The northern and southern gates of Kiyi were connected by a wide, stone road that divided the city into two nearly even halves. The road was obnoxiously called Plum Blossom Road, even though there haven’t been any trees or flowers growing alongside it. In fact, there hasn’t been much vegetation at all within the limits of what was, not without reason, called The City of Stone. Its living, beating heart, was the marketplace, where both local merchants and the foreign caravans had their stalls, stores, and kiosks.

Due to the city’s strategic location between the northern mountains and the central plains, one could purchase a variety of products unique to both regions here. However, there were certain substances that were forbidden to trade. Some of them were blacklisted by the sect, and their possession and distribution was banned in the entire land; some were unique to Kiyi alone. For example, no one but the guards and cultivators, and absolutely no yaren, were allowed to possess weapons in any form of fashion within the city limits.

Fortunately, an unwieldy wooden stick wasn’t considered a serious weapon by anyone. And now, its owner was sitting on a spacious, though rather uncomfortable brick bench situated behind the food stalls, meticulously studying the content of what looked like a wanted poster.

“Dangerous criminal, guilty of robbery, theft, battery, assault, vandalism, disrespecting sectarian symbols blah blah blah, reward 1000 yuan dead or alive blahblah returned stolen goods 5% founder compensation, wears a wolf-like mask, probably a wolf”, read Fengli out loud, while slurping on the contents of the steamy bowl of noodles she held in the other hand.

The cuisine of people who inhabited the central plains was radically different from the north. For example, rather than baking bread and pastry, they used their wheat to produce noodles. In fact, every food stall they came upon sold noodles, the only difference was the spices, vegetables, and types of meat added to the mix. Frankly speaking, they didn’t taste so bad, but she missed old man Mo’s sweet pastry already.

“What’s his name?” inquired Annu, munching on a carrot. Just..a carrot. Without anything else in addition to it. What is wrong with him!? And that reminds her, in the past, she often saw him munching on grass like it was some kind of delicacy. Is he crazy and actually believes himself to be a literal sheep!?
She could never understand what is going on in that ram brain of his!

“Apparently, they call him Yawei. Age unknown, gender unknown, of a rather short stature. It’s written in a tiny print that the criminal is dangerous and armed, and utilizes various clever contraptions to escape pursuit and move around the city.”

“What kind of contraptions” Annu didn’t even need to look at the poster to know that ‘clever contraptions’ was most likely not what was actually written there.

“Uhh, well, a grappling hook? What’s that?”

Frankly speaking, he didn’t know either, so he just shrugged and continued munching on his vegetable of choice. The summer heat was getting really bad around this time of the year, and the city, devoid of any trees, was even hotter than the surrounding plains. He thought about the cool shade of tall oaks, like the ones that grew around Chenfei. Or the evergreen pine trees that grew further north, in his hometown. He cringed uncomfortably at the mere thought of their journey taking them even further south, where the temperatures are even higher.

However, there was a reason why Kiyi was devoid of all vegetation of note. Apparently, several decades ago, there was a huge fire, which consumed the densely populated metropolis, inflicting countless causalities. And now it’s legally forbidden to plant trees or build wooden structures within the limits of city walls, and an elaborate system of both overground and underground waterways was developed. The waterways serve the function of sewers, but can also work as an emergency source of water in case another disaster of this scale ever befalls Kiyi.

Even though building restrictions are rather inconvenient for the locals, the city’s stone flavor makes it unique, and in warm seasons like this one, attracts travelers and tourists, who wished to see the famous stone metropolis with their own eyes.
And another local landmark that attracts attention, is the mighty fortress sprawling over almost the entire western half of the city.

When they first arrived several days ago, the fortress was the first thing that loomed over them, and Fengli immediately decided she wants to climb it.

Whyy!? Why climb? Are mighty stone castles something you climb!?

However, Annu’s rational pleading failed to change her mind. The guards, however, succeeded where he couldn’t. Apparently, the castle belonged to the sect, and only the members and people bearing chosen insignia were allowed entry.

