Chapter 11: Tianque City

Tianque City sits in the heart of Zhongzhou, with waterways and roads extending in all directions, the most prosperous cultivation city on the continent.

This place is less a city and more a giant market built for cultivators. In the city, cultivators and mortals mix. Restaurants, auction houses, pill pavilions, artifact shops, spirit beast markets, one street after another. Spiritual materials, pills, artifacts, talismans, anything with a name in the cultivation world can be bought here.

Yan Li and Xuan Shiyan hurried along the road. By the time dusk gathered, the outline of Tianque City finally appeared on the horizon.

From afar, the whole city looked like an ancient giant beast crouching in the dark. The city walls rose into the clouds, and countless spirit lamps lit up along the walls, illuminating half the sky. Even from far away, one could feel the imposing aura.

Yan Li withdrew his sword light, and he and Xuan Shiyan landed on the avenue outside the city gate. The bluestone avenue beneath their feet was broad, with an endless stream of people coming and going.

The city gate was tall and majestic. Complex formation patterns on the stone pillars on both sides flowed with spiritual light. The entire gate was covered by a large formation.

A long line stretched before the gate. Merchants, cultivators, mortals, all kinds of people crowded together, waiting for the city guards to check their identities and let them in.

“Quite a crowd,” Yan Li said casually.

“Tianque City sees tens of thousands enter and leave every day. This is the peak time for entering the city.” Xuan Shiyan tilted his chin forward. “Just follow the line. No rush.”

Yan Li nodded. The little one had already fallen asleep on his shoulder, probably exhausted from the journey. Her small hand still clutched a strand of his hair and wouldn’t let go.

He tightened the swaddling clothes and stepped into the crowd.

After waiting nearly half an hour, it was almost their turn.

Just as he was about to step forward, a rude shout came from behind.

“Move, move, move!”

The voice was loud. The slowly advancing crowd stirred, and many people frowned and turned to look.

On the avenue behind them, several burly men were pushing their way through the line. They wore uniform dark short jackets and golden tokens at their waists. Their attire suggested they were guards of some family.

The leader had a face full of flesh, broad shoulders and a thick waist. As he walked, he used his elbows to shove the people queuing beside him to both sides.

“Zhou family of Tianque City! Everyone move!”

The people who were pushed aside looked unhappy, but no one dared to make a scene. They all retreated to the sides.

One slow person was shoved by the man and staggered a few steps, nearly falling. The man didn’t even bother to look, still swaggering forward.

Yan Li frowned and stayed where he was.

He was holding a child, so it was inconvenient to shove people. Besides, the line was formed this way. Why should he move?

The group soon squeezed up behind Yan Li.

The lead man saw that the person in front hadn’t moved aside. He spat impatiently, strode over, and reached out to push Yan Li’s shoulder.

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to move?”

Before the man’s hand could touch Yan Li’s clothes, another hand blocked it.

Xuan Shiyan had somehow moved from the side to Yan Li’s side. A faint smile hung on his face. His slender fingers clamped the man’s wrist. The force looked light, but the burly man’s arm could not move another inch, as if caught in iron pincers.

“Fellow Daoist,” Xuan Shiyan smiled slightly, “there’s a child in front. Be careful.”

The man was stunned, then shook off Xuan Shiyan’s hand and looked the two Daoist-robed men up and down.

One was mid Foundation Establishment, holding a baby. The other was early Foundation Establishment, looking mild and slow, just a bit stronger. What could they do?

He curled his lip in contempt.

“Oh?” His gaze swept over Yan Li’s overly delicate face, then fell on Yan Shu in his arms. “A grown man, running around with a baby, aren’t you ashamed?”

The followers behind him joined in.

“Exactly. A grown man, not thinking of advancing, but so devoted to nursing a baby.”

“I say his Dao heart has long collapsed. He might as well go home and be a wet nurse!”

“Hahahaha!”

The followers roared with laughter.

The people queuing around them murmured, but no one stepped in.

Yan Li’s expression remained calm. He had heard such words often in Qingxuan Sect and no longer took them to heart.

The lead man saw Yan Li silent and assumed he was scared. He grew bolder.

He leaned closer, his copper-bell eyes brazenly roaming Yan Li’s face. Suddenly his expression changed as if he had realized something.

“Wait,” he stroked his chin and deliberately raised his voice, “I was wondering why something felt off… You aren’t a woman, are you?”

A low gasp rose around them.

Yan Li’s face darkened. Xuan Shiyan narrowed his eyes, and the smile at the corner of his mouth faded.

The man only grew more excited. He turned and winked at his followers, smiling maliciously.

“Look at this face, this skin. Whiter and softer than a prostitute’s. A grown man looking like this? I bet you’re a woman disguised as a man.”

The followers immediately caught on and chimed in.

They were low-level guards of the Zhou family. They had long relied on their master’s power to act tyrannically. Once their mouths opened, there was no restraint.

Besides, the white-robed cultivator in front looked thin and weak, only mid Foundation Establishment. Someone like that, if stepped on, what trouble could come?

“Exactly,” a sharp-mouthed follower came closer and squinted at Yan Li. “I was wondering why he smelled of woman. So it’s a woman disguised as a man.”

“Tsk tsk, did you elope with someone?”

“What about that one beside him?” Another grinned toward Xuan Shiyan. “Her lover?”

“Hahaha!”

The group burst into laughter.

One short and stocky man peeked at Yan Shu in Yan Li’s arms and deliberately dragged out his tone: “Then this baby isn’t a bastard, is it?”

“Oh, don’t say it, it really looks like it!”

The group laughed even more wildly. Even many onlookers’ expressions turned strange.

Several people frowned, clearly feeling they had gone too far. But when they saw the Zhou family gold tokens at those men’s waists, they still said nothing.

The cultivator guards at the city gate pretended not to see. They lowered their heads to check tokens, not even lifting their eyelids.

Yan Li’s eyelashes trembled. His hand holding Yan Shu tightened unconsciously. A thread of spiritual power silently gathered at his fingertips.

He could pretend not to hear the earlier words. After all, with a child in his arms, it was better to avoid trouble. A few crude words, he could treat as dog barking.

But the man had said he was a woman disguised as a man? And called Yan Shu a bastard? Xuan Shiyan her lover?

Could he tolerate this?

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