In Tianjin, there was plenty of water, and plenty of strange business too.
The older generation often said the lower reaches of the nine rivers were the Dragon King's bathtub—and a treasure basin besides.
There was no end to the things hidden beneath Tianjin's waters.
On a smaller scale, this was where the rivers met the sea, home to Golden Scale and Cold Pool Softshell Turtles that nourished blood and vitality. Both were Blood Fare ingredients desperately sought by anyone hoping to reach the next level;
on a larger scale, the murky river had covered up the possessions of people who had fled disasters or escaped calamities over the past few centuries, the fortunes that remnants of the previous dynasty had sunk into its depths, and even the great tombs said to hold the water veins in check.
In times like these, anyone who wanted to make a fortune and turn their life around could not do it by staying on dry land.
Money earned on land was hard-won, bought with sweat that broke into eight pieces on the ground. It was enough to keep a person fed and clothed, but nowhere near enough to practice martial arts.
The real money lay where people were not supposed to go lightly—the great tombs buried beneath ancient forests deep in the mountains, and those submerged in fathomless rivers.
"If you want to get rich and reach the next level, it comes down to entering the mountains and going underwater."
"Whether it's those foreigners with schemes in their hearts or the imperial family of the Great Xin Dynasty, what they're after, in the end, is the old stuff buried in the earth and hidden beneath the water."
Qin Geng squatted on the riverbank, picked up a flat stone, and skipped it across the