The sky is as blue as a fine porcelain plate, clear and clean, with a few white clouds floating at the edge of the sky, like silk, white and soft.

  A gentle breeze blows, carrying a hint of blood!

  "Haha, Qing Shan, these bandits are purely here to deliver silver to us!" Qing Hu laughed, searching the ground for the bodies of the bandits. There were eighteen corpses scattered around the road, each with eyes that were either shocked or crazed, and now they were all stained with blood, lying on the ground.

  These eighteen robbers were part of the same gang that had just robbed and killed Lu Qing-shan and Teng Qing-hu.

  Teng Qing Shan and Teng Qing Hu joined forces to kill so many bandits, and after beheading the leader of the gang, the other bandits were frightened and ran away in all directions.

  "We didnt ride horses, and were just carrying packs on our backs, it doesnt look like we have any weapons. Those bandits wont rob us, who will they rob?" Teng Qing Shan laughed loudly as he searched the corpses for gold and silver.

  "Green Mountain, youre right, this batch of stolen silver is really satisfying." Green Tiger laughed, "Its still thanks to your cleverness, at first I was thinking wed rush along the fastest route and arrive at Jiangning Prefecture City in one day. If we had rushed like that, I reckon we wouldnt have gotten our hands on the silver."

  Yicheng is not far from Jiangning Prefecture.

  Jiangning City is located in the east of Yicheng. Teng Qing Shan and his party do not need to detour around Danyang Mountain, they only need to move forward along the smooth road, with a distance of about 300 miles. This distance can be reached by Teng Qing Shan and Teng Qing Hu within one day.

  "Thats the rule of the Yuan Sect, they only accept people on two days of the year, one in the sweltering summer and one in the freezing winter. One is June 12th, and the other is January 6th! Teng Qing Shan stood up, counting his silver coins as he spoke, "We left on the morning of January 3rd, whats the hurry? Otherwise, even if we arrived at Jiangning Prefecture City, it would be a waste of money to stay in an inn!"

  "Listen, Qing Shan, youre right." Qing Hu counted the scattered silver coins on his hand, looking pleased. "Qing Shan, Ive got around twenty or thirty taels of silver here. How about you? That bandit leader should have a lot of silver, shouldnt he?"

  "Hmm, the bandit leader had the most silver, with three ingots in his bosom. The other small fries only had loose change. On my side, I added it up to over sixty taels of silver." Teng Qing Shan also smiled as he put these silvers into the package behind his back. Encountering bandits on the road and killing them to take their loot was also a great pleasure.

  "Haha, Qing Shan, weve been on the road for over 300 miles, eating, drinking and having fun all the way. Weve been traveling for almost three days now. Not a single piece of silver was spent, and we even made a profit of over 300 taels of silver!"

  On the third day of the twelfth lunar month, early in the morning, the two left Tunji Village.

  Today is the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month. Teng Qing Shan and his companion have been wandering on the road for three days, eating and drinking a lot.

  "Its really exhilarating to roam the world like this! Gobbling down meat, guzzling wine, and throwing around silver coins. I really want to play for a few more days!" Qing Hu said with a smile, but he knew that his meager abilities wouldnt last long in the outside world, and hed be done for if he encountered any slightly tougher bandits.

  Teng Qing Shan looked at him and said, "Tomorrow, the Guiyuan Sect will start recruiting new members. If you miss tomorrow, youll have to wait another half a year. Brother-in-law, Im not in a hurry for this half-year wait either. If you really want to play around some more, Ill accompany you. How about it?"

  "I was just kidding." Qing Hu said with a smile, "Compared to playing around, joining the Black Armor Army is more prestigious!"

  "Lets go, lets get to Jiangning City early, weve never been there before, and we must take a good look around." Teng Qing Shan said with a smile, and the two brothers immediately set off towards the east with their bags on their backs.

  ******

  In the late afternoon, the sun sets in the west, and the western sky is filled with a large expanse of beautiful sunset glow.

