“They have,” the employee confirmed. “Apparently, the fiends in the northwest are about to invade, so all the official roads and water channels along the border have been closed. As a result, the prices of grain and medicine have been rising.”

Chu Qiguang had been learning about the state of the world from Qiao Zhi, so he knew that the northwestern grasslands of the Great Han Empire had been the territory of the fiend race for the past two hundred years.

The fiend race was descended from fiends that had reached the Dao Comprehension state, and all of its members were born with higher intelligence and greater aptitude for cultivation.

At present, the wolf fiend race was the dominant force on the northwestern grasslands. They were divided into around a dozen tribes, one of which was the Eternal Sun Tribe, a self-proclaimed tribe of deities who supposedly descended to the human world from the sun.

After unifying the wolf fiend race, the Eternal Sun Tribe conquered the entire northwestern grasslands, established the Great Qian Empire, and ushered in the Perfect Nature Era, becoming one of the seven most powerful fiend races.

Over the past twenty years, the Eternal Sun Tribe had frequently sent its forces south to plunder resources from the Great Han Empire. As one of the Great Han Empire’s northern provinces, Spirit Province, where Azure Sun County was located, had always been a prime target of the wolf fiends.

Is the wolf fiend race attacking again? I’ll ask Qiao Zhi about it when I get back to see if he knows anything, Chu Qiguang decided. It’s not every day that I get to come to the county town, so I might as well use this opportunity to gather some information before I head back.

The Azure Sun Daoist Temple was located outside the county town, so Chu Qiguang left the temple before making his way to the gates of the county town.

After entering the county town, most of the soldiers that he saw were thin and frail, dressed in old, tattered military uniforms that were completely faded and utterly filthy. They were either casually loitering around or squatting lazily, and not a single one of them was standing at attention like they should’ve been.

Chu Qiguang shook his head inwardly at the sight. In a world where martial arts and Dao arts existed, cultivators often played a far more decisive role in battles, but the terrible attitude displayed by these soldiers was indicative of some very serious problems within the Great Han Empire.

The first thing Chu Qiguang saw after entering the county town was the southern main street, which was littered with piles of trash, feces, and all kinds of filth. The stench was so overpowering that tears instantly welled up in his eyes.

That said, he had already come to expect such terrible sanitary conditions. Pinching his nose, he quickly made his way down the street while trying to block out the nauseating stench.

***

The moment Chu Qiguang entered the county town, two pairs of eyes immediately locked onto him from a nearby alley.

They belonged to a pair of brownish-yellow dogs. One of them sniffed in Chu Qiguang’s direction, then remarked disdainfully, “There’s a really strong feline odor around him.”

“Really? How come I can’t smell anything?” the other dog asked.

“Because your cultivation base is still lacking. He must be a very shady guy to be spending so much time with cats. I’m sure there’s a terrible fate waiting for him.”

“Look over there! The Daoist priests from Azure Sun Daoist Temple are here!”

“Shoot, you’re right! We need to get out of here before we’re turned into dog meat casserole!”

The two dogs quickly vanished deeper into the alley.

***

Chu Qiguang made his way to the county town’s western main street, the busiest and liveliest part of town. The street was lined with vegetable and snack stalls, peddlers, and fortunetellers. There were also rows of one and two-story brick buildings that housed all kinds of establishments like grain shops, banks, pharmacies, clothing shops, restaurants, teahouses, and broker agencies.

The street was free of trash and feces, making it a much cleaner and more pleasant environment.

Of course, Chu Qiguang knew that this wasn’t because the people here were more hard-working or had higher standards of cleanliness. Instead, it was simply because this street was quite close to the county office, so the cleaners came here more regularly.

Collecting feces sounded like a terrible job, but it could actually be quite lucrative. One received payment for gathering the feces, which could then be sold as fertilizer for additional income.

Chu Qiguang had already considered this as a business opportunity, but unfortunately, the people of this world were already well aware of the importance of fertilizer. All the feces in the county town had already been claimed by different waste collectors, making it impossible for Chu Qiguang to gain a foothold in the market.

