Chapter 100: The Boards of Fucheng

Holy shit?

Holy shit!

Holy shit?!

The instant the text surfaced in his eyes, Li Yuan froze as if struck by lightning.

Sea-Splitting Dark Whale Hammer?

Eleventh-tier!!

Li Yuan felt his blood and qi surge to his head all at once, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, only coming back to himself after that dark-gold pillar of light flashed and vanished.

"No…"

He reached out instinctively; had his waist not been strong enough, he would have nearly tumbled into the Grand Canal.

"Sea-Splitting Dark Whale Hammer, eleventh-tier, eleventh-tier?!"

Standing dazed by the river, Li Yuan could for the moment only hear his heart pounding violently.

He didn't know what the Dark Whale Sea-Splitting Hammer was, but what an eleventh-tier weapon meant—he knew that only too well!

"I didn't even get a clear look…"

Li Yuan snapped back to himself with a start, stamping his foot again and again, wishing he could slap himself; he gazed into the distance at the towering mountain range on the other side of the Dahe, nearly wanting to charge right over.

"Eleventh-tier!"

When Lin Lin Qingfa and the others hurried to catch up, they saw Li Yuan by the river, face flushed red, looking utterly lost.

"Shopkeeper Li? What's wrong with you…"

The few of them got a terrible fright.

"It's nothing…"

Li Yuan's expression was very ugly; he truly hadn't seen it clearly.

Apart from this 【Dark Whale Sea-Splitting Hammer (Eleventh-Tier)】, there was a whole string of 【???】.

'Was it the distance too far, or the tier of the Martial Soldier Registry too low? Or…

Li Yuan's heart was a tangled mess; even after returning to the carriage, he couldn't come back to himself for a long time. That fleeting glimpse had nearly blinded him.

Eleventh-tier!

Strong as Han Han Chuijun was, the weapon he used, the Thunder-Rune Wish-Jade Pestle, was only fifth-tier; what kind of weapon an eleventh-tier was, he simply couldn't imagine.

If only he could get his hands on it…

"Squeak squeak squeak~"

The little mouse had somehow climbed onto Li Yuan's shoulder at some unknown point. Hearing the string of squeaks, Li Yuan finally calmed the excitement in his heart, tore off a few pieces of meat skin and tossed them to the little thing.

"As long as a weapon meets the conditions, no matter how high its tier, I can wield it! This has nothing to do with the tier of the Martial Soldier Registry. Either the distance was too far, or something was blocking it…"

Li Yuan kept replaying that fleeting glimpse in his mind, reciting the Dao Scripture silently to steady his heart, but the thought of becoming a disciple of the Divine Weapon Valley had never burned stronger.

"Calm down, calm down…"

Li Yuan drew a deep breath, suppressing the pounding in his heart. After a good long while, he finally lifted the carriage curtain again and gazed into the distance; the towering mountains were still there, but that flash of dark-gold light was gone.

"Sea-Splitting Dark Whale Hammer!"

……

You can die of exhaustion riding toward a mountain that looks close.

At noon, looking down from high ground, they could already faintly make out the outline of Fucheng, the Dragon-Hibernating Prefecture City, but it wasn't until evening that the Gao Liu group truly saw this grand, bustling city with their own eyes.

Burdened with worries, Li Yuan stepped down from the carriage amid the excited shouts of Wang Wang Peiyao and the others. Looking up, at the end of the official road—wide enough for ten carriages abreast—stood a city as massive as a mountain.

The Pingjiang Grand Canal rolled on, broad and mighty, several hundred meters wide, but once it passed through the city gate and flowed on, it looked just like a moat.

On the enormous wooden bridge, carriages streamed and pedestrians wove like a tapestry.

Those towering, ancient city walls stretched north and south into a distance the eye couldn't even see clearly.

"Dragon-Hibernating City! So tall, so huge!"

"Wow, it's so big!"

"A prefecture city! This is a prefecture city!"

Before they'd even gotten on the bridge, the Gao Liu group was already shouting excitedly. The young masters and young ladies of Gao Liu's inner city, at this moment, were like country bumpkins who'd never seen a city, hollering and carrying on.

