Chapter 164: Upon the Ruins

The convoy of the Patrol Bureau sped through the wilderness, the road growing increasingly muddy, bumpy, and deep.

The dim carriage felt like a baby's cradle. Everyone went from whispering and chatting in hushed tones at first, to finally being lulled into a drowsy state by the constant rocking.

Chen Bingfeng and Xu Fan beside him had long since dozed off, their heads bumping against each other with rhythmic thuds.

From time to time, snores echoed inside the carriage, completely devoid of any tense atmosphere.

Only Ye Chen, consumed by intense curiosity, remained full of energy. It was his first time venturing this deep into the wilderness, and his eyes shone brightly as he took in the scenery outside the window.

He tried his utmost to pierce through the layer of darkness and see the world outside clearly.

Gradually, he saw the faint white of dawn breaking in the distance.

The horizon slowly seeped light out of the endless darkness.

The earth remained as barren as ever, yet stubborn lifeforms indomitably broke through the soil.

Ye Chen took deep breaths of the fresh air. It felt cool and refreshing to his lungs, carrying a faint scent of damp earth.

This... was the taste of life, the taste of freedom.

The sky was so vast, the earth so wide. Perhaps those who emerged from the capital were the ones truly living in harmony with the world.

However, someone's rambling dream-talk completely ruined the poetic mood.

"Hehehe, so white... so round, hahaha!"

Ye Chen's mouth twitched, immediately followed by a spasm in his leg muscles.

Xu Mouyu, squeezed right in the middle between the two of them, was dreaming of something unknown when his wandering hands began to misbehave, resting heavily on Ye Chen's thigh.

Goosebumps instantly erupted all over Ye Chen's body. With a look of utter disgust, he slapped the wandering hand away. "Damn it, your touch has practically poisoned these pants."

Mother Chen woke up at that moment as well, forcing himself to shake off the sleepiness. He pulled out a thermos and took several huge gulps, his eyes clearing up instantly.

...Damn it, that stuff works fast!

He glanced at the time, then looked out the window, cleared his throat, and said, "We're almost there!"

"You come here often?"

"Not really, but I've been here a few times! Every patrol officer gets a turn at escorting transport vehicles."

After a brief chat, Ye Chen once again focused his attention outside the vehicle.

A thin mist lingered over the wilderness in the early morning. It wasn't enough to hinder driving, but the convoy's speed had slowed slightly.

"Look, that's the black market we're heading to," Chen Bingfeng said, gesturing and pointing his finger into the distance.

Just as he had said, the rising sun scattered the haze, and a massive complex of buildings vaguely appeared in the distance. It seemed... there were even high-rises.

Moreover, their height vaguely showed signs of surpassing the collection needles.

A wave of astonishment rose in the depths of Ye Chen's heart... Could the buildings in the black market be even taller than those in the inner city?

The black market couldn't possibly be more prosperous than the inner city, could it?!

But reality proved otherwise.

As the convoy gradually drew closer, he also noticed something unusual.

Those buildings, which from afar looked as though they pierced the firmament, were actually left with only shattered skeletons.

Broken walls, smashed windows, peeling exterior facades—they were utterly dilapidated.

Furthermore, numerous climbing plants covered the outer walls of the high-rises, using their green vitality to contrast with the decay.

The exposed steel rebars were encrusted with rust.

Shattered stones littered the streets, and the road surface was fractured and rugged.

Yet, the towering yet decadent buildings still stood there in solitude, looking remarkably like elderly witnesses of history.

Were these the ruins of a pre-human city?!

According to his understanding, buildings made of concrete generally had a lifespan of fifty to one hundred years, but if reinforced with steel bars mixed in, their lifespan would be somewhat longer.

Therefore, those seemingly standing ruined buildings were actually supported by these steel bars.

Whether it was the exterior walls or the interior decorations, a single touch would turn them to dust.

Ye Chen's imagination ran wild... No wonder the people in the inner city liked to build houses with thick, heavy rocks.

Little did they know that rocks would one day weather away as well; nothing stood forever.

...

The time was around eight in the morning.

The convoy continued to close in, but as it got closer and closer to the cluster of high-rises, it suddenly made a turn and headed toward the side.

Seeing the full confusion in Ye Chen's eyes, Chen Bingfeng explained unhurriedly:

"Those high-rises are just landmarks, not the real black market. The black market is right beside them. It's unsafe beneath the high-rises; they could collapse at any time."

"I see!"

Unlike the capital, the black market didn't even have a decent city gate. The convoy found an intersection and drove straight in.

Ye Chen constantly observed the street scenes and pedestrians along the way.

This was a relatively wide avenue, yet it acted like a historical dividing line, splitting the area into two different worlds.

The houses on the left side of the road were all intact, bearing a style similar to the outer city—not exactly luxurious, but exceptionally orderly.

On the right side of the road, as far as the eye could see, was nothing but ruins, including those high-rises that looked as though they were about to topple.

Ye Chen's gaze swept back and forth, comparing the left and right sides of the road... The contrast was immense.

Pedestrians bustled along the street. They seemed long accustomed to such street scenes, their expressions entirely calm.

They did not deliberately make way for the convoy. It wasn't quite a sense of brazen fearlessness, but rather looked more like resentment and aversion.

Whenever a vehicle honked its horn desperately to urge them forward, the pedestrians would cast hostile glances.

Only after they caught sight of the live ammunition carried by the officers would they reluctantly step aside.

Stubborn... and aggressive!

This was Ye Chen's initial impression.

The pedestrians wore all kinds of attire: some dressed like capital residents, some in tailored furs, and others completely wrapped in cloaks and hoods.

There were actually so many wilderness folk here?

This was Ye Chen's second impression.

Chen Bingfeng's timely explanation arrived promptly:

"The black market has no city gates. It doesn't restrict wilderness folk from entering and leaving, and to a certain extent, it even welcomes them.

"If wilderness people want to trade for goods produced in the capital, the black market is their primary choice, though private transactions outside the black market aren't excluded either.

"However, they still hold quite a bit of repulsion toward capital residents. Of course, capital residents despise them even more!"

Ye Chen asked subconsciously:

"I've never understood this. We're all human beings, isn't it just that we live in different places? Why do we have to repel each other?"

"Because of differing ideologies," Chen Bingfeng answered concisely.

Hearing the deeper meaning behind those words, Ye Chen asked, "How so?"

Chen Bingfeng pondered for a moment and said:

"The wilderness folk advocate blending into nature and pursue coexistence with the world.

"The capital residents wish to rebuild order and hope to conquer nature once again!"

Ye Chen fell into deep thought... I always used to think that not letting wilderness people into the city was because they were looked down upon as too lowly.

It seems I was wrong. The wilderness folk are a group of people who simply carry a completely different set of beliefs and ideologies.

If a massive number of wilderness people flooded into the capital, to put it mildly, it would spark conflicts between them and the lower-class civilians.

To put it seriously, that would be inviting wolves into the house, directly shaking the very order of the capital.

Still, advocating to blend into nature doesn't sound bad at all. At least, I don't repel it.