Chapter 398 The Ancient Capital of Thirteen Dynasties
When Lu Xiao and Yong Zhen finished their disguise and embarked on their journey again, the situation in Fumo Mountain was also coming to an end.
After melting away the ice silk created by Chen Fu with his soul, Gu Yuesheng ordered the group of people to evacuate with the unconscious Chen Fu and stay alone to deal with Taotie.
Under normal circumstances, it would take a lot of effort for Gu Yuesheng to defeat Taotie, but with the Pangu Ax in his hand, there was no need for him to go head-to-head with Taotie.
When Taotie escaped from the trap, Saint Gu Yue wielded Pangu's ax to open a space rift, and exiled Taotie, who had not yet fully formed, into the disordered space.
Under the influence of space turbulence, even Gu Yuesheng didn't know where Taotie would appear next.
As soon as Lu Xiao and Yong Zhen left Luoyang, Ran Weng followed Chen Jingchou's request and landed outside Daliang City with his sword. The group carried Chen Fu to Gongshan Mansion to treat his injuries.
More than a month has passed, and Gong Shantie's injury has improved greatly after having been replaced with a new lung, and he is expected to basically return to combat effectiveness in early July.
As the saying goes, a long illness makes a good doctor.
As soon as he took his pulse, Gong Shantie had a general understanding of Chen Fu's physical condition.
"Hey~"
With a slight sigh, Gongshan Tieguotou said to Chen Jingchou: "Jingchou, you have to be mentally prepared."
"Thanks to the immortal's timely rescue, Junior Brother Jiye's life is safe, but his soul was severely depleted during the period of sealing Taotie. From now on... I'm afraid he will no longer be able to use any Guigu Taoism or martial arts. He is just an ordinary old man."
Upon hearing the news, Chen Jingchou froze as if he had suddenly been struck by a bolt from the blue.
He knows better than anyone else how much his master values his Taoist skills. Once he wakes up, he realizes that his cultivation is completely useless...
Chen Jingchou gritted his teeth and looked at Gu Yuesheng with the last glimmer of hope: "Gu Yuesheng, is there really no way for the master to keep his skills?"
Gu Yuesheng was silent for a moment before nodding and saying: "The lost soul cannot be replenished, and not even the immortals like us can do anything about it."
Chen Jingchou's depression also made Xiaoxue feel sad. She opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't know how to comfort Chen Jingchou.
Gu Yuesheng looked at Xiaoxue with half-squinted eyes, and asked thoughtfully: "Miss Xiaoxue, I have something I don't know whether to say or not."
Xiaoxue looked at Gu Yuesheng in confusion: "Gu Yuesheng, please speak frankly. Did I do something wrong?"
Because of her distinctive white hair, Xiaoxue has been ostracized by people in her village since she was a child. In this kind of growing environment, she has a relatively weak personality and always first examines whether she has done something wrong when encountering something.
Gu Yuesheng chuckled and shook his head: "Of course not, it's about your life experience."
Xiaoxue tilted her head in confusion: "My... life experience?"
When Gu Yuesheng was chatting with Xiaoxue, preparing to unlock her talent as the reincarnation of Nuwa Stone, Fairy Zhong poked Yu'er's waist from behind with her finger, causing her to scream briefly.
"ah!"
Yu'er, who is very sensitive to touch, jumped up, turned around and looked at Fairy Zhong with a grin on her face: "What are you doing?!"
Fairy Zhong curled her lips: "You hot-tempered little girl, come out with me. I have something to say to you."
Yu'er and Xiaoxue left the room one after another, and Gongshan Tie also stood up and prepared to leave knowingly: "Jingchou, from now on Junior Brother Jiye can only be protected by you. You should follow him as much as possible on some insignificant matters."
Chen Jingchou's eyes still stayed on the unconscious Chen Fu, and he nodded in a daze and said, "I know, Uncle Gongshan."
…
When she arrived outside Daxing City, Yongzhen, who had taken off her disguise, restored her original beautiful appearance, and was accompanied by a rugged man with a beard.
After the disguise, Lu Xiao could no longer recognize his previous appearance, and both of them passed the inspection at the city gate smoothly.
Just after entering Daxing City, Zhuque Street, which is more than 100 meters wide, first appeared in front of them.
