185: Chapter 185 Further Investment in the Holy City

Two months is neither long nor short. It was long enough for Hun Muxiao to travel across half the Jia Ma Empire, but short enough that when she closed her eyes, she could still smell the fragrance of shepherd's purse from the wonton shop at the Yan City morning market.

Leaving Yan City, she headed north, passing through seven or eight small cities and over a dozen villages. She trekked through the dense forests on the edge of the Magical Beast Mountain Range and hitchhiked with merchant caravans across the desert. She saw many things that Yan City didn't have. She saw bandits from Black Wind Stronghold raiding a caravan on the mountain road. A dozen Dou Practitioner or Dou Master-level desperadoes relied on the treacherous terrain to slaughter the entire caravan, leaving only three survivors. She didn't intervene immediately. Instead, on the night the bandits returned to their stronghold to celebrate, she walked into the stronghold alone and nailed the stronghold leader's head to the stronghold banner with a single sword strike. The next morning, the surviving caravan members found their looted goods neatly stacked at the entrance of the post station, along with a bag of gold coins and a note: "Rebuild the caravan, don't take that mountain road again."

She also saw a remote village attacked by a Third-Rank Magical Beast, with villagers trembling in the village chief's cellar. It took her half a cup of tea's time to catch up to the beast, split its head open with one sword strike, and then squat at the village entrance to skin the beast for the villagers. Her hands were covered in blood, scaring the children until they cried. The villagers wanted her to stay for a meal; she dug out the silver bell earrings she had bought in Yan City from her storage ring and gave them to the youngest girl in the village. One rainy evening, she stayed at a farmhouse with only an elderly couple whose son had gone to the Black-Corner Region as a mercenary and never returned. The old couple shared their last half-pot of porridge with her and even gave up their son's room for her to stay. In that room, which had been empty for years, she found an unsent letter that read: "Dad, Mom, when I save enough money in the Black-Corner Region, I will come back to build you a new house." The next morning, she left a bag of gold coins for the elderly couple without disturbing anyone. As she reached the village entrance, she looked back at the dilapidated adobe house and suddenly realized that many people in this world spend their whole lives waiting for someone who will never return—just like the old couple waiting for their son, just like Lu Qing probably didn't know who she was saving when she drew her sword in the alleyway back then.

She even met a few loose cultivators in a teahouse in a small town who called themselves the "Remnants of the Flame Emperor." Drunk, they cursed Emperor Shitian in the corner, saying the Hun Clan was heartless, praising how heroic the Flame Emperor was back in the day, and claiming they would eventually storm the Soul Realm to avenge the Flame Emperor. She sat at the next table, slowly finished a bowl of tea, put down a copper coin, and as she stood up, she casually tapped each of those loose cultivators on the shoulder. It wasn't until she walked out of the teahouse that they realized their Dou Qi had been sealed by a faint, blood-colored seal—not permanently, it would take about half a month to unlock. They were terrified and didn't dare to spout nonsense in the teahouse again.

Over these two months, she had been many places, seen kind-hearted ordinary people and treacherous villains, selfless heroes and cowardly scoundrels. She had helped the caravan raided by bandits rebuild, cleared the beast threat for the village attacked by the Magical Beast, and beheaded the leader of Black Wind Stronghold with one sword strike. She measured the land of the Jia Ma Empire with her footsteps and saw with her own eyes the myriad aspects of the human world that could never be seen in the Soul Realm. Grandpa Hun Qian once said that the human heart is the most complex thing in this world—some would betray their brothers for a bag of gold coins, some would go through fire and water for a promise, some only sought a peaceful life, and some would rather die than bow to fate. She had seen it all in these two months. She felt she was no longer the little girl in the East Courtyard of the Soul Realm protected by her aunts. She began to truly understand why her mother had served as queen in the Jia Ma Empire for so many years, and why her father's tone always carried something she couldn't understand before whenever he mentioned this land.

