The reason why spirit stones are so valuable in the empire, despite the fact that there are numerous spirit stone mines on the continent is that the only spirit stone mines that the empire can lay claim to are few in number. The empire can only lay claim to the mines that are below the places where a huge amount of people lives, or places that are near them.
This is because the immortal sects will lay claim to any other spirit stone mines and this is also one reason why people are allowed to head out and create their own village if they want to, and is granted the power to govern the village as they see fit.
…
As our carriage goes nearer to the governor’s office, there seems to be some kind of a road block at the gate of the governor’s office.
“Don’t worry, this is normal. Every time the riding circuit sets out, provisions and arms will have to be loaded onto the carriages that you will ride throughout the riding circuit outside the governor’s office. Driver, you can stop behind the carriage, we can walk from there.” My father says nonchalantly, as if already aware of everything is that happening.
My father takes a notebook out from his sleeve pocket and passes it to me “You will need this on your trip.” He quickly says and walks away.
Heh, my father is the typical asian father who can only show disapproval and disappointment, but this does not mean he doesn’t care or love his children.
I look at the notebook and it has a leather cover with gold threads. My father has already left with uncle Mo Ji and I see the rest of my team helping the labourers pile boxes and boxes of stuff up onto the carriages so I quickly run over.
“Ah, let me help!” I say as I grab one of the boxes and lift it up onto the carriage.
Ding Sha who was nearby watched me lift up the box by his side and gawked, “You are really strong for a Body Formation cultivator. That box you lifted up weighted about sixty seven jins. Why don’t you help carry the rest of those boxes containing the dried beef over there? Those are important.”
“I have been training every day for the past months, didn’t you see the training dummies at the training hall? I broke them all!” I proudly say with a wide grin as I head over to the boxes that Ding Sha pointed at.
I left a box in this area up and it is a little lighter than the one I carried but still heavy enough that an ordinary person would not be able to lift it. I tell myself I have to be careful with these boxes as they are our food provisions for the entire trip. It will be difficult to get more provisions until we reach another town or city as villages normally do not stock up on so much food.
After loading all the boxes up onto the carriages, the labourers are paid and we return to the briefing room.
“Let us review our journey for the last time,” Judge Tang says. He then takes out a notebook and starts reading from it and everyone listens.
…
As we sat on the carriage leaving for XinCheng village, I cannot help but feel a little lost. It will be the first time I will be living on my own, away from my parents. Thinking back on my life, I’ve led a very sheltered and pampered life. I never felt the inconveniences of living the life of a primitive life.
There is no sewage system and while I could introduce water tanks, nobody allowed me to introduce a proper sewage system as I would have to dig under the properties of other people and they did not allow me to do so.
As the Shang family is one of the most powerful families in the empire, a young master like me would obviously use chamber pots and they would be cleared daily by the servants.
Before we left, my father had already told me that I should prepare myself to eat jerky for a long time so I had prepared some seasoning for the jerky beforehand. Since I knew that once I started eating these, people would never eat jerky without them, I prepared a few more bags for my colleagues.
After a while, all I could see outside of the carriage window was just grassy empty land that stretched into the horizons. Sometimes the scenery would change and it would show me a mountain, or a forest, but the only common feature of the scenery was that there was nobody living in the area that we passed.
Every few hours, we would pass by numerous merchant carriages that are obviously from the same merchant group. These merchant groups would be accompanied by warriors from armed escorts firms.
These armed escort firms are usually run by some medium sized families who have knowledge of cultivation and a few cultivation manuals. They will allow the people who work for them to learn these techniques and become strong and often recruit independent cultivators or mercenaries.
While there are many armed escort firms around, their rise and fall are often decided by a single job and as a result, nobody really pays them attention, not to mention that there will often be squabbles between them and they would start killing each other down to the last men. Their cultivation techniques are also often rated lowly and none of them will ever become a threat to the immortal sects.
…
After four days of journey, we finally reach XinCheng village. As we arrive, the mayor of this little village is already aware that will be arriving and has been waiting for us at the gate of the village.
It has a strong wood fence around it but it will not likely help if someone or something tries to attack the village. The village seems peaceful enough and it looks like we will be leaving soon if nothing is brought to our attention.
As we disembark, the mayor greets Judge Cui and Judge Tang. It seems like they already know each other, probably from a prior riding circuit. Judge Cui and Judge Tang then introduce me to the mayor “This is Judge Shang, he is a newly appointed judge and will look forward to your teachings.”
“I am Shang Shi, I look forward to your teachings as this is my first time participating in a riding circuit.” I greet him back kindly.
The mayor introduces himself as Zhang Zhi, and this village was founded by him and his family. Roughly seventy percent of the people here are from the Zhang family but other farmers have since joined the village.
As we are chatting while heading towards our lodging, which the mayor has built for guests of the village, an old man and an old woman come running towards us.
“Lords, you are finally here! We have a case of robbery that we cannot solve correctly by following the village law. We would like to request that the lords take over the case! Please hand us your enlightened judgement!”
Oh wow, it hasn’t even been an hour since we stepped into the village and we already have our first case on this riding circuit!
