Chapter 671
Chapter 671
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 671
>Chapter Title: Tempered Iron City
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A carriage wrapped in a layer of iron sheeting rolled slowly forward, leaving two deep wheel tracks in the somewhat withered yellow grass.
Li Huowang sat in the carriage, gazing at the grassland ahead as memories of his previous visit to this place flooded his mind.
He didn’t know much about Qingqiu. Aside from knowing that most of its people were nomadic tribes and that they were all gaunt and dark-skinned, there wasn’t much else.
Right—he also remembered two particularly unusual sects here: the Mid-Yin Temple that worshiped death, and that bizarre Lion Dance Palace.
“The grass in Qingqiu really is yellow. Does this mean something?”
Li Huowang leaned slightly to the left, his fingers brushing through the yellow grass.
Then he recalled the recent heavenly disaster—that one, which had robbed him of his sense of taste and smell, had only lasted a short three days before vanishing.
This wasn’t something to celebrate. This disaster had been trivial, but what if the next one was catastrophic?
Li Huowang desperately wanted to figure out what was going on, but unless he went to White Jade Capital right now, no one knew what had happened in that world beyond the heavens.
Just then, his sharp eyesight spotted a tiny black dot appearing on the yellow horizon in the distance.
As the carriage drew nearer, the black dot grew larger, eventually revealing the outline of a city—and it continued to expand as they approached.
“This must be Qingqiu’s Tempered Iron City, right?”
Li Huowang murmured to himself as he stared in that direction.
He had done some preparation before coming. This was the only city in all of Qingqiu, and also its capital.
In a place like Qingqiu, with no wood or stone, building a town was nearly impossible—but Tempered Iron City was the exception. It had risen abruptly from the barren emptiness.
Qingqiu’s Great Khan lived there, as did its Bureau of Celestial Monitoring.
Since Later Shu was currently clashing with the Dharma Folk, charging straight in and killing any Dharma Folk on sight would be unwise.
Not only would it be inefficient, it might also alert the enemy, potentially resulting in nothing more than dead civilians while the Dharma Folk leaders escaped unscathed.
Better to make contact with Qingqiu’s Bureau of Celestial Monitoring first and see if he could get more intelligence from them.
Besides, the National Advisor had mentioned that Great Liang’s Bureau of Astronomy and Four Qi’s Bureau of Astronomy should both be here as well.
As Li Huowang mulled over these things, the distinctive smell of sheep and horse dung began wafting into his nose.
Perhaps because Qingqiu was so well-suited for raising livestock, the outskirts of Tempered Iron City were littered with cow and horse dung everywhere. Amid the sparse, grazed grass were piles scattered here and there—not just from animals, but plenty from humans too.
When she saw the wheels crush a fresh pile of cow dung, smearing the soft greenish-brown mess onto them, Bai Lingmiao couldn’t help but frown.
“This place is filthy. It’s almost as bad as Anci Nunnery.”
“We’ll manage. One look and you can tell there are no sewers here.”
Li Huowang said this as he lightly shook the reins. The carriage picked up speed and rushed toward the city.
Weaving through the cows, sheep, and horses, Li Huowang and the others finally squeezed into the city. Compared to the outside, the interior wasn’t much better.
Every kind of structure imaginable stood there: tents, wooden huts, stone houses, all jumbled together without any planning.
Under constant trampling by human feet, the cow and sheep dung had compacted into a dense black carpet of shit, paving the entire road like the stone bricks of Great Liang’s capital.
The main street was packed, bodies pressed against bodies. If it were just people, it wouldn’t be so crowded—but nearly everyone in the city who could move had at least one animal at their side, making it feel extraordinarily jammed.
As for the stench, just seeing the bare-assed kids squatting by the roadside to shit gave a full sense of it.
“Keep going inward! The inner city should be better!”
The caravan inched slowly toward the center. The group’s foul expressions gradually eased over time.
It wasn’t that the environment had improved—it was just that their noses had started to adapt.
“Dad, what’s that?”
Li Sui pointed at a grand white building leaning against the city wall in the distance.
The structure was enormous—the largest in all of Tempered Iron City. But clearly, it didn’t look like imperial architecture.
From this, Li Huowang could tell that in Qingqiu, the so-called Great Khan probably wasn’t the highest authority. Some people outranked him.
“That’s probably a temple?”
Li Huowang guessed, eyeing the tall spire. The only thing in Qingqiu that could be called a temple made him think of the Mid-Yin Temple.
He glanced around. Among the crowd were some lamas draped in black sheepskin, wearing chicken-crest monk hats.
These lamas were all without exception old men—withered elders on the verge of immobility. Dark age spots crawled over their bodies like cowpox.
Seeing the bone ornaments hanging from their bodies, Li Huowang gripped the reins tightly and gave them a shake, urging more speed.
As the capital of a nation, it was dirty, sure—but security was tight.
Before Li Huowang and the others could get near the imperial city, they were surrounded by light cavalry: archers with swords at their waists, falcons perched on their shoulders, and mastiffs trotting alongside their horses.
Li Huowang didn’t bother wasting words with them. To avoid any language issues, he simply tossed over his Bureau of Celestial Monitoring badge.
“Is Xuanyin here? Tell him I’ve arrived!”
Li Huowang wasn’t taken to see Xuanyin. Instead, they led him through a tunnel into the underground.
For all its filthy appearance above, who would guess that beneath Tempered Iron City’s grime lay a clean inner city? For some reason, every Bureau of Celestial Monitoring was underground.
Sheep tallow lamps hung on the walls, burning slowly with soft popping sounds. Li Huowang stared silently at the strange woman before him.
He couldn’t place her origins. He’d seen plenty of odd people, but one with her face smeared in stark white powder—and on that white base, red lines drawn into bizarre patterns? That was a first.
Even more striking was her outfit: shockingly revealing. Aside from strips of cloth covering the essentials, everything else was exposed, adorned with intricate, densely patterned designs.
Behind her stood a row of people wearing massive conical hats that shrouded their entire bodies, leaving only their legs visible.
They stood there in utter silence, adding an eerie touch to the dim surroundings.
“Why do you seek Great Liang’s Bureau of Astronomy?”
The woman demanded coldly of Li Huowang.
“Send someone qualified. You’re not.”
Li Huowang cut straight to it, unwilling to waste time.
Her response caught him off guard.
“I am Qingqiu’s Bureau of Celestial Monitoring. Am I qualified now?”
(End of chapter)