  Two young men with bundles on their backs trudged along shoulder to shoulder, occasionally a horseman would gallop swiftly past them.

  "Green Mountain, weve arrived at Jiangning City!" Qing Hu exclaimed excitedly.

  Teng Qing Shan gazed out at the ancient city walls in the distance, the Jiangning City walls stretching out to the south and north, blurry and endless.

  "This world, on the nine continents, there are only a few cities larger than the county capitals." Teng Qing Shan still knew some basic knowledge about the nine continents. The world was divided into nine continents, and the largest city in each continent was those county capitals. Of course, there were also...

  Two buildings!

  One was Yuwangs unified capital city - Yucheng!

  One is the northwest Yongzhous Qinling Tian Emperor unified the world, set down the Wang City - Qinwang City!

  Yu City and Qinwang City were once the royal cities of the nine states, so its not surprising that they occupy a vast area. Apart from these two royal cities, other prefectural cities are generally similar in size, such as Jiangning Prefectural City, which is roughly 20-30 miles long and wide, with a population of around one million people within the city walls. Different prefectural cities also have some differences.

  Jiangning City, as the center of Jiangning Prefecture and also close to the East China Sea, the Grand Canal runs through the city, making it a highly developed commercial area. Naturally, this Jiangning City is very rich.

  "A city that can accommodate millions of people, in ancient times, relying solely on human construction, is indeed very difficult." Teng Qing Shan still remembers that in the history of ancient China, the largest city could only accommodate a population of around one million. Such super-large cities are extremely rare in Chinese ancient history.

  While Teng Qing Shan is now living in this world of a million peoples county city, there are many under the nine states heaven.

  "Its said that the Yu City can hold a population of 5 million, and the Qin Wang City can hold 8 million! These two royal cities dont have skyscrapers, with low population density, and their land area is even larger than Shanghai and Yanjing in previous eras. Its truly unimaginable." Teng Qing Shan had some expectations in his heart, that one day he could take a look at those two historical royal cities.

  In Teng Qing Shans thoughts, he and Qing Hu had already arrived at the city gate.

  "There are so many people, why are there so many people leaving the city?" Qinghu exclaimed as he looked at the crowded crowd, with many carrying poles and pushing carts, mostly merchants.

  "These small traders, who come to the county town to do business every few days, have to go home in the evening. It takes some time to rush back." Teng Qing Shan and Teng Qing Hu walked into the legendary Jiangning County Town after paying the entrance fee!

  As soon as they entered Jiangning Prefecture City, they were shocked.

  "The street is so wide." Teng Qing Shan looked at the spacious street paved with neat bluestones in front of him, somewhat shocked. "This street can accommodate dozens of fine horses galloping side by side. Its at least 30 meters wide." Even some pedestrian streets in modern society might not be as wide as this.

  "Green Mountain, they say that the most prosperous Zhongda Street in Jiangning County is this street." Qinghus eyes lit up, "Now there are still many vendors stalls on both sides of the road, come on, lets take a good stroll!"

  Green tiger, its just country people entering the county town, their eyes are dazzled.

  But Teng Qing Shan was only occasionally surprised, after all, compared to some international metropolises in his previous life that had accommodated tens of millions of people, this county town was far inferior. However, the layout of this county town was magnificent, purely built by human hands, and the grandeur, simplicity, and magnificence still made Teng Qing Shan very fond of it.

  ******

  Teng Qing Shan and Teng Qing Hu were both holding skewers of roasted meat in their hands, strolling leisurely.

  "The county town is really different, there are more fun and delicious things than our Yicheng." Qinghu was very pleased, then he raised his head to see a three-story wine building in the distance. The whole building was made of wood, with exquisite carvings on the outer wall, it was obviously a top-grade luxurious wine building.

  The main gate of the wine building has a golden plaque with three characters written in dragon flying and phoenix dancing - Yuan Yue Lou.

  "Green Mountain, lets go in and have a meal, how about it?" Qing Hus eyes lit up.

