"This is a safe place. At least in the past fifty years, the Frost authorities have never known that such a secret was hidden under their feet," Nemo Wilkins walked into the hideout deep underground and turned around.
Turning around, he said to Duncan and others who had followed them in, with obvious pride in his tone, "These ancient sewers are criss-crossed. Most of the areas have been abandoned, so they are dry and safe. There are also some branch roads leading to the upper pipe system, but
All the connecting points are safe, and even if one or two are discovered, the city hall cannot search the entire underground structure - they simply don't have that many manpower."
As the "tavern owner" spoke, he came to a nearby cement wall and turned a valve on a certain pipe. A faint hissing sound of air flow came from the distance - and suddenly more gas lamps came on.
stood up, and the gas lamps that had always been on became brighter.
"In fact, the current Frost City Hall is quite good at maintaining the basic operations of the city." He turned around and grinned, with a trace of mockery on his slender face, "The sewers hidden in the sewers half a century ago
What are you talking about? I’m afraid only the old craftsmen who served the Frost Queen can explain it clearly."
"...This is a facility left over from the Queen's era?!" Fanna immediately guessed the truth from the other party's words. She opened her eyes slightly in surprise, "These underground waterways...how did you hide them?
"
Nemo shrugged: "I have not experienced the chaos half a century ago, but my grandfather has talked about it with me for half a lifetime - he told me that the Frost Queen once built a huge underground structure for the entire city-state. Initially,
In order to cope with land pressure and lay the foundation for the long-term development of the city-state, these underground structures include underground waterways, power pipelines, power grids and a complete transportation system that were leading the world at that time, and the 'sewer' in front of you is the deepest one -
Strictly speaking, it should have been named the 'Second Waterway', because there is a First Waterway above it, which is the sewer system currently used by Hanshuang.
"After the great rebellion, the city-state did not fall immediately - although the rebels later publicized that they 'completely dismantled the Mad Queen's last guard in a very short period of time', the actual situation is that after the female
For the entire seventy-two hours after the palace, which is now the municipal center, was captured, the battle continued. The loyalists who remained in the city moved from the ground to the underground. In the criss-crossing network of subway stations and power pipelines,
There are people fighting everywhere.
"The rebels who invaded the city center are declaring victory, newspapers are publishing news about the change of power, citizens are hiding in their homes and feeling uneasy, the subway station is blocked, people are lying on the ground near the tube well, listening to the sound coming from the distant depths below.
All kinds of disturbing sounds come.
"All this lasted until the day of the execution - the roar of the sea cliff collapse shook the whole city and finally ended the last resistance underground.
"After that, the Queen's Guards blew up all the shafts leading to the Second Waterway and closed the gates connected to the First Waterway. Coupled with the subsequent intermittent skirmishes and artificial collapse, eventually the entire Second Waterway was destroyed.
The waterway is completely separated from the upper level."
As Nemo Wilkins spoke, he raised his head and glanced at the thick dome above. His eyes seemed to be looking through the layers of steel, cement and stone at the busy streets of the city-state above.
"In fact, the new government established by the rebels did not know anything about this sewer. They knew about the existence of the frost underground world - but so what? They just knew about its existence.
"The sea cliff collapsed, and the city suffered heavy losses. It took decades for the frost after the civil war to recover, and Boiling Gold became the only remaining economic pillar of the city. What was once the number one city-state in the Lenglie Sea is now nothing but history.
The glory in the book is that to this day, the city still uses the pipeline system left by the queen.
"Under these circumstances, who has the ability to search the vast network of tunnels deep underground in the city-state? The cost of reopening the shafts and rectifying the second waterway is unacceptable to the new government - and to the post-war population and city
For Hanshuang, which has been reduced in size, the 'First Waterway' on the upper level is enough."
"Since it's enough, let's make do with it." Vanna suddenly remembered what Morris had said not long ago and whispered softly subconsciously.
