The highest place was the palace of the Lord. It is a good place to overlook the city.
“I heard that in order to build that high place, many slaves died.” said someone.
This was the difference between the tribes and the slave masters.
In the tribes, people rarely, on purpose, built a place like that. Instead, they build on high places like trees and mountains.
But the tribes would not spend a lot of manpower and resources to build a tall palace.
“Let’s go. We can rest in the city tonight.” said Huang Ye.
Others finally cheered up as they were very curious about the city that the slave master owned.
There were walls made of sandy soil around the Fallen Leaves City, with an average height of about ten meters. It looked like they had been standing there for many years.
There were some slaves around the walls. In the territory of slave masters, slaves were the majority.
The slaves with dark and cracked skin, holding sharp-edged spears, looked at the people who came over, and shouted at them.
Shao Xuan couldn’t understand their words, but someone in the team understood. The person in the team replied and then threw something that was the size of a palm to those slaves, which should be some kind of certificate.
Sure enough, after seeing that thing, the slaves guarding the gate stepped aside and the huge wooden door was also opened.
Shao Xuan followed the team. As for Chacha, it followed the two eagles of the Hui tribe, both of which knew the way as they did not come there for the first time.
In the city, houses made of sandy soil were densely packed everywhere. Those houses were not large and their shapes were irregular. It may be more accurate to call them as “nests” rather than houses, since they seemed to be on the verge of collapse at any time. These houses were where the lower-level slaves lived.
Further in, they saw some stone-built houses, which were bigger.
In a corner of Fallen Leaves City, there was a large area where slaves rarely appeared. Most of the people who lived there were tribesmen.
Like everyone else, Shao Xuan thought that there was an absolute contradiction between tribesmen and slave masters before they came to the city. However, this was not the case. The tribesmen appeared to have a different att.i.tude towards different slave masters and the relationship between the Lord of Fallen Leaves City and the tribesmen was like that of a partnership. There were even some places like emba.s.sies in the city.
In addition to the people of the traveling team, some people were already stationed there. Maybe because they had lived there for a long time, their skin had become darker. If people ignored the tribal clothing on them, it looked no different from the people in the city.
Other tribes had special resting places in Fallen Leaves City, while for the three people from the Flaming Horn tribe who came for the first time, the situation was a bit embarra.s.sing.
Because there was no special “emba.s.sy” for the three people, they had to rest in some small houses, which were made of sand and soil. Being used to pile up sundries before, these small houses were temporarily vacated for the three people. When they entered the houses, they could smell a rotten odor.
In other people’s opinion, the three people from the Flaming Horn tribe were just going through the game. They would not tell them their plans and activities.
Shao Xuan and the other two people had long felt the sense of rejection. However, as they didn’t know how long they had to live in such a place, the three people were not happy.
Lei pushed the stone wall on the side and despised, “Not strong enough.”
“We’ll stay for one night. Let’s go find stones to build house tomorrow.” said Shao Xuan. Since they knew people of other tribes could build bases here, the Flaming Horn tribe should also build one here. It was not only for the three of them, but also to benefit other people of the Flaming Horn tribe who would come here later so that they don’t have to rest in such a run-down house.
Although the house was poor, it was much better than sleeping in the desert which they endured in the past few days. After resting in the house for one night, they felt much better when they got up the next day.
The camel was tied outside by Shao Xuan. In the morning, Shao Xuan gave it some water and found that the surrounding gra.s.s had been eaten. Shao Xuan had to find some food for it.
While staying in the house to look after the luggage and the camel, Tuo asked other tribes if they knew where there were more stones near Fallen Leaves City. Lei, following Shao Xuan, went to other places in Fallen Leaves City in order to know the general situation of the city.
Leaving the place where the tribes lived, Shao Xuan found that many people in Fallen Leaves City did not wear hides and most of them wore linen instead. As the temperature during the day was high, many people simply covered the body with a few pieces of linen.
Shao Xuan’s group was told that they’d better avoid the slave masters when walking around the Fallen Leaves City. There was more than one slave owner in a city but the great slave master was unique, and that was, the lord. A slave master didn’t take charge of many slaves but their ident.i.ty was higher than that of slaves in the city. However, no matter how high their ident.i.ty was, they were still subordinates of the great slave master, the lord of the city.
There were also places of trade, but Shao Xuan found that the language and text used here were more complicated than the ones used in the tribes.
Shao Xuan intended to buy some food with sh.e.l.l coins, with which they could survive when they couldn’t find any prey.
Many of the popular trading items in the tribes, such as the sh.e.l.l coins, could be used here, but they were seriously devalued. After all, within the territory of the slave masters, as long as the slave masters lived well, the demands of the slaves didn’t matter at all.
The slave masters of the Fallen Leaves City liked beautiful clothes and jade, which were indeed much more expensive. Perhaps this was the main reason why the Mang tribe and the Eight Limbs tribe had the best living conditions here. Among all tribal houses built in the city, the houses of these two tribes were the largest.
Person in charge of selling food was also a slave. The slave who did this kind of job seemed to be less aggressive and was able to understand the language of the tribes. However, when Shao Xuan took out sh.e.l.l coins, the slave looked scornful and said a few words in the language that Shao Xuan couldn’t understand. According to the slave’s expression, Shao Xuan and Lei believed he was not saying good words and Lei was about to fight against him.
You are just a slave. You dare to despise me?
But in the territory of the slave masters, these slaves indeed dared to give the tribesmen long faces. After all, in the territory of the slave masters, people ranked the first were the slave masters, the second were the slaves and after both were the tribesmen.
After buying the food, Shao Xuan heard a noise that was not far away.
“Who is that?” asked Lei, looking over there.
“The slave master.”
Over there, a simple wooden sedan was carried by four black and strong slaves. The wooden sedan was not enclosed and there was no capping on the top. Instead, it was covered with pieces of strips of different colors. When the wind blew and the strips swung, and the person sitting inside could be seen.
The person being carried was a woman who was not young. As her face was painted with various colors, her original appearance could not be recognized.
The people carrying the sedan chair paused often while walking. Sometimes they stopped at the place where wine was sold. The person on the sedan directly reached out and someone would hand her a pottery gla.s.s with fruit wine respectfully. From time to time, someone handed a fruit, a barbecue or a string of bracelet, and the person on the sedan did not have to pay anything for exchange. All she had to do was stretch her hand.
This was absolute cla.s.s difference.
“The life of this slave master is really good,” sighed Lei with emotion.
Remembering the warnings of other people in the team, Shao Xuan left with Lei immediately when noticing the person on the sedan was moving towards them. In the territory of the slave masters, they could not argue with them as right and wrong were defined by those slave masters.