This was absolutely no ordinary Secret Realm!
Li Yan grew wary and instinctively tightened his grip around the Severing Dust Blade's hilt.
Before he could inspect it carefully, the dense fog ahead suddenly churned, slowly unfurling like a colossal curtain.
In an instant, a clamorous roar of voices crashed over him.
There, upon the murky river, a pleasure boat was unmistakably moored.
The pleasure boat was enormous, a full three stories high. Its style was archaic and bizarre, utterly unlike the architecture of the current dynasty.
The wood of the hull was dark brown, nearly black, and riddled with the marks of time. The towering decks had flying eaves and interlocking brackets, with carved beams and painted rafters, yet everywhere the lacquer had peeled and the gold leaf had dulled, exuding a decadent luxury.
Countless dim-red lanterns hung along both sides of the hull.
Just as he had seen before, they reflected upon the murky river water around them, dyeing it a sheet of bloodred.
Silk and bamboo music thundered from the boat amid a boiling uproar. Faintly, a song drifted over:
"Candle shadows sway red, brushing painted beams; gold-wrapped rotten wood breathes the scent of grease.
Ice strings rasp and draw the wronged souls' cries; blood sleeves beckon, summoning resentful ghosts.
Makeup covers half the face, bones lie beneath frost; old favor has withered into tattered clothes.
The brocades across the boat wrap corpses entire—who remembers the Raiment of Rainbows dancing hearts to breaking?"
The lyrics were an ancient Southern Song Dynasty Poetry melody from Jinling. The singing was graceful and winding, yet carried a strange, sticky eeriness. It mingled with the shrill cries of the serving boys, the revelers' noisy drinking games, the coquettish laughter of the women, and the clatter of dice bouncing inside bone cups...
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