Passing merchant caravans and travelers, however, took it in stride, even wearing kindly smiles.

"Brother Li, this is Dragon-Hibernating City. What do you think—magnificent, isn't it?"

Wang Wang Peiyao was thrilled beyond words, the young lady's face flushed red, her eyes full of reverence: "This is an ancient city that has stood for three thousand years! The founding emperor of the Great Zhou once briefly made this his capital!"

"It really is big!"

Li Yuan gathered his composure, not letting himself stand out too much.

Looking at that mountain-like city, Li Yuan was somewhat awed as well. Dragon-Hibernating Prefecture was said to have over two million people settled here; compared to the metropolises of his past life, which often held tens of millions, it amounted to little.

But this was an ancient city!

An ancient city holding two million people—the onrushing sense of prosperity and antiquity truly deserved to be called magnificent.

"Building such a giant city must have required an incalculable amount of manpower. I suppose back then they mobilized a great many martial artists too?"

Li Yuan still remembered that the largest cities of ancient times in his past life were also on the scale of a million, but those were capitals—and this was merely a prefecture city.

Dragon-Hibernating City certainly had the reputation of being Huizhou's foremost city, but it was still a prefecture city, not a capital.

The clamor of voices pulled Li Yuan out of the mood of having glimpsed the Dark Whale Hammer yet being unable to obtain it: "I heard the capital of the Dayun Kingdom, built over a thousand years, can hold over ten million people? If I get the chance, I must go see it!"

On the wooden bridge, merchants were plentiful, carriages and horses flowing like a dragon.

Dragon-Hibernating City had more than one gate; four great arched gates could accommodate twenty horses walking shoulder to shoulder—no frills, just sheer enormity.

"Ten copper coins per person to enter—how much money does that bring in over a single day?"

Yue Yue Yunjin, silent the whole way, was also deeply impressed, looking here, peeking there—everything was fresh, everything sparked curiosity.

The county seat and the prefectural city were worlds apart, and this gap was far greater than that between Gao Liu's inner and outer cities.

"Over two million people — how much would that be every day? Even selling night-soil buckets would bring in quite a bit of silver…"

Liang Liang Ashui, who rarely spoke, spoke up — his focus was different.

From the Grand Canal, to the city gates, to the night-soil buckets, he estimated that the number of people in Zhe Long Fucheng who made a living emptying chamber pots must number at least in the thousands.

"I wonder if my bait would be considered one-of-a-kind here?"

Liang Liang Ashui was excited, yet also a little uneasy — if it didn't work out, he feared he wouldn't even be able to afford elixir pills in the future…

"The colors are much brighter than Gao Liu's, and the dyes are all very complete. Mm, the common folk here live well, with no worries about food or drink — only then would they think about dressing brightly…"

Li Yuan quietly compared the atmosphere of the prefectural city in his heart.

Their group looked quite shabby, their clothes rustic and unsophisticated. Even a young lady of Wang Wang Peiyao's temperament appeared constrained, tugging at her sleeves and fixing her hair every now and then.

"Not only are they better dressed, their complexion is better too, and their spirit and vigor are full…"

Li Yuan clenched his right fist, forcing himself not to look around:

"So many graded weapons — the number of martial artists must be very large… Fourth-grade, a Named Weapon!"

Li Yuan still couldn't help it and glanced up.

It was a bare-armed, exceptionally burly bald giant, shouldering a wolf-tooth club of at least two hundred jin, striding with the wind — wherever he passed, no one failed to give way.

"Fierce Tiger Monk, Zou Kui!"

A passerby whispered in alarm, recognizing that street-sweeping tiger. Many who heard grew fearful and stepped back, afraid of being associated with him.

"A top expert on the Zhe Long Blade-For-Hire Rankings!"

Liu Liu Jingshan squeezed over and introduced him in a lowered voice.

Zhe Long City, the heart of a prefecture, gathered who knows how many experts. And because the Divine Weapon Valley was renowned throughout the world for forging weapons, not only nearby prefectures but even martial artists from other Daozhou tens of thousands of li away came here to seek weapons.

