Song Ciwan followed Xie Yunxiang and boarded a Puppet Carriage, finding it all quite novel.

She made no effort to hide her curiosity, so Xie Yunxiang asked, "Brother Xin, is this your first time in our Pinglan City?"

Song Ciwan replied, "I previously lived in seclusion in the mountains with my elders, dedicating myself to difficult Cultivation. I have indeed rarely seen such sights."

Xie Yunxiang’s expression immediately turned serious. "So, Brother Xin is a disciple from a Hidden Cultivation Clan! No wonder you’ve achieved such a high level of Cultivation at such a young age!"

This seemed to open the floodgates, and he immediately launched into an enthusiastic introduction to Pinglan City for Song Ciwan. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He started with the Puppet Carriage they were currently riding in.

The Puppet Carriage had a marvelous design, its exterior resembling a giant, four-sided palace lantern. Below it, four wheels rolled along the main street at a leisurely pace.

The roof of the lantern-like carriage featured glazed, upturned tiles, with translucent Jade Bells hanging from its four corners. When Xie Yunxiang took out a Primordial Pearl, activated the Vitality within, and waved at the Puppet Carriage, the Jade Bells chimed, TING-A-LING-LING, and the carriage came to a stop right beside him.

The carriage’s classically styled door opened automatically. There was no driver inside, only two rows of seats on either side with a small, square table standing in the middle.

After inviting Song Ciwan to take a seat, Xie Yunxiang placed the Primordial Pearl into an Eight Trigrams Plate set in the center of the table.

At first glance, the Eight Trigrams Plate appeared solid. However, as soon as the Primordial Pearl was placed on it, it sank into the plate as if falling into deep water, vanishing in an instant.

When Xie Yunxiang reached out and touched the plate, characters lit up on its surface, glowing with a faint light.

They were the names of the various squares in Pinglan City!

Xie Yunxiang’s finger tapped on the words "Bright Moon Square." The Puppet Carriage’s door closed automatically, and with a RUMBLE, the wheels began to roll, and the carriage started moving.

To be honest, this level of automation was rather stunning.

’Even with her memories of a past life, of having lived through an age of highly advanced technology, Song Ciwan couldn’t help but feel a sense of profound wonder upon seeing this Puppet Carriage.’

’Do the developments of technology and Daoist Techniques sometimes converge, arriving at the same destination by different paths?’

’No, they were still very different.’

Xie Yunxiang’s voice was filled with a vicarious sense of pride as he described the Puppet Carriage.

He said, "Brother Xin, emerging from seclusion and choosing to come to our Pinglan City—you’ve truly come to the right place! Across all of Great Zhou’s Eighty-One Counties, you won’t find another city with such a wide variety of Puppets, apart from our very own Pinglan City here in Cangling County."

When it came to Puppets, they were indeed one of Pinglan City’s defining features.

It wasn’t just the Puppet Carriage before them, but also the Iron Puppet and Green Ball combination that had previously guided Song Ciwan to Wangjiang Cave Mansion.

Xie Yunxiang spoke with a dismissive air. "Those are Song Puppets. They look enormous, but they’re really just useless lumps of iron. They move incredibly slowly and have no intelligence to speak of."

"They’re nothing like the Five Imperial Puppets we’re riding now. Once you insert a Primordial Pearl, it uses Wind Manipulation to travel. It’s so fast, it can cross all one hundred and eighty of Pinglan City’s squares without any issue!"

"The little thing on top of the Song Puppets is called a Sound Rabbit; it can repeat a few fixed phrases. Most of these Song Puppets and Sound Rabbits are just practice pieces made by disciples of the Puppet Sect. Our Pavilion Master found them somewhat interesting, so he bought them all up to serve as street guides."

Hearing this, Song Ciwan’s interest was piqued. "The Puppet Sect?"

Xie Yunxiang’s dismissive attitude instantly vanished, replaced by a look of longing. He sighed. "Yes, the Puppet Sect!"

