Yefutidaolu

Chapter 153: The Painted Boat and the Nail Shed

Gao Jian changed his clothes, deposited Zoulong with the stable boy, paid a fee of about thirty gold, and asked someone to get him some elixirs and spiritual materials. He then asked the stable boy to give him a good wash, a spa treatment, a good massage, and arrange two mares for him.

Zou Long was very happy. The groom's shaving technique was very comfortable and he liked it very much.

Finally I can take a rest. After walking and running for so long, I decided to lie down and enjoy the massage, bath, delicious food and mare.

Gao Jian, carrying Shu Jian, who looked unhappy, came to the streets of the inner city.

The inner city is still prosperous and splendid.

To be honest, this place is much more prosperous than the county town in Yuezhou. There are spiritual beasts and mechanical devices on the streets there. There are better ones in the inner city of Cangzhou.

And, on top of that, the inner city itself has all sorts of handy things.

The formation heating method is just the basics.

Various communications, pipes for freely drawing water, devices for transmitting sound over a thousand miles, projection beads for remote viewing of the outer city opera troupe, and even certain "programs" made using the "Mirror Flower and Water Moon" method.

Yes, Gao Jian was probably too busy to enjoy it, and it was only now that he was wandering around the inner city and saw this strange manifestation.

He was on the side of the road at the time. He had been riding a dragon all night, fighting with Zuo'an, doing all kinds of mental work, and then continued to ride a dragon. He was finally taking a break, so he wanted to find a place to sit down and rest, buy a cup of tea and drink a few sips to wake himself up, and feed Shu Jian some nuts.

At this time, when he was sitting in the teahouse, he saw the so-called "mirror flowers and water moons".

Look, see, someone is setting up the 'curtain' around the teahouse.

Those people first put up various flags on the battle formation, then pulled up a curtain as a screen on top, flattened it and spread it on the ground, and then some people beat gongs and drums, calling on others to come and watch.

Gao Jian and some other passers-by turned their heads to look over there, and then, suddenly there was a thunderclap, and the black curtain suddenly showed a scene, and then changed color.

You can see colorful clouds casting light and shadows on the black cloth, and then human figures appear. It turns out to be a performance from Minzhou, and it looks like a live broadcast!

It is roughly similar to some kind of "projection". Someone really presents his or her performance in a certain place, and then it is collected by something and sent to various parts of the Divine Dynasty. Moreover, the level is quite high, and these things are presented in this place intact.

It was truly intact. The figure that appeared on the black cloth was made entirely of 'air', so it even had weight, temperature, and a living impact, but it dissipated immediately after the drama ended.

Gao Jian read the story with great interest. The story mainly tells the story of a little demon who knows nothing and wants to transform into a human, but in the end he accidentally goes astray and is killed.

He also heard people chatting nearby.

It is said that the troupe performing this show is affiliated with a sect called "Legendary Building".

This person called the play script a "legend" because the story was very strange and had never been seen by anyone, hence the name.

This sect loves to spread strange and bizarre things, hence the name "Legend", which emphasizes the principle of "only strange things can be spread".

I heard that he is quite famous within the Divine Dynasty, although his fame is only limited to practitioners.

Gao Jian had only been in this world for less than half a year, and this was the first time he had heard of this. Before, he had mostly been in the outer cities and the wilderness in various places. He was busy running around most of the time and had no time to understand these things.

The outer city is really too backward. Although there are some magic techniques, there is no civilization based on practitioners.

However, the Divine Dynasty is a superpower based on practitioners.

but……

When Gao Jian turned around, he couldn't help but sigh.

These dramas and magic techniques actually have no threshold for viewing; ordinary people can understand them.

So... it would be great if one day, people from outside the city could also see these.

He had almost rested, so he sat up from the teahouse and paid for his tea.

Those performances seemed to be provided by the teahouse itself, so there was no extra charge, but the tea itself was not cheap, costing more than 900 coins.

Just a cup of tea and a show.

More than nine hundred yuan is enough for a strong laborer from the outer city to earn for nearly half a year.

In the village, one would have to work hard for a whole year to earn that much, right? And this money also had to be used to support the family.

But in the inner city, it's only enough to have a cup of tea and watch a play.

Gao Jian could see that the tea in his hand was a cultivated spiritual material, and the teacup itself was made by grinding and firing extraordinary minerals.

