Chapter 251: Old Dragon City
Over the past few thousand years in Eastern Vase Bottle Continent, the north had seen a succession of emperors come and go like flowing water, while the far south had an ironclad Fu family that stood firm.
The Fu family of Old Dragon City was extremely wealthy. Just how wealthy? Let's put it this way: they possessed three magic treasures that were only slightly inferior to immortal weapons, and all three had been purchased with money, then passed down through generations until they reached the current family head, Fu Qi. It was said that the Fu family had recently made a trip to the Central Earth Divine Continent and had just returned, having acquired another half-immortal weapon. "Bad things never come in threes"? The Fu family didn't abide by that saying.
The Fu family had plenty of interesting stories and fascinating people. For example, they never compiled a family genealogy, and descendants' names were always chosen casually. Women held an extremely high status in the Fu family—the number of female heroes who had served as city lords throughout history was more than one could count on two hands. Fu family youths could study books, purchase them, and collect them. Their private libraries housed the richest collection of rare editions and fine copies in all of Vase Bottle Continent. However, even those who left Old Dragon City as collateral branches of the Fu family never participated in the imperial examinations, never served any emperor or monarch as military or civil officials. They simply lay atop mountains of gold and silver—even idling their lives away eating and waiting for death was fine. None of the successive family heads harbored any prejudice against this; they all supported them.
Thus, the wealthy Fu family had produced countless talented youths who excelled at chess, were masters of both calligraphy and painting, or achieved divine skill in music. There were also Fu descendants who wrote the most classic cookbooks, published travelogues of mountains and waters that swept the continent, and purchased countless mountain peaks in the vast northern territories—only to leave them empty, never building any immortal mansions, letting them go to waste.
There were far too many eccentric and marvelous individuals in the Fu family.
But the Fu family had one family rule, unshakable as thunder.
Only the family's strongest member could wear the ancestral Old Dragon Robe.
The ferry where the Yangzhi Hall ship docked was over three hundred li outside Old Dragon City, not at some scenic, secluded spot. Nearly a hundred ships of various kinds were moored here, bustling and teeming with people. There were both inanimate vessels built by Mo craftsmen and living vessels similar to Kun ships, a dazzling array of sights. As Chen Ping'an descended from the ship, he couldn't take it all in fast enough.
Before the ship docked, Chen Ping'an had heard a saying: even a common mortal living inside the city wouldn't finish exploring Old Dragon City in a lifetime.
Earlier on the ship, Chen Ping'an had tried to get a bird's-eye view of Old Dragon City in its entirety, but found it obscured by a sea of clouds, which was a pity. Because of Liu Baqiao's appearance, the elderly Yangzhi Hall member overseeing the ship took the initiative to approach Chen Ping'an and explain things. It turned out that those rolling clouds were actually a half-immortal weapon of Old Dragon City. If someone looked up from inside the city, they wouldn't see a single patch of cloud. The old man also told Chen Ping'an a startling legend.
According to legend, eight hundred years ago, nearly a thousand heretical cultivators swarmed toward Old Dragon City in an imposing force. Among them were two Earth Immortals overseeing the operation, and as many as ten top-tier Qi refiners at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages. These powerful figures, who dominated their respective regions, had spent nearly a century secretly scheming to seize Old Dragon City, coordinating from within and without. Everything was in place. As their army pressed on the city, it happened to be the critical moment when the old city lord had just died and the new family head had not yet been appointed. Inside Old Dragon City, the twelve branches of the Fu family had already fallen into internal strife, severely weakening themselves. In particular, two Fu family patriarchs, each wielding a half-immortal weapon, fought until heaven and earth were overturned. Even with layers upon layers of spell restrictions that greatly suppressed the killing power of the half-immortal weapons, half of Old Dragon City was still destroyed.