"In all the Great Zhou World, there are One Hundred and Eight Upper Sects, and right here in our Cangling County, we have three of them! The Puppet Sect, Qionghua Pavilion, and the Seven Star Sect... If you could just get into one of those three, your Cultivation path would be at least eighty percent smoother."

At this, Xie Yunxiang’s expression was a mixture of excitement and melancholy.

In his youth, he too had dreamed of joining one of the three Upper Sects. But alas, after years of stagnation, that dream remained just a dream.

’Now that I’m middle-aged, with no grand prospects left on my Cultivation path, what else can I do?’

But then he heard Song Ciwan say, "Daoist Xie, being able to serve as a Steward at Wangjiang Cave Mansion already places you far above countless ordinary Cultivators. You speak of how great the Upper Sects are, but do you have any idea how many people envy you?"

Those were truly pleasant words to hear.

Especially coming from "Xin Mian," a Qi Refining Cultivator. Xie Yunxiang was taken aback for a moment, and found himself genuinely touched.

The Heaven and Earth Scale materialized and collected a ball of qi: [Human desires. The joy, obsession, and confusion of a Mid-Stage Qi Transformation Cultivator. Value: one tael and three maces. Tradable.]

’So Xie Yunxiang was a man of deep feeling, after all!’

’Song Ciwan was actually a little surprised. She hadn’t expected to collect the human desires of a Qi Transformation Cultivator so easily.’

She didn’t know that Xie Yunxiang’s circumstances had exposed him to far too much worldliness and indifference. He had originally befriended Xin Mian to expand his network of connections. While his intentions weren’t malicious, there was no doubt his motives were pragmatic.

He hadn’t expected this Xin Mian to be so unversed in the ways of the world, speaking with a sincerity and thoughtfulness rarely found in an ordinary Qi Cultivation Cultivator.

...

Xie Yunxiang, likewise, did not know that Song Ciwan’s sincerity was, in fact, both conditional and limited.

The "naive young lad" he perceived was, in reality, just one of Song Ciwan’s many personas.

Of course, none of this got in the way of their budding friendship.

As the saying goes: some people can know each other their whole lives and remain strangers, while others can meet by chance and become as close as old friends.

Some people are simply destined to get along, hitting it off from the moment they meet. Such was the case with Xie Yunxiang and Song Ciwan. As they rode along in the carriage, talking, they gradually began to feel a genuine sense of friendship.

After finishing his talk on the Puppets of the Puppet Sect, Xie Yunxiang began to describe the vastness of Pinglan City.

Then the topic turned to Bright Moon Square. Located in the southeastern part of Pinglan City, it was the square that boasted the highest concentration of charming and beautiful women in the entire city.

In total, Pinglan City had one hundred and eighty squares of varying sizes.

As for the larger squares, it might take an ordinary mortal an entire day and night of walking just to cross one. Even the smallest squares were at least two miles long and wide!

Xie Yunxiang clicked his tongue and sighed. "Brother Xin, since you’ve come from so far away, you might find this hard to imagine, but here in Pinglan, most mortals never leave the city their entire lives."

"Forget leaving the city—many mortals can’t even manage to leave the square they live in during their entire lifetime."

"Sigh... In truth, it’s hard to say whether being unable to leave is a good or a bad thing."

Xie Yunxiang continued, "Inside the city, within the squares, there’s a degree of safety. Even if your whole life is laid out before you the moment you’re born, it’s still better than blindly rushing out into the world only to end up battered and bloody. Don’t you agree, Brother Xin?"

’Song Ciwan felt his words carried a hidden meaning.’

’Was he talking about mortals, or himself?’

’The human heart... no matter what choice one makes, there will always be some lingering dissatisfaction!’

Song Ciwan said, "In this life, what matters to us is perhaps not the choice to stay or to go... but whether we possess the right and the ability to choose freely for ourselves."

Xie Yunxiang was taken aback. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard the Jade Bell outside chime.

The Puppet Carriage’s classically carved wooden door opened automatically, and a wave of clamor from outside rushed in.

Ahead, a tall gatehouse loomed over a bustling crowd. Xie Yunxiang’s face lit up. "Brother Xin, we’ve arrived at Bright Moon Square!"