The Unruly Immortals

Li Huowang slowly leaned on his crutch, leading the blindfolded Bai Lingmiao. He didn't walk fast, since his broken leg hadn't grown back yet.

Fortunately, the ox cart wasn't fast either. In sacrificing speed, it gained a greater load capacity and just managed to match Li Huowang's current pace.

"Is this Woman Mountain?" Li Huowang squinted his eyes and shielded his forehead with his hand as he looked at the distant hills.

It was only upon seeing those hills that Li Huowang understood why this place was called Qingqiu, for not a single tree was to be found on these mountains; like the grasslands, they were covered in green.

However, this might also have something to do with the mountains here being relatively low; there were no towering peaks piercing the clouds, just a series of connected ridges carpeted with grass.

"Li Brother, if you look at it from the side, don't those hills resemble the profile of a woman lying down?" Sun Baolu pointed at them excitedly.

Li Huowang looked carefully for a long time but ultimately shook his head. He failed to see how those abstract shapes bore much resemblance to a woman. These odd, low hills were neither too many nor too few, appearing abruptly as a group, and the individual hills weren't connected.

"This is the year of the Moon, and according to ancestral tradition, our families should be setting up camp for grazing just a hundred li ahead. It won't be long before I reunite with them!"

Li Huowang didn't care about the excited Sun Baolu's words. What mattered to him more were supplies. Having come to Qingqiu for such a long time with so many people, if they ran out of food, they might have to eat the ox pulling the cart.

"Inside Woman Mountain, there really is a market where we can buy food? If we can't buy provisions, we might be left with nothing but to drink the north wind."

"Yes, there is, no mistake about that. The herders from nearby hundreds of li come there to trade. I've even been there once when I was seven."

Thanks to Sun Baolu's explanation, Li Huowang knew that in the sparsely populated expanse of Qingqiu, these nomadic Qingqiu People designated certain areas for trade to facilitate the flow of goods.

Over time, these spots evolved into fixed trading posts. Qingqiu officials also collected taxes from these locations.

When Li Huowang saw, through his excellent vision, ant-like black dots moving at the foot of the mountain, he knew the other man was right—there were indeed people there.

"Let's go. We should all put on our veiled hats to avoid attracting attention."

After Li Huowang spoke, he too donned a hat. With his face a patchwork of red and white, he didn't look much better than anyone else.

The ox cart gradually approached Woman Mountain, and as they followed a narrow path and entered the enclosure of low hills, their view suddenly opened up.

A bustling tented gathering place full of voices burst into view before Li Huowang and the others.

The sounds of horse hooves, human shouts, and donkey brays were incessant, giving Li Huowang the impression that he was in the middle of a busy market.

In this lively market, many Qingqiu People, dressed very differently from the people of Huo Shu, were calling out loudly as they busied themselves with their business.

With more animals came more manure, and the distinctive odor found its way into everyone's nostrils, causing them to wrinkle their noses.

Perhaps due to prolonged exposure to the sun, the biggest difference between the Qingqiu People and the people Li had seen in Siqi or Huo Shu was their red faces, marked with heavy freckles regardless of age or gender.

The Qingqiu People were generally shorter than Li Huowang and his companions. In any case, they just looked different.

They were each wrapped in various types of rough leather clothing, and both the women's braids and the men's waists were adorned with finely ground round bones.

Here, besides bones and hides, essentially everything that can be woven from grass is made from grass: grass shoes, grass hats, and even grass baskets are all for sale.

Li Huowang and his party obviously caught the attention of the Qingqiu People—dealing with foreigners, each person watched over the caravan with a guarded and indifferent gaze.

"Bang!" On the grass stall next door, a chopping knife was raised high and then forcefully brought down on the cutting board, splitting a hairless and hideous dog's head into two.

"Ugh..." Mantou, with its tail hanging low and its ears drooping, quickly scurried timidly underneath the ox cart.

"Are you really from Qingqiu? You look quite different from them." Li Huowang's gaze penetrated the thin black veil as he looked towards Sun Baolu next to him.

"Because... my mother is from another place," Sun Baolu said, his expression somewhat dimming, but then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurriedly pushed through the crowd towards the front.

After bouncing around in the crowd, he excitedly hugged an elderly Qingqiu Person and started saying something.

When Li Huowang got close, he realized he could not understand the language they were speaking.

"You can communicate everywhere else, but this darn place even has its own language." Li Huowang was somewhat speechless, which undoubtedly made their upcoming journey in Qingqiu much more troublesome.

After exchanging pleasantries with the man, Sun Baolu returned to Li Huowang, saying excitedly, "Brother Li, I am certain, that person is from my clan, my family members are just not far ahead."

"Alright, no matter the distance, we have to walk there step by step. First, help us buy some food, we're running low on provisions," Li Huowang said as he surveyed the bustling marketplace around them.

Now that the Qingqiu People's language was incomprehensible to them, for all negotiations, they had to rely on Sun Baolu who knew the Qingqiu language.

Sun Baolu nodded, eagerly agreeing, and was about to turn back into the bustling crowd.

But Li Huowang called to him, "Wait a moment, is there a place to eat here? The others are hungry too, let's rest for a while first."

Soon, everyone arrived at a noodle house, where inside the grass hut, green noodles hung all around, resembling a walk into a forest.

According to Sun Baolu, everyone shared a pot; if you wanted noodles, you cooked them yourself, taking as much as you wanted to eat. The noodle toppings were charged by portion by the owner.

This very characteristic Qingqiu way of eating was unfamiliar to most of them, but it didn't prevent them from enjoying their meal, with the noodles carrying a grassy fragrance and paired with spicy mutton topping, it was quite appetizing.

The noodle house was lively with many people eating. Fortunately, the hanging noodles shielded them so nearby diners couldn't see what Li Huowang and his company looked like without their conical hats.

"Where's Mantou?" A well-fed Li Huowang suddenly realized the dog was missing.

As he turned his head to search, he saw Mantou coming from under the forest of noodles, carrying something in its mouth.

After spitting out the object at Li Huowang's feet and sitting down, Mantou stuck out its tongue and wagged its tail, asking for a reward.

"What is this?" Li Huowang asked in surprise, looking at the white, stark bone at his feet.

The others didn't recognize it, but the local Sun Baolu clearly did and hurriedly explained, "Brother Li, that's a horse bone. The Qingqiu People certainly raise horses and eat horse meat. It tastes quite good."