Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 356

[Chapter 354 The Second Waterway]

“This is a safe place, and for at least the past fifty years, the Frost authorities have never known that there is such a secret hidden under their feet,” Nemo Wilkins walked into this deep buried In the underground hiding place, he turned around and said to Duncan and others who came 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, and there are some fork roads leading to The plumbing system on the upper level, but all the connections are safe, even if one or two people are found, the city hall can’t search the entire underground structure-they don’t have that many people.” The “tavern owner”

said , came to a nearby concrete wall again, turned the valve on a pipe, and heard a faint hiss of airflow from a distance——suddenly, more gas lamps came on, and those that had been maintained for a long time The bright gas lamps also became brighter.

“In fact, the current Frost City Hall can maintain the basic operation of the city is already quite good,” he turned around, grinning, with a hint of mockery on his slender face, “the sewers hidden half a century ago What are you talking about? I am afraid that only the old craftsmen who served the Frost Queen could explain it clearly.” “

…This is a facility left over from the Queen’s era?!” Fan Na immediately guessed the truth from the other party’s words, she Opening his eyes slightly in surprise, “These underground waterways…how did you hide them?”

Nemo shrugged: “I haven’t experienced the chaos half a century ago, but my grandfather told me For half a lifetime—he told me that the Queen of Frost once built a huge underground structure for the entire city-state, initially to deal with land pressure and lay the foundation for the long-term development of the city-state. These underground structures included the world’s leading underground waterway, Power pipelines, electricity grids, and a whole transportation system, and the ‘sewer’ you’re looking at is the deepest of them all – strictly speaking, it should have been named the ‘second waterway’ because there’s a first waterway on top of it , is the sewer system that Frost is currently using.

“After the great rebellion, the city-state did not fall immediately—although the rebels later publicized that they ‘completely disintegrated the Mad Queen’s last guard in a very short period of time’, but the reality is that the female For seventy-two hours after the royal palace—that is, the city center today—was captured, the battle continued. The loyalists who remained in the city moved from above ground to 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 announcing victory, the newspapers are publishing the news of the regime change, the citizens are hiding in their homes, the subway station is blocked, people lie on the ground near the tube well, listening Various disturbing sounds came from the distant depths below.

“All this continued until the day of the execution—the roar of the sea cliff collapse shook the entire city, and finally ended the last underground resistance.” After that, the

Queen’s Guard blew up all the shafts leading to the Second Waterway, and The gate connected to the first waterway was closed, coupled with intermittent small-scale conflicts and artificial collapses, and finally, the entire second waterway was completely separated from the upper layer. “

Nemo Wilkins said, raised his head and glanced at the thick dome above, as if his eyes were going to pass through the layers of steel, cement and stone, and scan the busy streets of the city-state above. “In fact, the

rebels The new government established later was not ignorant of this sewer, they knew the existence of the Frost Underworld – but so what? They just know it exists.

“The sea cliff collapsed, the city suffered heavy damage, and the frost after the civil war took decades to recover, and the boiling gold became the only remaining economic pillar of the city. The once number one city-state of Lengliehai now only has history. The splendor in the book, to this day, the city is still using the pipeline system left by the queen.

” Under such circumstances, who has the ability to search the huge network tunnel deep underground in the city-state? The cost of reopening the shafts and reorganizing the Second Waterway is unacceptable to the new government – and for the post-war Frost with shrinking populations and city sizes, the upper ‘First Waterway’ is more than enough used. “

“Since it’s enough, let’s make do with it.” Fan Na suddenly remembered a sentence Morris had said not long ago, and subconsciously murmured softly.

“That’s right, enough is enough to make do with it. This city is riddled with holes, and I really can’t afford to go to war again,” Nemo said with a smile, “Besides, for such a big city, even if the sewers are It’s not a big deal to hide a little ‘moss’, cults of heresy, dark breeds, shadows of night, out-of-control anomalies – there are plenty of things hiding in the gutter, and none of them are more worthy of the authorities than us I have a headache with the church.”

Duncan didn’t say much, just listened to the “informant”‘s rambling narration, and then he suddenly said: “Such a huge underground facility, and I think there are gas and electricity supplies here— —It can’t be maintained by you alone, right?”

“Of course it’s impossible,” Nemo Wilkins laughed, “We still have some people, distributed all over the city, even in a certain part of the city hall. In some departments, most of them are descendants of the Queen’s Guard, 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 he planted some ‘informants’ in Frost, he is really modest,” Duncan couldn’t help shaking 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 was visibly stiff, but he didn’t say anything.

While the few people were talking, Morris was always observing the underground world with great interest. His eyes swept over the towering dome and the abandoned pipes that criss-crossed from high altitudes, as well as many of the 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 really want 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 by collapse, abandoned, or covered with toxic sewage, and some places are eroded by dangerous forces and difficult to access.” “

DANGER erosion?” Fan Na immediately frowned, her professional sensitive cells began to throb.

“Sometimes, illegal transcendental beings who are being hunted will mistakenly enter the sewer, and they will die here, causing large-scale pollution, but in more cases, it is the darkness itself that breeds monsters,” Nemo said. It’s a huge underground world, the gas we sneaked in from the pipe well above can’t maintain the lighting of the entire Second Waterway, and when the brightness is not enough… Some places fall into darkness, and they will fall into darkness forever.”

Fanna Staring, I didn’t know what to say for a while, I just felt a little suffocated.

Coming from Prosperous Prosperity, and as the protector of the city-state order, it is really hard for her to imagine that a city would allow such a thing to happen—a large-scale underground facility has been in a state of darkness for a long time, and it has even begun to breed shadows that cannot be purified , that’s okay too?

However, the facts in front of him proved that this is indeed possible, and the Frost people have lived like this for half a century, and nothing major seems to happen.

“It’s not ruled out that there will be occasional unlucky people who strayed into the ground and disappear, or the death rate of the guards at night is higher than that of other city-states, but everyone is used to it.” Nemo obviously saw the shocked expression on Fanna’s face

, He has already judged that these people in front of him are all “foreigners”, so he naturally knows what the other party is surprised about.

“Clean up several dangerous areas on the first waterway and the branch line of the subway every few years, pour incense and holy ashes into the ground every few years, and increase the death pensions of the guards a little, so that the gatekeepers usually make two extra trips , most ordinary people are still alive and well… This is already a very good situation.”

Then, the “tavern owner” paused, and turned his head with a smile: “Believe me, most city-states are actually not much better, and they haven’t been much better since ancient times.”

Duncan and the others looked at each other for a while, and also I didn’t know what to say, and after a brief and awkward silence, Fanna spoke first—she looked at Morris next to her, and asked, “How is your judgment?” “There are no signs of cognitive interference, thinking and

memory It should all be clear.”

Morris answered Fanna’s question, but his eyes kept falling on Nemo Wilkins, and in the old scholar’s eyes, a pale silver glow was gradually dissipating.

Nemo blinked, with a confused expression on his face: “What are you… talking about?”

Duncan turned his gaze and watched the other party quietly: “Mr. Nemo, congratulations, you have not been disturbed by cognition. impact.”

(End of chapter)