Finally, on a sunny afternoon, she stood outside the gates of the Jia Ma Holy City.

Jia Ma Holy City, the heart of the Jia Ma Empire. Compared to a border town like Yan City, the city walls alone were over ten times higher. The gray-white boulders gleamed faintly in the sunlight, and a fluttering red banner stood every few yards along the wall. On both sides of the main gate stood rows of fully armed guards, all of whom were at least Dou Masters, and the gate captain in charge was a Dou Spirit. Merchant caravans flowed in and out of the city gate. There were large caravans from the Central Plains, with dozens of carriages forming a long line, the guards sitting on the carriage shafts all being around the Dou King level. There were mercenary groups from the Black-Corner Region, dusty and tired, carrying the magical beasts they had just hunted on their shoulders. There were also commoners from all over the empire, carrying bamboo baskets and leading children, entering the city to go to the market and do some small business. Hun Muxiao stood at the city gate, looking up at the plaque that was much more magnificent than the stone tablet in Yan City, and suddenly remembered what Lu Qing had said when she first took her to the morning market: "Jia Ma Holy City, the largest city in the Jia Ma Empire, where the imperial palace and the Empire Auction House are located; it has all kinds of rare and strange treasures." She had only listened for fun at the time, never expecting to actually stand here two months later.

After entering the city, she didn't rush to the auction house but walked around the city first. The imperial capital was indeed much more prosperous than Yan City. The main street was wide enough for four carriages to run side by side, with shops lining the streets: pharmacies, weapon shops, silk stores, magical beast material dealers, and several pill shops bearing the Hall of Souls emblem. She noticed a huge statue standing in the central square of the city. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was actually a statue of her father—dressed in black robes, holding a war spear, with the spear tip pointing to the sky. A line of large characters was engraved on the base of the statue: "Emperor Shitian, Hun Feng, Master of the Fighting Qi Continent." Hun Muxiao circled the statue twice, finding it funnier the more she looked at it. When her father was in the Soul Realm, he was despised by his aunts every day and pestered by his younger sisters until his head ached, yet here in the imperial capital, he was molded into such a majestic appearance. If Aunt Yaoyao saw this statue, she would probably say: "If your father were really this handsome, I wouldn't have hesitated so long to marry him."

She found a passerby to ask about the auction. The passerby was a local merchant, and as soon as she asked about the auction, he talked endlessly, saying that three days later was the biggest annual event in the imperial capital, where big merchants from the Central Plains, the Black-Corner Region, and all over the Jia Ma Empire would come. It was rumored that the Pill Hall of the Hall of Souls had also sent people to participate, intending to auction a batch of Ninth Grade Pills, which had even alarmed the royal family. Ninth Grade Pill—Hun Muxiao didn't even raise her eyelids when she heard these words. She had eaten Ninth Grade Pills as snacks since she was a child, and the package of pastries Aunt Yaoyao stuffed into her luggage when she left contained several. However, she thought again that in a place like the Jia Ma Empire, Ninth Grade Pills were indeed rare items. It was just right to go and see what kind of spectacle this imperial capital auction really was.

She found the best inn in the city to stay. The innkeeper saw her paying with gold coins and arranged the best room on the top floor without a word. Pushing open the window, she faced the central square, and she could see the majestic statue of Emperor Shitian at a glance. She leaned against the window, looking at the statue, and suddenly felt that her father was indeed quite remarkable. Two months ago, she was just a little girl protected by her aunts in the East Courtyard of the Soul Realm. Now, she had traveled across half the Jia Ma Empire alone, seen so much joy and sorrow, and personally done things for strangers she didn't know. She lowered her head to look at her palms. These hands had been stained with blood these past two months, but they had also helped the elderly; she had killed villains, but she had also given gifts. She felt she was a bit different from the little girl who snuck out of the Soul Realm—how she was different, she couldn't say, but she quite liked who she was now.

Three days later, the Imperial Auction House. She was looking forward to it.