Black Myth: Starting from the Destined One
Chapter 101 - 97: Fallen Dragon Pit

Chapter 101: Chapter 97: Fallen Dragon Pit

"I don’t know whether to praise them for being highly trustworthy with money or to say that the corruption in Great Tang has reached such a level that the Imperial Court is beyond salvation. How laughable, lamentable, and tragic it is that a notorious bandit like me can actually buy safety under the Emperor’s nose!"

Seeing this, Li Ping’an could only laugh and cry. Without turning his head, he walked into Chang’an City and officially entered the Capital City of Great Tang.

Being new to the place, he traveled down the road, taking in the sights as he moved along and asked for directions. Soon he learned the layout of Chang’an City.

Chang’an City is divided into the Outer City, Imperial City, Palace City, Imperial Garden, Marketplace Districts, and Golden City—six areas in total.

The Imperial City is where the Imperial Clan resides, and the Palace City and Imperial Garden are where the Emperor, Empress, concubines, and underage princes and princesses live.

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The Golden City is a newly constructed area for cultivation by Emperor Li Gai, located near the Imperial City. All the palaces and courtyards inside are made of gold, extremely luxurious.

Within the Golden City, there is an Ascension Platform that is ninety-nine meters tall. It’s the tallest structure in Chang’an. On top of the platform is the Ascension Tower, where Emperor Li Gai engages in mystic cultivation. From this platform’s summit, one can look down upon the entirety of Chang’an City, a pinnacle of power overlooking all living beings.

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The Marketplace Districts are where the nobles and celebrities reside, a place full of luxury and elegance. The owners of these residences are either ministers of the court, extremely wealthy and influential merchants, Buddist temples and Taoist sanctuaries, or wine houses and brothels—it’s truly a paradise on earth.

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The Outer City, however, is a chaotic mix of all walks of life and mostly houses ordinary people. There are some busy streets, but more are homes of the poor. In contrast with the Marketplace Districts and Imperial Palace, this is where real life happens, amidst the bustling secular world of endless variety.

With a glance, one sees the wealthy enjoying lavish lives of peace, while ordinary people toil under heavy burdens. The Marketplace Districts rarely see the impoverished; they are filled with officials and nobles, princes and young lords. The Outer City, on the other hand, is strewn with starving corpses and beggars abound. This is the heavenly and earthly Chang’an City, truly the prosperous and powerful Great Tang Dynasty!

Upon his arrival in Chang’an City, Li Ping’an was filled with curiosity, saying that he had seen all of Chang’an’s flowers in one day. It took him an entire day to fundamentally memorize most of the buildings and streets of Chang’an.

As night fell, the city of Chang’an became a hundred times more lively than during the day. Princes with their ladies drove around in carriages, suave young men with their beauties strolled the streets, and vendors and foreign merchants were everywhere, selling all kinds of dazzling goods.

Li Ping’an followed the crowd and wandered about, but as he walked, he discovered a strange place that the people of Chang’an City intentionally avoided—an abandoned residential area.

In this valuable land of Chang’an, there was a patch where no one lived, as if forgotten by the bustling Chang’an. Curiously, Li Ping’an learned from others that this abandoned residential area was known as the Fallen Dragon Pit.

It was said that five hundred years ago, the Dragon King of the Jing River and Yuan Tiangang’s uncle, Yuan Shoucheng, fought a magical duel. Because Yuan Shoucheng could predict the time and quantity of the Dragon King’s rain, the Dragon King, unwilling to admit defeat, secretly changed the times for rain, violating celestial laws. Thus, he was executed by Wei Zheng, a Heavenly Official, in a dream on the Dragon Execution Platform.

Afterward, the dragon’s head fell from the clouds, landing south of the Thousand Steps Corridor at the crossroads, hence the origin of the Fallen Dragon Pit.

It was from that time on that whenever Chang’an City was drenched in rain, only this area experienced a blood rain. After the blood rain passed, the residents here could hear terrifying ghostly wails, ultimately scaring them away to live elsewhere. Thus, the area had been deserted for five hundred years and became the abandoned land of Chang’an City, a place that struck terror into the hearts of people when mentioned.

Li Ping’an, however, didn’t seem concerned after hearing this. After filling up on food and drink at a marketplace near the Fallen Dragon Pit, he felt exhausted and weary from a day’s travel. Thinking of finding an inn for the night to rest, he intended to stay overnight.

But after asking around many inns, he learned that Chang’an City was unlike any other place, where lodging costs were astonishingly high, especially during this period. It was said that the Emperor was expected to welcome Buddha’s Bone and Teeth, and wealthy, influential Buddhists from other parts of the Great Tang had filled all the major and minor inns of Chang’an City in the last few days, making it nearly impossible to find a room.

Even with some inns having available rooms, the prices were frighteningly high, costing up to one hundred taels of silver for a single night.

Li Ping’an had been dispersing silver to the poor all the way from Five Fingers Mountain and had used some to deal with bullies and ghosts as he entered Chang’an City. Now, he was left with only eight hundred taels of silver.

According to the current inn prices in Chang’an, he could only afford to stay for eight days at most. After eight days, he would end up on the streets as a beggar, unable to even afford food, let alone find Zixia.

According to Zhuge Weiwei’s earlier remarks, in the Three Auxiliaries of Chang’an, having money allowed one to move unimpeded. It showed how crucial money was in the secular world. Thus, Li Ping’an naturally refused to stay in such expensive inns.

After searching through eight inns and trying to save money, Li Ping’an, having no choice, went to the uninhabited Fallen Dragon Pit. After all, there were plenty of rooms in the pit, and though decrepit, it was still better than sleeping on the streets.

He entered a residential area in the Fallen Dragon Pit and picked a house that looked even more dilapidated than Zhengqi Villa, pushed open the door, and found the place fully equipped, though dirty and rundown. He thought that cleaning it up would make it usable.

Just when he was about to start cleaning, he discovered that this house surprisingly had no well. With no other option, Li Ping’an wandered around the Fallen Dragon Pit, looking for a well and thinking of settling near one to make chores like bathing, cooking, and washing much more convenient.

After searching for a while, he finally found a well right in the center of the residential area of the Fallen Dragon Pit. Next to the well stood a very worn and broken stone tablet inscribed with three large characters: "Dragon Locking Well," and at the bottom, it was engraved: "Erected in the Thirteenth Year of the Zhenguan Era."

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"So, this well has over five hundred years of history. Does it still have water in it?"

Li Ping’an leaned his head over the well and looked inside, spotting the clear water about ten meters deep with a reflection of the moon on its surface—indeed, good well water.

He then used a discarded bucket nearby to draw a bucket of water, and after finding a new dwelling nearby, he began to clean his sleeping quarters in the yard.

But the moment he left the well, the clear spring water suddenly began to swirl upwards forcefully, gushing out of the well and forming a beheaded dragon with a dragon head, translucent and beautiful under the moonlight, yet eerie.

This water-formed beheaded dragon then started to circle silently over the Fallen Dragon Pit, seemingly secretly searching for some prey, of which Li Ping’an was completely unaware and unsuspecting.

At the stroke of midnight, Li Ping’an finally finished cleaning the courtyard house and settled down to sleep peacefully inside the main house.