Compared to the "worldly innocent" Zong Shen.
Chen Rui had extensive experience dealing with the native inhabitants.
He picked up his wine cup and slowly walked over to the table occupied by the White Wolf Corps mercenaries.
The joined wooden table was a mess of cups and plates. Meat bones and spilled liquor had left its surface sticky and filthy.
His arrival made the mercenaries abruptly stop talking.
They all scrutinized him with wary, vicious gazes.
Black Leaf Great City was a border fortress, and the scale of its garrison far surpassed that of an ordinary great city.
The city's security forces were entirely rotated in from the regular army.
Personal brawls were one thing, as long as no one died.
But armed fights were expressly forbidden. Anyone caught would be tried for a serious crime.
It was said that Black Leaf Great City's underground prison could hold tens of thousands of people at once.
It was dark and damp there. Once bound by Rune chains, ordinary people had no way of escaping.
And throughout their long sentences, the prisoners had only sewer rats for company.
Furthermore, whenever war broke out in Black Leaf Great City, those prisoners might be temporarily conscripted and sent to the battlefield as convict soldiers.
They would be used directly as expendable fodder to wear down the enemy's offensive.
There were many rumors about the cruelty of Blackleaf Prison.
Even the most vicious mercenaries had no desire to trample upon Black Leaf Great City's laws
and taste imprisonment and barbed whips.
Yet it was precisely because Black Leaf Great City's laws were so strict that many people could come here to rest without worry.
This also indirectly fueled the prosperity of commerce and entertainment within the city.
Brothels and taverns both did excellent business here.