Watching his master's back ahead, Lin Hui narrowed his eyes, paused for a moment, then followed after him.
As he stepped into the white light, his vision was instantly dazzled, but he quickly adjusted.
What greeted his eyes was an endless plain dominated by brown and white.
The place where he stood seemed to be a gray, shovel-shaped cliff.
Looking ahead from here, the colors of the plain below the cliff were formed by vast clusters of brown-and-white buildings packed tightly together.
The buildings stretched like weeds all the way to the distant horizon, too numerous to count.
Between them, neatly planned white roadways divided all the structures into block after block, like pieces of tofu.
"Go down this way." His master, Mingde, reminded him from the side. "The permit lets us remain in the Inner City for one shichen. Once the time is up, we must leave, or our bodies will suffer damage."
"Mm." Lin Hui followed his master down the mountain road on the right alongside cart after cart of freight wagons.
"The Inner City is divided into nine districts, with nine towns in each district. The closer a district is to the core, the greater the harm it does to ordinary people, and the fewer people live there. What we're seeing now is the outermost area. It also has the largest and densest population, because the harm here is the weakest," Mingde said. "Go farther in, and you'll see the core residential areas centered around the Moon Towers. I guarantee it'll open your eyes."
"Why?" Lin Hui's gaze kept sweeping over the countless streets and districts in the distance below.
From afar, he noticed that the people on the streets seemed to be dressed very scantily. Many men wore only trousers and a shawl, with a belt