Those magic dramas were dismantling some consumables. Magic naturally consumed various materials and energy. Among them, in addition to the energy of the caster of the Mirror Flower and Water Moon spell, those consumables were also spiritual materials.

These spiritual materials must be planted and picked by the farmers.

Every drop of the people's blood turns into golden branches and leaves.

These layers of brilliance are the dazzling light emitted by grinding flesh and blood.

“The spiritual materials collected by the Divine Dynasty as taxes are really worthless.” Gao Jian touched the golden bear in his hand.

"Isn't this quite valuable? This tea tastes really good. Everything that is sold in the inner city is good stuff. There are all kinds of craftsmen and practitioners from all walks of life. The things they make are incomparable to ordinary things." Shu Jian looked comfortable, squinting his eyes as he lay on Gao Jian's chest, stretching out his claws to scratch his fur.

"Aren't there these things in Shushan? Elder Shu, you are also in the seventh realm or above, right? You haven't enjoyed them? I don't believe it." Gao Jian looked suspicious.

"What do we, a group of mice, want to enjoy? Although human things are good, it's enough to have some occasionally. I don't want to turn Mouse Mountain into another Baishan River." Shu Jian curled his lips.

If they really turned completely into humans, wouldn't they be just another Baishanjiang water tribe? By then, Shushan would no longer be Shushan.

"That's pretty good." Gao Jian smiled and felt much better.

It’s true. Every time Gao Jian encounters these trivial things, he always encounters good things that make him feel better.

Just thinking about this, the blade of the rusty knife extended again, reaching six inches.

Gao Jian, however, didn't care about this and simply said, "Elder Shu, do you think Duozhou County will be retaliated against? The Zuo family shouldn't be able to take action now, right?"

"Are you worried about this? Then I'll send a few little mice to take a look and we'll know. In this small place, the most powerful chief priest was at the Third Realm, and he's been killed by me. The Zuo family is probably busy fighting among themselves now, and they definitely won't be able to take care of a bunch of First Realm land gods in a short period of time." Shu Jian said.

"With Rat Mountain looking after me, I won't be afraid anymore." Gao Jian smiled, "Then everything that happened after that will be a natural progression."

"Oh, by the way, speaking of this, I still want to ask you a few things." Shu Jian seemed to remember something and stood up in Gao Jian's palm: "Don't you have a grudge against Zuo An? Are you going to let him go just like that?"

"I have a grudge against Zuo'an, but this is all to end the blood sacrifice. Being able to end the blood sacrifice is better than anything else. I have done so much for this." Gao Jian said.

Shu Jian chewed his claws. "Didn't Zuo Qing say that he was going to put an end to blood sacrifices? His law is really going to put an end to blood sacrifices at the root, right?"

"Just because he says so, I believe him? The Zuo family even said they wanted to reconcile with me, but did they actually reconcile?" Gao Jian spread his hands. "I still trust myself more. Besides, don't you think? That so-called 'law' is actually another form of blood sacrifice, just without the blood."

"If there's no blood involved, can it still be called a blood sacrifice?" Shu Jian didn't quite understand.

Gao Jian thought about how to respond to this.

Then, an inspiration came to him, so he put Shu Jian on his head, supported him, and jogged all the way.

Gao Jian's current speed was quite fast as he was jogging all the way. After a short while, he had arrived at the river mouth of the inner city.

This is where the Baishan River converges. You can see a huge bridge built here. The pillars of the bridge are extremely thick and inserted into the riverbed. They are reinforced by many talismans. You can tell at a glance that it is the work of Taoism and witches. The combination and assembly of various materials involve the methods of refiners. From a high-level perspective, this giant bridge should be a joint effort of the refiners of the Wang family, the Zhenjing Taoist Palace, and the witches of the Zuo family.

It is thirty miles long and more than two miles wide, spanning the river. Merchants and travelers are unloading their luggage on it, and travelers are chatting and laughing with each other. Various mechanisms and giant beasts are traveling back and forth on it.

The Baishan River runs through the middle of Cangzhou's inner city, so the inner city is actually divided into two halves, and it is these more than one giant bridge that connects the two sides together.

The outer city is actually divided into two halves in this way, but the outer city is connected by boats and docks, and there is no such spectacular giant bridge.

Gao Jian came here, holding Shu Jian on his head, and pointed under the bridge.

Under the bridge is the Baishan River.

