River Relying on All Appearances

Dragon Gate Inn had quite a reputation in the martial world.

The name "Dragon Gate" carried two meanings.

One referred to the region.

For example, at the Yu Gate Pass on the Yellow River, where Shanxi and Shaanxi met, legend had it that Da Yu had split the mountain to create a gate, allowing the Yellow River to surge through. The terrain was treacherous, and so there was the Dragon Gate Inn...

There was also the Yumen Pass in Dunhuang, a vital point on the ancient Silk Road. Its image was that of a lonely inn in the wilderness: "Once west of Dragon Gate, the desert smoke rises straight into the sky..."

The second meaning was the figurative "Dragon Gate of the martial world."

Crossing that threshold meant entering the martial world. Whether one became a stinking crab or rotten shrimp, or leaped over the Dragon Gate like a carp and soared into the heavens, each had his own allotted fate.

The Dragon Gate Inn at Dragon Gate Post naturally referred to the former.

The famed Longmen Grottoes lay nearby.

"This place is located at the Yi River ferry crossing south of Luoyang, backed by the remaining ranges of Mang Mountain and adjacent to the ancient Dragon Gate post station. It is the water-and-land hub of Yuzhou, linked northward to the Yellow River's grain transport and southward to the roads through Funiu Mountain..."

Di Longzi introduced the place as he walked, then suddenly turned his head.

"Young Hero Li, what came to mind?"

Li Yan nodded slightly. "Trouble!"

There was no need to explain places like this. They were both important transportation routes and gathering places for the Three Religions and Nine Schools of the martial world. The bandits of Funiu Mountain, the Grave Robbers of Mang Mountain, and the