But at the last moment, a female Qi refiner, who had seemingly been dozing off in the cloud sea above Old Dragon City, appeared. She glanced at the smoke-filled city beneath her feet, then looked at the gathering of over a thousand Qi refiners. After yawning, she reached out and grabbed—the cloud sea covering a thousand li in radius condensed into a single bead in her palm. She tossed it into her mouth, then sneezed.
Hundreds upon hundreds of tornado-like gales of pure yang energy erupted from the Southern Sea, sweeping northward from the sea surface toward Old Dragon City. As for the demonic Qi refiners who had set their sights on Old Dragon City—setting aside the worthless Lower Five Realm cultivators who were just there to shout and make noise—fully half of the Middle Five Realm immortals were blown to death by those gales. After that, the surviving demons fled in panic and were hunted down by the now-stabilized Fu family for a full hundred years.
Chen Ping'an listened, stunned.
The old man finally asked with a smile, "What, young master doesn't believe it?"
Chen Ping'an shook his head. Of course he didn't believe it. How could anyone in the world kill so many Middle Five Realm Qi refiners with just one divine ability?
The old man stroked his beard and laughed. "To be honest, I don't believe it either. Even if the Celestial Lord Qi Zhen of the Divine Edict Sect, together with the sword immortals and sages of the Wind Snow Temple and True Martial Mountain, joined forces in a single strike, they shouldn't have such power. It's just embellishment by later generations. But speaking of it, this kind of frightening story needs to be exaggerated like this to be interesting."
Bidding farewell to the old man, Chen Ping'an disembarked from the ship. Towering buildings stood in close array, and the streets were incredibly wide—yet pedestrians still jostled shoulder to shoulder. Chen Ping'an was swept along by the crowd, a bit overwhelmed. It was already like this before even entering Old Dragon City—how was he supposed to find the Dust Pharmacy and Zheng Dafeng? During his casual chat with the Yangzhi Hall old man, Chen Ping'an had tentatively asked about Hanging Mountain, wanting to know if he could take a cross-continent ship there. The old man had looked utterly bewildered, saying that of course he had heard of Hanging Mountain—it was the seal character mountain of the Dao Ancestor's second disciple, incredibly domineering. But a Daoist leader from another world actually managing to drive such a large nail into their Haoran World was really too disrespectful to the saint statues enshrined in the Confucian Temple.
However, the old man had never heard of any ferry in Old Dragon City that went there. He didn't even know the specific location of Hanging Mountain, only that it was relatively close to the Southern Bodhi Continent.
So after getting off the ship, Chen Ping'an felt like a headless fly. He could only take it one step at a time, first honestly walking the three hundred li and entering Old Dragon City. As he walked and asked for directions, confirming the general direction was correct, Chen Ping'an noticed that the central area of the main road had no pedestrians. Many vehicles came and went, swift as the wind. There were carriages gleaming with treasure aura, each horse pulling them more magnificent and extraordinary than the last. Some people rode fierce tigers, long snakes, giant turtles, or cranes. Although everyone was a Qi refiner, the streets were orderly, and no one dared to recklessly charge about.
Old Man Yang, the old man surnamed Cui, and Wei Bo had all advised him to reach the Fourth Realm of martial arts before taking the Old Dragon City ferry to Hanging Mountain. So before this, Chen Ping'an hadn't been too fixated on rushing his journey. But now that he had set foot on Old Dragon City's territory, for some reason he felt an urgent desire to get to Hanging Mountain as quickly as possible. The whole "Fourth Realm or not" thing no longer seemed to matter.
Having traveled from the north to the south of the entire Vase Bottle Continent, covering millions of li, Chen Ping'an had never felt such urgency. So at a place by the roadside that resembled a post station, Chen Ping'an, for the first time in his life, was generous—he spent ten Snowflake Coins to hire a carriage. The two horses pulling it were pure white, and the driver was not a sturdy man but a young woman of above-average looks, with a naturally cheerful disposition, completely without shyness or embarrassment. After Chen Ping'an climbed into the carriage, she boldly suggested he sit beside her, saying that as she drove, she would introduce the famous shops along both sides of the street—the tempting foods and the jaw-droppingly priced antiques and calligraphy. She had grown up at the ferry outside Old Dragon City and knew it well; she guaranteed that by choosing her carriage, Chen Ping'an would not regret the trip!