Many martial artists meant many brawls, and many were wanted by the imperial court and Divine Weapon Valley.

Naturally, a group of people also arose who made a living from this — blade-for-hire men.

The Blade-For-Hire Rankings listed all ninety-nine blade-for-hire men with Suo You Wu Gong in Zhe Long Prefecture; anyone who could make the list was without exception a master of the craft.

"With no worries about food and drink, no worries about clothing, only then does one pursue fame and fortune…"

Li Yuan thought of the Soldier's Dao Battle-Slaughtering Hammer, a secret transmission of Divine Weapon Valley, ranked eighteenth on the Hundred Schools of Martial Arts Rankings.

The martial artists and common folk of the prefectural city had already risen beyond hardship and begun pursuing higher things — entertainment, for instance, or

fame. There were many similar rankings.

Things like the Wanted Rankings, the Top Courtesan Rankings, the Hidden Dragon Rankings, the Assassin Rankings, and so on.

Of course, what Li Yuan was most interested in was the Divine Weapon Rankings…

"The prefectural city!"

Wu Ming murmured.

He finally understood why so many people came to the prefectural city and were rarely heard from again.

Passing through the spacious gate tunnel, they came to an even broader street.

Seeing this street, even Li Yuan was shaken — if not for the buildings lining both sides, he would have almost taken it for a plaza, wide enough to gallop horses on!

"This wide?"

Everyone except Lin Lin Qingfa was greatly astonished.

In Zhe Long Prefecture, every inch of land was worth its weight in gold — such a wide street, if converted into houses, how much silver would it fetch?

"Look, the Wanted Rankings!"

Liu Liu Jingshan, sharp-eyed, spotted the notice posted beside the city gate.

"Don't wander off!"

Lin Lin Qingfa stopped the few of them, his expression serious. Before that notice stood a considerable number of blade-for-hire men, each one cold and stern in expression, their qi and blood vigorous — among them was Zou Kui.

"Just looking won't hurt."

Liu Liu Jingshan laughed and walked over. Li Yuan and the others were also curious and followed. On the notice, taller than a person, the entries were packed full.

"Nian Jiu is actually ranked eighty-ninth!"

Liu Liu Jingshan cried out in surprise, pointing to a spot in the middle-lower section of the list.

"Nian Jiu, a villain of Thousand Jun Cave, Body Tempering Great Completion, Liu Liu Jingshan horizontal training, has killed over a hundred people, extremely brutal. Bounty: eight hundred and forty taels of silver!"

Nian Jiu's bounty had set a new record!

Even Li Yuan was tempted — beyond the silver, there were also quite a few elixir pills.

"When I'm short on silver in the future, I can use Li Li Yuanba's identity to claim this bounty…"

Just as Li Yuan's heart stirred, he suddenly felt the light before his eyes go dark.

The fierce monk shouldering the wolf-tooth club strode up before them, lowered his head, looking extremely menacing:

"Gao Liu County accent? Have you seen Nian Jiu?"

The low voice instantly drained the color from Liu Liu Jingshan's face. Lin Lin Qingfa hurriedly stepped forward and bowed in reply:

"Replying to Master Zou, that Nian Jiu committed a grave case in Gao Liu over half a year ago. He was later startled away by Elder Han and fled into Mount Fajiu Mountain, whereabouts unknown to this day…"

"Elder Han? Then you are…"

Zou Kui swept his gaze over the few of them, pausing briefly on Li Yuan, his expression shifting:

"You are — Li Yuan?"

Li Yuan cupped his fist in greeting: "I am Li Yuan. May I ask who this hero is…"

Swish!

Zou Kui's face twitched. Without a word, he turned and left. The other blade-for-hire men also shifted in expression and strode away, as if avoiding a plague god.

"…"

Li Yuan had still wanted to make some small talk, but seeing this, he couldn't help but be stunned.

It was Liu Zheng who leaned over, his voice lowered considerably after the fright:

"Elder Han once served as a blade-bearer for a time, and now, he is still ranked first on the Blade-Bearer List…"