Sanshan City lay in the southeast of Qinghe Commandery, remote by any measure. The whole city domain was a tangle of overlapping peaks, and three of these mountains in particular had made it famous — which was how the city came to be named for them.
Those three peaks were known, in turn, as the Standing Brush, the Jade Scales, and the Flying-In.
The people of this city domain, being poor and cut off from the world, were often contemptuously called mountain savages. Many of them could not even afford shoes; they roamed barefoot over hills and passes as easily as if treading level ground.
The moment the delegation from Sanshan City arrived, the Three-City Dao Debate could finally begin in earnest — for the party from Wangjiang City had entered the gates a full day early.
By geography, the straight-line distance to Sanshan City was a little greater, but not by much. Still, the water route from Wangjiang City to Fenglin City was exceptionally convenient: one could ride a boat down the Clear River with the current, then turn off into its tributary, the Green Willow River, and with a favorable wind even set off at dawn and arrive by dusk.
But to walk on foot from Sanshan City to Fenglin City — for an ordinary citizen, that was a journey of three or four days, and only because the official road ran the whole way.
It was not as if the students who sat out the debate could rest. Throughout the entire period of the Three-City Dao Debate they were still obliged to help the prefecture maintain order. New disciples like Ling He and Zhao Rucheng had no hope whatsoever of shirking the work.
In such circumstances the city garrison had even detached a portion of its forces to be stationed within the city walls, and so there was nothing at all to complain about.
The Sanshan City team was certain to enter through the South Gate, so the moment the notice came, they had taken up positions early at the South Gate opening to wait.
"How much longer are we going to wait?" Zhao Rucheng yawned. "Had I known I'd end up dragged into this anyway, I should have entered the competition myself and left my slot to Third Brother."
Jiang Wang, at this very moment, had taken the pretext of preparing for the matches and was quite properly resting at home. While they, who did not need to compete, had already spent three days playing at patrolmen. The gap in treatment was simply absurd.
"Ahh." Huang Azhan was shaking his head too. "I only took pity on Senior Brother Zhang, seeing how advanced in years he is. Otherwise I ought to have been the one leading the team. Why should I waste my days alongside you little brats!"
As a student of the third-year cohort, however much he boasted, he ought to have stopped at Li Jianqiu. Yet here he was skipping straight to fifth-year and aiming his sights at the very position of team leader. One had to say: in the art of empty bragging, there was no ceiling.
Zhao Rucheng and Ling He both turned to look at him, nodding in approval.
"Is that so?"
Huang Azhan was still puzzling over this when an eerie voice sounded from behind him, continuing: "And just how old am I?"
Huang Azhan nearly jumped out of his skin. "What I meant to say... Senior Brother Zhang commands the respect of all!"
Zhang Linchuan stood about two steps behind him, a faint smile playing on his lips, neither quite one thing nor the other. "For the sake of the whole of Fenglin City's greater good, how could you take pity? Rather than yield, why don't you take the position of team leader back..."
"Ah! Ya!" Huang Azhan made a great show of emotion. "However did my belly come to ache so?"
"Forgive me, all you senior and junior brothers — I'll be back in a moment." His face twisted in pain, he clutched his stomach, hunched and shrunken, and scuttled off in a flash.
He would never, of course, come back. He would rather suffer the academy's punishment, rather have his Dao Merit docked.
Zhao Rucheng pursed his lips. He himself had only been running his mouth for the joy of it, but this Huang Azhan could not stop courting disaster. It seemed that with Du the Tiger gone, they had simply been drinking too little.
"Senior Brother Zhang." Ling He was of an upright temperament and paid his respects first before asking, "What brings you here?"
Zhang Linchuan nodded in return. "The debate is at hand. I have to size up the enemy, after all."
It seemed Dong A truly had placed no small pressure on him — that this man, so fastidious and clean in all his ways, would actually consent to squeeze in among the crowds to observe the "enemy."
In truth, there was no shortage of common folk pressing around the South Gate. Compared with the rich folk of Wangjiang City, they were far more curious about these so-called mountain savages.
"They're here!"
A stir ran through the crowd ahead — the students of the Sanshan City Dao Academy had at last arrived.
Unlike the Wangjiang City cultivators, who had come trailed by a crowd of servants as if on an outing, the Sanshan City party numbered only six people — exactly the six slots each city was allowed for the debate.
They walked in through the South Gate in a formation of one, three, and two.
Almost at once, every pair of eyes fastened upon their feet. Rumor had it that each mountain-savage family owned but a single pair of shoes, reserved only for whoever traveled far from home.
Nor did the onlookers come away disappointed. The girl walking at the very front of the Sanshan City party was barefoot.
Such a scrutinizing gaze, laden with contempt, could not fail to give offense. And so Ling He stepped forward at once.
"Friends of Sanshan City! I am Ling He of the Fenglin City Dao Academy, and I have been waiting for you. Please, follow me — let us go to the academy first to rest and take a meal. A little later I will show you the grounds where the debate is to be held."
By custom, Huang Azhan, as a third-year student, ought to have been the one to receive the guests from Sanshan City. But the master in charge of scheduling, considering his ill-favored appearance, had set that duty on Ling He instead — and Ling He's sincerity did indeed fit him well for the work.
The people of Sanshan City had not even had the chance to take offense before they were already following behind Ling He.
What caught Zhao Rucheng by surprise was that the common folk crowding near the city gate fixed their gazes, more than anywhere else, upon the rotund, plump figure in the middle of the Sanshan City party.
Unlike the rest, who wore simple, trim traveling garb, this one was draped in a hooded black robe, his whole face hidden inside the cowl — which only made him seem all the more outlandish and conspicuous.
Zhao Rucheng could even catch fragments of the crowd's talk.
"That must be their strongest, right?"
"Of course. Standing where all the others gather around him like stars about the moon — just look at that aura!"
"Looks terrifying."
"Our Fenglin City had best be on guard!"
"What's there to fear? Zhang Linchuan of the Zhang family isn't to be trifled with!"
"Him? He might be a vegetarian... last time he came to our wineshop, that bear's paw he wouldn't even touch — only a few bites of greens. It was I who served the table!"
The topic drifted farther and farther afield...
As for the little girl walking at the very head of the Sanshan City party, she seemed altogether too harmless for words. Beautiful, dainty, and lovely, to be sure — but the world of cultivators was a cruel world, and only the truly powerful were taken seriously.
As one of the party greeting the guests, Zhao Rucheng naturally chatted idly with the Sanshan City cultivators, though these people spoke little, and they watched their formation very closely, holding the one in the black robe jealously at their center, as though afraid someone might study their secret treasure.
Young Master Zhao, pretending to be aimless, tried to squeeze his way in several times, but never succeeded, and so gave up.
He did notice, however, that as the commoners' talk carried over, the faces of these Sanshan City cultivators... all wore rather strange expressions.
Zhang Linchuan did not stay with them. He merely lingered a few moments among the crowd, watching, then went off.
Amid Ling He's eager introductions and the barefoot girl's terse replies, the company veered to the right, making their way toward the academy.
All at once the barefoot girl stopped, her gaze turning toward a wineshop beside the street.
In the second story of the shop, a youth of quietly refined features stood at the window, one hand behind his back, the other raising a cup in a distant, abstracted toast to the barefoot girl. A smile of flawless courtesy played across his face.
The barefoot girl did not so much as glance at him, and walked straight on.
But Ling He recognized the man.
He was the leader of this debate's delegation from Wangjiang City — and the first name on the Wangjiang City Dao Academy's Dao Merit Roll: Lin Zhengren!