The carriage slowly made its way through the sea of people. Once they entered the central part of the road, the young woman suddenly whipped the horses into a gallop, speeding with the other vehicles toward the west gate of Old Dragon City. Chen Ping'an sat behind the skilled driver, eating dry flatbread, not daring to drink any alcohol. Before leaving the ship, he had already stored the Sword-Nurturing Gourd in the cotton cloth bundle slung diagonally across his back. Wei Bo had reminded him that Earth Immortals, saints, and those at the tenth realm and above—Golden Core and Nascent Soul included—could still see through his crude concealment technique and recognize the Sword-Nurturing Gourd.
The young woman was very outgoing and talkative, chattering endlessly. She told Chen Ping'an about the historical origins of various shops and buildings, which remarkable mountain immortals had been among them, what bold words they had spoken, and what great feats they had accomplished. Chen Ping'an had walked through the Jianghu of the "Fifth Realm Great Demons" in the foothills, but only today did he discover that in a place similar to his hometown's market town, it seemed Middle Five Realm immortals weren't so valuable after all.
Chen Ping'an asked the young woman if she had ever heard of the Dust Pharmacy inside the city. She shook her head, saying she didn't know much about the goings-on inside Old Dragon City because the city was just too huge. Moreover, it was divided into the Outer City, Inner City, and Fu City. Every time one passed through a city gate, a hefty fee had to be paid. Outsiders—even if you were a Golden Core or Nascent Soul old immortal—were not exempt; even the Jade Emperor himself wouldn't be an exception. So she had only been to the Outer City a few times, and every time she went, her hard-saved money pouch would inevitably shrink.
However, if you were a member of the Fu family or any of the other five major surnames of Old Dragon City, not only did you not have to pay when passing through the gates, but you could also fly within the Outer and Inner Cities. Of course, if you had the ability to purchase an Old Dragon Cloud-Turning Pendant from the Fu family, you could also fly freely, with the only restriction being that you couldn't fly over the Fu family city at the very center. The young woman driver asked Chen Ping'an if he could guess how much an Old Dragon Cloud-Turning Pendant cost.
Chen Ping'an tried to guess an astronomical price: a thousand Snowflake Coins.
That would be a million taels of silver.
The young woman burst into laughter, turning to Chen Ping'an and holding up one hand. "Five thousand!"
Chen Ping'an, worried about an accident with the carriage and momentarily shocked, quickly said, "Miss, please watch the road."
She gave a chuckle, turned back around, and faced away from Chen Ping'an. But she raised her chin high, proud. "Young master, I'm not bragging—even if I let go of the reins with both hands and closed my eyes, the carriage would still run safely all the way to the west gate. But to keep passengers from worrying, I pretend to drive attentively."
Chen Ping'an said softly, "Don't pretend."
She laughed heartily. "Got it! I'll be serious for you, young master!"
Chen Ping'an looked at her back and couldn't help smiling. Then he turned to look at the bustling street scene on one side. A gentle breeze brushed his face. Strangely, despite traveling south and often being exposed to wind and sun, Chen Ping'an's skin had become even fairer. He was no longer the charcoal-black kiln worker he used to be.
It seemed the young woman had eyes in the back of her head, knowing the young foreigner was looking at the street. She secretly turned her head, then quickly turned back—just a glimpse, stealing a look at the side profile of the boy carrying the box on his back.
The boy wasn't handsome per se, but he was very pleasing to the eye.
The young woman suddenly laughed. "Young master, you're quite good-looking."
Chen Ping'an, probably infected by her cheerful mood, rare for him, joked, "If I let you look a few more times, can you knock one Snowflake Coin off the fare?"
