Chapter 1091

To see that the river's surface still showed vortices from time to time, revealing that the riverbed, just like its surface, had fierce undercurrents surging within.

The only road in and out of the city gate was built over such a massive river—why call it a massive river? Because the river's width, estimated at a glance, was over 50 meters. Such a bridge spanning the river, serving as a symbol of the city gate's entrance and exit, in a sense represented that Beast Lair City's economic development was extremely advanced.

"Little brothers, is this your first time in Beast Lair City?"

Before Lin Cheng could ask, and while General Ji Xia was still thinking about how to answer, the coachman of a horse carriage traveling alongside them kindly answered for them.

"Yes, Uncle."

The coachman uncle revealed an expression as if he had long expected this.

"No wonder... our Beast Lair City is a second-tier city of the Empire. Generally, people visiting Beast Lair City for the first time would think Beast Lair City has already reached the level of a first-tier city of the Empire, all because of this giant bridge built over the Taqi River. Are you surprised! This is also our pride!"

"Yes, what's even more surprising is that the bridge seems to be built only connecting the two ends at their fulcrums, not even needing a central pillar."

As far as Lin Cheng knew, once a river's width reached a certain extent, bridge pillars would be built for the overall stability of the bridge. Yet here, with a span exceeding 50 meters, no bridge pillars were needed to stabilize the bridge as a whole—truly surprising.

"Hehe, what you don't know is that this great bridge was crafted by the Empire's famous artisan Master Lu. It not only employs the Empire's traditional bridge-building craft, but also experimented with a special architectural technique from ancient times within it. Precisely because of that special architectural art, the bridge needs no additional bridge pillars for stability, and can still stand for a hundred years, looking as brand new as the day it was built."

Beast Lair City had already stood for several hundred years, yet this great bridge had never shown any problems whatsoever.

"Truly remarkable."

Every trade has its specialty. Although Lin Cheng was a blacksmith, he still felt such a master bridge craftsman was truly remarkable.

Worthy of being the Empire's famous artisan, even though he had never heard of this master's reputation.

Passing through Beast Lair City's city gate, Lin Cheng and the others once again could not help but sigh at Beast Lair City's grandeur. Just the passage road from outside the city to inside was no less than a hundred meters.

It wasn't that Lanchengcheng Sect's city wall was a hundred meters thick, but rather that the city gate passage stretched such a long distance, with multiple checkpoints within. Just the mechanical barrier walls Lin Cheng saw when he looked up numbered no fewer than a dozen, the thinnest reaching an astonishing 50 centimeters. Including the mechanical traps hidden behind the passage partition walls, and those Lin Cheng had not yet discovered, the defenses were visibly stringent.

Whether inside or outside the city, once trouble arose, with the hundred-meter-long city gate passage's layered checkpoints, once the city gate fell and closed, not to mention it being hard for even a fly to fly out of the city, even if hundreds of thousands of enemy troops surrounded them outside, holding out for several months would be more than enough.

The nearly hundred-meter city gate passage, despite the enormous flow of people, still took several minutes to walk through before entering the city. Lin Cheng had assumed it would be different from other cities, but the truth was that the inside of the city was the same as other cities—except for the fact that the city was circular. The city roughly ran a cross shape through the entire city, dividing it into four areas: east, south, west, and north. At the city's center was an inner city with a moat, also divided by a cross into four inner city gates. This small section was the busiest and most prosperous central district.

All of the above was basic information about Beast Lair City that Lin Cheng saw on a notice board beside him after entering the city.

Just at this moment, a timid voice suddenly came from behind Lin Cheng.

"'Three people, you're tourists from out of town, right? Do you need a guide? I know Beast Lair City well...'" Lin Cheng turned his head to look—a youth, wearing a gray linen shirt with white patches, a fair and clean little face, eyes carrying some anticipation and hope, hands nervously intertwined together, holding his breath, afraid to miss a single word spoken by the people before him.

In front of Beast Lair City's map notice board, quite a few outsiders were checking the map; he didn't know why the other party had chosen them.

One should know that the current Lin Cheng and the others were not riding a majestic mechanical wolf.

However, Lin Cheng and the others did indeed need a guide, so they nodded in agreement.

(Zhao's Zhao) "Sure."

In the nearly tense atmosphere, the youth had almost suffocated himself, and finally Lin Cheng's agreement arrived.

"That's great, customers, I'm very cheap, only 10—no, 5 silver coins a day." In Beast Lair City, buying a steamed bun costs nearly 10 copper coins, so a 5-silver-coin guide fee was indeed not expensive—in fact, very cheap. Other guides in the same profession as the youth had originally wanted to steal his business, but upon hearing the youth's quote, they decisively turned and left.

Five silver coins in this expensive Beast Lair City could probably only last a day. They still had families to feed—earning five silver coins a day was just too little.