The borders of Yuzhou, at the very end of the official highway.
That fine steed from the Western Regions suddenly felt its four hooves go weak. Its front legs buckled, its knees hit the dirt, and two streams of bloody, frothing white steam snorted from its nostrils. It was completely spent.
Xu Wuyou tumbled out of the saddle, his official boots thudding into the soil. His own knees gave way, and he nearly performed a grand prostration to the earth beneath him.
He used his turquoise-encrusted longsword to prop himself up. The purple gold crown he usually guarded with his life had long since skewed to some god-forsaken angle, and several wet strands of hair clung to his forehead.
He tilted his head back and roared at the sky, "I, Xu Wuyou, have returned after wandering the world with my sword!"
The roar ended, but the expected echo never came.
Even the crows didn't bother to fly past.
Hmm? Something was off.
Xu Wuyou looked up and saw a massive boulder, twice the height of a man, standing before him. Carved upon it in flamboyant calligraphy were two characters: Taoyuan.
Xu Wuyou froze.
He looked down at the road beneath his feet.
In his memory, this was a yellow mud track so treacherous that a bit of rain would swallow a man's leg halfway to the hip—a road even pigs refused to walk. It was gone.
In its place was a flat, greyish-white "stone slab road" that felt eerily smooth.
The road was absurdly wide, enough for four carriages to drive abreast. At a glance, the entire surface looked as if a single, titanic slab of rock had been sliced flat by a celestial blade and hammered into the earth.
He drew his sword, pointed it downward, and channeled thirty percent of his "inner energy."
Xu Wuyou had once spent two taels of silver to buy a secret martial arts manual from a wandering Taoist. After three months of bitter cultivation, and after consuming a large bowl of yellow beans, his body had expelled a massive amount of "turbid qi." Since then, Xu Wuyou considered himself a master of supreme divine arts.
Clang!
Sparks flew.
The tip of the sword left only a faint white dot on the greyish road. Instead of breaking the stone, the impact vibrated through his arm, numbing his palm so badly he nearly dropped the turquoise hilt.
"Hiss! Could it be... sorcery?"
Xu Wuyou muttered to himself. He was used to the bluestone roads of the capital; he had even walked the Imperial Way in the palace. But he had never seen anything like this. It was as hard as iron, as level as a mirror, and didn't even hold puddles.
On both sides of the road, every ten paces stood a strange wooden post painted white. At the top of each post hung a transparent glass cover. He had no idea what they were for.
No? Sorcery! It was definitely sorcery!
Even the storybooks didn't have this!
Was this still the mortal realm?
While he was dazed, a heavy rumbling sound came from behind.
A four-wheeled carriage without a roof sped past him. The wheels were incredibly wide, wrapped in a layer of thick, black, soft skin. As it rolled over the seamless stone road, it was so stable that not a drop of water would have spilled.
The man driving the carriage wore a set of dusty short-clothed work gear. On the back of his vest were four words printed in red lacquer: Taoyuan Logistics.
"Hey! Whose carriage is that? Stop!"
Xu Wuyou instinctively tried to flag the vehicle down to ask questions.
The man didn't even turn his head. He cracked his whip in the air with a loud snap, and instead of slowing down, the carriage accelerated. Only a rough shout drifted back on the wind.
"Don't you have eyes? You're blocking my delivery! If I'm late, they'll dock my work points!"
Dust billowed.
Xu Wuyou was left with a face full of grit, his hand still frozen on his sword hilt.
The peasants of his hometown, Taoyuan County, had a temper worse than the Imperial Guard in the capital!
Just as he was about to lose his temper, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? You there, beggar... oh, wait, young master. Get to the side!"
Xu Wuyou turned around to see an old man wearing a strange yellow vest and a red armband. The old man was glaring at him sternly, holding a small notebook.
The old man pointed at a white line on the ground. "Can't you see this is the... no, the animal vehicle lane? Pedestrians stay on the sidewalks on both sides! A grown man like you, don't you know the rules?"
Xu Wuyou was so angry he laughed. He pointed to his own nose, the arrogance of an official's son flaring up. "Rules? In this Taoyuan County, I am the rules! Do you not recognize me?"
The old man paused, flipped through his notebook, and then looked Xu Wuyou up and down, scrutinizing his mud-splattered, exhausted face.
Then, the old man rolled his eyes and closed the book.
"Don't know you."
"There are plenty of people trying to sneak into town to strike it rich every day. Who can remember them all? Don't block the way, there's a queue behind you!"
The old man waved his hand impatiently, as if shooing a fly. "First time here? Go squat by the wall over there and recite the 'Civic Code for Entering the City' ten times before you come in. Otherwise, it's a fifty-wen fine!"
Xu Wuyou: "..."
Was this still the Taoyuan County where the Xu family called the shots?!
He didn't have the energy to argue with this "gatekeeper." After tidying himself up and paying the fee, he led his half-dead horse and trudged inside, his steps heavy.
The further he walked, the colder his heart became.
The thatched huts along the road were gone. The malnourished refugees in rags who used to huddle by the walls to sun themselves were gone too.
As far as the eye could see, there were neat rows of two-story brick houses. Blue bricks and red tiles, with rooftops even decorated with animal-head carvings. Every single window was fitted with bright, clear glass that reflected the sun, making his eyes ache.
Glass everywhere.
In the capital, a piece of glass the size of a palm would fetch an astronomical price, yet here, they were using it for windows?!
The air was thick with the maddeningly delicious scent of steamed meat buns.
Xu Wuyou stood at a crossroads, clutching the detailed map he had paid a fortune to have drawn before his departure. At this moment, that map—which had cost him five taels of silver—was nothing more than scrap paper.
If only other places had things like this.
"The Xu family ancestral home... the ancestral home is in the east of the city..."
He spun around three times. Aside from a massive chimney belching black smoke, he couldn't even find the shadow of a dilapidated shack.
By the side of the road stood a shop with a sign that read "Convenience Store." An old man crouched by the entrance, holding a white steamed bun larger than his own face, devouring it alongside a bowl of glistening, fatty braised pork.
Gurgle.
Xu Wuyou swallowed hard.
To get the money back home before the family "ran out of rice in the pot," he had ridden two horses to exhaustion and hadn't even dared to spend money on decent rations for himself.
"Old man."
Xu Wuyou walked over, trying his best to look fierce. He had read in martial arts novels that one had to be tough to avoid being bullied.
"I’m looking for some information. Where does that old geezer Xu Youde live?"
The old man stopped chewing his bun.
He lifted his eyelids and sized Xu Wuyou up from head to toe.
This youngster looked decent enough, so why did he sound like he was looking for a fight the moment he opened his mouth?
"Who are you to him?" the old man asked muffledly, stuffing the last piece of braised pork into his mouth. He looked at Xu Wuyou as if he were an idiot.
Xu Wuyou let out a cold laugh and slammed his sword onto the table with a loud thud.
"I'm his creditor from the capital. I heard he's buried in debt and about to sell off his own children. I've come to collect the final bit of interest."
This was the truth.
In the letter that had sent him rushing home in a panic, his old man had indeed cried about his miserable state, even going so far as to list the price tags for selling himself into servitude.
To his surprise, as soon as the words left his mouth, the old man suddenly slammed his bowl onto the ground.
Smash!
"Help! Someone’s looking for trouble with Magistrate Xu! We’ve got a con artist over here!"
