Nongtu, the Great Ruins, Ten-Thousand Blossoms Province.
Ten-Thousand Blossoms Province lay on the southern plains of the Great Ruins, a land of beautiful mountains and rivers and vast, fertile soil. Sects large and small, countless kingdoms, Spiritfolk and other races, Demon Beasts and evil spirits dotted it like stars in the sky and pieces on a game board.
On this day, within a kingdom named Sheng on the southwestern border of Ten-Thousand Blossoms Province.
Sheng Capital.
The Prosperous Sea Tower on East Avenue resounded with voices, bustling with extraordinary life and activity.
Almost all the guests were cultivators. Many had fierce auras, holding sabers or resting their hands on swords as they argued loudly, their faces red and necks swollen, looking ready to come to blows at the slightest disagreement.
But just as someone could no longer restrain his temper, a soft cough sounded. The man about to strike reacted as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head, then smiled sheepishly and bowed with clasped hands to someone.
The man who had coughed stood behind the counter. Broad and heavyset, with a kindly face and a perpetual smile, he was the head proprietor of the Prosperous Sea Tower.
His only unusual feature was a pair of arms nearly thirty feet long, while the rest of his body was no larger than an ordinary person's. One arm was curled upward and the other trailed along the floor, making his movements look comically strange.
He was one of the Long-Armed People!
Yet the guests in the restaurant took the head proprietor's peculiar appearance and movements entirely in stride.
The reason was simple. Besides this Long-Armed proprietor, there were many Otherworlders among the guests. Some were Hanging-Eared People, whose enormous ears drooped to their waists. Whenever they grew