The Divine Martial Stars

no idea of the answer.

”Granny, how about we take it that the money is borrowed from that beautiful sister.
Let ’s use it to pick up daddy from Chang ’an first.
Then, we ’ll make more money by selling noodles.
One day when we find that beautiful sister, we ’ll pay the money back to her.
How does it sound? ” Caicai looked at her granny with eager eyes.

Granny Cai was still hesitating.

”Granny, I miss daddy too much… ” pleaded Caicai.

Wavered by her pitiful look, Granny Cai clenched her teeth resolutely and nodded at the little girl.
”Okay, let ’s do it.
We ’ll set off right away. ”

”Really? That ’s wonderful! ” Caicai jumped with delight.
”Oh Yeah! I ’ll have daddy back! ”

Sponsored Content

…

Li Mu returned to the inn with an awkward look.

He had been lurking around Ma San ’s mansion all night but failed to find out any more clues.
The schemer behind the scene in his imagination did not go back to the mansion as he had expected…
In fact, none of the scenes he predicted occurred last night.

Well, that was sort of embarrassing.

Li Mu now reckoned he had overthought the thing last night.

After settling the problem with Ma San, it was time for him to hit the road again.

Bathed in the festive atmosphere of Peace County, Li Mu and Zheng Cunjian got on their black-maned horses and left the county.

The next two days passed uneventfully.

Li Mu traveled unhurriedly to observe the customs and practices of this world.

In general, people in the northwest of the Western Qin Empire were sturdy and honest.
They preferred meat, especially lamb, and a variety of cooked wheaten food.
Delicious dishes could be seen everywhere along the way.
But the beef was scarce, because farm cattle was one of their most important means of production.
And the laws of the empire also forbade slaughtering any farm cattle.

However, the public security in the places Li Mu went by was not very good.

Li Mu sniffed a whiff of corruption underneath the ostensible prosperity.

Particularly, the style of governing in many counties along the way was stern and inefficient.
Bureaucracy was thriving everywhere, which gravely slowed down the workflow.
Some small counties even placed a customs pass on the government-built road and called it ’a necessary measure to maintain public safety ’.
In truth, that pass was set up for extracting money from traveling merchants, rendering the folks rather miserable.

”This Western Qin Empire seems to have been heading for its end.
Or something inside of the ruling group is wrong.
Everything here is telling me this is the last reign of the dynasty. ”

Li Mu thought to himself.

Of course, that judgment was merely based on some theories he had learned from the history class in his junior high.
As to whether his opinion was correct, well, he had to wait and see.

Before the smaller sun dived down the horizon on the second day after he left Peace County, Li Mu already reached the foot of Chang ’an.

The city of Chang ’an enjoyed a quite special status in the history of the Western Qin Empire.

Sponsored Content

Until two hundred years ago it was still the capital of the Western Qin Empire.
Although the empire was not founded there, when the Easter Qin Empire declined and Emperor Qin Wu, the one who resurrected the empire as the present one, moved the capital to Chang ’an, the city ’s high walls and firm defense had fended off the disturbances for the Western Qin Empire for three hundred years.

But two hundred years ago, Emperor Qin Dang expanded the land of the empire by sweeping out the foes that defeated the Eastern Qin Empire and repelled its people from the pasture.
After that, he removed the capital to Qin City and ended the history of Chang ’an being the capital.

Precisely due to that history, people in the Western Qin Empire had a special feeling for Chang ’an.

Even though Chang ’an was no longer the capital since two hundred years ago and it was just one of the dozens of provincial capitals of the empire, that special feeling was still around.
Plus, compared to the rest of the provincial capitals, Chang ’an was more prosperous.

After they crossed the city river that was over a hundred meters wide, admired the defensive walls that were more than a hundred meters in height, and awed the entrance gate densely covered in holes and marks weapons left, Li Mu and Zheng Cunjian handed in the entrance fee and finally entered the ancient city that had a history of five hundred years.

The moment they stepped in, they were greeted by a waft of vintage air.

Unlike the underdeveloped Taibai County where nature ’s beauty dominated, Chang ’an was like an armored guard that had steadfastly stood on the ground in spite of all the storms.
The streets and buildings in this place were mostly made of black rocks.
The road was wide and smooth, the high-rises were standing in lines and stretching into the distance.
Such solemn black was the most favorite color of the common folks, which was also an embodiment of their tough and stern character.

Riding on the street, Li Mu felt like he was walking through the thousand years ’ evolvement of the empire.

The streets were boisterous with husting and bustling merchants and trade caravans.

The night market was about to open.

In Chang ’an, there was no curfew.

In comparison with Chang ’an, Taibai County was really small.
Li Mu felt as if he had traveled to a big city like Shanghai from a small town.
After all, the difference between the two places was striking.

Li Mu felt dazzled by the thriving scene in Chang ’an.

Although the martial arts-oriented civilization could not be measured with the standards of the technology-dominated world on Earth, the architecture in Chang ’an was still unbelievably magnificent.
Many of them were built not in compliance with the architecture principles on Earth, such as a building piled up with black boulders that each weighed several thousand tons.
The technologies on Earth certainly could not do that.

Li Mu paused at intervals to enjoy the view.

After an hour, he suddenly heard a roar of clamor ahead.

And the street was abruptly packed with crowds.

…