Chapter 221 — Even Firm Armor Cannot Claim Supremacy
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Little Jade Capital, up in the heavens?
The wife of Jingping's Imperial Preceptor raised her head and looked at the sky.
It was a lovely name.
Jade Capital: a capital made of jade, the city the immortals dwell in, carrying no breath of hearth smoke, holding nothing of mortal weather.
"Once, out of that mysterious holy land, Little Jade Capital, came a certain Zhen the Unfettered. He came to bar my way. He failed, alas.
" A look of bewilderment crossed the Imperial Preceptor's eyes.
He said softly, "When he was dying he told me I must go to Little Jade Capital without fail, that there were things there which might change my thinking. So here I am. " There before them, in a place where mist and cloud drifted, a fairyland beautiful as anything in myth or legend appeared.
Shen Mu's treasure ship stopped at Fenzhou.
He went ashore with Snow Fox and bought up New Year goods until the hold was crammed full. Fenzhou was still reasonably peaceful; its prefect was gathering the divine-power wielders of the region, refining primal weapons of every kind, riding tower ships up into the sky to gather the clouds and mist.
In some places sunlight was already breaking through, and the ice and snow had begun to melt, though that only made the cold seem keener. Fenzhou produced strong liquor in abundance, and its people were in the habit of drinking it to ward off the chill, but the cold here was heavy, and many villagers still went up the mountains to cut wood and fell trees to keep themselves warm.
And the prices had soared; goods cost far more than before. Shen Mu, deep of purse, felt nothing of it, but Snow Fox had reckoned the accounts carefully and said to him, "Young Master, the prices have doubled. " Shen Mu was briefly taken aback.
"Sooner than I expected," he said. "Keeping prices steady is the Minister of Revenue's charge, not ours. As long as the dark clouds scatter and the court sends relief, there will be no great trouble in the north.
What I fear is that someone is deliberately stirring up trouble.
" They could not buy enough New Year goods in Fenzhou, so the treasure ship stopped again at Liezhou, where prices had climbed even higher. Many merchants hoarded their goods, holding them back as rarities, waiting for prices to rise further before selling and taking a handsome profit. The Vice Prefect of Liezhou began to bring the merchant houses to order.
In a troubled age, harsh laws are used: many of the hoarding merchants were dragged out and beheaded. Two or three days later, Shen Mu's treasure ship came to Jingzhou, not far now from the Wasteland, a thousand li still to go. There were still many dark clouds; the overcast sky was like a sheet of white paper with a great many holes cut out of it, sunlight pouring down through the gaps.
This region was remote, vast in land and sparse in people, and there were already signs of disorder: bandits roving in packs, plundering the wealthy households. Along the roads one could already see many poor folk frozen to death, huddled beside dead campfires, stiff as boards.
There were refugees too, whole households toiling through the ice and snow, wrapped in layer upon layer, walking south across rivers frozen solid, hoping to find some place warm. These people spoke not a word.
Now and then someone would drop out of the line and squat down to warm himself, but once a man squatted, he never rose again. Where the river waters had silted up, enormous icebergs and glaciers had formed, and now and then they would groan and creak, and a vast slab of ice would come sliding off the mass.
It was a terrifying sight. Shen Mu noticed that in some of the refugee parties there were young people skilled in the arts, shepherding the others along.
He brought his ship down onto the ice and questioned them, and found these young people to be disciples of the Dark Demon Sect.
"Tell them not to go anywhere else.