Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Cloud Tower, the city of silk and black gold.
It had been raised from the sea hundreds of years ago because of turmoil within the Originator, and now it occupied the main sea route between the East and the West. It could be said that it had the trade routes by the throat.
It existed only as a cash cow. As long as the waterways kept operating, the money would keep flowing without end.
Ye Qingxuan had heard tales of its extravagance and prosperity from traveler’s notes and from the mouths’ of merchants and smugglers.
It was said that half of the huge city was built on the sea. Those civilians and untouchables without property or identity had to live on the sea. Their houses made out of sampans, and wooden boats were like barnacles clinging to the rocks and the city walls.
With land so scarce in this sea, every inch of soil was worth as much gold. Every vacant inch of soil was filled as soon as possible, and every foot of space would be used up.
In the end, the whole city had become a three-dimensional labyrinth.
Behind the thick walls, the builders had done things very skillfully. Behind a very thinly constructed layer, they had stuffed in the lowest class, slaves. Then they had put in a layer of wood, and behind another thinly constructed layer, they put the civilians. And then there were those with property, the officials, the wealthy, powerful merchants. In this way, it went constantly upward, layer after layer, until above the nine layers the sunlight illuminated a tall tower, the highest place in the city.
To the poets, the seat of the castellan of the city used up all the extravagance of the mortal world. Every brick and every tile was made by the hands of a craftsman. Even the roof tiles were decorated with black gold and jade.
The whole city was like a tall building created by a skilled hand, and the castellan’s seat was the crystallized magnificence at the top. Below it, the dark city never slept. For the 360 days out of the year, the lights were not extinguished, and crowds of people walked back and forth along wooden ladders and rails, consuming both goods and wealth.
Gold, silver, and jade were continuously transported through the deepest part of the maze. Nowadays no one knew how much wealth was hidden within the city.
There were all kinds of rumors, some beautiful, some solemn, some strange, and some dark, but in all of them, Cloud Tower had a mysterious attraction, like a mirage, inviting curiosity.
But Ye Qingxuan had never thought that when he came here it would be so desolate.
The Mountain of Nomadism sailed through the quiet waters. Everywhere it passed, the deteriorated, rotting houses on the sea were lifeless. Through the fog, they could occasionally see one or two hidden shadows moving through the layers, but when they got closer they could find no trace of them.
It was like they were avoiding them on purpose.
The fleets that in the past had come and gone had all vanished. They did not see anyone until they sailed through the gates of Cloud Tower. Although it was normal that after the Great Wall of the East was cut off there would be some desolation, this extreme level of desolation was unexpected.
“There’s something wrong with this d*mn place, Your Highness.” At the helm, Egor scratched his bald head. “It’s eerie.”
Ye Qingxuan was amused. “Leviathan’s Lightless Sea didn’t scare you, and now just a little bit of desolation and you’re like this?”
“This is different.” Egor gathered his thoughts, and after ruminating for a while said, “The Lightless Sea was made by a monster. I’m not afraid of monsters. If I can fight them I’ll live, if I can’t fight them I’ll run, and if I can’t run I’ll die. But this is different. This is man-made. I fear humans much more than monsters.”
Ye Qingxuan was surprised, and couldn’t help but laugh. Although Egor’s philosophy of survival was rough and simple, he did have some flashes of insight.
“Relax, no matter what’s going on here, I can protect you.” He patted Egor’s shoulder and walked to the front of the bridge. He stared out in front of the Mountain of Nomadism.
They were under the city of Cloud Tower now, and in front of them was the main gate—a 10,000-ton watergate.
Cloud Tower’s main gate was divided into two layers, isolated by two sluice gates at both ends of the city gate. It was said that the water level inside the city was completely different from outside, and that the elevation difference was like a steep cliff.
If he didn’t have a whole set of hubs to coordinate its movement, it would be difficult for Ye Qingxuan to break through the outer gate.
But now that the ship had arrived at the wall, there was no response from Cloud Tower. Ye Qingxuan sensed that on top of the wall, there was enough room to let dozens of horse-drawn carriages run parallel to each other, but there was not a single person up there.
In the space behind the city gate, it was so quiet that it did not seem like a city.
Now, all of Cloud Tower was like a double-layered iron coffin, sealing in corpses and their stench. The city revealed nothing, but getting closer made them uneasy.
It was like the city had died.
Amidst their perplexion, a roar burst out.
As the sluice gates shook violently, numerous green rust stains and barnacles shook off from the iron wall, and the sound of surging currents gathered together into the harsh sound of countless boulders smashing together. White foam seethed beneath the water, like a dead octopus spurting out its decomposing fluids.
Eventually, the path to the center of the city slowly became open.
But even now no one appeared before them.
Not even a signal light was lit.
“This…” Egor looked hesitantly at Ye Qingxuan.
“I’ll go, you all stay here.” Ye Qingxuan took a jacket from one of the crewmembers and put it on. “If something happens, don’t worry about me, retreat straightaway to a safe distance,” he ordered the captain. “I authorize you to use Hephaestus when necessary.”
Egor wanted to say something but stopped, guessing that there was no use in urging him again. He just sighed and called over two crew members.
“Please let them go with you.” Egor looked at Ye Qingxuan. “As a Prince, it’s unthinkable for you to go out on an inspection tour without a couple of attendants. Even if they just carry your bags for you.”
