Hippo Ancient City

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Hippo Ancient City (河马古城)
Alias(es)	City of the Frog; Goat City; Bronze Giant
Type	Ancient slave city-state; later a living city-shell
Affiliation	Li Ziran
Occupation / Role	Major slave-trade center; Li Ziran’s mobile shell, refuge, and Void Expanse power base
Status	Active; sustains civilizations within its transformed body 750
First Appearance	123

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Ancient slave city-state	123, 141	One of the Wasteland’s three major slave city-states and its only surviving ancient city-state; its ten concentric streets organize a vast specialized slave market.
Purchased territory	660	Li Ziran acquires the city at Christie’s auction for 3.61 million Void Coins and becomes its city lord.
Soul-fused shell	672, 673	Li Ziran merges his double-helix soul into the city and its enormous underlying Source Sea, intending to make it his new body rather than a mere stone city.
Starry-sky / gravity-chain fusion	673–678	Void Chains, Origin, and celestial-body structures are integrated into the Source Sea. After near-collapse, the city contains Li Ziran’s roughly five-thousandfold replicated soul through a stabilizing ring-shaped chain.
Reconstructed Soul Web city	680	Soul-water fills its canals; golden bricks rebuild around the Source Sea and three heptagrams, while a Soul Web links the city to Li Ziran’s will.
Transforming battle shell	682, 699	Reassembles after being shattered, becomes the brass-colored City of the Frog and a blazing Goat City, then later forms a colossal Bronze Giant with recreated Hellhound Tongue and Devouring Stomach structures.
Void Heart vessel	713, 724	Its hidden Void Heart is identified as a core that converts Void Expanse energy into Origin; the revived heart greatly increases Origin production.
Complete Void Expanse life-form	734	Boundary Wall pressure refines its body into a silver shell. Li Ziran identifies its completed essentials as shell, Void Heart, and will.
Boundary Wall-derived energy processor	737, 741	It accesses concentrated energy within bottle-like Boundary Wall structures, then is transformed into an energy-processing system that refines Void energy, expels waste, and forms a new Derivative Realm within Li Ziran.

Background / History

Hippo Ancient City stood at the junction of the Ice Plains, Grasslands, and Wasteland, with a history of nearly two thousand years. It changed hands repeatedly but remained physically intact despite age and wear. Legend holds that it was once part of a vast region of ancient city-states, of which only ruins and Hippo Ancient City survived. 128 594

Its primordial builders fused its bricks with Forbidden Spells and tempered the whole city with an Ice Forbidden Spell. The resulting walls appeared carved from a single rock, bore faded Centaur totems, and endured for millennia. 567

Before Li Ziran’s arrival, the city was a highly organized slave-trade center. Its prosperity rested on the capture, classification, breeding, and sale of numerous races. The Dark Council held it as a major stronghold, while North Sea Port’s military exerted control over the nominal City Lord’s Manor and claimed half of the city-state’s income. 141 170

The city’s order later deteriorated amid the trade in Li Ziran’s Memory Fragments. Christie’s Auction House replaced much of First Street’s former slave shops, visitors flooded in, and open killings became commonplace as the Dark Council lost control. 567

Li Ziran won the city at Christie’s auction, seeking it not for its surface territory but for its ancient, unexplained nature. The city’s small surface area concealed a Source Sea covering roughly one-third of the Wasteland, connected through complex root-like structures. 660 672

Layout and Economy

• The city is arranged as ten concentric commercial streets, extending inward from the outer wall. Arched gates separate each ring-like district. 141
• Tenth Street serves as the principal slave-distribution zone, with a ten-meter-wide road divided into incoming and outgoing caravan lanes. 141
• Distribution yards classify slaves into ten categories: humans, Elves, Demons, Orcs, Dwarves, Sea Folk, Goblins, Winged Race, insect types, and rare types. 141
• Slave prices rise sharply toward the center: Ninth Street commonly sells slaves for around fifty copper coins, Eighth Street for around one silver coin, Seventh Street for around ten silver coins, and Fifth Street for gold coins. 141
• First Street was formerly the city’s most prosperous slave-shop district before Christie’s Auction House occupied more than half of it. 567
• The Black-Red Slave Shop on Seventh Street functioned as a major Sea Folk wholesaler and concealed Demon activity beneath its public trade. 141 142

Appearance

Originally, Hippo Ancient City was a fortified, ring-shaped primordial city-state with towering walls, faded ancient carvings, and magically fused bricks. Its form changed repeatedly after Li Ziran fused with it, eventually becoming a mobile living structure whose bricks, canals, light, and physical forms responded to his will. 141 567 680

• Ancient walls were strong enough to withstand recurring fire rain and Chaotic Tide disasters. 595 596
• Beneath the surface city lies a vast, dark Source Sea connected by root-like chains. 672
• During its fusion, its canals filled with transparent soul-water flowing from Tenth Street to First Street. 680
• Its rebuilt bricks became golden, later brass-colored, and finally silver under Boundary Wall compression. 680 682 734
• It can manifest as a Giant Frog, a flaming Goat City, or a colossal Bronze Giant. 682 699
• Its later forms emit bronze, golden, rainbow, or silver radiance generated through Origin and the Void Heart. 685 713 734

Abilities & Functions

Primordial Shell

Hippo Ancient City’s original construction grants it exceptional endurance. Its fused bricks and ancient protective systems survive catastrophes that devastate living beings around it.