"That's right, just make do with what's enough. This city is already riddled with holes, and it really can't afford another big war," Nemo said with a smile. "Besides, for such a big city, even if it's deep in the sewers,
A little 'moss' hidden away isn't a big deal, cults, darkness breeds, night shadows, out-of-control anomalies - there's plenty hiding in the sewers, and none of them are more worthy of the authorities than us.
And the church has a headache.”
Duncan didn't speak much, just silently listening to the "informant"'s rambling story, and then suddenly said: "Such a huge underground facility, and I think there is gas and electricity supply here - it can't be powered by
You managed it alone, right?"
"Of course it's impossible," Nemo Wilkins laughed. "We still have some manpower distributed throughout the city, even in certain departments of the city hall. Most of them were from the Queen's Guards back then.
Descendants, such as me, and some are brothers and sisters who passed the test with General Tirian and were confirmed to be loyal and reliable - but they are not suitable to show up."
"...Tirion said that he planted some 'informants' in Frost. He is so humble." Duncan couldn't help but shook his head, "Did that kid actually bury such a large amount of power in Frost...
"
Nemo heard the name Duncan used when referring to Tirian. The expression on the middle-aged man's face visibly stiffened, but he didn't say anything.
While several people were talking, Morris was always observing the underground world with great interest. His eyes swept over the towering dome and the abandoned pipes crisscrossing from high altitude, as well as many nearby walls that were obviously installed later.
After a while, he suddenly asked: "Do you still control the entire second waterway?"
"Strictly speaking, it's only a small part of it," Nemo shook his head regretfully. "Although I would like to say that the entire underground kingdom is under control, after all, our manpower is limited, and the scale of the entire Second Waterway is beyond imagination—
—Only about one-fifth of the abandoned sewers are now under our control; other areas are either isolated from each other due to collapse, abandoned, or covered with toxic sewage, and some are eroded by dangerous forces and difficult to access."
"Dangerous power erosion?" Fanna immediately frowned and her professional sensitive cells began to beat.
"Sometimes, the hunted illegal supernatural beings will accidentally fall into the sewers, and they will die below, causing large-scale pollution, but more often than not, it is the darkness itself that breeds monsters," Nemo said, "After all, this is
It is a huge underground world, and the gas we secretly brought in from the pipe well above cannot maintain the lighting of the entire second waterway. And when the brightness is not enough...some places will fall into darkness, and they will fall into darkness forever."
Fanna stared, not knowing what to say for a moment, she just felt a little suffocated.
Coming from the prosperous Purande, and as a protector of the order of the city-state, she really couldn't imagine that a city would allow such a thing to happen - a large area of underground facilities has been in a dark state for a long time, and has even begun to breed shadows, which cannot be purified.
, this is also okay?
However, the facts before us prove that this is indeed possible, and the Frostmen have lived like this for half a century, and nothing major seems to have happened.
"It is not ruled out that occasionally unlucky people who mistakenly go underground disappear, or that the death rate of guards at night is higher than that of other city-states, but everyone is used to it."
Nemo obviously saw the shocked expression on Vanna's face. He had already judged that these people in front of him were "foreigners", so he naturally knew what the other person was surprised about.
"Every few years, we clean up several dangerous areas of the First Waterway and the subway branch line, pour incense and holy ashes into the ground every now and then, and increase the death pension of the guardians a little, so that the gatekeepers can make two extra trips on a daily basis.
, most ordinary people are still living well... This is already a very good situation."
After saying that, the "tavern owner" paused and turned his head with a smile: "Believe me, most city-states are actually not much better, and they have not been much better since ancient times."
Duncan and others looked at each other for a moment, not knowing what to say. After a short and awkward silence, Vanna was the first to speak - she looked at Morris next to her and asked: "What is your judgment?"
"There are no signs of cognitive interference, and thinking and memory should be clear."
Morris answered Vanna's question, but his eyes kept falling on Nemo Wilkins, and in the old scholar's eyes, a light silver glow was gradually dissipating.
Nemo blinked, with a confused expression on his face: "What...are you talking about?"
Duncan turned his eyes and stared at the other person quietly: "Mr. Nemo, congratulations, you have not been affected by cognitive interference."