For this change in Chen Ping'an, fellows like A Liang, Xu Yuanxia, and Liu Baqiao were undoubtedly the culprits.
The young woman laughed. "That won't do. From the shops to the city gate and back, that's nearly six hundred li round trip. I'd have to run ten trips to earn one Snowflake Coin."
Chen Ping'an nodded. "That's quite hard work."
Facing away from him, the young woman shook her head vigorously. "Young master, what's so hard about this? I've loved running back and forth like this since I was a child. Even if I one day have my own shop and earn a lot of money, I'll still drive the carriage myself. I get to meet so many customers, just like you, young master."
Then she became a little melancholy. "But buying a shop costs so much money. I think I'll never manage it in this lifetime."
She shouted loudly, "Never!"
But in the end, the girl finished on a happy note.
Chen Ping'an smiled and encouraged her. "Earn it bit by bit. Today you have more money than yesterday, tomorrow more than today, the day after tomorrow more than tomorrow!"
The young woman's fighting spirit was immediately reignited. She turned to Chen Ping'an and gave him a radiant smile.
Because of Fu Nanhua, the young city lord of Old Dragon City, Chen Ping'an had actually formed a very bad impression of Old Dragon City, not much better than that of Sunlit Mountain.
But from the bottom of his heart, Chen Ping'an liked this girl—not in a romantic, man-and-woman way, but because she had the feeling of a plant growing toward the sun. Chen Ping'an was willing to deal with people like her. The young Daoist and the big-bearded man who had already parted ways with him were also like that.
The young woman continued to introduce the streets on both sides, and Chen Ping'an followed her pointing finger, looking at each one.
Time passed amid the sound of hooves.
In less than an hour, Chen Ping'an could already see the high walls of Old Dragon City's Outer City. They were much taller than any city walls or fortress gates he had seen before.
Just before the carriage was about to stop, Chen Ping'an asked, "Do you know Sun Jiashu?"
The young woman turned in surprise. "Who?"
Chen Ping'an had to repeat the name. "Sun Jiashu."
The young woman couldn't help laughing. She held it in for a long time without speaking. Finally, as the carriage stopped, she suddenly stood up, pointed at the street behind them, and swung her arm in a big circle. "Young master, see that?"
Chen Ping'an nodded.
The young woman's eyes narrowed into crescent moons. "From our city gate all the way to the ferry, three hundred li of street and shops—all his!"
Chen Ping'an stood up on the carriage with her, a bit dazed. "All of it belongs to one man, Sun Jiashu?"
She nodded vigorously, especially proud. "Yes! All of it belongs to Young Master Sun!"
Then she lowered her voice, mysteriously. "I heard from the shopkeeper that Young Master Sun is a really good person. Even though he's the best businessman, he has a heart of gold. Almost all the old folks, no matter how bad-tempered they are, speak well of him and his elders. They say that years ago, a big fire broke out on the street and burned down two or three thousand of the Sun family's shops. At the time, Young Master Sun had just become family head, and instead of holding anyone accountable, he paid out of his own pocket to help everyone rebuild their shops. I've also heard from many women that Young Master Sun is especially handsome. So he's the kindest and most handsome man in all of Old Dragon City!"
About a hundred zhang from the city gate, the road was packed with vehicles. Then, from within the flow of people, a young man in plain white linen clothes walked straight toward the carriage where Chen Ping'an and the young woman were standing. The man had a slender build, elegant like a jade tree in the wind, but he didn't give off that oppressive, standout feeling. Instead, he had a clean, pure aura, like a young master from a scholarly family, refined and gentle.
In the gaps between the vehicles crowding both sides of the road, many pedestrians hurried by. Someone accidentally bumped into the man's shoulder and quickly apologized. The man smiled and shook his head, saying it was fine.
The young woman turned to look at Old Dragon City, murmuring, "Young master, how can there be such a wonderful Young Master Sun in this world?"
