Entering the City! Beauties Belonged to the Strong! (Please Keep Reading)

Red Tears City was very tall.

At least, it looked very tall to Gu Qingfeng.

Because from the grasslands to this place, the terrain had been fairly flat the whole way.

But just when his eyes had completely adjusted to that flatness, a massive mountain shaped like a lotus suddenly rose up before him.

Its sudden rise was like thunder exploding on level ground, like a beauty shaking a pair of enormous thunderclaps—especially imposing.

What was more, the mountain itself was already immense and towering.

Red Tears City stood upon that mountain.

From afar, Gu Qingfeng even felt that the entire great city resembled an incomparably gigantic temple, joining with the lotus-shaped mountain to suppress something.

There was a saying: "Gazing at a mountain could run a horse to death!" But it did not apply to Blood-Sweat Iron Horses.

Or rather, it did not apply to Liu Yu and his group.

In Liu Yu's words, they were the fastest people in this line of work.

The Liu Household could not only rely on their ancestral craft to fear no Dark Moon and travel through the night, but they also had more stamina than other merchants.

They had done plenty of jobs where a journey of three or four days was delivered the next day, provided the money was enough.

"Damn, Dongzi."

Hearing the words "next-day delivery," Gu Qingfeng unexpectedly felt a strange sense of familiarity.

As they continued talking, he learned that the Liu Household could firmly keep hold of this rice bowl not only because their Lineage's craft was special and they were naturally suited to this work, but also because being a peddler was hardship itself.

There were naturally experts who feared no Dark Moon and could travel even faster than them, but people like that would never touch such exhausting work.

Could delivering goods be faster than killing people and seizing treasure?

Still, being peddlers was a trade handed down by their ancestors, the foundation of the Liu Household. Though it would not make them rich, they were skilled at it, so it had been passed down generation after generation until now.

By then, Gu Qingfeng and the others had reached the outskirts of Red Tears City.

Most of Red Tears City's outskirts were farmland.

In fact, all along the way, there had been clear signs of forests being burned and land being reclaimed everywhere.

Red Tears City was huge, one of the few great human settlements in the Returning Ruins.

With so many people to feed, naturally they needed more fields.

Most of those responsible for farming wore sallow faces and had thin, withered bodies. One look was enough to tell they had not eaten their fill.

Yet at a glance, light shone in every one of their eyes, and their hands never stopped working, as though they knew no fatigue.

It was as if an invisible, incomparably wonderful carrot hung before them, drawing them onward and making them work their hardest without pause.

They were clearly farming through bitter hardship, yet Gu Qingfeng and the others somehow felt as if they were chasing beautiful dreams.

After the vast fields, they only had to lift their heads to see Red Tears City atop Lotus Mountain.

Only standing here could one truly understand what a majestic city was.

The dragon-like walls towered around the cliffs and precipices of the mountain, looking as impregnable as a fortress of gold and soup.

The entire city occupied nearly half the mountain, and it was vaguely visible that it was still constantly expanding.

Just how many people could it hold?

Gu Qingfeng's understanding of ancient cities mostly came from costume dramas, but the walls before him, easily seven or eight zhang tall, clearly exceeded his expectations.

He felt that even the Great Wall was probably only half as tall as these walls.

Then he thought of the miraculous Iron Horse beneath him, and of how this was a world where one could cultivate. Everything made sense.

In a world where great power belonged to the individual, a city like this was indeed not all that absurd.

By this point, there were already more people around.

"Make way, make way! The Iron Horses are coming!"

"Riches Bloom Gate express delivery! Double compensation for anything we hit!"

Ahead, the Liu Household members were clearing the way.

At the sight of the Iron Horses, especially after hearing the name "Riches Bloom Gate," the people ahead quickly made way for them.

This showed that the Riches Bloom Gate the Liu Household caravan was delivering to had considerable power.

But there were also people on the road who refused to yield an inch.

Some looked utterly ordinary, while others were dressed strangely.

For example, a red-robed lama with three sticks of thick incense inserted into his skull, or a lame man with a saber who walked down the one road with a peculiar rhythm—neither looked like someone to provoke.

When they encountered such people, the Liu Household caravan instead detoured early.

That alone showed the city's atmosphere of revering the strong.

This was the Returning Ruins: the Returning Ruins that hid filth and corruption, where heretical demons and Outer Dao practitioners were everywhere!

