The two days following their encounter with the tortoise group passed by peacefully. Ji kang slipped back into his rigorous cultivation routine and paid very little attention to what the other cultivators on board were doing in the time when they weren’t sparring with him.

When the city’s lights came into view on the seventh night since they departed Zaotong, Ji Kang was sitting on the deck performing his nightly meditation session. He was aware of their impending arrival from the movements and sounds the crew were making, but exactly what they were saying or where they were moving eluded his half-conscious mind.

Ji Kang was entirely absorbed in his cultivation. He had reached a crucial juncture in the reshaping of his meridians. When they had left the Azure Grove, his meridians resembled a lumpy ball of yarn or a potato with a single yin and yang bagua symbol in the middle.

Now he was getting close to finishing the circular outside edge of a second symbol. The reshaping was proceeding much faster now that all of the foundational work had been done and Ji Kang was more confident in and familiar with his methods.

After smoothing out the final dents and snarls in his new outer circle, Ji Kang opened his eyes and found the boat engulfed in all of the lights of Anwon. There were torches and candles lit all over the city, along with other more exotic sources of illumination. He saw people carrying blue stones that shone beams of blue starlight wherever they were pointed and the palace was lit by pure white light like it had its own personal sunbeam.

The boat he was on was sailing down the river that split the city, every now and then delicate arches of brickwork crossed over the river, high enough that the river boat’s mast wasn’t close to touching the bottom of the arches. Ji Kang was awed by these marvelous feats of engineering, gawping like a country peasant seeing a city for the first time.

Jidong simply couldn’t compare to Anwon, they were on entirely different scales. Ji Kang didn’t have the perspective to make exact size comparisons, but in terms of engineering and architecture alone Anwon made Jidong look like it had been assembled by semi-competent ten year olds, and based on how long they had been sailing through the city, Ji Kang was certain Anwon dwarfed Jidong in size as well.

Truly Anwon was worthy of being the capital of the Nation of Zhu.

Ji Kang decided to get some sleep before morning, with how the rest of this journey had gone, achieving their goals in Anwon was likely to have its own complications.

In fact, in the back of his mind as he laid down to sleep, he was hoping there would be complications. If there was a situation where Lu Wu was killed in the course of the mission, Ji Kang would be free and he wouldn’t have to continue investing time and effort into his dubious reliable plan to pit Lu Wu against Xiang Chang.

This potential circumstance had the added benefit of not implicating Ji Kang and so he wouldn’t need to worry about someone uncovering evidence at some point in the future.

…

The next morning the four cultivators all gathered on the deck of the riverboat. The boat was docked at one of the myriad piers that lined the coastal side of Anwon and formed an extensive boardwalk.

“Remember, we need to be restrained in our actions while we’re in Anwon. This is not the far flung village of Zaotong where the law of the emperor can be ignored by those with a strong sword arm or a sect’s backing.” Jin Xun warned the other three. “If you get into a street brawl here you’ll spend the night in jail. If you kill someone you’ll be tried for murder.”

Ji Kang noted to himself that despite this high handed speech, Jin Xun was the one who caused the fight in Zaotong. By the time they had arrived he was already being beaten up and invoking the name of the sect, once things had gotten to that point they had no choice but to fight.

“Yes, yes, we understand. Let’s get moving, I don’t want to spend all day delivering this letter to the Mo family’s matriarch.” Lu Wu resented what he perceived as Jin Xun usurping his position as leader of the group.

Lu Wu immediately disembarked, without looking back to see if the rest of them were following him. They had already paid the captain for the passage, so Ji Kang shouldered his heavy pack once again and made his way off the ship, soon followed by Yu Shuren and a miffed Jin Xun.

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Weaving through the crowd of dockworkers who came to unload the boat, the four of them made their way off the docks and into the streets of Anwong. After realizing he didn’t know where the Mo family residence actually was, Lu Wu stopped. He couldn’t ‘lead’ the group, both literally and metaphorically, if he didn’t know where they needed to go.

“Ji Kang, ask one of these peasants for directions.” Lu Wu instructed.