There are clouds and mists floating above the river, and a faint fairy breeze. There are many buildings and pleasure boats floating on the river.

Those building ships and pleasure boats all had carved railings and red windows, with tents on the roofs and corner lamps hanging on all four sides. There were pavilions and railings on the boats, with coffee tables and couches in the pavilions. There were no windows on the left or right sides of the boats, which faced the river directly for good views. There were four oars equally spaced around them, paddling slowly in the water. Although the building ships were moving forward, there was no sound at all.

It was daytime, but there were already customers. Many beautiful women could be seen on the boats, laughing and chatting with others, as if they were a reunion of friends.

There were no feasting and revelry, singing and dancing, pink and purple, or lingering romances, but just an ordinary chat, which looked very elegant and polite.

Cangzhou is a water town, with ships swaying slowly on the waves. The water connects to the Baishan River. There are real large cargo ships on the river, with all kinds of items on them, even some for retail. They often shout and show off to these pleasure boats how precious and rare the things on them are.

The seller boasted about the goods in great detail and took them out from time to time. You could see that there was a jade ruyi that could control objects, a sword that could follow its owner and protect him, an exquisite mechanical beast that could keep time on its own, a spiritual bird that sang melodiously, a palm-sized, extremely cute plant elf that exuded fragrance, a fine wine that was said to have miraculous effects after drinking it, and so on.

When the people upstairs showed off their goods, the sounds of coquettishness would be heard in the pleasure boats below. Then some wealthy guests would generously spend money to buy some rare things for the beautiful ladies around them, receiving praises from them. They could also watch the beauties laughing and playing with the things. Everyone laughed and gained something.

In such a scene, willow trees on both sides of the river flank the water, and painted pavilions across the lake compete for splendor. The painted boats on the lake and the carved buildings on the shore are brightly lit, presenting a beautiful scene. There are flower railings and bamboo frames, poetic guests reciting poems together, embroidered pearl curtains, sometimes revealing half of the face of beautiful girls, and sixteen or seventeen taverns and teahouses. It is indeed a prosperous place.

Flowing by the waterside pavilions, floating on the boats, with white boats and red curtains, everyone is having fun. The women upstairs don't look like prostitutes or dancers, but like the little sisters of these wealthy men.

In fact, Gao Jian and Shu Jian did not only see beautiful women trying to please rich people. They often saw these women being arrogant and ignoring customers as if they had some kind of confidence.

Instead, the guests were all humble and carefully coaxed the beauty, and from time to time they took out huge sums of money to buy some expensive toys from the surrounding merchant ships, just to make the beauty smile.

It seems as if the status is reversed. They are clearly prostitutes, but they hold their heads high like swans, while those who spend money become grandsons. But no one finds it strange.

Gao Jian pointed to the scene below and said, "Elder Shu, look, you know this place, right?"

"As for the painted boat, I know that. But I never quite understand why you humans attach so much importance to mating. We in Rat Mountain just give birth casually." Shu Jian sat on top of Gao Jian's head and curled his lips.

Isn't it just mating and giving birth? Shu Jian has at least hundreds of children. And there is no such thing as a "mate" in Shushan. Everyone can have children if they like. There is no such thing as marriage or promise. Many of the mothers of Shu Jian's hundreds of children have also given birth to other rats' children. No one thinks there is anything special about it. Even Shu Jian himself doesn't know how many children he has.

Because, in Rat Mountain, although there are some that have transformed, most of the rats actually raise all the children of the entire tribe as their own. All the children grow up together when they are young and are brothers and sisters, without any distinction as to who their parents are.

So Shu Jian was very curious about how the human race could hype up such a thing to such a high price. He didn't quite understand.

However, humans don’t quite understand the affairs of the rat tribe, so there’s no need to take it too seriously.

"I don't quite understand what's going on at Rat Mountain." Gao Jian shook his head. "Do you think this place is any different from the nail sheds outside the outer city?"

They are all the same kind of business, but they are divided into singing troupes, teahouses, bookstores, thatched brothels, and old mothers' houses. (For details, see Chapter 57)

The nail shed was bloody and people often died in it.

But here, it seems warm and kind, and everyone is so well-mannered.

But Shu Jian took a look and said, "Hmm... No, they all do the same thing."

Gao Jian then looked up to the sky and sighed, "The blood sacrifice is the same. What Zuo Qing did was just replace the nail shed with a pleasure boat, that's all."

(End of this chapter)