Chapter 297 – Grudges (IV)

Chapter 297

Grudges (IV)

A faint gasp escaped his lips as he watched chains thicker than towers rip out of the ground and ascend toward the flattened plateau floating midair. It was breathtaking in ways he had never experienced before–a city remaining suspended midair, with massive chains acting as bridges.

There was a steady stream of people climbing up and down, and he joined one of the processions. Strangely, there were no guards or checks anywhere, whether at the bottom of the chains or the top, allowing everyone to enter and exit the city.

As soon as he entered the place, he noticed that something was off; the air, almost, felt palpable with tension, as though the string of a bow was pulled all the way back, just waiting to be loosened.

It seemed as though everybody was stealthily observing him–but not just him, specifically, but more so every newcomer. The streets were inordinately empty, with the usual hustle and bustle of an average city nowhere to be found. None of the shops were open, there was not a single child anywhere that he could see, and a good number of windows were barred with wooden planks.

He frowned, not having expected it.

Everything he heard about the Silvercrest City pointed to a rich, lively city that acted as the first gateway to the further northern reaches of the Split Heavens region. This seemed more like a ghost of a city that once existed than the actual thing itself.

After walking down the central promenade for almost fifteen minutes, he finally came across a shop that was open–a small tea place, no larger than a single-bedroom house.

As he couldn’t exactly proceed any further without getting some information about the place, he pulled apart the garlic-made cover over the front doors and entered. Scent of boiling tea leaves permeated every inch of the cluttered space; there were four tables in total, and yet despite that, it felt somewhat claustrophobic with how close they were to each other.

Behind the old, wooden stall was an even older woman who was currently tossing pieces of firewood into the roaring flame, registering him as she stood back up.

“Good day, madame,” Yun Qi greeted with a faint smile.

“A double failure, lad,” she said. “Neither is it a good day, nor am I a madame. What do you want?”

“Jasmine tea, if you have it.”

“Have a seat.”

He just barely fit behind one of the tables, feeling it press a bit into his knees, before speaking up again.

“Did something happen? It’s my first time here, but based on what I heard about the place…”

“An awful lot of things happened,” she said. “If I were you, lad, I’d speedily drink the tea and get the hell out. This ain’t no place for a newcomer.”

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But he couldn’t quite leave–he tracked down yet another Elder that was rumored to have been behind the attack on the Spirit Sword Sect. Not directly, but more so that he oversaw the entire thing.

And, for some reason, that Elder speedily left his sect about a month ago to rush over here. If he missed this opportunity, who knew when he would get the next one?

“I’m rather sturdy, madame.”

“Heh. Sturdier have fallen. Our guardian, the sturdiest of them all, was killed by some ghost. Pah. Do whatever you want.”

Though he wanted to chat a bit more, he realized based on her expression that she was done talking–so he didn’t press. He merely awaited the tea and drank it in silence.

It was about ten minutes into his thinking of the next course of action that the garlic cover parted, and another figure showed up–it was an older man, somewhat hunched and red-faced, and he appeared slightly out of breath.