On the main street of Nuoding City, the afternoon crowd was sparser than the morning one, but the shops along the avenue were still open. The rhythmic pounding of blacksmiths and the chatter from tea stalls blended together, drifting over from both sides of the bluestone-paved road in a rising and falling chorus.
Two young men in dark, close-fitting martial attire walked side by side down the street with steady, powerful strides. Short blades hung at their waists, and they carried the efficient demeanor characteristic of those who traveled extensively for years.
The two shared a resemblance, both around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, and were standouts among the younger generation of the Breaking Clan.
The older one was named Yang Tie, a distant nephew of Yang Wushuang, twenty-three years old and a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor.
The younger one was Yang Feng, Yang Tie's cousin, twenty-one years old and a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor.
The pair had set out on this journey of experience, heading all the way south from the territory of the Clear Sky Sect, passing through several towns on the border of the Tiandou Empire, and happened to reach Nuoding City today.
Yang Tie walked on the left, his gaze sweeping over the shop signs and storefronts along the street. When he saw a clean, well-kept storefront not far ahead with the three characters "Blue Medicine Hall" written on the plaque, his pace slowed by a fraction.
Guests streamed in and out of that shop endlessly; there were commoners dressed in ordinary cloth garments as well as merchants in elaborate fabrics, and business looked quite brisk.
Furthermore, he noticed that some people were actually holding medicinal pills in their hands.
"Blue Medicine Hall?" Yang Tie read the characters on the plaque aloud. "Does a small place like this