The sun hung high overhead. The midday warmth of May had yet to turn into summer's scorching heat. In Biyuan City of the Shaman Folk Kingdom, Shaman Folk from every quarter and tribespeople from the wilderness hurried in and out, trading in the only place within a thousand li that could be called a major city.
This city-state's market fair had already begun to take shape. As cultivators arrived one after another and the Heavenly Dragon Gate established itself here, they inevitably brought elements of a more advanced civilization with them. This encouraged the Shaman Folk to gradually abandon their tribal lives of eating raw flesh and drinking blood, relocating to more habitable villages and towns on the plains and in the mountains.
The market fair was an important gathering place that served a commercial function. On the First Day of the Decade, people from the surrounding villages arrived as scheduled to trade for everyday necessities.
Recently, the Shaman Folk Kingdom had been mobilizing its armies frequently, preparing for war against Broad Cloud Peak. Yet its subjects still had to live, so the market could hardly be suspended on that account. Instead, with war approaching, villagers who had already caught wind of it poured in en masse, scrambling to buy salt, grain, and other supplies, making the market livelier than ever.
Suddenly, a clamor of footsteps and shouts erupted in the marketplace.
Everyone turned to look and saw a group of fully armed Shaman Folk warriors carrying swords and sabers, pursuing two bare-chested tribesmen whose disheveled hair and filthy faces made them look like primitive men.
"Stop! Don't run!"
"Loose your arrows!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A ragged chorus of bowstrings rang out. Caught unprepared, one of the mountain folk was struck in the back and soon fell screaming to