The Long Wind's Song Through Ten Thousand Years

Great Qian had known peace for so long that city walls were generally only eight or nine zhang high.

But the walls of the city before Li Shun, built in the heart of the vast marsh, stood a full seventy or eighty zhang tall.

They rose from the ground and towered over the waters like a small mountain.

Li Shun stared at the three characters carved above the gate for a long while, but could not make them out.

"They aren't written in the script Great Qian uses today."

The gate stood wide open, yet the city beyond seemed utterly still.

Li Shun walked in slowly.

The gateway ran for more than two hundred zhang, sloping upward rather than crossing level ground.

It felt like entering a dark cavern, with only a speck of light far above.

"This city was built on a rather excessive scale."

He kept climbing. As he passed through the gateway, light suddenly flooded his vision.

The instant he stepped into the city in the marsh, it was as though he had crossed through time. Hawkers' cries, the clatter of carriages and horses, and the din of conversation surged into his ears like a tide.

But—

He heard the sounds without seeing a soul.

The streets were empty, with not a single person in sight.

Shop doors stood open along the street, but there was nothing living inside them either.

Li Shun entered a restaurant and ran a hand over a table.

Someone seemed to tend it regularly. There was not a speck of dust on its surface.

The voices at his ears grew clearer, and Li Shun listened closely.

"The Yu Kingdom is coming at us with an army of a million. I truly don't know how we'll hold them off."

"What are you afraid