Chapter 1 A Safe Place

"This is a safe place, at least for the past fifty years. The Frost authorities have never known such secrets were hidden beneath their feet," Nimo Wilkins said, walking into the deeply buried hideout and turning to Duncan and the others who followed. His tone was clearly proud. "These ancient sewers crisscross, and most of the area has been abandoned, making it dry and safe. Some branches lead to the upper-level pipeline system, but all the connections are secure. Even if one or two are discovered, the city hall can't search the entire underground structure one by one—they simply don't have that many people."

As the "tavern owner" spoke, he went to a nearby concrete wall and turned a valve on a pipe. A faint hiss of airflow came from afar—more gas lamps immediately lit up, and those that were already burning brightly became even brighter.

"In fact, the current Frost City Hall is doing quite well just to maintain the city's basic operations," he turned around, grinning, a hint of mockery on his thin face. "What was hidden in the sewers half a century ago? I'm afraid only the old craftsmen who were loyal to the Frost Queen back then can explain it clearly."

These were facilities left over from the Queen's era?!

Vanna immediately guessed the truth from his words, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. "These underground waterways... how did you hide them?"

Nimo shrugged. "I didn't experience the chaos of half a century ago, but my grandfather muttered about it for half his life—he told me that the Frost Queen had built a vast underground structure for the entire city-state, initially to cope with land pressure and lay the foundation for the city-state's long-term development. These underground structures included the world's leading underground waterways, power pipelines, power grids, and a complete transportation system at the time, and the 'sewer' in front of you is the deepest of them—strictly speaking, it should have been named the 'Second Waterway,' because above it there is a..."

The First Waterway is the current sewage system used by Frost.

"After the Great Rebellion, the city-state didn't actually fall immediately—although the rebels later publicized that they had 'completely disintegrated the mad queen's last guards in a very short time,' the actual situation was that the fighting continued for a full seventy-two hours after the Queen's Palace—now the municipal center—was captured. The loyalists who remained in the city moved from the ground to the underground, and there were people fighting everywhere in the crisscrossing subway stations and power pipeline networks.

"The rebels who stormed into the city center announced their victory, the newspapers published news of the change of power, and the citizens hid in their homes in fear. The subway stations were closed, and people lay on the ground near the pipe wells, listening to all kinds of disturbing sounds coming from the distant depths.

"This continued until the day of the execution—the roar of the sea cliff collapsing shook the entire city, and finally ended the last resistance underground.

"After that, the Queen's Guards blew up all the vertical shafts leading to the Second Waterway and closed the gates connecting it to the First Waterway. In addition, there were intermittent small-scale rebellions and artificial collapses, and eventually, the entire Second Waterway was completely separated from the upper level."

As Nimo Wilkins spoke, he raised his head and looked at the heavy dome above, his eyes seeming to penetrate the layers of steel, cement, and stone, and scan the bustling streets of the city-state above.

"In fact, the new government established by the rebels later was not completely unaware of this sewer—they knew of the existence of the Frost underground world—but what could they do? They just knew it existed.

"The sea cliff collapsed, the city was severely damaged, and it took Frost decades to recover after the civil war. Boiling Gold became the city's only economic pillar, and the former Cold Sea First City-State now only exists in history books. To this day, the city is still using the Queen's pipeline system.

"In this case, who has the ability to search the vast network of underground tunnels deep in the city-state? The cost of reopening the vertical shafts and renovating the Second Waterway is unacceptable to the new government—and for Frost, whose population and urban scale have shrunk after the war, the upper-level 'First Waterway' is enough."

"If it's enough, then just make do with it." Vanna suddenly thought of a sentence Maurice had said not long ago and murmured softly subconsciously.

"That's right, if it's enough, just make do with it. The city is already riddled with holes and can't withstand another major upheaval," Nimo said with a smile. "Moreover, for such a large city, even if there is a little 'moss' hidden deep in the sewers, it's not a big deal. Heretic worship, dark creatures, shadows of the night, lost and out-of-control anomalies—there are many things hidden in the gutters, and any one of them is more worthy of the authorities and the church's headaches than us."

