In the autumn of King Zhou's twenty-second year...
What was surprising was that, after a certain Flame Immortal had taken up residence on Cloud Peak of Cui屏 Mountain and established a cave dwelling to recruit disciples, the area had thrived over the past twenty-odd years. While other parts of Great Shang had fallen into chaos and misery under King Zhou's indulgence in wine and women, endless wars, harsh punishments and taxes, rejection of good advice, and extortionate levies, the lands inside and outside the territory governed by Li Jing and his wife had instead flourished in a way that astonished everyone.
At present, the pass city of Chentang Pass and the more than a hundred villages and towns, old and new, scattered beyond its walls had nearly two hundred thousand registered residents and over a hundred thousand laborers. The numbers of cattle, horses, carts, boats, refugees, and foreign slaves were beyond counting!
Thus, this important pass linking the north to Chaoge, Chentang Pass on the banks of the Nine-Bend River near the Eastern Sea, had once been a poor, remote place with little more than a small town. Yet, without anyone noticing, it had become Great Shang's most important grain-producing region and a major economic hub. It had also become a powerful guarantee, continually sending grain and money southwest to Chaoge, allowing Yin Shang to limp onward and King Zhou to continue enjoying his drunken, debauched life in the capital.
However...
Today, from the direction of Qianyuan Mountain in the west, twelve streaks of golden light came flying in at once!
Then, on a low hill outside Chentang Pass—a place where the people lived in peace and prosperity, where doors went unlocked at night and nothing was left behind on the roads, and where countless acres of farmland stretched as