My brother is so cunning

Chapter 979 Asking the Blind
After flying for a short while, Yun Zhongzi saw from the top of the clouds a plain with houses neatly arranged along the mountains and rivers ahead, which looked like a sizable town.

Looking down from the air, Yun Zhongzi couldn't help but marvel, secretly praising how neatly the town's houses were built.

Upon closer inspection, the more one looked, the more one felt that the officials who oversaw the construction of this town must have been extraordinary individuals.

The crisscrossing streets are as orderly as a chessboard. The main street is about three zhang wide and paved with flat bluestone slabs. There is not a single weed in the gaps between the slabs, which means that it is usually maintained. The side streets are slightly narrower, but they are also straight as a foot, dividing the city into dozens of square neighborhoods.

At the entrance of each neighborhood stands a blue stone tablet inscribed with the words "Commerce Neighborhood," "Crafts Neighborhood," and "Agriculture Neighborhood," the characters neat and clear.

The houses in the neighborhood are arranged in an orderly manner. Most of them are courtyards with blue tiles and white walls, and the gates of the courtyards all open towards the alleys inside the neighborhood. The number of stone steps in front of the gates is uniform, and even the peach and plum branches that stick out from the courtyard walls seem to have been deliberately trimmed, so as not to block the light of the road and to add a touch of vitality.

As Yun Zhongzi gazed at the straight street that divided the smoke from cooking fires and the morning light into evenly spaced patches of color, he couldn't help but stroke his beard and smile.

He could see that the town's planning subtly conformed to the cosmic principle of "orderly latitude and longitude"—the main street corresponded to the four seasons, the auxiliary roads echoed the eight solar terms, the neighborhoods were arranged like the eight trigrams, and even the course of the river encircling the town subtly corresponded to the flow of the earthly branches.

This layout, which does not overstep the bounds, is neither extravagant nor lacking in orderly beauty, and even surpasses some Taoist temples in its ability to achieve the "harmony" principle.

The town had no city walls, seemingly unconcerned about the ravages of war.

Large tracts of fertile land have been developed outside the city. The plots of land are square and neatly arranged, and irrigation ditches have been dug, making them high-quality irrigated land.

The fields are divided into neat rows like a chessboard, and the green and yellow crops sway in the wind, just like a brocade spread across the earth.

The outermost layer consists of rings of heavy ears of wheat, their awns gleaming golden in the sunlight. Each stalk is full of plump grains, and the spacing between them is so even that it looks as if it had been measured with a ruler.

A few rows further in were lush green millet, with leaves spread out like swords, stems standing tall, and ears of millet bowing heavily.

Further in, the yellow of millet, the red of sorghum, and the green of beans intertwine, with the five-colored crops spreading out in sequence along the ridges of the field, subtly conforming to the order of the five elements.

Every few dozen steps along the ridges of the fields, there is a small wooden sign with the words "wheat field" and "millet field" written in cinnabar on it. Next to it, there are bamboo poles with faded cloth strips tied to them, which are probably the farmers' marks for the season.

A farmer wearing a straw hat is working in the field, bending over. The rhythm of his hoe is synchronized, and the soil he turns over carries a moist scent, which, mixed with the fragrance of the crops, drifts towards the clouds.

Although it is not yet harvest season, Yun Zhongzi can foresee signs of a bountiful harvest, and this town is sure to have a bumper year.

Yun Zhongzi descended from the clouds, not concealing his immortal appearance too much, but merely suppressing his immortal aura and using a trick to make him appear to mortals as an ordinary Taoist.

From the air, the town was quite large, with a population of at least ten thousand. Based on Yun Zhongzi's understanding of the mortal world, it should have been the size of a city. However, there were no city walls or gates. The main roads that stretched out in all directions allowed one to enter the town without any obstruction.

Having landed at the border between urban and rural areas, Yun Zhongzi walked along the main road towards the city, looking around as he went, trying to find any place signs or markers to find out where he was.

If one were to visit a human city in Yun Zhongzi's memory, one would only need to look at the inscriptions on the gate tower. However, there wasn't even a city gate here, so he really didn't know where to begin. Following the main road forward, the number of pedestrians gradually increased. Yun Zhongzi simply stopped an old farmer who was walking towards him, carrying a hoe and seemingly heading to work in the fields. He asked in a gentle voice, "Greetings, sir. I have come from afar and passed through this place. I admire the well-planned town and the abundant harvests. But I wonder what this place is called?"

The old farmer looked up and saw the Taoist priest with an otherworldly air. He was taken aback at first, then quickly put down the straw rope in his hand, cupped his hands and bowed: "Taoist priest, you are too kind. As the saying goes, honest people don't beat around the bush. Although I am a country bumpkin, I am not stupid. You said you came from afar. How far away must that be? On the stars or the moon? You must be an immortal."

Yun Zhongzi was stunned on the spot. He never expected that his Qi Concealing Technique and Illusion Technique would be no match for a mere old farmer in the countryside. He was exposed and revealed his true nature in just one glance.

Little did Yun Zhongzi know that the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty already knew that the entire world had been almost destroyed once. Of the four continents of the primordial world, apart from a few secret realms of immortals, there was not a single place that had escaped calamity.

A stranger dressed as a Taoist priest claimed to have come from afar, acting as if he knew nothing about what was happening in the mortal world. If he wasn't an immortal, could he be a demonic spy?

"Old sir, your eyes are truly discerning. This humble Taoist does indeed possess some knowledge of cultivation..."

Yun Zhongzi said somewhat awkwardly, "Having lived in seclusion in the mountains for so long, I must have missed some important events in the secular world. I would appreciate your guidance, sir."

The old farmer didn't delve into the matter further, but his attitude became even more respectful. He said, "Immortal, you flatter me. I'm just an old man with frail bones; how could I dare to offer guidance to an immortal? This place was originally Ju City of the State of Qi, and now it is Ju County of the Great Qi Ethnic Autonomous Region."

"Ethnic Autonomous Region?"

Yun Zhongzi was deeply puzzled by this new term and couldn't help but ask, "What's this about the Human Autonomous Region? Isn't the world all under human control? Are there other races occupying different areas?"

"This..." The old farmer scratched his head and said, "I am old and don't understand what the young trainee officers are saying. I just follow orders and live my life. If you have any questions, please ask the trainee officers."

"Intern?"

Yun Zhongzi was confused by the new terminology again, but seeing that the old farmer also looked puzzled and obviously couldn't get any answers from him, he asked, "Old man, where is the government office in this city? Please point me in the right direction."

You mean the county government?

The old farmer nodded repeatedly, pointed to a conspicuous brick building in the city, and said, "Go south along the main road, and that three-story brick building is it."

Yun Zhongzi thanked the old farmer and used a small magic spell called Shrinking Earth to travel, arriving at the small building the old farmer had pointed to earlier in just a few steps.

The small building had its doors wide open, and people of all kinds of clothing and in a hurry were constantly coming and going, going into the building to the rooms with signs hanging everywhere to do their business.

Yun Zhongzi's idea was to simply approach the highest-ranking official in the area and ask him what major events had occurred in the mortal realm during his two hundred years of seclusion.

A high-ranking local official who governs a city with great methods will certainly have far more knowledge than a rural farmer. He will be able to find out the truth about the past, so that the farmer won't wander around aimlessly like a headless fly without finding the right method.

(End of this chapter)