Chapter 571: Return to Liaolong
Liaolong, Huangquan City.
As a city located in the northern part of Liaolong, the defenses of Huangquan City had become increasingly stringent in recent years.
The number of soldiers stationed within the city had been raised from three thousand to the current ten thousand. The night patrol guards had increased from two shifts to four shifts, and the city gates now closed an hour earlier than before.
This was Liaolong's defensive preparation against the Great Wei Dynasty to the north.
At this point in time, the Great Yu had already been overthrown by the Great Wei Emperor Li Chengyuan for four years. It was now the early years of the Wei Dynasty's founding, with a strong military and well-fed troops. Both Li Chengyuan and his son Li Chong were military men by origin, fierce and skilled in battle.
This forced Liaolong to be wary of whether Li Chengyuan harbored greater ambitions.
Especially now that the main family of the Yunxi Kang Family had fallen into trouble, conflicts among the branch families had intensified, and a few of the Kang Family's branches had been co-opted by the Li-Wei Dynasty. The situation was becoming increasingly delicate.
Inside Huangquan City, at a small food stall in a market alley.
Four clay bowls sat on a crude wooden table. The murky wine inside was yellowish, with tiny bits of sediment floating on the surface.
Most of the dishes placed on the table were vegetables, with only a single roast chicken sitting in the center—the sole meat dish.
Old Zhang, whose temples were slightly gray and whose face was etched with knife-like wrinkles, picked up his clay bowl, took a sip of the murky wine, then frowned:
"Li Er, warm this wine up for me again!"
"Coming!"
The stall owner, called Li Er, hurried over, picked up the jug of murky wine from the table, and glanced at the clay bowl:
"The wine in this bowl..."
"Forget it, I'll make do."
Old Zhang waved his hand. His leg shifted slightly, bumping against the long saber resting against the table beside him.
"Sure thing!"
The stall owner responded.
Old Zhang straightened his saber again and let out a long breath:
"The weather's getting colder."
"It's not just the weather getting colder. Business has been harder lately too, and the checks at the city gates are getting stricter."
Zhao Sheng, a small-time peddler nearby, chimed in:
"Old Zhang, you've been a soldier for so many years, and now you're at least a squad leader. Can't you put in a word with the gate guards? Next time they check my goods, tell them to stop finding trouble for no reason. It's already a small operation—I can't afford to keep greasing palms!"
"I'm nobody!"
Old Zhang snorted coldly:
"The current garrison commander of Huangquan City is a big shot sent from the capital. All the key positions in the military camp have been swapped out for his own people. Us old local soldiers? Nobody gives a damn about us anymore!"
As he spoke, Old Zhang finally couldn't hold back and cursed:
"Damn it all! I really want to go to war with the Great Yu up north. Either die on the battlefield or earn some battle merits and rise to glory. Either way, I wouldn't have to suffer this miserable life anymore!"
He picked up his clay bowl of murky wine and downed it in one gulp. Then Old Zhang turned his gaze to the plainly dressed middle-aged man beside him:
"Old Sun, how have you been lately?"
"Same as always, just barely getting by."
The plainly dressed middle-aged man, called Old Sun, replied.
"It's all my fault. Back then, I could tell those bastards were no good, but I didn't talk you out of it properly. If you hadn't let those scumbags run off with your money..."
Old Zhang lamented, but the plainly dressed middle-aged man cut him off:
"Brother Zhang, don't say that. Let's just drink!"
The middle-aged man also raised his clay bowl from the table and downed it in one gulp.
"Hah..."
Old Zhang shook his head with a bitter smile, then turned his gaze to the stall owner:
"Li Er, hurry up with that wine!"
"Coming, just a moment!"
The stall owner replied.
"Speaking of which, has my sister-in-law still shown no sign?"
Old Zhang asked in the direction of the plainly dressed middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man said nothing, just shook his head.
To this day, the middle-aged man called Old Sun still had no children.
"If only that kid were still here. Honestly, I really liked that boy's spirit. Felt like he had the makings of a good soldier. I wonder where that kid is now..."
"Brother Zhang, what happened back then—it's all my fault for being a scumbag."
The plainly dressed middle-aged man's face darkened a few shades:
"It was clearly all my fault, and yet I took it out on a child who was only nine years old. It's all on me..."
"Water under the bridge. People have to keep moving forward."
Old Zhang patted the middle-aged man's shoulder and offered some comfort.
"Wine's here!"
The stall owner called Li Er walked toward the crude wooden table where the four were seated, holding a wine jug in his hand, and set it down on the table.
Old Zhang picked up the jug, first filled the middle-aged man's bowl to the brim, then started pouring for himself.
But just as he finished pouring, Old Zhang's gaze locked tightly onto the clay bowl in front of him.
The surface of the wine rippled continuously, as if trembling.
Strange...
The next instant, a massive shadow suddenly cast down from the sky.
Confused, Old Zhang looked up, and when he saw what was in the sky, his expression froze. The hand holding the wine jug began to tremble:
"This is..."
In the sky, a giant vessel, over ninety zhang in length, was slowly descending.
...
On the ferry.
A Swordsman clad in a cyan daoist robe stood on the deck, gazing down at the familiar city below him.
Huangquan City.
When he was three years old, after his father died of illness, he was taken in by his aunt and brought to Huangquan City, where he lived with his aunt and uncle for six years.
Until his uncle was swindled, and their family fortunes plummeted.
Now, returning to this city, eighteen-year-old Su Hongzhen was filled with a myriad of emotions.
Nine years had passed. It seemed like nothing had changed here, yet something had.
Su Hongzhen hadn't originally planned to return to Huangquan City with such an ostentatious display.
But the captain of this ferry didn't see it that way. He said that Su Hongzhen was now the champion of Heavenly Summit Mountain, the most outstanding and exceptional young cultivator in this world.
His entrance had to be grand to symbolize the majesty of the immortals.
Moreover, down in this secular dynasty, the people were completely unaware of the existence of cultivators.
So the spectacle had to be even greater to inspire reverence for cultivators in the hearts of these mortals.
Although Su Hongzhen had initially wanted to refuse, the ferry captain insisted strongly, pleading that if he didn't give Champion Su enough pomp, he wouldn't be able to report back at the ferry dock.
In the end, Su Hongzhen had no choice but to acquiesce.