Walker Of The Worlds

2778  Experiencing Oppression

Meng Bai looked around their lodgings and found them to be oppressively bare.

There were only four so-called beds, which were nothing more than stiff, straw-filled mattresses unceremoniously thrown onto the floor. The air was thick with the scent of stale wood and damp stone, as if the room had been long abandoned, left to decay in isolation. There were no tables, no chairs—only a single, crude floor table, barely large enough to hold a tray of cups. The walls were cold, featureless stone, unyielding and lifeless.

There were no windows. No decorations. No means of escape.

The only source of light came from the eerie glow of the monitoring array embedded in the ceiling, its shifting runes pulsating with an unspoken menace. It wasn't just watching them—it was studying them, judging their every move.

"Can't we just leave the city and go elsewhere? Then return only for the teleportation?" Meng Bai asked, the suffocating atmosphere gnawing at his nerves. His voice was hushed, as if speaking too loudly might provoke unseen eyes. "Even living in the wild would be a hundred times better than this."

"Unfortunately, foreigners aren't allowed to leave the city," Daoist Chu replied, shaking his head. "If they did, I would have already suggested it."