The following afternoon, the Lang Yu Kingdom delegation finally arrived at the Yao capital, the ancient city of Yinzi.

As they approached the Yao capital, everyone wore increasingly lighter clothing. When Feng Miaojun reached the ancient city, she discovered that even the nighttime ground temperature remained above ten degrees.

The trees remained evergreen. This winter, no snow fell in the ancient city of Yinzi.

Having grown accustomed to vast expanses of snow throughout their journey, suddenly returning to early spring conditions caused everyone’s tense minds to relax. Especially striking were the rows of blooming camellia flowers behind the tall city walls, alternating between red and white. As the group ventured further into the city, they saw tricolor violets everywhere—at the base of walls and in courtyards—each flower displaying purple, white, and yellow colors, blooming freely.

The architecture of the Yao capital was extremely distinctive, with a style different from Wei and Jin. The locals favored white, so most house walls were painted white. Wealthy households also liked to adorn their walls with relief sculptures and colorful paintings. Unlike Wei Kingdom’s plain simplicity, here people advocated luxury. Noble families installed colored glass in their openwork doors and windows, and favored building elaborate eaves to showcase their wealth.

Feng Miaojun had always loved foreign customs. Now she exclaimed in amazement, wishing she had two more eyes. Yun Ya disliked her undignified appearance and sneered lightly: “Country bumpkin.”

Feng Miaojun automatically filtered out this comment. Hadn’t he only been here a couple more times than she had?

Nevertheless, Yun Ya continued to explain: “The wealthy here like to build multiple-tiered eaves. Those with assets exceeding one hundred liang may build one flying eave; those with over one thousand liang may build two; and only those with more than five thousand liang may build three tiers.”

Looking around, she indeed noticed many beautiful mansions with one or two flying eaves, decorated with gilded tiles or small beasts. “What unit are these hundreds, thousands, and five thousand in?” Surely not in silver? In any case, she had to strain her eyes to spot a building with three tiers of eaves in the distance, with upturned corners painted gold—it might as well have had “I’m rich” carved on it.

“Gold.”

“Wow, that’s wealthy!” In chaotic times, gold was highly valued as hard currency, roughly equivalent to ten liang of silver. The concept of one hundred liang of gold meant assets exceeding one thousand liang of silver. In the Jin capital, four liangs of silver were sufficient for a family of four to live comfortably for a year.

The prosperity of the Yao capital’s common folk was evident. She had maintained correspondence with Madam Xu and Peng Bai, knowing that the Yao Kingdom was abundant in resources, especially in fruits, herbs, and timber. The government also rewarded commerce and encouraged border trade, resulting in thriving goods circulation and many wealthy merchants.

“Little money-grubber, is that all you’re impressed by?” Yun Ya teased, “Wait until you see the Yao royal palace—you’ll probably drool all over the place.”

Undeniably, Yun Ya understood her increasingly well. When she saw the Yao royal palace, she indeed drew in a sharp breath among the exclamations of her fellow travelers.

Magnificently splendid!

She had always thought this was merely a descriptive phrase, but today she learned it had a true model and origin.

The Yao royal palace stood on the central axis of the entire ancient city of Yinzi, majestic and imposing. From a great distance, she could see the golden roof gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight.

Pure gold, without a trace of impurity!

With her exceptional eyesight, she could immediately tell that the roof was neither gold-plated nor gold-washed, but built brick by brick with solid pure gold!

Moreover, it had five tiers of flying eaves, advancing layer by layer from the roof to the upturned corners, resembling surging waves.

As for the intricate line carvings and decorative panels, they were similarly cast in gold. She didn’t know if the roofs of the inner palace chambers were also made of gold, but just the outermost palace walls and the tallest palace halls used gold measured in tons.

Gold production was so low, yet the Yao royal family plastered it all over their façade!

“How extravagant!” She was nearly blinded by the thousands of golden rays, yet couldn’t help peeking through her fingers, “Flaunting wealth so ostentatiously, aren’t they afraid of thieves?”

Yun Ya laughed softly: “This entire palace is a magical artifact. Unless you can destroy it completely, you can forget about stealing even a single beam or tile. Over the years, countless people have been sentenced to hand amputation for attempting to steal the palace gold, none successful.”

She continued to marvel: “Only the filthy rich would think of creating such a magical artifact.”

“The third monarch of the Yao Kingdom, King Cheng of Yao, governed diligently. Those years were blessed with favorable weather, ensuring national peace and people’s safety. The country grew wealthy, and they even occupied large tracts of land in the Eight Horses Plain.”

She exclaimed in surprise: “Eight Horses Plain? Isn’t that Wei Kingdom territory?”

“Wei Kingdom didn’t exist back then.” Yun Ya smiled, “Just as King Cheng was feeling triumphant, he encountered a peerless beauty and fell in love at first sight, determined to marry her. However, this woman presented him with a condition.”

“What was it?” Feng Miaojun asked reflexively, completely engrossed in the story. Like most women, she had little resistance to romantic legends.

“She wanted a palace of gold covering fifty qing of land. At a minimum, the roof had to be made of gold.”

Hearing this, Feng Miaojun suddenly exclaimed: “A house of gold! I remember now, this is the origin of the saying ‘within books there are houses of gold’!”

“Correct.” Yun Ya confirmed her guess, “Although King Cheng was infatuated, he understood that all the gold in the world combined couldn’t forge such a magnificent palace. So he devised a clever method, using an existing magical artifact to assist in the casting. This New Moon Temple was originally the national treasure of another small country, said to be the cave dwelling of an ancient immortal, initially sealed within a set of scrolls. King Cheng forcibly recast it, and because high-level magical artifacts can change size at will, Yao Kingdom only used thirty-six thousand jin of gold to complete this project that was as difficult as ascending to heaven.”

“Only?” Feng Miaojun murmured, “Spending thirty-six thousand jin of gold, on such impractical decoration—would the Yao Kingdom subjects approve?”

“Naturally, they wouldn’t,” Yun Ya’s voice was indifferent, betraying no emotion, “But King Cheng was already bewitched and wouldn’t listen to any loyal advice. Besides, the New Moon Temple was forcibly seized through warfare, which itself had depleted considerable funds. By the time the golden palace was completed, the people were impoverished and resources exhausted. Then came a severe drought, with no money or grain to distribute, resulting in seething public resentment and empty border defenses. Small surrounding tribes seized the opportunity to rebel, and within two or three years, it became an unstoppable wildfire, eventually taking over the Eight Horses Plain.”

Feng Miaojun suddenly realized what he was referring to: “Is this the origin of Wei?”

“Correct.” Yun Ya’s tone carried contempt, “Yao Kingdom declined from its peak and has never regained its former glory. This golden palace remains, supposedly as a warning to future royal descendants.”

Indeed, the talking points of later generations are often the tears of their predecessors. Feng Miaojun clicked her tongue: “How could the wise and martial King Cheng of Yao make such a foolish mistake?”

“Even heroes falter before beauty.” Yun Ya gave a cold smile, “Besides, his opponent was treacherous and crafty, digging a pit specifically for him to fall into.”

“Oh? That’s not recorded in the histories.” With more gossip to hear, she was quite excited. Someone described by even Yun Ya as “treacherous and crafty” must have been truly extraordinary.