"Is this the Prefectural City?" Pei Ye felt they had arrived a little too quickly. By his reckoning, they should still have had quite a way to go.
"It's Can County."
"Oh!"
They had set out rather late today and lingered at the town entrance for a while. Seeing the sky darkening now, Pei Ye asked, "Are we staying here tonight?"
"Depends on your horse."
Pei Ye looked down at it. It was indeed beginning to tire and pant again, but it had not run for long today. With some rest, it could still keep going.
After discussing it, they agreed that they had rested long enough last night and were not tired today. They only went into the city for some food, and Pei Ye visited the County Office to confirm that it had received the report. Then, after resting for a little over an hour, they left before the gates closed.
They traveled along the road at night for a while. By the time the sky was filled with stars and moonlight, they reached a town and stayed there.
They set out the next morning. Six or eight hours later, the true Prefectural City finally appeared in Pei Ye's sight.
A great city rose from the plain, towering majestically and lying in mighty repose-the grandest of human creations. Although the distant sight alone had already made Pei Ye's brow relax and his eyes widen, only beneath its walls could he truly feel its overwhelming pressure, as though it might topple over him.
And when he passed through the long gatehouse, leaving those thick, high walls behind, that pressure changed its character as it shifted to his back.
It was a subtle sensation Pei Ye, who had grown up deep in the mountains, had never experienced before. It was