Duncan hadn't said much, just silently listening to the "informant's" rambling narration. Only then did he suddenly open his mouth and ask, "Such a huge underground facility, and I see there are gas and electricity supplies here—it can't be maintained by you alone, right?"

"Of course not," Nimo Wilkins laughed. "We still have some manpower, distributed throughout the city, and even in some departments of the city hall. Most of them are descendants of the Queen's Guards, like me, and some have passed the test at General Tirian's place and have been confirmed to be loyal and reliable brothers and sisters—but they are not suitable to show their faces."

"... Tirian said he had planted some 'informants' in Frost. He's really humble," Duncan couldn't help shaking his head. "That kid actually buried such a large force in Frost..."

Nimo heard the name Duncan used when mentioning Tirian, and the expression on the middle-aged man's face obviously stiffened, but he didn't say anything.

While the few were talking, Maurice was observing the underground world with great interest. His eyes swept over the towering dome and the abandoned pipes crisscrossing from high in the air, as well as the many valves and pipe branches on the nearby walls that were obviously installed later. After a while, he suddenly asked, "Do you still control the entire Second Waterway?"

"Strictly speaking, only a small part of it," Nimo shook his head regretfully. "Although I would like to say that the entire underground kingdom is under control, our manpower is limited after all, and the scale of the entire Second Waterway is beyond imagination—now only about one-fifth of the abandoned sewers are under our control. The other areas are either isolated and abandoned due to collapses, or covered by toxic sewage, and some places are eroded by dangerous forces, making them difficult to enter."

"Eroded by dangerous forces?" Vanna frowned immediately, her professional sensitive cells pounding.

"Sometimes, hunted illegal transcendents stray into the sewers. If they die down here, it will cause a wide range of pollution, but more often, darkness itself breeds monsters," Nimo said. "This is, after all, a vast underground world, and the gas we secretly connect from the pipe wells above cannot maintain the lighting of the entire Second Waterway. And when the brightness is not enough... some places fall into darkness, and then they fall into darkness forever."

Vanna stared wide-eyed, not knowing what to say for a moment, feeling a little suffocated.

Coming from the prosperous Pland and being a protector of the city-state's order, she really couldn't imagine that a city would allow such a thing to happen—large-scale underground facilities have been in a state of darkness for a long time, and have even begun to breed shadows that cannot be purified. Is this okay?

However, the facts before her proved that this was indeed okay, and the people of Frost had been living like this for half a century, and nothing major seemed to have happened.

"It can't be ruled out that the occasional unlucky person who strays underground will evaporate, or that the death rate of the guardians at night will exceed that of other city-states, but everyone is used to it."

Nimo obviously saw the surprised expression on Vanna's face. He had already judged that these people were "foreigners," and naturally knew what the other party was surprised about.

"Clean up a few dangerous sections of the First Waterway and subway branch lines every few years, pour incense and holy bone ash into the underground every now and then, and raise the death compensation for the guardians a little bit, and let the gatekeepers run a few more times, and most ordinary people will still live well... this is already a very good situation."

As he said that, the "tavern owner" paused and turned his head with a smile: "Believe me, most city-states are actually no better, and have been no better from ancient times to the present."

Duncan and the others looked at each other for a moment, not knowing what to say. After a brief and awkward silence, Vanna spoke first—she looked at Maurice next to her and asked, "What is your judgment?"

"There are no signs of cognitive interference, and his thinking and memory should be clear."

Maurice answered Vanna's question, but his eyes were always on Nimo Wilkins, and in the old scholar's eyes, a faint silver glow was gradually dissipating.

Nimo blinked, a confused expression on his face: "What... are you talking about?"

Duncan turned his gaze and quietly stared at the other party: "Mr. Nimo, congratulations, you have not been affected by cognitive interference."