Yanzhou Prefecture, Sui'an County.
The moon hung like a hook; wild geese returned south.
Clad in a long blue robe, Chen Ping'an strolled beneath the moon across a stone arch bridge, with the steady-footed young man Zhao Shu Xia, his disciple, at his side.
Zhao Shu Xia lightly stamped his foot. Other than being sturdy, the stone bridge showed nothing unusual. He asked, "Master, this bridge has such a grand name. Is there some story behind it?"
The stream-spanning arch bridge beneath their feet was called Ten Thousand Year Bridge.
The murmuring Wuxi Stream emerged from the mountains. The village was called Ridgefoot, and the locals called themselves its source. It truly lived up to its name.
Chen Ping'an cracked sunflower seeds and shook his head with a smile. "I looked into it, but unfortunately, neither the prefectural nor county gazetteers recorded anything clearly. Most likely, local worthies funded its construction long ago. As for why it was named Ten Thousand Year Bridge, even the old folks here don't know. There's no evidence to go by. The writing on the gravestones in the village cemetery shows that a prominent lineage from an ancient kingdom at the northernmost end of Treasure Bottle Continent migrated here some seven or eight hundred years ago. This Wuxi Stream is one of the sources of the Ximei River. In fact, the Dragon Whisker River in my hometown was anciently called Wuxi Stream too. Fate is a wondrous thing beyond words."
Sui'an County lay at the border between Yanzhou and Yunzhou, while the Ximei River was Yunzhou's largest river, originating from Yanzhou Prefecture. Yet it had never possessed a River God granted Imperial Enfeoffment, so not even a single illicit shrine had stood along either bank since ancient times.
Zhao Shu Xia used Sound Gathering to