Xianyang Ancient City

Xianyang Ancient City

How could this be!

There were quite a few passengers waiting for the ferry. The old man smelled of tobacco, the women of scented powder, while the odors of sweat, fish, and rotting wood from the ferry crossing... all rushed into his nostrils.

The smell was downright sharp and refreshing.

Li Yan nearly got knocked off his feet by it.

He understood that his Olfactory Mystical Power had suddenly improved once again.

Since that life-and-death battle with the Cold Altar Rampaging Soldier that night, this made three explosive breakthroughs in a short span of time.

Aside from those ordinary smells, he also caught many unusual scents.

Several hundred meters from the ferry crossing, there was a cold, sticky odor, seemingly left behind by some sinister entity. No matter how the waves beat against it, it lingered without dispersing...

On a large Cao Gang ship in the river, someone at the bow was burning incense and tying red cloth around it. They were also scattering paper money and pouring out the blood of livestock, while a scorching aura swirled around the bow...

More terrifying was the distant Xianyang City.

It was like a ferocious beast settled upon the plains, radiating an ancient and desolate scent. Within the city were all sorts of incense and sacrificial odors as well.

Any one of them was dozens of times richer than the scent at the Land God Temple in Li Family Fortress.

So this is the real world...

Li Yan was shaken to his core.

Ever since awakening his Olfactory Mystical Power last year, he had not even set foot in Lantian County, let alone Chang'an City. He had remained holed up in Li Family Fortress the entire time.

Now that he had come to Xianyang City, he immediately discovered the difference.

No wonder Widow Wang and the others had hidden themselves in the remote countryside of Li Family Fortress. If they went to Chang'an City, they would probably be exposed at once and draw their enemies to them.

Just then, Li Yan's vision suddenly went black.

Waves of dizziness surged over him, and his astonishing sense of smell vanished with it.

Li Yan grabbed the willow tree beside him and only recovered after quite some time.

His face looked grim as he cursed inwardly.

Clearly, this mystical power came at a price.

Widow Wang had never mentioned it. Perhaps she had not expected his Olfactory Mystical Power to undergo explosive improvements again and again.

The worse possibility was that his mystical power had already gone out of control.

Anything out of control was a major problem.

He had to resolve it as soon as possible!

"The boat's here--!"

The boatman's voice interrupted his thoughts.

Fortunately, his Olfactory Mystical Power had already shut down. Though his head was spinning and cold sweat streamed down his back, Li Yan still walked toward the ferry.

The ferry was not large, perhaps seven or eight meters long, with no awning to shelter it.

After paying the fare, Li Yan casually found a place to sit.

A cool breeze brushed over the river, while the surrounding villagers' conversations continued to drift into his ears:

"Wang A Niang, why aren't you hurrying to bring in the wheat? What are you doing in the city?"

"This year I hired wheat harvesters from Longyou. I have to go into the city to burn some incense and pray that it won't rain these next few days. Then I'll hurry back..."

"You've got quite a few able-bodied men in your family."

"Don't mention it. The second and third ran off to Jinmen, saying the factories there paid well. They won't even come home for the New Year. I figured there isn't much land at home. The eldest has made something of himself, so the second and third need something to strive for too..."

Li Yan already knew about what they were discussing from the village.

The Great Xuan Dynasty had been founded a century ago and had now reached its peak.

But beneath the flourishing age, undercurrents were already stirring.

Large-scale land consolidation had begun, and displaced people were growing more numerous in every region. Quite a few disturbances had even broken out over the past decade.

At the same time, the imperial court had announced the opening of the seas for trade. Large handicraft workshops had been established in many port cities, absorbing quite a number of displaced people.

The Imperial Court was said to be no more peaceful. Factions had formed, each attacking the others.

Of course, Li Yan had no interest in any of that.

All he wanted now was to resolve his own predicament as quickly as possible.

After crossing the Wei River, Li Yan's mind felt noticeably clearer. His mystical sense of smell also recovered, though it had become very weak, roughly the same as it had been before he dealt with Blind Old Three.

Li Yan had no time to worry about it. He lowered the brim of his straw hat and entered the city.

It was, after all, an ancient capital from before the Qin Dynasty. The classics described it as having "separate palaces and detached residences, pavilions and towers stretching on and on for more than three hundred li, blocking out the sky and sun."

Though it had endured repeated wars and reconstructions, and the city had shrunk considerably, it was still prosperous enough. The moment he entered, a sea of noise surged toward him.

Unlike Chang'an City, whose one hundred and eight wards were laid out like a chessboard, Xianyang City had no standardized arrangement. Li Yan entered through the southern gate, which was near the ferry crossing, and found himself directly on an old commercial street crisscrossed by roads.

Shops stood in rows along the street, all kinds of signboards and pennants fluttered, hawkers called out without pause, and mule carts from the ferry crossing mingled with pedestrians, making the place prosperous yet chaotic.

Naturally, there were beggars too.

Perhaps because Li Yan wore a saber at his waist, no one bothered him. But unfamiliar merchants were surrounded by a swarm of beggar children the moment they entered the city.

They wore rags, and some were even missing limbs. They surrounded people and pleaded, "Master, show great mercy and may you profit a thousand gold pieces this year!" "Madam, bestow your kindness and may you embrace sons and grandsons..."

Li Yan glanced over, then turned and left.

The beggars of the martial world were divided into the eastbound and westbound.

The eastbound were soft beggars, mainly making a living by performing in exchange for offerings. Their repertoire was varied, including Chang Xiang Zi, Wen Wu Qiang, Bai Shen Zhu, and You Wu Hu.

These beggars mostly traveled far and wide, drifting wherever the currents took them.

