The moment Wang Weizhang left Guangyuan, he felt something was off.
The road here was unexpectedly good.
The official road had clearly been widened and leveled. It was even comparable to several of the main roads near Chengdu. For a road this close to the Shu route, this was completely out of place.
After traveling a while, he saw a large group of workers repairing the road ahead.
He called over one of them.
"Why are you repairing the road here? Who's paying for it?"
The worker, clearly a local from Guangyuan, replied in thick Sichuan dialect:
"Some lord from Shaanxi paid for it. I don't know his name. Long as there's money, I work. Doesn't matter who pays."
Wang Weizhang: "!"
Asking a laborer was useless, so he found the foreman. After much questioning, he finally learned the truth.
The man funding the project was no ordinary figure, it was Sun Chuanting, Governor of Shaanxi. On top of that, Prince Qin's heir Zhu Cunji and Prince Rui Zhu Changhao had each contributed additional funds.
Sun Chuanting had ordered the construction of a standard official road. But Zhu Cunji and Zhu Changhao added extra money, instructing workers to dig out another path beside it, saying it would later be used to lay a "railway."
The foreman didn't know what a railway was. He only knew he was paid to level ground.
Wang Weizhang was stunned.
"Guangyuan is clearly under my jurisdiction as Governor of Sichuan. Yet Sun Chuanting, Governor of Shaanxi, is building roads into my territory! Should I reap the harvest? Or reap the harvest? Or reap the harvest?"
In the end, he decided not to worry.
Once the road was completed, it would fall under his authority anyway.
He continued forward.
Ahead lay the most treacherous section of the Shu Road, the ancient plank road of Mingyue Gorge.
In ancient times, a road had been carved directly into the sheer cliffs of Mingyue Gorge. Its danger defied description. Who knew how many people had died building it?
Wang Weizhang refused to believe that the massive iron vehicle he'd seen before could possibly pass through Mingyue Gorge.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
He walked toward the gorge with his head lowered.
Suddenly, one of his subordinates shouted, pointing ahead:
"Look! Quick! A giant! A giant!"
Wang Weizhang looked up.
And nearly inhaled a mouthful of cold Sichuan jelly in shock.
There, atop the mountain above Mingyue Gorge, sat a colossal figure, tens of zhang tall.
He wore flowing Daoist robes like an immortal of legend, elegant and transcendent.
Yet his face was youthful, not the aged visage one expected of typical immortals.
He gazed down upon the gorge.
Wang Weizhang screamed and staggered backward several steps.
Only now did he truly believe the merchant's story.
He deeply regretted having ordered twenty strokes of the rod on the man earlier. If only he had listened properly instead of scaring him off.
Just as he stood trembling, he heard the rumble of wheels behind him.
A merchant caravan approached.
The leader was none other than the same merchant he had beaten.
Their eyes met.
Wang Weizhang immediately felt awkward.
The merchant's expression was strange. He glanced at Wang Weizhang, then pointed at the Dao Xuan Tianzun seated atop the mountain.
He didn't say anything.
But the meaning was clear:
What about those twenty strokes?
Wang Weizhang felt his toes nearly dig a three-bedroom house into the ground from embarrassment.
But he was an official.
In the hierarchy of scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant, officials stood at the top.
How could he apologize to a mere merchant?
So he pretended nothing had happened.
"You're here," Wang Weizhang forced out.
"I travel this route year-round," the merchant replied. "Of course I'm here."
Awkward silence.
"What goods are you carrying this time?"
"Nothing special. Some Sichuan specialties to sell in Xi'an. Then I'll bring some Shaanxi goods back to Chengdu."
Wang Weizhang glanced at the convoy and froze.
The wagons were large.
Horse-drawn cargo wagons.
There was no way those could pass the ancient plank road.
"Your carts… seem rather large," he said carefully. "They don't look like they could cross the gorge."
"In the past," the merchant said, "I used wheelbarrows. Sometimes we didn't even use carts. Just carried everything on our backs."
"But ever since Dao Xuan Tianzun began sitting atop the mountain, we can use large wagons."
Wang Weizhang's heart skipped.
"Tianzun grabs your carts?"
"Yes."
"You expect me to believe that? An immortal has time to meddle in this?"
The merchant shrugged.
"Otherwise, why do people say Tianzun is compassionate? He's not like other immortals. He often looks after the suffering of the mortal world."
"Even so," Wang Weizhang said, "he can't possibly sit here all day waiting to grab carts."
"Of course not," the merchant laughed. "Dao Xuan Tianzun is busy. He oversees the whole world. Most of the time, he's spiritually roaming the realm. Though this giant Dharma body sits here, his spirit isn't necessarily present."
"Then how do you cross?"
"It's about timing. I calculated it carefully. Every day at noon, Tianzun lets his spirit return to the Dharma body and takes a look. If there's no caravan, he leaves again. If there is, he helps."
He pointed upward.
"Look at the sun. It's almost noon."
Wang Weizhang raised his head.
The sun was directly overhead.
At that moment—
The enormous Dao Xuan Tianzun moved.
His head turned slightly. He looked north toward Shaanxi's entrance of the gorge.
Then his gaze shifted south toward Guangyuan.
It locked onto the caravan.
"Crossing the gorge?" Tianzun's voice boomed, echoing through Mingyue Gorge.
The sound vibrated through the cliffs.
Wang Weizhang collapsed onto the ground in fright.
The merchant, already accustomed to this, calmly cupped his fists.
"May Tianzun lend us aid. As usual, I will donate ten percent of this trip's profits to charitable works and relief for the poor."
Tianzun smiled.
A warm, auntie-like smile.
Then—
A colossal hand descended from the sky and grabbed one of the massive wagons.
Wang Weizhang, sitting nearby, saw the enormous hand sweep down beside him and lift the entire cart in one motion.
He rolled several times in panic to get out of the way.
The great hand soared across Mingyue Gorge in a flash
Depositing the wagon on the other side.
The merchant turned to his men.
"Let's go. We'll cross the gorge and retrieve our goods."
"Tianzun is mighty!" the workers cheered.
The caravan marched briskly through the narrow plank road.
Only after they were gone did Wang Weizhang slowly crawl back to his feet.
His entire body trembled uncontrollably.