Chen Ping'an had nothing to say.
The young man, who had been standing there for a while, finally looked up with a smile at the two of them. He said softly to the young woman, "Thank you."
The young woman was baffled. She looked down and asked, puzzled, "What are you thanking me for?"
The young man smiled but didn't explain. Then he looked at Chen Ping'an. "You're Chen Ping'an, right? I'm a friend of Liu Baqiao. He sent me a flying sword message not long ago, so I came specifically to wait for you here."
Chen Ping'an jumped down from the carriage—it was too rude to talk to someone while standing so high—and asked tentatively, "You wouldn't be..."
He barely stopped himself from saying the next name.
The man nodded. "That's right, I'm Sun Jiashu."
The young woman sighed helplessly. "Oh, young master, why do you have to share the same name as Young Master Sun? What a shame for you."
The young man smiled but said nothing.
The young woman bid farewell to Chen Ping'an. The carriage slowly turned around and finally drove away.
Chen Ping'an followed Sun Jiashu toward the west gate of Old Dragon City and couldn't help asking, "Sun... Young Master Sun, the entire street is yours?"
Sun Jiashu showed no false modesty. He nodded and smiled. "At the height of my ancestors' glory, the entire Outer City of Old Dragon City belonged to my family. Later, as Old Dragon City grew bigger and bigger, the Sun family made several bad deals, so we became less wealthy than the Fu family. But of course, the Sun family is still very rich. Well, I suppose you could say I, Sun Jiashu, am rich."
Chen Ping'an secretly glanced at Sun Jiashu. The man wore no ornaments at all, not even showing any hint of wealth.
Sun Jiashu laughed. "An Old Dragon Cloud-Turning Pendant? None of us Sun family members have one, myself included. I actually want to buy one, but the rigid family rules passed down from our ancestors forbid future generations from being extravagant on such trivial matters. I can't change the family law, so I just have to endure it. It's quite annoying."
Chen Ping'an opened his mouth but hesitated.
Sun Jiashu turned to him. "What, you want to ask about those twenty Snowflake Coins of yours? Can I give them back? Of course not. Friendship is friendship, business is business."
Chen Ping'an scratched his head. "I was going to ask, since Old Dragon City is so big, do we have to walk all the way to your house?"
Sun Jiashu said nothing, just smiled at Chen Ping'an.
Chen Ping'an sighed and confessed, "Fine, you don't have to give them back."
Sun Jiashu said with sudden understanding, "No wonder Liu Baqiao said we'd hit it off."
Chen Ping'an asked curiously, "Do people often call you a miser too?"
Sun Jiashu was a bit amused but shook his head gently. "Liu Baqiao said we're both the type to be generous when we're broke."
What was that supposed to be? Liu Baqiao's words were nonsense.
Generous or not, let's not even go there—but Sun Jiashu, broke?
Sun Jiashu suddenly said, "I have a peculiar ability—I can see the wealth that has passed through a person's hands but hasn't been held onto."
Then he stopped walking, turned to look at Chen Ping'an, and hit the nail on the head. "The things you've given away are worth more than all of Old Dragon City."
——
Within the Inner City of Old Dragon City, in a quiet alley, there was a newly opened small medicine shop, no bigger than a palm-sized plot of land. The male shopkeeper had actually hired seven or eight beautiful women and charming girls, all of whom, without exception, had long legs. The man idled away his days, never worrying about the shop's business, busy flirting with them, telling what he considered witty and romantic off-color jokes. The women pretended to be shy on the surface, but the moment they turned away, they rolled their eyes.
Today, this fellow was sitting on a small stool at the mouth of the alley again, cracking sunflower seeds, watching the women passing by on the street. His eyes were sparkling, thinking that indeed, the flowers in the wild were more fragrant than those at home.
Then, today, another woman walked past him on the street, dressed very flamboyantly. As for her face and figure... anyway, the man had already dropped his sunflower seeds, picked up his stool, and run away.