Supposedly the building, although frequently renovated and maintained, predates the city itself, which grew around it over time. The mighty defensive structure was raised by a local warlord in much more turbulent times to protect his lowland kingdom from barbarian invasions, who oftentimes marched against civilized, settled people of the plains.

This is, of course, ancient history. There hasn’t been a major military conflict in the middle kingdom for many decades. The north is no longer undeveloped and at semi-perpetual war with the south, and despite some regional and cultural differences, both regions are now united under the guidance of cultivation sects. There is no need for fortresses, armies, or weapons.

Therefore, the fortress had been repurposed to serve as a palace, a headquarters, a training ground, lodging, and a storage vault for the Wuyun sect, who took control of the city almost three decades ago. It’s also a good observation point- from its tallest central tower, one can easily survey the entire city, the surrounding lands and even the northern mountain peaks. Whoever gazes from that highest point upon the world below, must feel like a king, or perhaps even an emperor.

A detachment of guards passed them by, their only job in this day and age was to catch criminals such as that Yawei from the wanted poster. Incapable of manipulating qi, they were armed with standard-issue spears, and proudly wore characteristic red uniforms, that most likely were just cloths without any armor or protective padding underneath. Not one of them had any visible animal characteristics.

“Excuse mee, what is a grappling hook?”

…what are you doing!?

One of the guards approached Fengli, who was wearing her hood and cloak disguise and passed for human quite well. He smiled warmly, and explained to her it’s a device that ejects and injects a metal rope with a huge hook on the end of it at just a press of the finger, which allows one to climb previously unreachable surfaces. Having figured the young lady to be some kind of tourist from a rather backwater location, he did his best to be as helpful as possible, not to smear the reputation of his hometown.

He didn’t even say hello to Annu, throwing only a brief glance of contempt at his prominent, ram-like horns.

“Hmm, I wonder why we don’t have any of them in the mountains. They’d make climbing a breeze!”

The guardsman laughed and stated that maybe at some point in the future, even isolated northern villages will be able to afford it. Fengli laughed with him, and agreed.
Annu didn’t laugh, because he felt like the guardsman was insulting them there in more than a couple of ways.

Suddenly, an explosion shook the upper side of the castle. The crowd first went silent, as everyone’s heads turned towards the upper floor of the main tower, which outer wall was now graced by smoking, fuming hole.
What happened? Some kind of accident?

The guardsmen were equally bewildered, and they were running around the plaza, frantically exchanging information and trying to figure out what are the new orders, if there were any.
However, nothing of note happened after that. Minutes passed uneventfully, and the crowd slowly lost interest in the newly made hole, figuring out it must had been some kind of cultivation accident. Some people even started making jokes about it, of course in hushed voices and selecting their words carefully. Offending the sect was punishable by law, and many guardsmen would love to earn a quick bonus for sniffing out and arresting such dangerous dissidents.

None of that mattered to Annu and Fengli, who were already on the way back to the rented tavern room, eager to play some weird board game the sheepboy bought on the market earlier today. They weren’t giving much thought to the weird incident that just took place, figuring out that maybe in a large settlement such as this one events like these were common occurrences.

Of course, their ideas about what passes for normal in the big city were quite mistaken. And not a half an hour since the weird explosion, the city was proclaimed in a state of quarantine, and its gates closed to all who wanted to enter or leave until further notice. Martial law was declared, and soon enough, freshly made wanted posters, still dripping with ink, adorned the walls of every major street and trade establishment.

They depicted a bald man in his mid 30’s. Compared to the Yawei posters, their content was quite minimalist.

‘Yan Bojing, devil cultivator.
Dangerous, wanted dead or alive.
Do not talk to the criminal!’

Plum Blossom: a type of tree with pink flowers that's vastly overused in xianxia novels, so it won't make an appearance in this one

Noodles: made out of wheat. Don't confuse them with rice or cellophane noodles, which didn't make their debut in the story yet.

Serialization resumed a couple of days earlier than planned, as I overcame myself and wrote this arc faster than anticipated.