Yan State was a tiny country, yet its ruler's achievements and clean governance made it a force not to be underestimated. Compared with the other states, it maintained a better balance between its people's livelihoods and military spending. Thus, it could often endure longer and better educate its people, achieving a form of governance in which later generations surpassed their predecessors. This was the foundation that kept Yan State from declining.
Yu City lay close to the Qi Kingdom's Royal City. From there, the Yan State Royal City was only two hundred and thirty-seven li away, hardly a long journey. At full speed, Zeng Mu could reach it in an hour or two, but he dared not forget that he was now on foreign soil. He could no longer use the Wind Elemental Artifact or elemental power to aid his travel. Drawing attention and exposing his identity merely because he was in a hurry would truly be the stupidest joke imaginable.
Even without the Wind Elemental Artifact or elemental power, the Thousand-Mile Horse beneath him could cover a thousand li a day. A mere two hundred-odd li would take only three hours.
He was delayed briefly at the border city. Yan State's governance was indeed distinctive: even entering a border city required an identity check. Foreigners could not enter there and had to make a detour of three hundred and twenty-six li to another border city. Those with proof of identity, however, were permitted entry.
Zeng Mu had no proof of identity from Yan State, but he did not want to waste three or four hours on a detour. He therefore stayed there for a little over ten minutes, carefully studying the identity papers in passersby's hands, then spent half an hour forging a set.
Everything, from the writing on