Heaven Dou City! Beneath the Imperial Capital!

From the fork at the edge of Sunset Forest to Heaven Dou City, Lan Tian traveled for nearly two days.

On the evening of the first day, he rested overnight in a small town by the road. He set out again early the next morning, and by afternoon, he could see the towering outline of Heaven Dou City's walls in the distance.

The grayish-brown city walls rose into the clouds, banners snapping atop them. Carriages, horses, and crowds flowed endlessly through the gates. Even the plaza outside the gates was twice the size of Nuoding City's entire central district.

Lan Tian joined the queue entering the city, and the moment he stepped onto Heaven Dou City's main street, he was genuinely stunned.

The bluestone-paved main street was wide enough for eight carriages to travel abreast. Shops stood in neat rows along both sides—restaurants, cloth shops, ironware stores, pharmacies, Soul Tool shops—each signboard grander than the last, their gilded lettering dazzling beneath the afternoon sun.

The street teemed with pedestrians: wealthy merchants dressed in luxurious silk, Soul Masters with longswords at their waists, officers riding tall horses, and hawkers pushing carts and shouting their wares. People of every status mingled together, and the entire street was as lively as though it were perpetually celebrating a festival.

Lan Tian stood by the roadside and looked up for a while, sighing inwardly.

Compared to this place, Nuoding City was practically the countryside.

"Sir, need a room? Our inn is clean and affordable, and you can tie up your horse in the back courtyard!" A waiter poked his head out from a nearby inn and called to him.

Lan Tian waved a hand. "I'll look around first. No rush."

He strolled leisurely along the main street, observing the surrounding buildings and storefronts while listening closely to the conversations of passersby.

The proportion of Soul Masters in Heaven Dou City was far higher than in Nuoding City. Before he had even walked halfway down the street, he had seen three three-ringed Soul Elders. Two middle-aged men who appeared to be four-ringed Soul Ancestors also emerged from a restaurant, chatting and laughing as they walked away.

What caught his attention even more were the occasional snippets of idle conversation drifting from street corners and alleyways.

"I heard another one died the day before yesterday. A deputy general from the Ministry of War. They said it was sudden illness, but who would believe that..."

"Shh, keep it down. Talk less about things like that."

"Don't think being beneath the Emperor's feet means it's safe. Those lords are fighting their battles. People at our level should stay far away."

Lan Tian did not slow his pace, but every word entered his ears.

He continued walking without revealing anything, silently weighing the significance of that information.

Heaven Dou City was indeed prosperous. Beneath the Emperor's feet lay the continent's very center of power.

But what was hidden behind that prosperity ran far deeper than its surface bustle.

He stopped at a roadside stall selling grilled flatbread, bought one, and chatted with the vendor while chewing, casually probing about housing prices.

The vendor was a woman in her forties. As she flipped flatbreads on the iron griddle, she prattled on.

"Housing prices? Oh, don't even mention it. What house in Heaven Dou City can ordinary folk like us afford these days?"

"Even the most remote places outside the city gates start at a hundred Gold Soul Coins per square meter. The city center is outrageously expensive. I've been selling flatbread here for twenty years, and I still can't afford even a toilet."

Lan Tian calculated his entire fortune.

The chief physician's salary, plus his consultation income, had amounted to several thousand Gold Soul Coins over the past year or so. That counted as wealth in Nuoding City, but in Heaven Dou City, it might not even buy the toilet of the cheapest house.

Not to mention the complicated power struggles here.

As he passed a teahouse, he heard several men in long robes talking inside. He vaguely caught the phrase "three Title Douluo consecrators," and his steps paused slightly as he listened closer.

"Our Tiandou Empire has three Title Douluo guarding it now. That's why the surrounding small nations don't dare make trouble. We've had a peaceful century thanks to them holding things up."

"Exactly. But I heard the eldest of them is already over a hundred years old. He probably won't be able to hold on for much longer."

Lan Tian's heart stirred slightly upon hearing that.

Three Title Douluo. The Tiandou Empire's high-level combat strength in this era was indeed formidable.

Yet he had never heard the names of these three in his memories from his previous life. They had most likely fallen or died of old age for various reasons during the following century. By Tang San's era, not a single one remained.

But none of that had anything to do with him. His current strength was no different from an ant before a Title Douluo. Conflicts at that level were far too distant for him. He had no qualifications to participate, nor did he want to.

He continued onward, and a clear judgment gradually formed in his mind.

Heaven Dou City might be wonderful, but it was not a place he should remain.

Housing prices were high, powerful nobles were everywhere, and undercurrents of political conflict ran deep. He was merely a two-ring healing-type Soul Grandmaster. No matter how solid his martial arts skills were, he could not make any waves in a place like this.

If bad luck ever dragged him into some secret conflict, he might not even know how he died.

It would be safer to finish his business and leave as soon as possible.

He quickened his pace, crossed several streets, and found the entrance to an underground market in the East District of Tiandou City.

Every large city had places like this, but Heaven Dou City's underground market was more than ten times the size of Nuoding City's black market. Stalls were packed tightly together, selling everything imaginable. He could even see several Soul Tools on display.

Lan Tian moved through the crowd, his gaze sweeping quickly across the various stalls.

In the end, he stopped before an inconspicuous little stall. Its owner was a hunched old man.

Several yellowed chunks of Whale Rubber lay on the cloth before him. Judging by their texture and color, they were at least two or three thousand years old.

"How much are these?" Lan Tian crouched down and picked up a piece, weighing it in his hand.

The old man did not even raise his eyelids. "A hundred Gold Soul Coins each."

Lan Tian was delighted inwardly. Whale Rubber really was cheap in this era.

Two- or three-thousand-year-old Whale Rubber sold for only a hundred Gold Soul Coins.

What a bargain.

Without changing expression, he picked up all four pieces of Whale Rubber from the stall. "I'll take all four. Can you lower the price? They've been sitting here long enough to gather dust. They must be hard to sell, right?"

"Three hundred and fifty Gold Soul Coins. Take them." The old man was straightforward.

"Three hundred," Lan Tian said.

"Fine, fine, take them." The old man nodded repeatedly. He was not losing money anyway. As long as they sold, that was enough.

Lan Tian paid, wrapped up the Whale Rubber, and stuffed it into his pack. Just as he was about to get up and leave, the corner of his eye caught a dull gray ring in the corner of the stall. It was buried beneath a pile of miscellaneous junk and looked utterly unremarkable.

He picked up the ring and wiped away the dust. It felt slightly heavy in his hand. The material was neither gold nor iron, and its entire surface was dark gray, covered in intricate patterns. Though it looked ancient, a faint fluctuation of Soul Power seeped from within.

"How much for this ring?" he asked.

The old man looked up. "I got that thing years ago. No one's ever wanted it. If you know what it is, take it for ten Gold Soul Coins."

Lan Tian held the ring in his hand, closed his eyes, and probed it with Soul Power. His heartbeat immediately quickened.

A storage ring. Its internal space was roughly ten cubic meters. Though not especially large, it was enough to store medicinal ingredients and equipment for his daily travels.

A storage ring for ten Gold Soul Coins was practically free compared to the price outside.

Without another word, he paid, put the ring on his left index finger, and tried it out. Once he injected Soul Power into it, the patterns on the ring glowed faintly before falling silent again. The space inside had already recognized him as its owner.