Seeking Enlightenment Amidst the Mortal World

August in Sanshan City was a time when horse-drawn carts laden with mountain goods filled the streets. The eagle’s beak mushrooms from Cang Mountain and the blazing flower grass from Mo Mountain were at their finest, and for the next three months, the five hundred paces from Baili Lane to the southern city gate would become the official mountain goods market. Until the end of the year, buyers and traders would come and go.

At the foot of the southern gate, an old soldier, who had spent thirty years risking his life on the battlefield and returned unharmed, could have secured a respectable post in the Central State. Instead, he chose to return to Sanshan City and guard the southern gate, living well enough on the small profits he gleaned from passing merchants to drink his fill.

Inside the city, taverns and teahouses clustered along both sides of Wanfu Street. Owning property here meant that rent alone could support a family. The first two establishments, Wanfu Tavern and Blossoms Garden, stood opposite each other, famed throughout the Southern Wilds. Even the gentry and officials from Central State would occasionally visit in plain clothes.

They came for the renowned dishes of Wanfu Tavern and the lovely maidens of Blossoms Garden.

It was said that Sanshan City had no taboos. In the alleys behind Wanfu Street lived wandering souls of the martial world, who rested by day and roamed by night, lending the city its peculiar charm. Often, at dawn, the cold light would reveal nameless corpses in the street’s center, and the rooftops bore the scars of br