Volume 1, Chapter 190 – Qingzhou City

The blade manual taken from Liu Anfeng, Shi Lan only skimmed twice before setting it aside.

She hadn’t learned many martial arts, but she had at least stepped into the Earth Fiend Realm. Leaping Body Blade was only a third-rate martial art in this world and naturally failed to catch her eye.

Still, with just those few glances, Shi Lan had already seen the differences between the martial arts here and those of the Lingyang Realm.

In the Lingyang Realm, martial arts, regardless of level, all existed to unleash greater power, to let one unit of strength explode with twice or even three times its might.

But here, martial arts leaned much more heavily on variations in technique. A single third-rate blade manual contained thirty-six different blade forms, with changes in footwork and body movement woven through them.

This wasn’t hard for Shi Lan to understand. If you couldn’t make breakthroughs in raw strength, you would seek change in technique instead. The emphasis was simply different, but both paths were part of exploring the martial way.

“Might the young lady tell us her name? It doesn’t feel right to keep calling you ‘young lady’…”

Following Shi Lan back to the ruined temple, Old Hong asked a bit nervously.

Two hardened thugs, weapons in hand, had both been taken down by Shi Lan’s bare hands. Anyone who wasn’t blind could see she was no ordinary person.

“Shi Lan. ‘Shi’ as in stone, ‘Lan’ as in evening haze.”

Shi Lan answered once. A Qi silently memorized it, even though he had no idea how those two characters were written.

Putting aside the differences between the two worlds’ martial paths, Shi Lan knocked Liu Anfeng and Shi Yi unconscious again, dislocated the joints of their legs, covered them well with straw, then took Old Hong and A Qi with her and headed for Qingzhou City.

The horses Liu Anfeng and Shi Yi had brought did save them some walking.

A Qi had never learned to ride, but he was quick on the uptake. After half an hour of Shi Lan’s hands-on teaching, he could just barely manage a horse.

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The Qianyuan Dynasty had divided this continent into seven commanderies for ease of rule.

Qingzhou City sat in the southern Ning’an Commandery, roughly nine li across in length and width, neither particularly large nor small.

When they drew near Qingzhou City, Shi Lan chose not to ride the horses through the gate.

A good horse cost around twenty taels of silver. Looking the way they did while leading two fine horses inside, it would be all too easy for them to be taken for horse thieves and subjected to a thorough inspection by the gate guards.

The city gate of Qingzhou City was over two zhang high, and a squad of soldiers in simple leather armor stood at the entrance, inspecting travelers and collecting the entry tax.

Seeing how Shi Lan and the other two were dressed, the gate guards unexpectedly waived the entry fee. They only warned them not to cause trouble in the city before letting them through.

Beggars were exempt from the entry tax. That rule had been written into the Qianyuan Dynasty’s laws.

Aside from letting their gazes linger on Shi Lan a bit longer, these gate soldiers did nothing out of line. Their discipline was plain to see.

Entering the city, Shi Lan felt a faint weight settle in her chest. Qingzhou City was just one small corner, yet from the gate guards’ speech and bearing she could, through this small glimpse, see a hint of the Qianyuan Dynasty’s strength.

They had barely taken a few steps inside when Shi Lan spotted the notice wall A Qi had mentioned before. Liu Anfeng’s wanted poster was still pasted there.

However, the reason written on the poster wasn’t the robbery of military pay, but simply the capture of roving bandits.

“Water chestnut cakes, fresh from the steamer, two coppers a piece!”

“Old turtle caught just this morning—make soup and your whole family will be full of energy. You won’t find this anywhere else, only two taels!”

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On both sides of the street, all kinds of peddlers stood by their stalls, hawking their wares.

Along the road she could see the shops lining the street as well: rouge and powder shops, teahouses, restaurants and taverns, everything you could want.

The street was packed with people, crowds weaving back and forth, a scene of peace and prosperity, music and dancing in a time of plenty.

Three years…

On this continent, things were still relatively calm. The country was stable, the people at peace. If Shi Lan wanted to seize control of this land by force, she would have to be the one to start a war.

When that happened, countless people would die or be maimed, and the common folk would be plunged into misery.

Was she really going to sacrifice so many lives just to complete one trial?

Looking at the scene before her, Shi Lan searched her own heart and felt her mood churn a little.

Some things were far from as easy to do as they sounded when spoken aloud.

A few drifting strands of fragrance in the air tugged her mind back into focus.

Swallowing, Shi Lan pushed the chaotic thoughts aside. Filling her stomach came first. She could think about the rest later.

Picking the largest restaurant she could see, Shi Lan led Old Hong and A Qi quickly inside.

Since it wasn’t mealtime yet, there weren’t many customers in the restaurant.

“Stop right there!”

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The waiter saw the three of them come in, snapped his rag once, and hurriedly shouted to halt them.

“What do you think you’re doing? You know what kind of place this is? You think you can just stroll right in?!”

Throwing the rag over his shoulder, the waiter strode over, gave the three of them a once-over, then waved them away. “Go on, go stand out on the street. I’ll bring you something to eat.”

Shi Lan didn’t bother arguing with him and tossed over a few bits of silver. “Bring dishes.”

“Meat, not vegetables.”

She added another line.

Catching the silver and weighing it in his hand, the waiter’s attitude softened a little. He pointed to an empty table in a corner where no one else was sitting. “Wait over there and don’t go wandering around.”

The three of them sat at the table, and soon more than ten dishes were brought out in succession.

Braised pork, stewed chicken, roast goose…

There was quite a variety, and the taste wasn’t bad, but after a few bites, Shi Lan slowed her chopsticks.

There was far too little blood and flesh essence in this meat that she could actually absorb, almost nothing at all.

This restaurant was no small establishment. Just among the hired help there were four or five people. With nothing much to do at the moment, they lounged against tables and chairs, eyeing the somewhat out-of-place trio and whispering to each other.

“Dressed like that, where’d they get the money to eat here?” one man clicked his tongue.

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“Probably ran into some generous soul and got a couple of rewards tossed their way.”

“That woman’s really quite good-looking, though.”

“Shame she’s not that young anymore. I’d bet she’s already married with kids,” another said with a hint of regret.

At just over twenty years of age, she was already older than most common folk, who married at fifteen or sixteen.

“No, from the look of her, I’d say she isn’t married,” someone else said, shaking his head.

“Makes sense. Judging by her clothes, you can imagine her family situation. If any of you are interested in trying your luck, you might just have a chance at winning the beauty’s hand.”

None of them bothered to lower their voices. Clearly, the way Shi Lan and the others were dressed didn’t inspire the slightest restraint in these hired hands, who were used to dealing with nobles, local gentry, and wealthy merchants.

A Qi heard every word. Anger slowly rose in his chest, and the chopsticks in his hand stilled.

He wanted to turn around and tell them to shut their mouths, but since Shi Lan hadn’t said anything, he worried that if he spoke up and brought trouble down on them, it might make her unhappy.

Shi Lan was lost in her thoughts and hadn’t noticed what the hired help were saying.

Swallowing the braised pork in her mouth, Shi Lan set down her chopsticks and called out loudly, “Waiter, slice ten jin of beef and bring it over!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the whole restaurant fell silent. The few other diners all set down their chopsticks and turned to look.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Where would my Full Fragrance Restaurant get beef from?!” The waiter who had first seen the three of them come in went pale and snapped at her in a fluster.