Daxing City adopts an axially symmetrical urban layout, with Zhuque Street running through the north and south as the dividing line. The number and area of buildings on the east and west sides are almost equal.
Let alone Yongzhen, even Lu Xiao has never seen an ancient city of this scale.
The two people who entered from Mingde Gate stood in a daze at the entrance of Zhuque Street for several seconds. There were many tourists who were visiting Daxing City for the first time and were in a daze with them.
After the initial exclamation, Lu Xiao exhaled a long breath: "It's unimaginable that there is such a majestic city in this era. The great man's great achievements are not completely useless."
Moving along Zhuque Street, Lu Xiao and Yongzhen looked at the row upon row layout of Daxing City.
The entire city is divided into 108 squares by 25 crisscrossing streets. All squares are neatly symmetrical and evenly distributed along the central axis.
People who are not familiar with the urban structure can easily get lost among these neighborhoods that look almost identical at first glance.
Daxing City has two cities, the east and west. The east city is called the metropolitan city. There are many residences of dignitaries nearby. The goods sold are mainly rare treasures shipped from various places.
To put it simply, they are high-end luxury goods, mainly supplied to the nobles nearby.
The West Market is called Liren City. The market is surrounded by residential areas for ordinary people. Most of the products sold are daily necessities, and the prices are relatively close to the people.
There are many merchants from the Western Regions in the Western Market who have traveled thousands of miles to sell specialty products.
They brought local specialties from their hometowns to Liren City and sold them, and then bought unique Chinese jewelry, silk fabrics, porcelain, etc. and brought them back to their hometowns to earn the price difference.
The road between Hu and Han merchants was the famous Silk Road.
Even before entering Daxing City, Lu Xiao had made inquiries from businessmen traveling to Daxing to find out the location of the Prince's Palace where Dugu Ningke lived.
The Prince's Mansion of Dugu County is located in the northwest of Daxing, symmetrically located at the two corners of the city with the Taishi Mansion in the northeast of the city.
In order to facilitate his activities, Lu Xiao planned to find an inn to stay in Liren City and wait until Zhang Lie, Chen Jingchou and others arrived before making further plans.
A curfew system will be implemented in Daxing City at night. The east and west cities and major city gates will be closed at night, prohibiting anyone from going out at night.
Before Zhang Lie and Chen Jingchou arrived, Lu Xiao planned to find out the night patrol patterns of the soldiers in the city and find the most suitable route to sneak into the prince's palace.
After some selection, Lu Xiao chose to stay at one of the most luxurious inns in Liren City.
Not short of money, he directly booked the most luxurious top floor of the inn, and walked upstairs with his head held high as the boss looked at him as a fat sheep.
The reason why he chose this inn was because it was high enough for Lu Xiao to climb up to the roof and look into the distance.
The Sui Dynasty stipulated that the height of civil buildings in Daxing City should not exceed the imperial palace without permission.
This inn named Youfeng Laiyi can be built to a height of five stories, which is considered to be on the edge of the rules.
Thanks to the fact that the owner of this inn has strong connections in the DPRK and China, no one has ever asked the inn to demolish the illegal building on the grounds of violation of regulations.
At nightfall, all city gates in the east and west cities and Daxing are completely closed.
Under the restrictions of the curfew system, Daxing City, which is very lively during the day, fell into silence, and only scattered candlelight flickering in the city could be vaguely seen.
Lu Xiao, who booked the top floor of the inn, was not in his luxurious guest room at this time. He and Yong Zhen were both standing on the roof of the inn.
With his eyes glowing with faint golden light, he looked towards the north of Liren City. From here, Lu Xiao could clearly see the situation inside the Dugu County Prince's Palace.
Yongzhen didn't have Lu Xiao's clairvoyance. She focused on the soldiers patrolling downstairs and tried to remember their patrol routes.
"How's it going? Did you find anything?"
Dispersing his eagle eyes, Lu Xiao shook his head and said: "Not yet, it looks like an ordinary county prince's palace."
Yongzhen nodded: "Dugu Ningke has been acting for more than ten years, and she will definitely not be exposed so easily."
"It seems that we still have to take the initiative and rely on external pressure to force her to show her fox tail in panic."