Chapter Fourteen

Quanchang, through a heavily industrialized city, looks more like a mountain resort from the outside. All the buildings are made from the same wood, locally grown bubinga trees. Many buildings have windows, and stained glass is not allowed. Every building is between three and six stories high, getting taller as they get closer to the center of the city.

The streets in Quanchang are wide enough for ten people to walk side by side, but no wagons or carriages are allowed outside turn-around areas located just inside the city gates. Because of the lack of wagons, materials must be transported by hand, which usually means employing a Body stage cultivator. There are no street vendors, and every shop must have a building to reside in and pay taxes on.

The main attraction of Quanchang is the mines. The Chin family rules over Quanchang and the mines, and controls the surrounding six hundred miles. No mines beside the Quanchang Mine area allowed, meaning a huge monopoly is held by the Chin family. When a Body stage cultivator needs work, they head for Quanchang.

In the center of Quanchang is a thirty foot wide pit which leads to the bottom of the mines. This pit proves sunlight, air circulation, and traffic for the mines. On the left side, three people at a time can ascend from the mines, and the right side can sustain three people going down. The stairs are set into the walls, and a tight webbing of chains prevents people from falling in. A large glass circle covers the majority of the pit, and the two entrances are topped with wooden buildings.

The wide pit is not the only entrance to the mines. Under every building in Quanchang, there is a stairway leading down. Since the area above ground is heavily restricted, most business also operate underground. At several locations, there are wide markets for merchants to sell their goods, untaxed by the Chin family.

There are few residential areas in the above ground section of Quanchang, but the underground section houses a population of over two hundred thousand people. Most live in tiny, single-room apartments for ten coins a day. These apartments give them just enough room to sleep undisturbed by the miners around them or to bring back female company. For the residential areas above ground, apartments cost almost as much as a hotel room, and the houses cost more than a Body stage cultivator could earn in a lifetime. Usually, the houses remain in a family for hundreds of years before being sold.

Because of how focused Quanchang is toward miners and the deep mines, it is usually called ‘The Ant-Hill City’ by those who wish to discredit. Whenever bandits or foreign armies attempt to sack the city, thousands of Body stage cultivators pour out of the mines to defend. Because the city can only be access from two ways, and each way can only have a hundred troops marching side by side, Quanchang is one of the easiest defended cities in the empire. Coupled with the enormous amount of iron they produce every year, they are a highly valued asset for the empire.