“Wait, I know how to get most of the way there. I’ve been to Anwon before, so I can get us at least as far as the noble quarter. We can ask for more specific directions from there.” Jin Xun pounced on this opportunity.

“Ha! You can get us most of the way there? No need, no need. I’m sure one of these fair citizens will know the way, go ahead Ji Kang.” Lu Wu waved away Jin Xun’s suggestion with affected casualness.

Yu Shuren met eyes with Ji Kang and they subtly expressed their mutual exasperation with this pointless and juvenile maneuvering. Ji Kang looked around before picking someone who didn’t look hurried or too young to ask.

“Excuse me sir, do you know the way to the Mo family residence? We’ve been sent to deliver a letter to their matriarch.” Ji Kang respectfully asked a middle aged man standing in the doorway of a warehouse.

“The Mo family? Of course. Their mansion is in the noble quarter. To get there you’ll need to follow this street west for about twelve li and then turn north onto the street that has a fountain that looks like fish jumping…” The man proceeded to give detailed instructions and pointed towards the direction he meant.

When he had finished giving directions he sized up their group and put on an expectant expression when he turned back to Ji Kang.

“Thank you sir, we’ll take our leave.” Ji Kang offered the man a silver tael with both hands. “For your trouble.”

“Hahaha my pleasure! Take care lords.” The man’s expectations met, he bid them farewell.

As they walked through the city Ji Kang was impressed by the streets. The city seemed to have been designed with vision and forethought from the beginning. The streets were laid out like a spiderweb with the palace at the center and the river separating the southern third of the city from the rest.

The streets leading to and from the palace were all enormous, at least one hundred paces across and paved with tight fitted, even stones that allowed smooth passage of several carriages and sidewalks for streams of pedestrians going both ways. Every fourth street connecting these major avenues was of a similarly prodigious size.

The smaller side streets and alleys were paved just as well, but the carriage and foot traffic were combined.

Ji Kang’s enhanced senses allowed him to notice gazes coming from several seemingly ordinary citizens along the way who paid too close attention to his group. He assumed these people were informants and spies for the various factions of nobility who paid constant attention to all happenings in the capital but he inwardly acknowledged that some of them might just be busybodies.

The group’s matching light blue robes and abundant weaponry made their status as members of a cultivation sect obvious, so it wasn’t surprising they were being noticed.

“Young Master, we should stop by the trading district on our way to deliver the letter to the Mo family. Yu Shuren has been without his weapon since Zaotong. The sooner we get the ball rolling on that matter the better.” Ji Kang gave Lu Wu a significant look.

Lu Wu’s eyes widened. He realized Ji Kang was not actually talking about Yu Shuren’s spear but about contacting the Azure Grove’s spy in Anwon.

To maintain operational security in case they had been captured and interrogated, they were never told the spy’s identity or where to find them. All they had been told was the method to leave a coded message in a public space, when the spy saw that message they would know to make contact with the boys.

Ji Kang was hinting that they should leave that message immediately because he thought it was likely to take a while for the spy to get back to them.

The official reason for their presence in Anwon was delivering the message to the Mo family, but the true reason was to hand over funds for the development of a spy ring in Anwon. If they delivered the message and then hung around for days afterwards it would be too suspicious.

Lu Wu took a moment to think about it before nodding.

“Indeed, we should handle that matter first. Good suggestion Ji Kang. As a reward I’ll let you handle haggling with the merchant.”

“You are too kind, Young Master. I will gladly take on this responsibility.” Ji Kang cupped his fists.

Ji Kang understood that the doublespeak had stopped, Lu Wu wanted him to handle interacting with the merchant because he had a strange dislike for speaking to people of lowly station. It was one of the oddest facets of Lu Wu’s personality in Ji Kang’s opinion. It was almost so absurd that he could convince himself it was an affectation, intentionally adopted by Lu Wu to make others underestimate him.

Whatever the truth was, Lu Wu clearly meant for Ji Kang to handle buying the spear with Yu Shuren while he left the message for their contact.

They stopped a stranger to ask for directions to the market district and then changed their course.