Dharma, companions, wealth, and land all required strength to obtain, and even after obtaining them, one needed strength to keep them.

Earlier on the road, Gu Qingfeng had heard Liu Yu mention that some beautiful married women in the city could change three or four husbands in a single month.

Gu Qingfeng had been shocked at the time. "Even that cursed on husbands, people still want them?"

Then he learned that most famous beautiful married women in the city were born with renowned furnaces, all highly sought-after goods.

There was a saying: "Beauties were only fit to be possessed by the strong!" This also meant that once you had a beautiful wife with a renowned furnace, you risked other strong people setting their sights on her and stealing your wife.

It was clear that even the single word "companion" was difficult to obtain and even harder to hold onto, let alone anything else.

The martial world of the Returning Ruins was just that pure and simple!

But Gu Qingfeng had no such worries.

Right now, it could be said that he possessed none of those things.

Possessing none meant his starting point was low. And with a low starting point, there was little room to regress, making improvement easier!

Thinking of the perilous journey, walking on thin ice amid dangers at every turn, he truly wanted to improve!

After entering the city gate, Gu Qingfeng bid farewell to the Liu Household caravan.

The caravan was heading to the inner city to deliver its goods, while he needed to find somewhere to settle in the outer city.

Beyond the city gate, a bustling cityscape slowly unfolded before his eyes.

Buildings stood in close-packed rows along the mountain's slope, rising and falling with the terrain.

People hurried along the streets: men rushing about, young women dressed as gaudily as blossoming branches, street vendors calling out their wares...

Even though the gaudily dressed girls had leg hair and beards longer than his, and the hurried men could suddenly foam at the mouth and lose control of their bowels, Gu Qingfeng still could not help feeling a little happy.

Because there were many people, because it was lively!

This liveliness, carrying the warmth of human life, clearly scattered the loneliness and unease Gu Qingfeng had felt in the wilderness.

Especially on the night he had been separated from Qi Lingguang and the others, he had once thought that humanity here was nearly extinct, that only all manner of strange, ghostly incidents and creatures remained upon that desolate earth.

But seeing this scene now—well, even if that heavily furred girl was picking her nose again—he still quite liked it.

It was the kind of liking that came from being alive in the human world.

He, Gu Qingfeng, would definitely gain a foothold here!

He would become stronger, step by step!

After walking for a while, a loud cry suddenly came from the slope ahead.

"Buying blood! Buying blood!"

"Ghosthand's Eighteenth Apothecary, the first gold-lettered signboard upon entering the city! Fair to young and old alike!"

Gu Qingfeng walked closer and saw that the apothecary was actually called "Ghosthand's Eighteenth Apothecary."

He knew there were not many human cities in the Returning Ruins. For someone called Lord Ghosthand to open so many apothecaries, Ghosthand surely possessed extraordinary means.

"Special offer today! The first ten people to sell blood by volume receive twenty percent off body-nourishing pills."

At that moment, another medicine boy came out and shouted even louder, "New arrivals to the city, pay special attention! The treatment for testing medicine here is second to none!"

"With Lord Ghosthand's signboard, test good medicine and use good medicine! Not only does it cost no silver, you get paid instead. Those willing to test medicine long-term can even sign a contract and have a chance to become an apothecary apprentice!"

Upon hearing this, quite a few people had already moved closer.

Gu Qingfeng was among them.

"Can you really become an apprentice?" someone asked.

"Of course. If you test medicine well, the shopkeeper will definitely value you within two or three months."

"Once you become an apprentice here, you'll have an identity. Then you'll be qualified to settle down and buy a house in Red Tears City, and the city guards won't casually seize you and throw you into Black Prison."

The woman from the apothecary replied, puffing out her utterly barren chest.

Gu Qingfeng could not help rubbing his forehead. Once he grasped the meaning, he said, "No, why does that sound like without this identity, you can easily get arrested?"

So after finally reaching the greatest city in the Returning Ruins, he was still an undocumented resident?

Judging by the reactions of the people before him, they placed great importance on this identity.

At that moment, the medicine boy had already taken out several porcelain bottles. "Only these few medicines are available for testing now! Limited daily quantities—once you miss this village, there won't be this shop!"

Without realizing it, Gu Qingfeng looked toward the purple porcelain bottle on the far right.

Because a faint fluttering sensation came from it.

"Good stuff???"

Feeling his heartbeat, Gu Qingfeng's eyes lit up.