Jiuwu City

One day later. Somewhere in Qingzhou. A towering city stood in the heart of a great plain, its walls rising high, magnificent to behold. Before the gates, carts and horses flowed past without pause; cultivators and mortals moved to and fro among them. Seen from afar, it was a picture of thriving bustle. Just past noon. Whoosh— An azure figure, sleeves fluttering, steered a Dharma artifact down at an unhurried pace and landed outside the city. He looked up at the gate and let out a long breath: "Whew... finally here." He then reined in his aura, moved silently to the tail of the queue waiting to enter, and dutifully took his place in line. The man was Lin Yi. Not long before, he had parted ways with Su Qing and Zhao Ping and left the Guihua Sect alone. He had traveled the whole way in low-key fashion, and now he had smoothly arrived at his destination—the city before him... Jiuwu City. "......" Though this was not his first visit, a trace of wonder still rose unbidden in Lin Yi's eyes at the sight of the magnificent city. Bear in mind: Jiuwu City had a resident population of over two million, and since there was no such thing here as high-rise apartment blocks, its actual footprint far exceeded the urban area of an ordinary prefecture-level city from before his transmigration. And yet, under those conditions, Jiuwu City had managed to raise a wall nearly a hundred meters high around its entire boundary, and to set above that wall a grand array that shrouded the whole city... Even in a cultivation world like the Tianling Realm, this was an immense project, formidable in both difficulty and investment. A quarter of an hour later. Lin Yi followed the queue to the city gate entrance, took out a small wooden token, and handed it to an old man by the gate who wore a blue standard-issue robe with a diamond-shaped seal engraved on his collar. The old man took the token and lightly swept it over a grayish-white platform about a zhang wide at his side. Shff— A ring of pale spirit patterns lit up at once on the platform's surface, and a wisp of white light appeared on the token in answer. The old man let his divine sense sweep over it in a light probe; once he had confirmed all was in order, he handed the token back to Lin Yi with a slight cupping of his hands: "Fellow Daoist, please enter the city. And remember—inside the walls, you may fly only on the flight corridors." Lin Yi accepted the token back and voiced his thanks to this mid Foundation Establishment cultivator—his equal in realm, who had let his aura show so openly: "My thanks for the trouble." Engraved inside that token was one of Jiuwu City's exclusive entry-and-exit seals, linked to the identity of the Guihua Sect's Grand Elder. Nominally, it made Lin Yi one of Jiuwu City's fourth-rank... that is, lowest-rank... guest elders. After all, the Guihua Sect handed over a tribute of supplies to Jiuwu City every year, so some title had to be granted. But while "fourth-rank guest elder" sounded intimidating, everyone knew exactly how much gold it actually contained—it was practically a carbon copy of an account manager back on Earth. The treatment it bought amounted to about what he was enjoying now: the cultivator in charge of entry checks spoke a few degrees more politely. And that was the whole of it. Tucking the token away in his storage pouch, Lin Yi strode through the array and into the city. The next moment, the view before him opened wide. A main road of bluestone, several hundred meters across, began beneath his feet and stretched away toward the city's depths. In the words Lin Yi would have used before transmigrating, it was like Xiahou Dun looking at Yang Xiu: one glance, and you couldn't see the end. Meanwhile, plenty of cultivators were riding their artifacts aloft, flying at low altitude above this main road. On the several smaller side roads branching off it, however, there were only pedestrians and ground vehicles passing to and fro without pause. Lin Yi found none of this strange; a couple of glances and he looked away. First he felt along his collar and hem, making sure the five micro cameras he carried on his person were running normally. Then he took out his flying Dharma artifact, formed a hand seal, and—like the other cultivators—rose onto the bluestone main road and flew off in a certain direction. That main road was what was known as a flight corridor. After all, given the size of Jiuwu City and the sheer numbers of its residents, letting people fly wherever they pleased would surely descend into chaos—but a total ban on flying would be too extreme, and would hobble the city's workings badly. And so the flight corridors had come into being. Cultivators could fly freely along the corridors, but once they left a corridor for any other area, they had to come down and walk. Violators were fined at best; at worst, they were taken straight off by the city guards to sing the prison blues. In a sense, the flight corridors were a bit like the elevated highways of Lin Yi's pre-transmigration world, used mainly for swift transit between districts within the city. Jiuwu City had sixteen of them in all, evenly spaced in a grid, and each one ran the full length of the city. When Lin Yi had first seen this corridor layout decades ago, he'd half suspected that some Cities: Skylines player with a fondness for grid cities had transmigrated right along with him... Whoosh— Inside the city, Lin Yi remained none too flashy, drifting along at his leisure and switching between several corridors. After roughly another quarter of an hour. Lin Yi left a corridor and walked a short stretch alone, and soon stood outside a bustling market. He had barely neared the entrance when a din of clamorous hawking reached his ears: "Local guide, local guide! Well acquainted with every merchant house and black market in the city—one Primordial Origin Pill a day, and it's yours!" "Secret medicines, secret medicines! Personally refined by Old Daoist Xudong—able to chase a soul clear into the netherworld! Fellow Daoists, walking past, don't miss out!" "Three seats left on the Sunset Red Iron-Butt Sightseeing Tour! Two Primordial Origin Pills, five days and four nights, meals, lodging, and round trip included—we depart the moment the seats fill!" At the sight of Lin Yi, a mustached young man boldly sidled up and asked, shifty-eyed: "Fellow Daoist, image-recording pearl—you wanting one? All good things, they are!" Lin Yi shot the fellow a glance, his gaze landing on the small bag dangling from his hand: "All foot-washing images of Fairy Ran Qing of the Drunken Moon Tower, if I'm not mistaken?" "Oh-ho, a connoisseur," the mustached young man said, mildly taken aback, then gave Lin Yi a thumbs-up. "So you're a man who knows his goods, fellow Daoist. I've been remiss, truly." So saying, he weighed the small bag in his hand, feeling the heft of what was inside, and mused: "Ever since the Drunken Moon Tower and Daoist Mo Hai put out the first foot-washing image pearl back in the day, more and more fellow Daoists have grown fond of this kind of image-recording." "Plenty of merchant houses deal in image pearls of this sort now, but when it comes to sales in the city, the Drunken Moon Tower's goods are still the ones everyone wants." "True enough, true enough—an old, established brand, after all," Lin Yi agreed with a laugh, cupping his hands in salute. "I still have a stock of such images on hand, so I'm afraid I can't favor your business today." "Besides, I have important matters on my hands, so I won't prolong our chat. I'll be off first." At that, the mustached young man returned the salute at once: "In that case, I won't hold you from your proper business. Take care, fellow Daoist!" Lin Yi dipped his head slightly, then turned and departed. And just as he'd expected, the mustached young man did not come clinging after him the way he had at first. He walked on for about half a cup of tea's time more. At last, Lin Yi's figure came to a stop before a building. Its eaves rose high and sharp, and thin spiritual energy hovered about the doorway; at first sight it could hardly be called lavish, but it was quite comfortable, and strains of music could just barely be heard drifting from inside. On the plaque above the main door, in striking letters of the Tianling Realm's script, were written the words: Drunken Moon Tower. Lin Yi's expression stayed as ever, and he was about to stride in— —but before he could cross the threshold, a little girl squatting on the ground counting ants spotted him. She started briefly, then whirled around and shrilled toward the interior: "Senior Shen! Senior Shen! That Daoist Mo Hai who loves bragging about his thirty-thousand-a-day updates is here!" "......"