"Let's go. We should enter the city..." Xiao Hua said, glancing at the setting sun and waving his hand.
This great city was the capital of the Tongzhu Kingdom, so its inspections were naturally strict. When the four reached the city gate, they were stopped by the soldiers guarding it, just as expected. The Tongzhu Kingdom had been founded by Confucian cultivators and did not revere Daoism. Xiao Jian was questioned until sweat poured down his face, but fortunately, all his official documents were in order, as was everything concerning his time in Xi Kingdom. After spending a bit more silver, they still managed to enter the city smoothly.
The moment they entered through the gates, the bustle before them was entirely different from that outside.
Beyond the city gates lay only the countryside, with the simple rustic air Xiao Hua and the others were accustomed to seeing. Inside the gates, there seemed to be villages and rivers as well, yet whether in the people's clothing or their bearing, everything differed from outside the city. In particular, these villages did not have the curling smoke of cooking fires seen in the countryside. Apart from a few places, most showed no sign of hearth or flame.
Yet along these rivers, many children, led by adults, eagerly held little lamps the size of fists and tossed them haphazardly into the water, hoping to watch them drift downstream. Unfortunately, most of these crudely made things sank to the bottom as soon as they touched the water, making the children howl in dismay.
"These are all suburban estates belonging to the great households of the Tongzhu Kingdom," Xiao Jian said blandly when he saw Xiao Hua looking toward the mountain villages around them. "They hold vast fortunes and desire the leisurely life of the