from back then, right? There was also the death aura that Shen Yi had mentioned previously…
This whole city seemed to be enveloped in mystery.
"Let's take a stroll around," Chen Feng proposed.
"All right," everyone agreed.
They left the tavern and walked toward the street. The streets that had appeared lifeless now had a flourishing appearance. At this instant, they almost felt like they had returned to ancient times.
Everywhere, there were people buying and selling, some of them haggling over the price, while some started fighting due to disagreement…
The whole city appeared alive.
"All this is real." Shen Yi was certain.
Everyone else nodded. None of this was fake.
"Let's try interacting more with the people here," Chen Feng suggested.
"All right."
They tried interacting with the people here.
If everything here was truly fake or a setup, it would be impossible for the interactions between these residents and Chen Feng's group to hide it flawlessly. However, when they tried interacting with the people here, no problems could be found.
This was not some setup by an artificial intelligence. All of this was real. It reached a point where, after they asked a bunch of nonsensical questions, they were reported to the authorities. Next, the authorities dispatched someone over to arrest them. They were only able to go free thanks to Xu Fei.
"Nice to meet you, Great Master."
These people here appeared rather respectful of the bald Xu Fei and the faint traces of scars on his head that resembled a monk. That was not all; there were some who took the initiative to look for Xu Fei, hoping that he would help them with their eye-opening ceremony 1 .
"Everything here is real."
Even Shen Wei ultimately believed that everything here was real. This was because she had earlier gotten into a fight and the injury that she had received was real.
If all this had been fake, the only method of implementing it to such perfection was to use illusions. However, the existence of an illusion capable of fooling all of them, including the Shen Yi from a different world, was impossible. Chen Feng had even used his Luck Aura to confirm that this was not an illusion.
This was the Nether Capital, the actual Nether Capital concealed within the thick smog surrounding it.
No one had ever expected that hidden within this thick smog was an independent city that still retained its looks from ancient times.
"These people have been staying here for several centuries?" Chen Feng contemplated.
Suddenly, he looked toward the end of the street. Some merchants on their carts were trying to leave the city. However, they were stopped by the soldiers stationed there.
"Nobody is allowed to leave?" Chen Feng asked a passerby near him.
The person shook his head as he explained, "Not for a few days. These few days, there were some escaped convicts. The authority is hunting for them. As such, only entry into the city is permitted. Moreover, a night curfew has also been implemented."
Chen Feng contemplated, "If so, all these people will be allowed to leave on normal days?"
"Naturally," the person answered with an odd expression.
"Many thanks."
They bid the people there farewell before leaving, their brains working overtime. So the people here were allowed to leave the city normally? But out there was a huge skeleton beast! Besides that…what was the point of leaving and going out there where everything was dead?
"That huge skeleton beast seems to be something that only appeared recently…" Wang Chun said suddenly. "The death lions only started disappearing recently as well. That is the only reason we actually got into this city. Under normal circumstances, there simply would have been no need for us to venture into the smog to reach this city. As for the merchants that are allowed to leave this city on other days… is it possible that more than one city exists here?" Wang Chun finished with a solemn expression.
"You mean…"
Everyone's heart throbbed furiously. More than one city? In other words, a second or even a third city might exist here! As for those merchants, they were in charge of the commercial trade between these cities to ensure the smooth operation of these cities. Apart from that, those merchants might be the true guardians of this place.
"If this is something put in place by some super expert back then… it is possible that they left behind descendants that will also be in charge of maintaining the hermit nature of the cities around here," Wang Chun stated calmly.
Everyone sank into contemplation.
If this was the truth, then everything would be explainable.
A few hundred years ago, a calamity had befallen the Nether Capital. Next, an expert had appeared and established this independently existing series of cities as safe havens. An array had been set up to stop outsiders from coming here and the power of necromancy had been used to preserve everything here in good condition. On top of that, the truth had been concealed from the residents here to allow them to maintain their simple lifestyles.
The descendants of that expert had continued guarding this place in the dark. Only until recently, though, due to the appearance of that huge skeleton beast. "Hunting escaped convicts" was being used as an excuse to place a temporary lockdown on the Nether Capital.
"If that is the case… we only need to wait for the huge skeleton beast to disappear, and all will be fine."
Xu Fei's eyes shone. Their mission was only to capture a single death lion. As long as the giant skeleton beast disappeared and everything went back to how it had been, there would no longer be any problems.
Their mission did not seem to conflict with the intention of this city's establishment. As for what had happened here in the past? They had no interest in finding out.
Anything pertaining to the setup of an eternally existing array would touch on a subject of research that was forbidden. With their present strength, if they were to get involved in such things, it was very probable they would die horribly.
Since the Nether Capital was on lockdown and they had no way of leaving, they could only settle down and wait quietly.
However, due to Xu Fei's identity as a "senior monk" in the eyes of the residents here, they enjoyed free food and drinks from the residents. The only thing the residents here would ask in return was that Xu Fei assist with some eye-opening ceremonies.
Soon, night arrived. The whole city recovered its dead atmosphere. It was scarily silent.
Chen Feng's group was feeling extremely stifled in their windowless room in the tavern. As such, they decided to take a stroll through the streets. There was nobody out at night anyway. As for the so-called escaped convicts… none of them could be seen.
"The night curfew was probably implemented due to the smog here being too thick at night. It might end up hurting the residents here. As such, the guardians of this place created some random excuse to implement the curfew. However, the smog here has no effect on us," Shen Wei said.
"Mhm."
Everyone nodded. Since that was the case, they might as well start training out here. Their plan was quite simple. When everything returned to how it had been, they would proceed to hunt a death lion before leaving in secret. This would not affect the stability of this place.
The night passed quietly.
The sky brightened gradually, and the city started coming alive again. Chen Feng's group proceeded to return to the tavern. At the entrance, the waiter that was coming out of the tavern looked at them in astonishment and said, "Yo, dear customers, you are all quite early, ay? From how you all are dressed, you are all probably from the Western Regions?"
As Chen Feng's group looked at the waiter's expression, which did not seem to recognize them, their bodies chilled.
This place…
Eye-opening ceremony: A ceremony to "open the eyes" of, or consecrate, newly created statues or painted images of a Buddha. It is performed in the belief that the image can thereby be endowed with spiritual properties. They are thinking that the bald Xu Fei is a senior monk.