CG Chapter 136: Muddy Waters
Time slipped by, and Aretius finally reached the borders of Black Cloud Town.
Nearing the town walls, he noticed that things were a bit different from what the original Jin Mozi remembered.
The flow of commoners entering the town had increased since last time.
The same went for the merchants who hauled daily necessities such as sacks of grain, bundles of wheat, and heavy jars of sour wine.
At the same time, however, those merchants who specialized in buying and selling artistic goods were also still present.
Still, he felt that their numbers had somewhat decreased.
Two lines had formed, one short and one long, extending from the large wooden gates into the distance.
The long one was for the common people and peasants trying to enter the town.
The short one was for the wealthy merchants and influential men who didn't want to waste their time standing with the lowly and filthy peasants.
Not bothering to think about it any longer, he decided to enter the town and see where things would take him.
At the town gate, a couple of gatekeepers scanned the people entering, collecting the fee and ensuring that no loyalists of the Han Dynasty could infiltrate the town or hide within.
The heads of these loyalists were quite tempting, as they could be redeemed at the Wu prefect's office for a hefty sum of coins.
"Halt."
The voice came from a pot-bellied, middle-aged enforcer, his uniform stretched tight across his gut like it was one size too small. A dark mole clung to his cheek like a dirty stain he had forgotten to wipe away.
His eyes narrowed as they landed on Aretius, who had just stepped to the front of the long, winding line.
"You need to pay the entrance fee first before being allowed in, old man. The entrance fee is 110 copper coins, and before you ask, no, we can't lower it just because you're old, poor, weak, or whatever bullshit you peasants spout nowadays."
Waiting until the fat enforcer had finished his long speech, Aretius let an angry expression flash across his face but quickly hid it as he handed over the coins without a word.
Seeing his helpless expression, the enforcer smirked, savoring the authority of the position his uncle had given him.
He slipped ten coins into his pocket before dutifully dropping the other hundred into the large iron box next to him.
Giving the enforcer a sidelong glance, Aretius noticed his not-so-subtle actions and shook his head before moving on.
He, of course, knew that the entrance fee wasn't actually 110 copper coins and that the enforcer had shouted at him simply because of his weak appearance, but he wasn't bothered by any of that; the only thing important to him was to start his martial arts training as soon as possible.
Once he entered the town, he was greeted by the loud bustle and noise of the streets.
Mothers bought food for their families and haggled for the best deals, children played with one another, and old men drank in daylight while chatting about the latest gossip and news of the empire.
Giving the whole town a broad scan, he paused for a second, thinking about the best place to obtain martial arts manuals.
As he considered going into a merchant pavilion to buy some cheap martial arts, he felt the light weight of his pouch; he had only a few silver coins on him.
Any worthy martial arts manual would likely be fought over by the noble clans, who would fiercely bid against one another using large amounts of gold.
If the manual was valuable enough, you wouldn't be able to buy it even with a thousand taels of gold, or even if you were to sell yourself.
Such manuals were secret assets of the top clans that they kept hidden for the eyes of only their most trusted and valued members.
These manuals served as stabilizing treasures, anchoring the clan's fortune and securing its prosperity for generations to come.
Thinking of all that, the idea of entering the pavilion, taking the manuals, and slaughtering anyone who stood in his way crossed his mind, but when he looked at his old, dried-up body, he simply smiled to himself.
Unlike in Eldervale, where he had a young, vigorous body and the backing of the whole Flameheart family at his beck and call, he was now an old, weak, nameless craftsman who could hardly take down a bunch of deformed beggars.
Bang!
In the middle of his walk, Aretius suddenly felt a sharp pain that shot from his brain down through his eyes.
The pain was something that would make anyone else roll over and cry for help.
He felt his brain pulsing rapidly, each pulse stronger than the last, as if someone was continually knocking his head with a heavy sledgehammer.
His eyes felt as though they were about to explode; dark purple liquid seeped from each one.
Despite the unimaginable amount of pain he was experiencing, he quickly wiped the blood away, not giving anyone a chance to notice.
Fortunately for him, his unremarkable appearance made others overlook him even when he stood right in front of them.
To them he was just another face in the crowd; no, worse, he felt like a ghost among the living, a weak man unworthy of being seen or remembered.
In that instant, Aretius felt for a brief second as if he was seeing everything a thousand times more clearly: the morning dew, the dust covering the clothes of an old woman, and even something else…
For a single second, his eyes changed from their normal purple color, and even the whites of his eyes shifted.
For less than a second, his pupils split into two triangles, one large and one small, stacked above each other, while the purple iris sprouted dark veins that made it look like a swirling abyss.
Even the white sclera turned into a pitch-black void with specks of white and yellow, giving him the appearance of having a whole galaxy within each of his eyes.
Unaware of it himself, he had, for that brief instant, unconsciously transformed his eyes into Kao-Suki, the eyes of the Ryujo.
And in that second, he witnessed the…