Entering Gengxin City

Decades later, the small town had become Gengxin City.

Master Ou became the first city lord of Gengxin City.

He did not build himself a lavish residence, nor did he erect a towering archway in his own honor. He poured all the money he earned into the city—building walls, digging a moat, constructing wharves, opening mines, and widening roads.

When he died, all the people of Gengxin City came to see him off. A long procession followed behind his coffin, stretching from the city gate all the way to the foot of the mountain.

Zhu Zhuqing showed a look of surprise. "Teacher Xiao, how do you know all this?"

She had grown up in the Star Luo Empire and had read plenty of books in the Zhu Family, but she had never heard of this part of Gengxin City's history.

Xiao Yun smiled. "I read it in a book."

Zhu Zhuqing did not ask further. She knew the "book" Xiao Yun spoke of was no ordinary book.

As they chatted, the walls of Gengxin City appeared in their field of vision.

The city walls stretched for several li, stood more than ten zhang tall, and were built from massive cyan-gray stones.

The stone surfaces were covered in the marks of time. At intervals along the walls stood protruding platforms; those were horse faces, a type of defensive structure that allowed attacks both at the base of the wall and down below the city.

Outside the walls, the moat, more than fifty meters wide, encircled the entire city like a silver ribbon. The water was clear enough to see the pebbles at the bottom.

Weeping willows grew thickly along both banks of the moat, their branches swaying gently in the wind.

To enter the city, one could only pass over several