Chapter 99: Laoyakou (Second Update)

The next morning, just as dawn broke, Bai Laoyan rose and urged everyone: "Move quickly!"

Fu Jingyu pulled a pocket-sized almanac from his robes, glanced at it, and noted today's prohibitions:

Night travel, bathing, weddings, and felling trees.

Xu Yuan leaned over to look, even more envious: "An Imperial Astronomical Bureau Great Almanac, and in pocket size too. Tsk tsk, young masters from great families are indeed wealthy."

Fu Jingyu looked at him speechlessly: "Brother Xu, are you deliberately putting on that face of resentment toward the rich to mock me?"

Xu Yuan laughed loudly: "Exactly!"

Fu Jingyu simply made an "Oh" sound.

He had truly just asked for an answer, leaving Xu Yuan speechless: "You really are boring."

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau is responsible for verifying and issuing the annual almanacs.

At first, private reprinting by the common people was forbidden, which resulted in boiling public resentment.

An almanac from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau cost two taels of silver; how could ordinary families afford it?

Later, they were forced to relax the rules; private bookshops and printing workshops could reprint them, but they had to pay a sum of silver to the Imperial Astronomical Bureau based on quantity.

After this, the common people got into the habit of calling almanacs issued by the Imperial Astronomical Bureau "Great Almanacs."

The price rose to ten taels of silver per book, with some even costing fifty taels.

But those costing fifty taels could already be considered "auspicious objects"; it was said that hanging one in the home could ensure the household's safety for the year and protect the master from sudden, unexpected calamities.

In Southern Jiaozhi, they all used private almanacs reprinted by Ji Cheng Tang; the one hanging in Xu Yuan's home was such a book, costing ten cash per copy.

Fu Jingyu tucked the almanac back into his robes, and everyone crawled out of the hut. Suddenly, they felt something was wrong. Looking up, they saw Mr. Master Piaodang hanging from a tall tree at the hut's entrance, swaying in the morning breeze.

So just now, we passed right beneath his feet...

Everyone's faces turned rather unpleasant. Bai Laoyan roared: "Get down!"

Mr. Master Piaodang descended swiftly.

"To reach Guanghuo Street, we must pass through Laoyakou," Bai Laoyan said. "We will deal with them on the riverbank before Laoyakou!"

Bai Laoyan tightened his leg wraps: "There are still one hundred and twenty li of mountain road ahead. We must reach it within one and a half double-hours, or we might not make it in time."

Yan Lao looked troubled; he was a law cultivator, and one who cultivated the calculation method, so his physique was not formidable. Furthermore, no one had ridden horses into the mountains this time.

Lu Zhengyan said: "I can carry one person."

Bai Laoyan looked again at Xu Yuan and Fu Jingyu.

Fu Jingyu pulled out a pair of wooden horse talismans: "I can keep up."

But he only had one pair of wooden horse talismans.

Xu Yuan released his Artisan Core, stepped onto the wheels, and ignited the fire in his belly: "I have no problem either."

Bai Laoyan nodded: "Good, let's go!"

Once they started running, Bai Laoyan unexpectedly discovered that the fastest was actually Xu Yuan!

The stepmother's artifact was incredibly powerful.

Even Mr. Master Piaodang, floating in the air, was a few paces slower than Xu Yuan.

Carrying Yan Lao on his back, Lu Zhengyan fell to the very rear.

The entire formation now had Bai Laoyan at the very front, as he was the guide.

Xu Yuan lagged only half a body length behind, appearing completely at ease.

Third was Mr. Master Piaodang.

Fourth was actually... Da Fu!

The great white goose had originally been held in Xu Yuan's arms, but it seemed to dislike being held. Not long after, it broke free on its own, ran for a bit, then flapped its wings—taking flight!

It glided for half a li before landing, then ran for a bit and took off again! And while others ran with great effort, Da Fu was having a wonderful time.

Although Fu Jingyu had the wooden horse talismans on him, he still had to run for real, and he was already panting heavily.