  Teng Qing Shan also knew that the wine tower consumed a lot, generally small taverns cost about half to two silver coins for one meal, but this wine tower was much more expensive. However, on the three-day journey, he had also obtained hundreds of silver coins from the robbers: "Alright, lets take a look at what the wine tower in this county town is like!"

  As soon as I stepped into the first floor of the wine building, a waiter came up to greet me.

  "Gentlemen, our second and third floors are fully booked. We only have two tables left on the first floor. Which one would you like to choose?" The waiter said enthusiastically.

  Hong Qingshans eyes swept over and casually pointed: "Just that table by the window."

  "This business is really good." Qing Hu praised and sat down with Zhuo Qing Shan. The waiter immediately presented a written menu.

  "Its really not ordinary expensive!" Qinghu said with a low voice, then smiled, "However, its worth the money!"

  The second son enthusiastically said beside him: "Our Lan Yue Lou is famous for its twelve flavors of blue wrapped fruit and twenty-eight dishes to go with wine. These twelve flavors of blue wrapped fruit and twenty-eight dishes are the signature dishes of Lan Yue Lou, they are all on the menu! The two guests can take a look themselves."

  "Look at you two gentlemen, also straightforward men who like good meat and wine. Our Moon Embracing Pavilion also has three-line pork belly, stir-fried pig kidney..."

  "Well take a look ourselves." Teng Qing Shan said as soon as he opened his mouth, this little waiter was quite skilled at introducing dishes.

  Teng Qing Shan and Qing Hu, the two of them, were willing to spend the money they had obtained from the robbers. They ordered eight dishes in one breath, six of which were big meat dishes, and also asked for two bottles of good wine. Roughly calculating the price, they spent nearly twenty taels of silver. If it was an ordinary mountain dweller, he would have earned about that much in a year.

  "The taste is actually pretty good." Teng Qing Shan nodded as he savored these delicacies.

  Hong Qinghu nodded repeatedly: "Mmm, this meat is not bad, delicious, and the wine is pure and strong enough." Although the prices of the dishes at Yuan Yue Lou are high, the taste is indeed extraordinary.

  "Green Mountain, look, those who enter this wine house are either wealthy or noble. Just look at what theyre wearing, tsk tsk." Tian Qinghu said with a smile.

  "Hmm." Teng Qing Shan also smiled and nodded.

  Just as the two were enjoying their meal, a voice came from outside.

  "What, the guest room is full?" A discontented voice rose up. "Im treating my brother today and specifically came to your Moon Embracing Building. Theres no elegant suite on the third floor, and even the ordinary rooms on the second and first floors are all taken?"

  "Sir, were full." The waiter was not annoyed at all.

  A young noble in white robes stood at the entrance of the first floor, glancing casually inside. His gaze stopped on Teng Qing Shan and another person. After all... one could tell a persons strength and status from their attire and demeanor. "These two kids, one has his back to me so I cant see clearly, but the other, hes so excited, with a flushed face and sparkling eyes, obviously hasnt seen a big scene before."

  ……

  Teng Qing Shan and Teng Qing Hu didnt mind the conversation at the door, they continued to eat and drink heartily, gazing out of the window at the evening scenery outside while chatting casually.

  "Two gentlemen." The shop assistant suddenly ran up beside Teng Qing and Shan.

  "Huh?" Teng Qing Shan raised his head.

  "That gentleman hopes you two can give up the table for them. Hell cover the cost of your dishes," said the waiter, "I wonder if you two gentlemen would be willing to agree?"

  The green tiger was eating meat in its mouth, raised its head and stared at the little second with one eye, sneered and glanced at the noble young master outside: "Did he pay? His mother... Let us go and say its okay, come a thousand two silver coins, my brother and I will leave immediately, if he is stingy and doesnt want to give, you can just let him get out of here!"

  Hong Qingshan held up his wine cup, took a sip, and smiled as he watched things unfold.

  （）