The Underworld lacked everything except ghosts and monsters.
Powerful beings constantly crawled out of the rivers flowing beneath Emperor's Tomb City and rushed into the cities on the outer rings, becoming Two-Legged Frogs.
They served as the weakest ghosts and monsters in the cities, quickly filling each city.
They were the foundation of these cities, and their future.
A lucky few among them underwent a transformation.
But whenever these Two-Legged Frogs transformed, they were certain to become formidable ghosts and monsters.
Most ghosts and monsters of this kind became the little tyrants of an alley.
In the past, these transformed ghosts and monsters formed organizations of varying sizes in the darkness, then lorded it over others and suppressed ordinary ghosts and monsters.
However, things had changed in City No. 95.
The transformed Two-Legged Frogs became the city lord's personal guards.
Leading numerous ghosts and monsters and carrying lanterns, they patrolled every alley.
Braziers and torches burned in the dark alleys.
The city lord's personal guards patrolled the alleys, inspecting every clay-jar resident inside.
The many clay-jar residents were exceedingly cautious, afraid that one careless mistake would earn them a beating.
"Pay your taxes!"
"One bone, one tael of flesh, and a hundred drops of blood."
"Didn't eat yesterday? Don't want to pay today? Heh, I don't think you're refusing to pay taxes. You're planning a rebellion!"
"Put them in shackles and drag them back to prison."
The many ghosts and monsters dragged shackles and carried sacks, weaving through the alleys to harvest resources such as blood, flesh, sinews, and bones.
Now, all the clay-jar lodgings along both walls of the alleys were controlled by the city lord's estate.
Any ghost or monster living in the alleys had to pay these taxes.
Not one item, not one unit could be missing.