The westbound, meanwhile, were mostly stationary beggars. They usually occupied a particular city, led by the head of the West Traveling Beggars, who took a cut of their daily alms.

Whenever an eastbound beggar traveling the martial world arrived in a city, he had to first visit the den of the West Traveling Beggars and pay respects, obtaining permission before performing. He also had to hand over a cut.

If he did not understand the rules, he would become a corpse before nightfall.

Among the heads of the West Traveling Beggars were also many "fake beggars." Their positions were inherited through generations, and they controlled the city's beggar dens. By day they wore tattered clothes, but at night they changed into fine robes and went off to enjoy themselves in the pleasure quarters and theaters.

The worst of them even engaged in businesses involving Crippling Beggars and human trafficking, maintaining close ties with the city's brokers in human beings.

What they excelled at was coercive begging. Those beggar children might look pitiful, but in truth they were ruthless and vicious. Ordinary people could not afford to provoke them.

Sure enough, when the unfamiliar merchants refused to pay, the beggar children immediately changed expressions. They knocked on their broken bowls and sang Lian Hua Luo curses.

"If you don't pay, I won't go! Use the money you have left to buy a coffin!"

"If you won't give, I won't beg! Let's see how anxious you get, you bastard!"

The merchants flew into a rage and chased after the beggar children, never noticing that the money pouches on their bodies had already been stolen...

Of course, there were also plenty of beggars who traveled the martial world eastward.

As Li Yan crossed the street, a blind old beggar was telling stories at the roadside.

His eyes were cloudy, his voice weathered, and he carried a strong air of antiquity.

"Fame, rank, profit, and wealth pass day by day; glory and riches fade into mist."

"The mortal world rolls on like a tide. How many become immortals..."

"Attain the Dao!"

"May I ask whether Daoist Wang Dao Xuan is here?"

Outside a small shop, Li Yan asked the shopkeeper for directions.

Near the Xianyang City God Temple, aside from vendors selling snacks and breakfast, most shops sold paper effigies, incense and candles, coffins, or burial clothes. There were also quite a few establishments offering face-reading and divination.

The shop Li Yan had asked at, for example, was an incense-and-candle shop. Inside were everything from ordinary earthen incense to sticks as thick as an arm, from common red and white candles to elaborate dragon-and-phoenix candles, along with all kinds of paper money and ingots. It truly had everything.

After arriving here, Li Yan had found the incense smoke from the temple so dense that it made his head swim and ache. Thus, he had not approached it and had instead searched directly according to the address Sha LiFei had given him.

According to Sha LiFei, Wang Dao Xuan had also opened a shop, handling fortune-telling by characters, divination, feng shui and site selection, weddings and funerals, demon subjugation and monster-catching—in short, he took any job.

However, the shop at the given address already had a different owner.

Left with no choice, Li Yan could only ask around.

"Wang Dao Xuan?"

The incense-shop owner was a fat man with a squint. He first looked puzzled, then seemed to remember something and suddenly understood.

"You mean Wang Lao Nian, don't you?"

With that, he smiled knowingly. "He was buried in debt and already sold the shop to me. These days, he runs his business from home."

"Wang... Lao Nian?!"

Li Yan's face stiffened as anger surged through him.

That Sha LiFei fellow was truly unreliable.

Although he had mentioned earlier that Wang Dao Xuan took any kind of job and was probably a good-for-nothing, at least he was one of the Xuan Gate People and might have been able to find out a few things.

But judging from what the shopkeeper said, he was even worse than Li Yan had imagined.

He had fallen into debt and could not even keep his shop...

The name Wang Dao Xuan was probably, like Sha LiFei, merely a stage name he had invented to boast to outsiders!

Li Yan's mystical power was already out of control, and now evil fire was surging in his chest.

Seeing this, the shopkeeper already had an idea. He stepped forward, nodded with a smile, and said, "Are you here to have a character analyzed, seek a divination, or arrange a wedding or funeral? Just say the word. I know all the shops on this street, and I can even get you a cheaper price..."

"Thank you. I'll think about it later."

The words sounded pleasant, but Li Yan would not believe him.

He had seen too many people like this. If even fellow tradesmen could tear down one another's walls, wouldn't they be even more ruthless toward customers?

Besides, with one sniff, Li Yan could tell that everything in this incense shop was ordinary merchandise. Even the divine statues being offered incense had no incense scent on them. The owner was simply an amateur.

Sure enough, seeing that Li Yan was uninterested, the shopkeeper's attitude immediately turned cold.

Li Yan's heart stirred. He let a trace of anger show on his face, clasped his fists, and said, "I have a debt to settle with that Wang Lao Nian. Please tell me where he is."

The shopkeeper cast a sidelong glance at him. Seeing the saber at his waist, a hint of schadenfreude appeared in his eyes. He raised a hand and pointed.

"Certainly. See that alley? Go three hundred meters in, and the Asking Dao Pavilion on the right is the place!"

The shopkeeper had pointed to an old residential alley.

When Li Yan entered, all he could see were ancient, unadorned residences. Though each had its own courtyard, they were remote and cramped, clearly homes for ordinary commoners.

Quite a few of those houses had courtyard walls built from salvaged old Qin Brick from ancient Xianyang. Combined with the mottled bluestone paving, they possessed a distinct air of antiquity.

After walking three hundred meters, he soon found the place.

A plaque hung above the gate of an old residence.

It was made of ordinary jujube wood with only a coat of varnish, inferior even to a restaurant's signboard. Yet the three characters Asking Dao Pavilion were ancient and vigorous, quite extraordinary.

Some of Li Yan's anger inexplicably ebbed away.

Then he twitched his nose.

There were actually quite a few unusual scents coming from the small courtyard...