Xue Wei looked around at the bustling city. They had left the camp a few weeks prior and traveled through the Yan continent before they arrived at the capital.
The Yan Continent was different from Chang'an in the way that there were no different kingdoms or empires; the entire continent was combined into one large nation called the Yan Continent, and the city they had entered was the capital of this place. The capital was so big that it was actually at the size of a small kingdom by itself.
From the moment they had entered the city, Xue Wei had been watching everything around him. The outskirts of the city were relatively poor, but it was not a place where criminals seemed to reside. Instead he saw many children running on the streets, playing with various tools and toys.
The majority of the people at the outskirts of the city had two eyes, and only a handful of three-eyed children could be seen, but there were absolutely no three-eyed adults or youngsters.
It was clear that these people were at the lowest tier in the hierarchy, but even so, they did not seem to have any problem with their lot in life. Each person that Xue Wei encountered seemed pleased and satisfied as they carried out their jobs.
It was not that there were absolutely no poverty and criminality in the city, but either were so scarce an occurrence that they could be neglected.
Even as they walked, Xue Wei noticed that there were barely any homeless people. This came as quite a surprise to him.
"Elder Sun," he called out to the man walking by his side, to voice his newfound observation. He needed to know if the poor had been hidden away or if this continent had some sort of way to deal with poverty?
"What can I help you with?" Elder Sun was incredibly polite after Lin Xiao tamed Da Jia and Xue Wei helped so many of his students break through to the Ordinary Knight rank.
"I wondered about all these people," Xue Wei said as he spread out his hand. "Although the condition of their homes is not great, it seems as if you have very few homeless within the capital. Can this truly be the case? Such a major city yet so few homeless people or poverty-stricken people. How do you do it?"
"It is quite simple," Elder Sun nodded his head. This was something that the emissaries from the Demon Phoenix Continent also found inconceivable when they first arrived, so he had expected Xue Wei to ask.
"We in Yan Dalu are not ungrateful people. The two-eyed people might not be able to become outstanding cultivators, but they can still do manual labour. Although we are not expecting much of them, our society needs people like them to do all the odd jobs that others does not do."
"Houses in the city's outskirts are free," Elder Sun continued. "There are so many of them and all of them are free to take and live in, if they are empty. Even now, where there are so many families living in the outskirts, there are still many empty houses."
"Since everyone can get a roof over their heads, they are easier able to settle, and since the city is as big as it is, there is always a need for working hands, either as maids and servants or as bakers or waiters. Even as cleaners or other jobs. There are many tasks for these people, and as a matter of fact, the city is always lacking hands to do these tasks."
Xue Wei was astounded when he heard that the houses were free to live in, but when he saw how everyone, although far from living a life of luxury, all had clean clothes of decent quality on their bodies and smiles on their faces, he felt that this truly was a great way to help their society.
Still, Xue Wei could not help but frown. "If a house is free to live in, will there not be problems with people trying to use their strength to snatch the better houses?" he asked with confusion.
Elder Sun laughed when he heard this. "No, each family has to go to the property manager before they can occupy a house. If someone tries to forcibly snatch a home from another, they will be exiled from the capital, barred from ever entering again."
Xue Wei curled his lips into a smile. It seemed that they truly had a good idea of what they were doing, and it seemed that this was quite a good way of keeping everyone in reins.
"What about the poor and the old?" Xue Wei continued to ask with great interest. He was quite curious about how this city had managed to be so clean and neat even with so many inhabitants. there were close to ten million people in this city. This was not a small amount in any way.
"Should one fall sick, then one’s family must provide for them. If they are without relatives, we will step in and transfer them to a hospital or a hospice depending on how sick they are. The government will then pay their fees. The old are the same."
Xue Wei was once again astounded. To think that the government went as far as to cater to the sick and elderly that were without family. This could only be done because it was a very rich and abundant continent.
While they spoke, they walked past many buildings. Some were houses, others were made as big buildings with small lofts where one or two people could be sharing the same space. The further into the city they walked, the more resplendent the buildings became, and here more and more three-eyed experts appeared. There was even a four-eyed expert who walked by.
Still, the majority of the people they saw were two-eyed people, who did not cultivate at all but lived a life of a mortal.
Xue Wei was astounded, but he still smiled as he saw this. Wherever they went, people would look at them with reverence, but also curiosity.
