Chapter 1437: A Person, A City

The road from Zhuo'an to Yaodu was wide, straight, and very easy to travel.

Yangshan's convoy moved forward among countless others, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, finally reaching Tianshui City, the most prosperous city on the Shanjing Plain.

However, the queue of teams waiting to enter the city surprisingly stretched for three *li*!

From a distance, it was a dense, teeming mass that barely moved forward for a long time.

He Lingchuan shaded his eyes with his hand and exclaimed, "How impressive!"

"Brother Fan, is it always this difficult to enter your Tianshui City?"

"Not at all, not at all," Fan Shuang replied, startled by the sight. "It's probably because my King's birthday celebration is approaching, so Tianshui City's entry and exit checks are particularly strict."

With a major celebration imminent, Tianshui City was naturally under city-wide martial law to prevent any incidents.

*Crack!* A flash of lightning illuminated the sky, and it looked like rain was imminent.

"If we queue outside the city for an hour, wouldn't we get soaked to the bone?" Fan Shuang said immediately.

"Let me go and make some arrangements first."

With that, he galloped his horse towards the city gate.

At that moment, the King of Yao's decree and Fan Shuang's status as a special envoy proved exceptionally useful, allowing Yangshan's convoy to cut the queue and enter Tianshui City three hours earlier.

The weather in June is as fickle as a child's mood. No sooner had Fan Shuang concluded his negotiations than thunder rumbled in the sky.

He turned to signal the convoy, and backlit by the light, he saw a lone figure leading the team unhurriedly over the slope. The thick dark clouds seemed to press down on the hillside, right above his head.

As he walked forward, lightning flashed like snakes in the sky, as if a raging storm was rolling forward with him, steadily approaching Tianshui City.

One person, bringing startling thunder, sweeping towards a capital city.

Fan Shuang's heart tightened, filled with an inexplicable sense of dread and foreboding.

His body and soul were fixed in place; for a moment, he couldn't tear his eyes away.

He stared intently for several breaths, until a child's sudden scream from the nearby crowd instantly jolted Fan Shuang back to reality.

He looked again closely and exclaimed, "Oh, it's not a stranger at all, it's just He Lingchuan!"

He Lingchuan was even smiling and waving at him, looking completely harmless.

Fan Shuang rubbed his eyes, wondering why he had experienced such an illusion.

"Brother He, Commander Zhao, come quickly! Let's get into the city before the thunderstorm!"

The city was as lively as He Lingchuan and his companion had imagined, but there were indeed many city patrol guards. One could encounter patrolling soldiers every few hundred steps; if they spotted a suspicious person, they would immediately approach to search and question them.

He Lingchuan chuckled, "It seems Tianshui City is at its safest during this time."

Tianshui City would be turbulent and unpredictable in the coming days, but that would likely be on a political level. As for public security, the city was under strict guard, and the period around the King of Yao's birthday celebration should be the safest time.

Fan Shuang himself also muttered, "Is the city defense really this strict?"

Commander Zhao came up from behind and said, "I asked the gate guards; the order for city-wide martial law was only issued this morning."

Fan Shuang was greatly surprised. "This morning? How strange. What happened?"

"Let me send someone into the palace to inquire."

Afterwards, Fan Shuang took He Lingchuan and the others to complete their check-in. Sanmentou Inn, being the closest to the royal palace and offering the best food, made rooms difficult to secure at this time. However, He Lingchuan's room had been reserved in advance and was ready for him.

This was, of course, an arrangement made by those in authority.

After drinking some water and changing clothes, Fan Shuang, despite the dark clouds pressing down on the city, eagerly went into the palace to apply for an audience for He Lingchuan.

It was said that there was a complex procedure to follow, which would take a considerable amount of time. So, He Lingchuan and Dong Rui went to explore Tianshui City.

Although He Lingchuan had read about Tianshui City beforehand, he still felt a sense of novelty when he actually entered it.

Tianshui City was very large, even bigger than Panlong City after its third expansion. Its permanent population exceeded 700,000, and including stationed troops, temple attendants, merchants, foreign envoys, scholars, and others, the total reached over 900,000. Its terrain was uniquely half-mountain, half-water, encompassing stone mountains to the east and a large lake to the west. The houses built by the people of Tianshui City stretched densely from the water's edge all the way up the mountains, arranged like fish scales.

Only four words came to He Lingchuan's mind to describe it:

Crammed into every available space.

The buildings here were generally not tall, with most being three stories at most; only temples and tall pagodas were exceptions.

He Lingchuan's gaze swept across and was immediately drawn to three or four tall pagodas ahead. While Tianshui City's houses were not tall, its pagodas were famously high, each a stone structure at least ten *zhang* tall. Every level of each pagoda had niches embedded with golden bells or divine statues.

The people of Yao believed that the higher the stone pagodas dedicated to the gods, the better. The taller a pagoda was built, the more pious the people were considered. The pagoda dedicated to the Wonderful Serenity Sky God was said to be over forty *zhang* tall, from whose spire one could overlook half of Tianshui City.

When the pagoda bells rang, it was as if the gods were whispering.

Building pagodas was a significant undertaking, and Tianshui City had a dedicated pagoda management agency solely responsible for their reporting, approval, inspection, and maintenance. Ordinary citizens were forbidden from constructing them privately; doing so was considered blasphemy against the gods, punishable by imprisonment for minor offenses and strangulation for severe ones.

In fact, although Tianshui City's name contains the character for "water," the city has many stone buildings made from locally sourced materials. Tall pagodas, temples, palaces, and even the riverside pools connecting the entire city are all constructed from large blocks of light brown or pale red sandstone.

Thus, the main color palette of the entire Tianshui City was grayish-brown and dark red. Aside from temple roofs being painted gold, other buildings also frequently used red clay tiles. However, skilled artisans also attempted to add more colors to the architecture, such as indigo, goose yellow, deep green, and even dark black and plain white.

At a glance, a riot of colors dotted the landscape between the browns and ochres.

Due to the extensive use of stone and various colors, Tianshui City, bathed in sunlight, exuded a blend of grandeur and ancientness, coolness and vitality.

Walking through the streets, He Lingchuan had an illusion, as if he had returned to Chiyan, the capital city of one of Beijia's vassal states. The number of monsters here was unparalleled among the cities on the Shanjing Plain, but the streets were also notably narrow, especially the winding alleys. Some were barely wide enough for a person to pass sideways, effectively stopping anyone larger.

Tianshui City had a long history, and its former urban planning no longer suited modern living requirements, especially in the central area. He Lingchuan had heard Fan Shuang complain more than once that every time there was extreme heavy rain, the city center would flood, and in some years, people had even drowned.

Due to the varying terrain, this was almost impossible to solve, as accumulated water was difficult to drain.

Fan Shuang had also instructed them to stick to the main streets upon their arrival and avoid the back alleys. But given who He Lingchuan and Dong Rui were, it would have been strange if they had actually listened.

The main street was brightly lit, but as soon as they turned into an alley, the light sources immediately decreased by more than half.

There were also shops here, but their facades and signs were smaller.

The two passed a strange shop, almost open to the elements on all four sides, with only a roof above. Its mud walls were embedded with grayish-white clam shells, and the roof itself was barely distinguishable.

Dong Rui said, "This place looks like a stable."

But there wasn't a single horse in the "stable"; instead, it was packed with people.