Bintie City

The iron-sheathed wheels rolled slowly, leaving two deep ruts across the slightly yellowed grassland.

Li Huowang sat on the cart, gazing at the meadow before him, his mind replaying his last visit to this place.

In truth, he didn't know much about Qingqiu. He knew most of the people here were nomadic tribes, that they were lean, sinewy, and dark-skinned—and that was about it.

Oh, right. He also remembered two very peculiar sects in Qingqiu: the Zhongyin Temple, which worshipped death, and the bizarre Lion Dance Palace.

"The grass in Qingqiu has actually turned yellow. Is that an omen of something?" Li Huowang leaned slightly to the left, letting his fingers brush through the yellowed blades.

Then he thought of the recent Heavenly Calamity—that brief loss of taste and smell that had vanished after only three days.

It was nothing to celebrate. This calamity had been trivial, but what if the next one was severe?

He desperately wanted to understand what was happening, but unless he went to the White Jade Capital right now, no one could tell him what was going on in the Heavens Beyond Heaven.

Just then, his excellent eyesight caught a tiny black speck on the distant yellow horizon.

As the cart drew closer, the speck grew larger, gradually revealing the outline of a city—and it kept expanding as they approached.

"So this is Qingqiu's Bintie City," Li Huowang murmured to himself.

He had done his homework before coming here. This was the only city in all of Qingqiu, and it also served as the tribal confederation's capital.

In a place like Qingqiu—where there was neither wood nor stone—building a proper town was nearly impossible. Except for Bintie City, which had somehow risen from the empty, resource-barren plain.

The Great Khan, Qingqiu's ruler, lived here. The Qingqiu branch of the Supervisory Heavenly Office was also headquartered here.

Since the Later Shu was already locked in combat with the Fa Sect, barging in and killing Fa Sect members indiscriminately probably wasn't the right move.

That would not only be inefficient, but it would also alert the enemy. In the end, he might kill nothing but commoners while the Fa Sect's core members escaped unscathed.

Instead, it made more sense to first make contact with the Qingqiu Supervisory Heavenly Office and see what intelligence they could provide.

Besides, the State Preceptor had mentioned that both the Great Liang's Sitian Jian and the Siqi's Sitian Jian should be here.

As Li Huowang pondered these things, the distinctive smell of sheep and horse dung gradually filled his nostrils.

Perhaps because Qingqiu was suited for animal husbandry, the outskirts of Bintie City were littered with piles of manure. Amid the sparse, grazed-down grass, the dung lay scattered everywhere—east one heap, west another. And not all of it was from livestock; plenty was human.

When Bai Lingmiao saw the cart's wheels roll over a fresh pile of cow dung, the greenish-brown muck clinging stubbornly to the iron rims, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose. "This place is filthy. It's almost as bad as Anci Nunnery."

"Bear with it. They clearly don't have sewers here," Li Huowang said, giving the reins a gentle flick. The cart picked up speed as it headed into the city.

Weaving through herds of cattle, sheep, and horses, they finally squeezed their way inside. But the interior wasn't much better than the outskirts.

Buildings of every description stood haphazardly—tents, wooden huts, stone houses—jumbled together with no trace of planning.

And the cow and sheep dung, trampled flat by countless feet, had become a dense, black carpet of filth, covering every road like the stone slabs of Daliang City.

The streets were crowded, people pressed shoulder to shoulder. If you counted only the people, there weren't that many. But here, nearly everything that moved had at least one animal beside it, which made the whole place feel oppressively congested.

As for how bad the smell was—well, seeing the bare-bottomed child squatting by the roadside to relieve himself gave you a pretty good idea.

"Keep going, further in. The inner city should be better."

The wagon train slowly pushed deeper. The grim looks on their faces gradually softened—not because the surroundings had improved, but because their noses were starting to adjust.

"Dad, what's that?" Li Sui pointed at a large, white, ornately decorated building that leaned against the city wall.

It was enormous, easily the biggest structure in all of Bintie City. But clearly, it didn't seem to be a royal building.

From this, Li Huowang could infer that in Qingqiu, the so-called Great Khan might not hold the highest status. There were others above him.

"That must be a temple, right?" Li Huowang guessed, looking at the tall spire. If there was one temple in Qingqiu that deserved the name, it was Zhongyin Temple.

He swept his gaze across the crowd, spotting lamas draped in black sheepskins, wearing cockscomb-shaped monk hats.

Without exception, these lamas were all elderly—withered, decrepit, their movements stiff and slow. Dark, liver-spot-like age marks covered their bodies like stubborn lichen.

Taking in the bone ornaments hanging from their bodies, Li Huowang tightened his grip on the reins and gave them a snap, urging the cart to go faster.

For a national capital, Bintie City might have been dirty, but its security was anything but lax.

Before Li Huowang and his group could even approach the royal city, a troop of light cavalry surrounded them. The riders carried bows, swords, and had hawks perched on their shoulders, mastiffs trotting beside their horses' hooves.

Li Huowang didn't bother with small talk. To avoid language barriers, he simply tossed his Supervisory Heavenly Office medallion over. "Is Xuanpin here? Tell him I've arrived!"

Li Huowang wasn't taken to see Xuanpin. Instead, he was led underground through a tunnel.

You'd never guess it, looking at the filthy exterior of Bintie City, but beneath all that grime lay a clean inner city. For some reason, every branch of the Supervisory Heavenly Office was located underground.

Sheep-fat lamps hung on the walls, burning with a soft crackle. Li Huowang silently studied the strange woman before him.

He couldn't place her origin. He had seen many odd people in his time, but a woman with a face powdered stark white, red patterns painted across the powder in bizarre designs—that was a first.

Even more peculiar was her clothing. Or rather, her lack of it. Aside from the bare minimum covered by straps of cloth, the rest of her skin was exposed, covered in dense, intricate patterns painted in various designs.

Behind her stood a row of figures wearing enormous wide-brimmed hats. The hats were so large that they hid almost the entire body, leaving only two legs visible.

They stood there in silence, adding an extra layer of eerie strangeness to the dim surroundings.

"Why do you seek the Great Liang's Sitian Jian?" the woman demanded coldly.

"Send someone who's qualified to talk. You aren't," Li Huowang said bluntly, unwilling to waste time.

But her reply caught him off guard. "I am the Qingqiu Sitian Jian. Am I qualified now?"