The many students of the Garden of Shadow were wearing their uniforms. The uniforms were dark green robes, bordering at black with a small seed that had sprouted embroidered on the chest.
Elder Sun, who was an elder from the Garden of Shadows, had four seeds and not just one on his. Everyone who saw them were filled with reverence as they knew who these people were, but together with them were a group of two-eyed experts, and these experts were not wearing the uniform, but they could still walk ahead of the others.
What kind of concept was this? This was simply unimaginable. All the members of the Garden of Shadow were arrogant and the cream of the crop. To accept that a two-eyed expert walked in front of them, were they Primordial Beasts?
A path was being opened on the road. Everyone who noticed the entourage from the Garden of Shadows would instinctively move to the side and look at them with a fervor while waiting for them to pass by.
Many girls would blush if the young men looked at them. Even if they only had two eyes. If they were lucky and their appearance drew attention from a three-eyed expert, then they might end up becoming his concubine. Although they could never be the main wife, a concubine to a cultivator was much better than the life of a mortal.
Xue Wei looked around but saw that the only interest he and his friends gained was curiosity. They had assumed that Xue Wei and his friends were Primordial Beasts, and as it was impossible to breed between races, the girls quickly threw them out of their hearts. No matter how handsome they were, it was impossible.
A snicker appeared on Xue Wei's face, but he did not mind. Truth was that he was indeed somewhat of a beast, and so was Hei Gou. Lin Xiao was without a doubt human, but Bai Tianyi could not be considered human, he was some sort of aberration.
Also, the only one who was in Xue Wei's heart was Wang Xiaoyun. Although she had left him for the time being, he did not mind it and knew that his heart would beat for her only.
As they walked through town, they saw more and more magnificent sights in front of them. The architecture became more and more lavish, the wood carved in exquisite shapes.
The buildings stretched into the sky above. Some were even up to seven stories tall, but none of them looked shabby. They seemed as if they were painted regularly and all in all well maintained.
Xue Wei understood that they had entered the area that belonged to the three-eyed cultivators and the richer two-eyed cultivators. Although they were looked down upon, some of them were capable merchants or had businesses that did well and thus they were able to live a much more luxurious life.
"We will need to settle in an inn for the night. It will take us a full three days to walk through the capital and reach the Garden of Shadows, which is on the other side of the city," Elder Sun explained patiently.
Xue Wei nodded his head. He had somewhat expected that it would take them a long time to get through the city. It was far from small, at the size of a small country, so it was natural that even getting somewhere inside it would take some time.
During their travel through the city, they did not only find residential areas, they also came across streets filled with shops, many stalls, and even entire marketplaces that were littered with stalls that were sat up in the morning.
Some of the marketplaces were filled with temporary stalls of people who came to sell from either outside of the city or someone who came from inside the city to peddle their own items but did not need a longstanding stall, while other marketplaces had more store-like stalls that seemed as if they could no longer be moved away from their position.
But no one from the academy stopped to look at any of the various things up for sale. All of them had stoic and dignified expressions on their faces as they held their heads high.
Although these commoners were unaware of what exactly this group of students had done, they themselves knew and their hearts were swelling with pride at having protected innocent lives.
At the same time, all of them felt an indescribable excitement because they had risen to the Ordinary Knight rank.
They were stronger than the majority. They would never have to hold their heads down in the future. Many of the three-eyed experts could not help but feel that they had narrowed the gap between them and the four-eyed experts that were left at the academy.
This rise in Qi level was enough to protect them in their time of needs. All of them were ecstatic, and all their eyes shone with an unbreaking will. Sometimes, they would gaze at Xue Wei with great gratitude, or towards Da Jia and Lin Xiao with curiosity.
Together they walked through one road after another. They walked down lanes, up slopes and eventually they reached an inn called The Black Lion. This inn seemed very big compared to most of the inns around and Elder Sun did not waste his time as he entered.
Xue Wei and the others followed inside. When they reached the counter, a polite servant greeted them before he accepted ten gold pieces from each and every student, including Xue Wei who paid for himself and his friends, and then led them all up the stairs to their many rooms.
"We have the upper three floors prepared for your academy's students," the servant said, as if he had been aware that they would be coming.
Elder Sun nodded his head. "Thank you," he said politely, neither humble nor arrogant in his response.