“Fresh, piping-hot pancakes! Only two copper coins each!”

“Take a look here! We have newly arrived silk from the Wu Province and luxurious red cloud cloth!”

“Can I interest you in some frost paper from Qi County? It’s as resilient and pristine as jade, as thin as a cicada’s wing...”

As Chu Qiguang walked down the street, listening to all of the street vendors advertising their wares, he felt as if he had returned to modern-day Earth and was strolling through some famous ancient town.

However, the silk clothes and cotton robes worn by many of the people walking along the bustling street stood in stark contrast to Chu Qiguang’s shabby attire, so he was largely ignored by the vendors and shop attendants.

This must be what’s considered the central business district of Azure Sun County. It looks like I need to buy myself some new clothes.

In an ancient feudal society like this one, appearances were very important, and there were many benefits to owning a set of nice clothes. At the very least, it would open a few doors and make doing things much more convenient.

With that in mind, Chu Qiguang went to a bank and exchanged a tael of silver for a string of six hundred copper coins. A tael of silver could only be exchanged for six hundred copper coins here because the coins were of relatively high quality and had a high copper content. For copper coins with a lower copper content, the exchange rate could be as high as one thousand to two thousand copper coins per tael of silver.

As for why Chu Qiguang was exchanging silver for copper coins, that was naturally because copper coins were more convenient to use for daily expenses.

He spent four copper coins on two pancakes for a quick meal, then spent a tael and two qian of silver on an azure silk robe with round collars and loose sleeves.

According to the past mandates of the imperial court, robes of this style could only be worn by scholars who had excelled in the imperial examinations.

Back when the Great Han Empire was first founded, there had been very detailed regulations governing the different types of attire to be worn by people of different occupations, such as administrative officials, military officials, merchants, farmers, and artisans. These regulations concerned things like the color and style of the worn attire, even the width and length of the sleeves, essentially using attire to split people up into different social classes.

However, in the present day, those from wealthy and noble clans wore whatever they wanted, with the authorities turning a blind eye. Over time, the common folk were also afforded more and more freedom in their choice of attire.

Clothes sure are expensive in this era. If I had purchased a few more robes, I would’ve spent the equivalent of all the land Ergou’s family owns!

The fact that just a single robe had cost a tael and two qian of silver left Chu Qiguang shaking his head in dismay.

After changing into his new clothes, he started wandering the streets, but he showed no interest in places like restaurants, teahouses, theaters, and brothels. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Instead, he was much more interested in shops that sold things like grain, medicine, coal, coarse salt, fine salt, brown sugar, white sugar, and dehydrated foods, as well as various other types of general goods.

***

Chu Qiguang spent the entire morning exploring the county town and only left in the afternoon. His mind was completely filled with all sorts of information, such as the prices of different goods, the flow of foot traffic on different streets, the volume of goods transported through the town gates, and the places of origin of different types of goods.

Through his exploration, he had developed a much richer and more three-dimensional mental image of the Great Han Empire than what he was able to glean from Ergou’s memories and Qiao Zhi’s descriptions.

There are even more handcrafted goods than I imagined. Grain, cotton, sugar, tobacco, coal, brocade, paper, oil, wood, copper goods, chinaware... Not only are there local goods from the Spirit Province, there are also goods from the southern provinces like the East Sea Province, the Quan Province, and the Yue Province.

Clearly, there’s a great deal of business activity, and industrial and business cities and towns have already emerged, so there must’ve been involvement from local officials and tycoons. However, silver is still the primary form of currency, whereas official currency is severely lacking, which means that the imperial court still hasn’t truly realized the importance of industry, commerce, and finance. Perhaps they only regard those sectors as money-making sources.

Looking at the people entering and exiting through the town gates, Chu Qiguang took a deep breath, feeling very excited for the future.

The imperial court is inept in its governance, there’s severe annexation of land resources, and capitalism is just beginning its rise... There are going to be plenty of opportunities to exploit. It’s just a shame that this empire is destined to fall.