After they entered Qingzhou City, a wave of heat and clamor swept over them.
Outside the city lay a broad official highway, but beyond the gates was another world entirely. Even in the Outer City, the streets paved with bluestone slabs were wide and straight, yet packed with people jostling shoulder to shoulder.
Shops stood tightly packed along both sides of the streets. Wine banners fluttered in the wind, teahouses rang with voices, ironmongers' shops clanged, and colorful silks billowed outside cloth stores. Apothecaries, grain merchants, inns, pawnshops, smithies, sundry stalls... a dazzling array of signs stretched in a line deep into the street. The air mingled the aromas of wine, food, and medicinal herbs with the smells of horse fodder and cooking fires, so rich that they were intoxicating.
Peddlers carrying shoulder poles wove nimbly through the crowds, hawking their wares in calls that rose one after another.
Patrolling soldiers in gleaming armor maintained order, their strides steady.
Ordinary folk came and went as well, women bringing their children and old men leading cattle and sheep, forming a bustling scene of prosperity.
Once they entered the Inner City, buildings crowded both sides like scales on a fish and teeth in a comb. Upturned eaves overlapped, and blue bricks and dark roof tiles stretched as far as the eye could see. Vermilion gateways belonging to wealthy households stood beside street-facing shops, combining imposing grandeur with the warmth of everyday life.
Streams of people filled the Inner City streets, crowded yet orderly.
Martial World warriors in fitted clothes, sabers and swords at their waists, hurried along with sharp gazes.
Sect disciples in matching attire, long swords strapped to their backs, walked in groups of three or five, brimming with spirit.
Wealthy merchants and gentry in brocade robes strolled leisurely, waving folding