• Its city walls block Wasteland hurricanes and create a mild climate where Ice Plains cold currents meet Wasteland heat. 141
• Ancient protective barriers can shelter the city during Chaotic Tides, fire rain, and severe elemental disasters. 595 596
• Its shell resists Void Expanse forces that should erase ordinary matter. 699
• Boundary Wall pressure cracks and repairs the city rather than immediately destroying it, ultimately refining its walls into silver. 734

Source Sea and Origin Conversion

The Source Sea beneath the city is its primary early energy reserve, while the awakened Void Heart later allows sustained Origin production.

• The Source Sea beneath the city covers roughly one-third of the Wasteland despite the city occupying less than one percent of its surface. 672
• Li Ziran can draw on the Source Sea to energize the entire city-state and construct functions within its body. 699
• The Void Heart converts Void Expanse energy into Origin, enabling the city to produce light, Tide, and other forms of power. 713 724
• The city can form a new Source Sea by accumulating energy and then burn its stored Origin in a single release. 724

Void Chain Integration

Li Ziran made the city into a living extension of his Void Chains rather than an inert possessed structure.

• Void Chains and Origin form celestial bodies within the Source Sea, creating gravity effects that can distort surrounding space and teleportation. 673 674
• Its ring-shaped Soul Replication Chain is stabilized through pressure from the Light Chain and Nature Chain. 680
• The city contains a Soul Web that reproduces principles of Christie’s Void Network and extends Li Ziran’s will through the city and Derivative Space. 680
• Its internal starry-sky system gains new Void Chain patterns from beings destroyed and reborn within the city. 687

Transformation and Combat Forms

The city can rebuild itself after destruction and reshape its architecture into combat-capable forms.

• After Jiawen shatters it into fragments, the city reassembles through Li Ziran’s expanded soul and Source Sea. 682
• As the City of the Frog, it combines elemental explosions with dense soul webs. 682
• As the Goat City, it radiates destructive crimson light capable of burning Jiawen’s soul body. 682
• As a Bronze Giant, it recreates specialized structures modeled on Li Ziran’s Hellhound Tongue and Devouring Stomach. 699
• Its walls can condense into golden fists to intercept soul-based attacks. 711

Purification and Rebirth

The city can destroy a being’s former body, purify its soul, and rebuild it in a stronger form.

• Quentin enters the city’s radiance, is reduced to ash, and reforms as a far stronger Super Panda with an expanded soul and renewed ancestral abilities. 685 686
• By Chapter 687, 272 beings have been accepted and transformed through this process. 687
• Reborn beings awaken distinctive Void Chains that enrich Li Ziran’s Starry Sky Chains. 687
• The process consumes the Source Sea; after large-scale transformations, Li Ziran estimates the city may last only around five months without major replenishment or battle. 687

Boundary Wall Processing

After exploring beyond the Boundary Wall, the city begins acquiring functions resembling the wall’s own filtration system.

• It can absorb extremely concentrated energy from the bottom of bottle-shaped Boundary Wall cavities, where the energy is over a thousand times richer than Li Ziran’s familiar Void Expanse. 737
• The city’s pincer-like arms can manipulate the rotten mud and root systems beneath the Boundary Wall. 738
• An external will later transforms it into an energy-processing structure that refines Void energy, gathers essence into bottles, expels waste, and feeds a Derivative Realm within Li Ziran. 741

Relationships

• Li Ziran — Purchaser, city lord, and eventual fused will; he turns Hippo Ancient City into his shell and principal source of Void Expanse power. 660 673 734
• Source Sea — Vast energy foundation beneath the city; its Origin sustains the city’s transformations but is heavily depleted by mass rebirths. 672 687
• Void Heart — The city’s awakened energy core, capable of converting Void Expanse energy into Origin. 713 724
• Dark Council — Former dominant power within the city; it maintained strict commercial order before its influence declined. 138 567
• North Sea Port — External military authority that controlled the City Lord’s Manor and received half of the city-state’s income. 170
• Christie’s Auction House — Constructed a major auction house on First Street, then auctioned the city territory to Li Ziran. 567 660
• Goni — Li Ziran’s mentor and a protected inhabitant; he recognizes the city’s potential and repeatedly defends Li Ziran’s right to retain it. 675 734
• Quentin — One of the first beings admitted for rebirth; afterward, he organizes prospective residents for the city. 685 686

Notable Events

• Li Ziran reaches the city after crossing the Wasteland, seeking Demon contacts, organ materials, and opportunities to establish his business. 123 141
• The Pink Cottage and later Beauty Salon establish Li Ziran’s commercial foothold in the city, using magical surgery and cosmetic transformation. 154 163
• Li Ziran and Iron Hammer plan to remake the Red Fan District into a specialized commercial district supplied with 20,000 female slaves. 158
• Christie’s Auction House turns the city into a continent-wide center for trading Li Ziran’s Memory Fragments, destabilizing its former political order. 567
• Li Ziran purchases Hippo Ancient City and discovers its disproportionately vast Source Sea. 660 672
• His attempt to fuse with the city nearly destroys Christie’s Derivative Space before producing a stable chain-based city-shell. 673 680
• The city survives repeated clashes with Jiawen, absorbs and converts enemy power, and reveals its Void Heart. 682 711 713
• It later crosses the Boundary Wall and becomes the basis for Li Ziran’s investigation into higher Void Expanse energy systems. 737 741