Chapter 504: Chapter 171: Fan Wu’s Ghostly Stance! Shocking the Imperial City with the First Fist! (10,000-word Chapter, Please Subscribe)_4
Good heavens...
If he hadn’t come to his senses in time, wouldn’t His Highness have... practically become brothers in arms with some ghastly creature?
That seemed rather far-fetched.
But given Hu Banban’s understanding of His Highness, he believed that His Highness was capable of doing just that!
It wasn’t long.
Yun Jiuqing, Nanjun County Prince, and Xing Fengzi, too, were awoken by the noise outside, and all came down.
Fan Wu, sitting atop the Destiny Coffin, glanced at the crowd and said, "Now that everyone is awake, let’s set off and enter the Imperial City."
No one objected to Fan Wu’s statement. The group quickly got ready and prepared to set out.
They were quite the eye-catcher on the road.
Even near the outskirts of the Great Zhou Imperial City where many oddly-shaped and strangely-dressed people could be found, none attracted as much attention as Fan Wu and his company.
As they drew closer to the city walls of the royal city, they discovered the walls to be absurdly tall and imposing.
Xing Fengzi had his neck craned back so far it was almost comical, staring in awe at the walls of the Great Zhou Imperial City.
Although Di Zu Guan was located in the central commandery, it wasn’t particularly close to the Imperial City of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Hence, this young Taoist, on his training journey from the mountains, was visiting this place for the first time.
Xing Fengzi swallowed hard and muttered in shock, "This... must be nearly thirty to forty zhang high, right? How broad must the wall be to support such height?"
Standing nearby, Hu Banban explained with a hint of pride in his voice, "This is the mighty wall constructed by the Great Zhou Dynasty over three hundred years, at the cost of countless millions of taels of silver."
"It’s said that over these three hundred years, more than a million people were put to work! This wall stands at thirty-seven zhang high, and its width is close to ten zhang."
At thirty-seven zhang high, it was already over a hundred meters tall.
Nearly ten zhang wide, that’s close to thirty meters across.
Moreover, this construction took over three hundred years to complete; wasn’t it a marvel?
"Moreover, this is no ordinary wall. When it was being built, many cultivators took part in the construction. They imbued the Great Zhou Imperial City’s walls with the power to fend off mysterious creatures!"
As he said this, Hu Banban cast a subtle glance at the Destiny Coffin trailing behind Fan Wu.
He had always maintained a vigilant stance towards this grand red coffin, fearing that such a dangerous item might pose a threat to His Highness.
Suddenly, Hu Banban seemed to have thought of something.
He chuckled and said, "Not long after the construction of the wall was completed, both within and outside the Imperial Court, many criticized its usefulness. To silence their tongues, the former emperor ordered thousands of identical stone tablets to be erected at the base of the Imperial City’s walls."
"Look, over there," Hu Banban pointed toward a stone stele at the foot of the wall, approximately as tall as three men.
The stone tablet had withstood years of exposure to sun and rain.
It had become rather worn.
But one could still make out, with some effort, the carvings on the stone tablet.
Yun Jiuqing squinted his eyes, taking in the blurred characters on the tablet.
"Is this..."
Yun Jiuqing exclaimed in surprise, "Anyone who can break through this city wall will be bestowed ten thousand taels of silver by the Imperial Court?"
"Exactly!" Hu Banban said proudly, "After these thousands of identical stone tablets were erected, many tried to claim the silver, and several rebels even sought to disgrace the royal family."
"Without exception, they all failed. Many couldn’t even leave a mark deep enough to be considered a pock on the wall, let alone breach it."
"Look over there," Hu Banban pointed in another direction.
There seemed to be quite a crowd gathered.
Hu Banban laughed, "Those are naive foreigners, most of whom are common folk trying their luck. Of course, there are also some truly skilled individuals, including... quite a few cultivators."
"You can see many scratches and shallow pits on that part of the wall, but such marks don’t even scratch the wall’s ’hair’."
No sooner had Hu Banban finished speaking,
than a loud crash came from the area where the crowd was congregating. It sounded like someone had struck the wall with something hard.
Bang!!!
After the explosion,
there came a chorus of jeers.
"Tsk! Even that monk, with his bulging muscles, isn’t up to much! With his overconfident appearance, I thought he was some grand Buddhist master. But this is it? The indentation he made is less than an inch deep."
"Yeah! He’s not even as good as the envoys from the Great Yan Dynasty who came the other day, especially that white-haired one. That guy was terrifying!"
"I’ve seen him too, with his age, the muscles on his arms are thicker than my thighs!"
"That half-zhang deep pit over there was made by that white-haired envoy with a single mighty punch."
"It seems that in these hundreds of years, not a single person has been able to claim those ten thousand taels of silver!"
"This wall is nearly ten zhang wide. Using your head to break through it? Even with siege equipment, hammering away for forty-nine days straight might not even breach halfway."
"Tch, nearly every day, there are still many incredulous foreigners who come to take on the challenge!"
