Just after Xiaoman, approaching Mangzhong.
Although since last year the weather has changed abnormally, winter has beco colder and lasts longer, and the spring breeze has also arrived much later, yet at this ti of year, a few traces of heat begin to erge.
It was just dawn, and a light rain fell in the Capital.
The fine rain like silk washed the bluestone road outside the Capital City God Temple, making it shine.
When the sun rose, the light rain imdiately stopped, and the steaming mist mixed with the scent of incense, the sll of sweat, and the cries of vendors, hovered like fog along the three-mile street from the Ministry of Justice to outside the Capital City God Temple.
The City God Temple has a long history and is an important arrangent for guarding the city in this world. Therefore, even during the rule of the Golden Tent Wolf Country, dominated by Shamanism, the City God Temple was built in Beiping.
After the establishnt of the Great Xuan Dynasty, the entire nation's City Gods were canonized, and a four-tier system of "tropolis, prefecture, state, and county" was established. The Beiping Capital City God Temple was also upgraded to the "Capital City God General Temple" and renad "Great Weiling Temple," conferring the City God the title of "Weiling Duke," with statues of City Gods from thirteen provinces worshiped together.
Since then, the Capital City God Temple also beca the hub of City God Temples nationwide, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites' Xuan Sacrificial Officer. Each major Mystic Sect sent elite disciples to form the Law Enforcent Hall to jointly maintain the Mystic Sect's order.
Because of the establishnt of the Capital City God Temple, many customs were also born.
For instance, every year on the first day of May, Wanping and Daxing counties would carry the City God statues to the Capital City God Temple to "report work," with the procession resembling a governnt outing, watched by empty streets lined with spectators, followed by incense gatherings and acrobatics, creating a lively atmosphere.
But even more lively is the City God Temple Fair.
The temple fair outside the Capital City God Temple is known as the "ancestor of temple fairs" in the Capital. It opens for three days on the first, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth of each month, and extends during the Spring Festival and May's ceremonial period.
The temple fair in the Capital is naturally extraordinary; rchants from the south to the north participate, and it is known as a place where the world's curiosities converge, with even the night ghost market being equally bustling.
After all, here you can prevent so from using Illusion Techniques to deceive.
Things unearthed from graves that are unclean will reveal anomalies.
Not everyone has the ability to distinguish Evil Qi, so this place becos their best choice.
Today happens to be the temple fair after April twenty-fifth, even though a murder case broke out at Piaoxiang House last night, the people and rchants of the Capital still go out to attend the temple fair.
Li Yan pressed down his bamboo hat, wrapped the Duan Chen Blade in coarse cloth and slung it diagonally over his back, disguised as a common wandering rchant and squeezed into the crowd. After passing through the east entrance of the Ministry of Justice street, he saw the bluestone road stretching for three miles, the comrcial booths winding like a dragon's spine, the crowd bustling, the rchants arrayed like scales, with banners filling the sky.
On the banners, so read "Suzhou and Hangzhou Song Silk," and "Xuande Furnace Treasures," while others read "Four Treasures of the Study," "Sea Treasures," all hoisted in midair by bamboo poles over ten feet long.
Every ti the wind blows through the street, they flap like a battle formation.
This kind of place is clearly very suitable for hiding identities, but Li Yan's keen sense of sll and hearing caused him plenty of tornt; even without using Divine Skills, various slls poured into his nostrils, while his ears were filled with the noise of the marketplace.
"New tea from Guyu! Longjing, Biluochun, three wen to watch the Tea Master perform a steaming illusion!" A Jiangnan tea vendor wearing a bamboo hat set up a green cloth stall, with boiling water thundering in the copper pot, and as the tea soup poured out, it condensed mid-air into the shape of a bird with wings spread, drawing people to throw money...
"A true piece of 'Willow Crow Painting' by Song Huizong! Selling cheap for fifty taels of silver!" A man dressed as a shopkeeper in silk opened the scroll, revealing a crow perching on the ink-drawn willow branches, but the pupils were a patch of blood red.
Li Yan's nostrils flared slightly, catching a whiff of a putrid Evil Qi from the painting, causing his brows to wrinkle slightly.
This thing is no true piece of Song Huizong; it's clearly a Nightmare Suppression painting.
He heard Wang Daoxuan ntion such items; so scholars and painters obsessed with their creations could leave behind lingering thoughts after death, and if left in an old house's dark corner for years, it would attract congregating Evil Qi.
Weaker Evil Qi would cause dreams and unease at night when hung at ho for years.
If the Evil Qi was thick, it could even turn into a harmful sprite.
Even more so, it could affect the surrounding Earth Veins becoming a perilous and ominous location.
During the Tang and Song periods, there was a strange case about a dilapidated temple in the mountains where itinerant rchants staying overnight would often be found dead, their essence drained. After investigating for a long ti, it was discovered that an ancient painting from the Wei-Jin period was the culprit, and being saturated with Evil Spirit Energy, it was hard to destroy, and later it was suppressed on Zhongnan Mountain.
The one before his eyes is nothing much, at most ruining the Fengshui of a house.
If placed outside the City God Temple for a long ti, with the help of the City God incense and the bustling crowd, it could be dispersed directly and turned into an ordinary piece.
Unexpectedly, the mont the vendor displayed it, a wandering street kid flashed a joyful expression and left quickly, and shortly after, several Confucian scholars hurried over following the kid, whispering with the vendor and buying the painting for a high price.
Li Yan saw this and imdiately shook his head slightly.
No need to say, these Confucian scholars clearly intend to buy it to give away.
In the Capital, forces entangle like twisted threads, and grudges are inevitable.
And on a nearby stall, a dispute was also unfolding.
At the corner of the fourth corridor, a group of old scholars gathered, while a rchant was selling a fragnt of the 'Qingming River Painting,' yet the ship masts in the painting were all inlaid with Golden Thread.
The rchant's loud cries were t with a young scholar's sneer: "What authentic fragnt, this is a 'Suzhou Painting'! The genuine thing is in Minister Yan's library."
What is called a "Suzhou Painting" refers to fake art.
It's said in prosperous tis: antiquities, and in turbulent tis: gold.
The Great Xuan Dynasty is at its peak, with many wealthy households throughout the world; storing silver at ho only results in mold, and giving it to the poor is out of the question, thus the trade in antiquities, gold stones, and paintings and calligraphy becos increasingly prosperous.
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