More people were better than fewer, and moreover, and if something went wrong, he could throw them in front of the blade and buy himself some time.
Ye Qingxuan looked at the pair of knights who had started dressing. He did not refuse. Soon, he stepped onto the gangplank and jumped onto one of the sampans. As he faced the dark city, the sampan slowly entered into the depths of the city gate.
On the bridge, Egor smoked his cigarette furiously, looking at the cold edge of the city, and his face twitched involuntarily.
“This d*mn place… It’s too freaking evil.”
…
In reality, Ye Qingxuan did not sail through the darkness for very long.
When his sampan stopped at the dock, he saw a figure that had been waiting there, a slender-limbed, white-haired girl with familiar eyebrows…
Bai Xi?
Ye Qingxuan was stunned and almost blurted out her name. But he soon realized the girl’s face did not have the same arrogance and playfulness. In fact, she had no expression, like a puppet.
She was just indifferent.
“You are… Yunlou Chaoyue?” Ye Qingxuan remembered Bai Xi’s rumored twin sister, but he had not thought that the first time he would see her would be under such strange circumstances.
In the silence, the girl gave him a slight salute. “Please come with me.” After saying this she turned and led the way.
Her manner suggested that she already knew he would come. There was no surprise or confusion, and no frustration or fear. Her eyes were empty, without any undulations of emotion.
It was like she was a puppet or a doll.
Ye Qingxuan followed her forward in the silence, passing through the dark, complicated corridors and stairways as they worked their way upward.
They did not see the legendary lights illuminate, and the only faint light came from a lantern that the girl carried, making the dead silent city eerier.
Markets, districts, medical centers, storefronts… everywhere they passed, there was not a single sound. Everything was declining, covered in dust, and had not been lived in by people for who knew how long.
A rancid smell lingered in the air, and insects and mice could be faintly seen behind the broken boards, bringing the only faint sound into the darkness.
This city definitely had something wrong with it!
Finally, Ye Qingxuan could not help but ask, “Where is everyone?”
Yunlou Chaoyue, who was walking in front of him, heard his words and stopped, almost making Ye Qingxuan run into her. She looked back at him, and a hint of confusion showed on her beautiful, lifeless face.
It was as if she did not know how to explain it to him.
Soon she whispered, “Everyone left.”
“Left?” Ye Qingxuan was confused. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” This time Yunlou Chaoyue answered quickly, almost without thinking. “Father said they were afraid.”
“Afraid of…” Before he had finished asking the question, Ye Qingxuan already saw the answer.
Corpses.
Tons of corpses…
After passing through corridors and stairways, Ye Qingxuan had finally climbed to the top of the city and saw the legendary magnificent and mysterious white tower. But corpses hung on the tower as thick as stalks in a field of flax.
He didn’t know how long they had been dead. The shriveled shells swayed slightly in the wind. After being exposed to the sun for so long, the scent of rotting no longer spread from them, and there was no glimmer of life left in their pitch black eyes.
They just looked straight at them.
The knights subconsciously put their hands to their swords as their hair stood on end.
Ye Qingxuan was silent for a while, then with a cold smile he said softly, “Your father’s welcoming ceremony is quite original.”
Yunlou Chaoyue stopped at the gate and looked back at the knights behind her. “They stay here.”
“Alright.” Ye Qingxuan waved, indicating that his entourage should wait for him at the gate. Then he stepped into the prosperous building. “I’d like to see what kind of medicine Yunlou Qingshu is selling.”
…
As soon as he stepped through the gate he heard a piano.
The desolate yet elegant piano music echoed throughout the city. It was not loud, but it acted as a counterpoint to the silence and was quite relaxing.
A stream meandered between the pines and bamboo in the courtyard. The sound of flowing water created a strange charm, delicate and beautiful. It was as if, in that instant, they had left the city and come to the wilderness where they could be at ease.
But as he came forward, he felt that this “naturalness” was glossing over something.
He felt the subtle rotation of the earth beneath his feet. Facing the sun, it seemed like the castellan’s seat was built on an axis, so that the huge building was rotating at all times, ensuring that it would be facing towards the sun.
It would revolve all the way around in one day and night.
As Ye Qingxuan walked forward, the courtyard was also slightly undulating. The bamboo, the bent brook, the withered pines or the white walls, were only parts of this huge machine.
Numerous buildings appeared as he walked from a fork in the road towards the end of the road. When he turned back, they slowly sank underground. Under the patchwork of numerous structures and decorations, the entire seat of the castellan seemed to have thousands of different appearances, thousands of different manners, and thousands of different styles.
Even the faint piano music was being played by a device like a music box. Numerous rotating wheels and axles were behind its ingenious rhythm.
Ye Qingxuan finally understood why there were so many contradictions in travelers’ accounts. It was because the city itself was not fixed. Countless modules rose and fell, so it had countless different forms.
In the hands of its master, it was the most sophisticated and expensive toy in the world.
Even though there were no traces of people along the way, Ye Qingxuan could feel the aesthetic value in every inch of space.
When he finally reached the top of the tower, at the highest point of the city, he finally saw Yunlou Qingshu—Bai Xi’s father, the man who had once made him contain his desire to kill. However, the Yunlou Qingshu that he saw now was completely different than he had expected.
It was like… he had been exchanged for someone else.
