The site for Xuanwu City was huge, and it had been picked with great care... by dozens of men skilled in geomancy.

The Ministry of Works was in charge of building it.

As for the money, the Great Xuan was paying half and the Wu Kingdom half.

The Wu Kingdom's half came out of Ning Chen's own pocket.

The Wu Kingdom was nowhere near as rich as the Great Xuan.

As for the laborers, most were prisoners of war and able-bodied men Ning Chen had rounded up, and some were convicts.

All told, there were a good two hundred thousand of them.

That was a frightening number.

But Ning Chen wasn't worried about them rioting.

The Great Xuan was on one side and the Wu Kingdom on the other, and both had troops stationed on the border.

The Ministry of Works was in charge of building Xuanwu City, and the Ministry of Revenue handled all the spending.

The Wu Kingdom had sent people too.

The two sides were working together to build Xuanwu City.

"You there, dismount and submit to inspection!"

A patrol had spotted Ning Chen's group.

Ning Chen was in plain clothes... The soldiers had no idea that the man in front of them was Ning Chen.

By now, the Wu Kingdom and the Great Xuan had opened a trade route.

Merchants came through all the time.

The patrols had the authority to check the identities of passing merchants.

Ning Chen dismounted. He didn't pull rank on these common soldiers. They were just doing their job.

Tantai Qingyue was taken aback to see him dismount, and a flicker of approval passed through her cold, clear eyes.

"Who are you people? What's your business in the Great Xuan? Do you have registration papers and exit papers?"

The soldier in charge demanded it sternly.

Ning Chen smiled. "We are Great Xuan people. We're heading to the Great Xuan because it's home. We didn't bring registration papers or exit papers."

The soldiers were instantly on their guard.

"No registration papers and no documents—then how did you get out through the passes?"