Like most urban districts of the old era, the closer a place was to a transportation hub, the more prosperous it was; the farther it was from one, the more desolate and empty it became.
This was especially apparent in Beta Town North District.
As the distribution center for goods and people in the North District, the North District docks were unquestionably the largest transportation hub here. As a result, an oddly distorted prosperous zone had formed near the docks, at least compared with the rest of the Sunken District.
But if one followed Dock Avenue deeper into the North District, it would not take long to tear through the "emperor's new clothes" of this prosperous area and encounter the Sunken District's true face.
Rough wooden partitions, weathered old signs bleached white by rain, steel rebar exposed through walls, moldy bamboo shacks, and tents patched all over. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a sight that seemed wholly unrelated to the name Beta Town.
The blank walls lining the street were covered in bizarre graffiti that flashed in every color—broken runes, jumbled incantations, malformed spell arrays, and curses of unclear meaning. Many of them glimmered with a bloodcurdling scarlet light. This graffiti clearly laid bare the chaos lurking beneath the neighborhood's silence.
Other than Xiao Xiao, Zheng Qing did not think anyone could possibly be interested in this neighborhood. Nor could he understand why Dr. Xiao was copying those strange graffiti markings along the street.
"Knowledge and insight... are hidden in the places we usually fail to see," Dr. Xiao explained.
Zheng Qing curled his lip, unconvinced.
He desperately needed a secluded corner where he could yank off the Frog Tongue around his wrist and throw it away. A corner not far ahead seemed like