Chapter 340: The Underworld and the Erased Cities

“Want to know?”

The person opposite suddenly revealed a smile and gently rubbed his fingers together at her.

“Rules of the underworld, you know the drill.”

“How much?” Aili asked without surprise.

Since departing from No.1 Reception City, it had taken a full five days for them to finally reach Luoding City. During these five days, to maximize efficiency, they simply split into three groups.

Lin Zhen, Anvil, and Zi Jiu formed two groups, responsible for searching the possible hideouts of those Chatosi along the way.

Meanwhile, she acted alone, secretly inquiring about news of the Dark Swamp as a tourist in the cities along the way.

However, throughout the journey, not only did Lin Zhen’s side come up empty, but Aili herself also found nothing. It was as if the Dark Swamp was truly fabricated by the Security Bureau; no one knew that name at all.

Until today, when she arrived at Luoding City and unexpectedly discovered that there was actually an office of the underworld here, things finally took a turn.

The so-called underworld was the absolute dark order naturally formed by the shady underground forces of the Empire, driven by terrifying profits during the great reclamation era.

There was no traceable founder, no absolute ruler. Whoever was strong rose to power; whoever was weak was devoured completely.

Nowadays, the underworld was jointly controlled by four major powers.

They were the Star Pirate King representing the Star Bandits, the Empire’s largest assassin organization—Blood Alliance, the cross-galaxy logistics transporter Black Train, and the intelligence organization—Shadow Shielding Alliance.

Most small factions, either for survival, seeking shelter, or for profit, chose to join and abide by the absolute dark order of the underworld. Thus, the tentacles of the underworld extended to almost every corner of the Empire’s territory.

The carapace race had a population of at least hundreds of millions and also controlled high-value resources like biological carapace, so it was normal for the underworld to set up offices on Shell Star.

So Aili was briefly surprised but then accepted it, and quickly realized something.

She had been feeling that her failure to find even a shred of information about the Dark Swamp along the way was likely related to her tourist status.

In that case, using the old method in Luoding City probably wouldn’t yield any information either, so she might as well rely on the underworld’s power.

After all, she also had the identity of a Blood Shadow assassin from the Blood Alliance, which could be considered as one of their own in the underworld. And this choice of hers was indeed correct.

After entering this place that appeared to be an ordinary bar on the surface but was actually an underworld office, and verifying her identity, she had just casually chatted with a “know-it-all” figure in the underworld, and had already obtained a large amount of intelligence on the “Dark Swamp” that she hadn’t been able to find a single word about in the previous five days.

Although she maintained a calm smile on the surface, Aili’s heart was already extremely excited.

“Two thousand universal coins.” The man took a sip of his wine with a smile.

“Deal.” Aili said without hesitation.

As she always said, things that could be solved with money weren’t problems at all. Two thousand universal coins could support an ordinary family for more than a year on most planets.

But let alone the wealthy Scarlet, even just as an assassin, she could earn that amount with any random job.

“Ahem!”

The man had been preparing to haggle, but he hadn’t expected Aili to be so straightforward. In his surprise, he choked for a moment, and began to wonder if he had set the price too low.

‘Should I raise the price and take advantage of her?’

Seeing how concerned she seemed about this matter, the man looked up at Aili and suddenly felt a jolt of fear.

Someone who could produce 2000 universal coins without batting an eye, and was also so young and beautiful, was no simple person anywhere, let alone in the underworld. Raising the price on her would be practically courting death!

The man took another sip of wine to hide his emotions, and then honestly began to speak.

Aili had originally thought that if the man really tried to treat her like a fool, she would release her star energy aura to scare him.

A second-level star power user wasn’t some common cabbage found everywhere. But she hadn’t expected this guy to be so honest, so she put aside her thoughts and listened carefully.

“About eighty kilometers south of Luoding City, there is actually another city called Small Luoding City, a satellite city of Luoding. It should still be findable on maps. Not many people, just a few hundred thousand.”

“But a year ago… this city was erased!”

“Erased?” Aili asked in surprise.

A powerful second-level star power user using all their strength could indeed destroy a small city in one blow. But only possibly.

Those who could actually achieve this as a second-level star power user were probably rare across the entire universe.

And judging by the man’s expression, this “erasure” was not the kind she imagined, but something far more terrifying.

“Yes, erased. Or rather, the entire city was dragged into the Ghost Realm overnight.” The man raised his head, a trace of fear in his eyes.

“Hundreds of thousands of people all lost consciousness. Overnight, they queued up like zombies and walked dozens of kilometers, appearing on the outskirts of Luoding City. They didn’t regain awareness until dawn.”

“There were star energy users among them too, but no one could clearly explain what happened that night. Some said they saw a vast black tide spreading from afar; some said they saw a blurry figure deep within the black tide; others said they saw nothing at all.”

“Anyway, regardless, seeing is believing. The star energy users in Luoding City didn’t quite believe what they said, so they went together to Small Luoding City.”

“But there…”

The man subconsciously squeezed the handle of his glass, and Aili also held her breath due to his description.

“It no longer looked like Shell Star. Unknown black mist drifted in the air, plants had all withered and twisted into terrifying shapes. The carapace creatures living on that land seemed to have mutated, becoming powerful and bloodthirsty monsters.”

“Several star energy users who entered that land died, and only barely managed to escape. But the influence of that land on them did not fade. After they returned, over the course of several months…”

“They all went mad.” He said in a deep voice.

‘All went mad?’

‘Could it be contamination caused by some supernatural power?’

Aili never believed in ghosts or gods, so she was certain that this was definitely a tragedy caused by some supernatural power. But saying that, the impact was too strong.

‘Could it be a three-star energy user?’

“On the third day after the black tide incident, the Crab Kingdom’s army arrived. Several powerful fourth-level starcapable entered that land and finally only said that the land was contaminated and beyond redemption. Then they built that crab wall outside the city, forbidding anyone from crossing.”

The man said gravely.