Fu Jingyu looked at Xu Yuan ahead, who was stepping on fire wheels, and gasped for breath: "The most extravagant ones are clearly you artisan cultivators!"

How dare you mock me?

Xu Yuan was not an artisan cultivator, but he could be counted as coming from an artisan cultivator family.

Bai Laoyan could not help but feel a desire to compete; his steps became even faster, yet Xu Yuan still lagged exactly half a body length behind him, no more, no less.

This made things difficult for Fu Jingyu and Lu Zhengyan behind.

The original plan was one and a half double-hours, but in just a little over one double-hour, they arrived before Laoyakou.

Xu Yuan retracted the wheels and extinguished the fire in his belly, thinking silently, "That was close. If we had gone any further, the fire in my belly would not have been enough."

Bai Laoyan's feathered cloak was soaked, drenched in sweat.

He also felt a bit of regret; why show off like this in front of young lads? These old arms and old legs were exhausted like a grandchild's.

Fu Jingyu panted heavily, his tongue hanging out, able to compete neck-and-neck with Mr. Master Piaodang.

He swallowed several medicinal pills to replenish his strength as quickly as possible.

He then took out medicinal pills to share with everyone, as another fierce battle lay ahead.

Xu Yuan took three pills, his eyes lighting up: "Excellent stuff."

The fire in his belly, which had been on the verge of drying up, quickly refilled.

Bai Laoyan waved his hand: "I cannot eat these."

He had his own method; he pulled out a blackish root, likely something like Polygonum or Astragalus growing in the mountains, took a small bite, and his pale, greenish-white face returned to a waxy yellow.

Xu Yuan began observing the surrounding terrain, searching for places to set an ambush.

As he observed, his gaze locked onto a giant eyeball on a distant cliff.

Laoyakou was a gorge mouth several dozen zhang wide, with a river seven or eight zhang wide flowing through it, while steep cliffs rose on both sides, reaching a hundred zhang in height.

The stones were as black as crow feathers.

It seemed as if it could drip ink, staining the riverbank below, roughly a hundred zhang in extent, pitch black.

At a height of fifty to sixty zhang on the cliff, a single eye, three zhang wide, suddenly opened.

Its iris was equally pitch black, cold and heartless, turning stiffly as it slowly swept over every person on the riverbank below.

In that instant, everyone—including Bai Lao—understood that the "disguise" imposed by the Mountain Lord Stele upon them could not possibly hide them from this crow's eye.

Bai Laoyan said: "Do you see the blackened area beneath the cliff? Never cross that boundary!"

"The Crow's Mouth is the two gates of Broad Goods Street; that eye is the gatekeeper. Once you cross that boundary, the gatekeeper will inspect you—none of us except the hanged can withstand inspection!"

Fu Jingyu asked: "What happens if you can't withstand inspection?"

"The gatekeeper keeps 'dogs.' Its 'dogs' lurk in the river. If you can't withstand inspection, it will call out the 'dogs' and drag those trying to sneak in into the river to drown!"

Bai Laoyan pointed beneath the cliff: "Do you see those chains? They're for the dogs."

Xu Yuan looked closely and indeed saw seven chains driven into the base of the cliff, each as thick as an adult's thigh, the other ends sunk into the river.

Yan Lao exclaimed in shock: "What kind of monstrous beast requires iron chains this thick to bind it?"

Bai Laoyan shook his head: "I don't know, and I don't want to know."

The first rule of the Mountain Runners is to obey the rules, and one of them is never to cross that boundary.

Xu Yuan pointed to a grove on one side of the riverbank: "Ambush there. When they arrive, we surge out and cut off their path to the Crow's Mouth."

Yan Lao, calculating as he went, planted his counting rods into the riverbank.

Fu Jingyu also seized the moment, using his Maoshan method to make several arrangements.

Bai Laoyan, too, used the Mountain Runners' methods to set several traps.

(End of Chapter)