Before
"We've finally reached the ruins of Ancient Lan City. We have two routes to choose from — here's the map!" Chen Linjian spread the map out and pointed to some of the routes on it.
Everyone gathered around the map, discussing animatedly.
"The first route is through the West Gate. Following the city wall, we can quickly enter the main city. But what will we find along the way? Obviously, we need to get into the residential quarters inside the city to find anything worthwhile!" said one of Chen Linjian's subordinates.
"I agree with him!"
"Right, we should search through the residential district!" the others echoed.
Chen Linjian was silent for a moment, then looked up at Nie Li and asked, "What do you think?"
Everyone was a little surprised — they hadn't expected Chen Linjian to ask for Nie Li's opinion at a time like this.
By now, everyone had grown accustomed to valuing Nie Li's perspective.
Nie Li spread his hands and said, "If you came here just to search through these residential quarters, you're dead wrong. Those who arrived before us have surely searched all these houses already — we'd go through them again and find nothing. Think about it: in any city, who holds the most wealth? The commoners? Of course not! Ninety percent of a city's wealth is concentrated in the hands of the noble families!"
"This city stretches for hundreds of li in every direction. There are so many residential buildings, and much of the area has already been destroyed. How are we supposed to know where the noble families lived?"
"Go on!" Chen Linjian looked at Nie Li with visible interest. He clearly found Nie Li's reasoning convincing.
"Finding where the noble families lived is actually quite simple. Look at where the buildings on this map are the sparsest — that's where. Noble families always had their own separate estates!" Nie Li continued.
Everyone's eyes fell on the map.
"Right here!" Huyan Lanruo exclaimed in delight.
"That's right — it should be here. Many of the buildings in this area are quite large!"
Chen Linjian frowned slightly. "This area has already been searched. They found a few good things, but not many. Some people dug through the entire place up and down and still couldn't find any secret chambers or anything like that!"
"See, what you can think of, others have already thought of! Do you really think all those noble families in the
Nie Li frowned and fixed his gaze on Shen Yue. "Can you shut up while I'm talking? Since you're so smart, why don't you explain it?"
Shen Yue opened his mouth to retort, but Chen Linjian shot him a cold glare and snorted, "Shut up!"
Shen Yue clamped his mouth shut, frustrated. Though he was a direct descendant of the Sacred Family, his status was nowhere near Chen Linjian's — he wouldn't dare talk back, not in a million years.
"It's perfectly normal that this area was already searched. Let's keep looking at the map. The noble family district sits right on the central axis of Ancient Lan City, because this was the most heavily guarded — and safest — part of the city." Nie Li pointed to the area behind the noble estates. "This area here should be where the
Shen Yue nodded. So far, every one of Nie Li's deductions had been correct. But even the City Lord's Mansion had already been thoroughly searched by those who came before — including underground — and they still hadn't found much of anything.
"Let's continue examining the map. Only a few hundred meters from the City Lord's Mansion, there are three areas. Do you know what those three areas were for?" Nie Li looked at Chen Linjian and asked.
"Of those three areas, one is a training ground — where the city lord drilled his troops. Another has densely packed stone fortresses, completely empty inside, all built from black cloud stone that can't be chiseled through no matter how hard you try! The third area is unknown in purpose — it sits right next to the stone fortresses, overgrown with weeds and trees." Chen Linjian rattled this off. Before coming here, he had memorized every detail of Ancient Lan City's map.
Hearing Chen Linjian's words, Nie Li smiled faintly. "Pretty much matches my analysis!"
Chen Linjian's eyes lit up. "You mean all three locations are suspicious? Could it be those stone fortresses? But those have been searched too!"
"Those stone fortresses were probably meant as shelters in times of crisis. When demon beasts attacked, the residents would surely have hidden inside. There may well be secret chambers hidden within, containing treasure. But the open ground next to the fortresses is obviously a trap zone — built to fight off demon beasts. If you go in there to investigate, you'd probably die without even knowing how. In my opinion, the most suspicious location is actually that training ground!" Nie Li said with a light smile.
"Why is the training ground the most suspicious?"
A training ground was just a muddy open field — a square for drilling soldiers. What could possibly be suspicious about that?
"The most inconspicuous place is often the safest. And besides, the city lord placed this training ground right on the central axis of the city — that's no coincidence. Beneath this training ground, there could very well be something of immense importance hidden away!" Nie Li pointed at the map. "Let's head to that area first and do a thorough search!"