Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Great Oasis

"Ah, so you stayed up all night."

Li Ju looked at General Wang and the Water City prince, rubbed his eyes, and let out a yawn.

Seated opposite him were the two men, both looking somewhat haggard. They had remained on the ground, their eyes red from a long night without sleep.

"Since Your Excellency is already awake, let us set out at once."

General Wang drew in a breath as he looked at Li Ju.

With Li Ju's consent, General Wang and the Water City prince mounted their horses. Li Ju had not killed them.

Li Ju climbed onto his camel and rode with them toward the Great Oasis and Stone Valley.

Five days later.

"The Great Oasis is here."

Before Li Ju and the others lay a vast oasis stretching beyond sight. Tall trees rose there, flowers and grasses grew in abundance, and the faint scent of fresh water drifted outward. The scene within stood in stark contrast to the barren desert where Li Ju and the others had been standing.

"Let's go in first and make sure which direction we used to enter the Great Oasis."

General Wang glanced at the immense oasis before him and spoke with a complicated expression.

Beside him, the Water City prince stared into the depths of the oasis with eyes full of hatred, as though he had already glimpsed the kingdom within it that had destroyed his own country.

"You two are the local experts. I'll follow your lead."

"I only handle taking things and killing people."

Watching the pair head deeper into the oasis, Li Ju patted the head of his camel, signaling it to stop eating the grass on the ground and continue onward.

The camel snorted in displeasure, shook its head, and only after taking one last fierce bite of grass did it finally follow after General Wang and the other man.

The moment they entered the Great Oasis, they felt a coolness wholly unlike the heat of the desert outside. It was as though one had returned from hell to the human world.

The Great Oasis itself seemed to have such abundant water that it had become like a primeval jungle, with all kinds of plants growing in dense profusion. Thankfully, roads had been cleared through it long ago, so Li Ju and the others did not need to hack their way forward through thorns and brambles.

After traveling only a short distance behind General Wang and the other man, Li Ju saw a "city" among the trees.

By Li Ju's standards, the "city" was built in a pitifully crude manner. Its walls were not tall, only about two and a half meters high. They were made entirely of wood and mud, and at the center stood a gate formed from two heavy wooden planks.

At the moment, the city gates were wide open, and a squad of soldiers wearing vine armor woven from grasses and branches was inspecting the travelers entering the city.

"This is Fruit City. It's not far from Water City."

General Wang looked at the city and said.

"All the cities in your Great Oasis are built this... crudely?"

After studying Fruit City for a while, Li Ju could not help asking.

It was not that he lacked restraint, but that the construction of this city was truly too primitive. He could not see what defensive value such a wall had at all; even a force of merely a hundred men might easily breach it.

As for martial experts, such a broken wall would be nothing more than a place to come and go as they pleased.

"......"

"Our Great Oasis may be rich in produce, but it lacks stone. Thus, only the powerful kingdoms and cities among us can afford to build their walls from stone. The weaker states can only make do with wood and mud."

General Wang was silent for a moment before he finally answered. It seemed he too felt that such a simple wall was rather embarrassing.

Li Ju watched as something like a monkey emerged from the trees, climbed the wall of Fruit City, scratched its backside upon reaching the top, then pointed its rear at the soldiers below and let out a yellow and unidentifiable projectile.

The yellow thing landed squarely on a soldier's head. Amid the soldier's furious shouts, the monkey grinned and in a flash leaped down from the wall into the city.

"Your Water City walls... won't they be like this too?"

Li Ju's mouth twitched as he asked General Wang.

At first, he had imagined that helping Water City restore its kingdom would mean he alone charging through ten thousand troops, unmatched beneath heaven, braving a storm of arrows, breaking the city gates with overwhelming might, and storming into Water City to stride through blood and iron all the way to the royal palace, driving out the forces of the Forest Kingdom.

But now, looking at this deeply primitive-looking wall, he felt it might not need to be so troublesome. If Water City's walls were like this, he suspected he could smash them to powder with a casual punch.

What was this supposed to be?

A transformation from armies and cold steel into the howls of primitive tribesmen?

"Please rest assured, Your Excellency. Though Water City is nothing much, it does at least have the means to build its walls with stone."

A proud light rose to General Wang's face.

"......"

Looking at General Wang's proud expression, Li Ju could only sigh at how uneven the world was.

He had never expected that building a city with stone, something so basic within the Kingdom of Chen, could become a matter worthy of pride in the Great Oasis.

"Do we need to enter Fruit City?"

Li Ju shook his head, casting those thoughts aside and returning to the matter at hand.

"Fruit City is an independent city and belongs to no faction. It has long been on good terms with Water City as well, so there will be no problem if we go in."

General Wang nodded and led the way toward the city gates.

Li Ju followed closely behind him into the city.

Once inside, the first thing he saw was a street with a distinctly tropical air. Many houses built from the same materials as the walls stood neatly along both sides.

Lining the roadside were tall emerald trees, some of them bearing enormous fruits.

And standing in stark contrast to the buildings on the street were the passersby, all dressed neatly in fine silk garments.

Such silk clothing, even in the Kingdom of Chen, was expensive attire only wealthy families could afford. Set in a city like Fruit City, with its thoroughly primitive atmosphere, it looked especially out of place.

"Thanks to a flourishing sericulture and silk-weaving industry..."

Li Ju murmured as he looked at the people's clothing.

Back in the Kingdom of Chen, he had once read in books that the Great Oasis was home to a unique kind of silkworm. Not only did it spin large quantities of silk, the quality was excellent as well. Because production was so abundant, the people of the Great Oasis could afford silk, yet could not afford linen.

Every year, the Kingdom of Chen sent merchant caravans here to import silk in large quantities and haul it back home for the use of nobles and officials.

"Your Excellency, I have already spoken with the people over at Fruit City. The city lord wishes to meet us."

Just as Li Ju was recalling the customs and conditions of the Great Oasis as recorded in the books, General Wang came over at an inopportune moment and interrupted his thoughts.