My brother entrusted his child to me, and I livestreamed raising the baby, making the Empress cry wi

[Qin Wangwo, a cloth merchant from Liangzhou: If this road could be built to our city of Liangzhou, I wouldn't have to travel for three days to deliver goods; I could get there in one day! No! In half a day!]

[General Wang Meng of Dingyuan: What we border guards fear most isn't leading troops into battle, but the slow speed of military communication! Often, sending a message takes ten days, half a month, or even several months—by then, it's too late! If we had such smooth and wide roads… dispatching reinforcements to neighboring prefectures could be done in a single day! Even from the capital to the border, cavalry could travel at breakneck speed in less than seven days!]

……

Inside the palace, the morning court session had just ended, and Du Mingyi, the Minister of Works, was walking out of the palace.

When the sky brightened, he didn't even lift his eyelids.

He wasn't interested in these strange and supernatural things to begin with. Last time, he excused himself from court and stayed home to rest, so he didn't see any of those so-called tall buildings.

When his colleagues told him about it, he thought they were exaggerating, and he strongly disagreed. Wasn't this just fueling the arrogance of these sorcerers?

But since it's here, let's see what this thing is all about.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping over—

Then he froze.

It was as if he was nailed to the spot, unable to move.

That's a road.

A gray, straight, and wide road that could easily accommodate ten carriages running side by side.

It stretches from the bottom of the screen all the way to the deepest part, disappearing at the edge of the sky, like a taut gray line splitting the sky in two.

Du Mingyi's eyes widened suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply, his lips opened and closed slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down several times, but he couldn't utter a single complete syllable.

"impossible……"

These three words were squeezed out from deep in his throat, dry and astringent, like a rusty door hinge that had been twisted hard.

"This is impossible...this is absolutely impossible!" he said twice, his voice a little louder than before, but even more hoarse, as if he had stuffed a handful of coarse sand down his throat.

His eyes were fixed on the gray road in the sky, and the blood vessels around his eyes were bulging out one by one.

"It's so flat, it should be made of stone slabs pieced together, but there's not a single seam... it's a single piece... it's a single piece from beginning to end..." he muttered to himself, his voice getting lower and lower, hoarseer and hoarse.

"How could such a large stone slab be made?! How did they do that?! How did they do that?!"

He took two sudden steps forward, lost his footing, and stumbled, only to be supported by the disciple behind him.

He shook off his disciple's hand and continued walking forward. When he reached the edge of the palace wall, he wished he could climb up to get a better view.

"Teacher! Teacher, please slow down!" the student called from behind.

Du Mingyi paid no attention. His mind was filled with only that road—a gray, smooth road without a single gap.

This elderly minister, nearing sixty, oversaw all roads, bridges, and water conservancy projects in the Great Flame Kingdom for over thirty years. He presided over the construction of most of the official roads within the Great Flame Kingdom.

He personally oversaw a major renovation project on Zhuque Avenue.

He spent half his life repairing roads!

Only stone slab roads can be made flat, and the most difficult part of laying stone slab roads is not flattening the surface of the slabs, but filling the gaps between the two slabs.

Zhuque Street uses the finest bluestone slabs, each one carefully polished, and lime mortar is used to fill the gaps during paving. Finally, the slabs are repeatedly rolled with a stone roller.

Even so, over time, gaps will still appear, bricks will still loosen, and when it rains, rainwater will seep through the gaps, softening the roadbed and causing the road surface to collapse.

But that road—there were no gaps!

One whole piece!

From beginning to end!

Not a single gap!

It looks like it was carved from a single, huge slab of stone.

No! It's even smoother than a stone slab!

The stone slabs have textures, pores, and natural flaws, but the road has nothing!

It was a pure, uniform, and flawless gray!

"What exactly is that material..." His voice was already trembling with sobs, his white beard trembled violently in the morning breeze, his eyes were red, and cloudy old tears were welling up in his eyes.

"What exactly is that...?"

[Minister of Works Du Mingyi: I've been repairing roads for thirty years! I oversaw the construction of the vast majority of official roads in the Great Flame Kingdom! But I've never seen a road like this before! A single, seamless section! How was this achieved?!]

[Guan Yue, Vice Minister of Works: I have been in charge of the palace's ground repairs for over ten years, and I was also responsible for supervising the construction of the white marble plaza in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. But that road... the smoothness of that road surpasses any stone or jade slab I have ever polished!]

[He Wei, Chief Clerk of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Public Works: That road... what material was used to pave that road? It's both gray and shiny, and there aren't even any gaps!]

……

Lin Ye looked at the comments and smiled slightly.

He hadn't forgotten seeing people throwing rotten vegetable leaves at him when he first turned on the live stream.

Come on, you little haters, let me show you something clearer!

With a thought, the image on the sky moved slowly in accordance with Lin Ye's idea, and the camera gradually zoomed in.

……

The road seemed to grow wider and wider in everyone's eyes.

On the road surface, white lines divide the entire road into neat strips.

Each strip was very wide, wide enough for two carriages to run side by side with room to spare.

[Commoner Liu Neng: Those white lines are dividing the road!]

[Painter Wang Feng: Paint! Is that paint?! But why is it so white?! And such a big and long road! How much paint did it take?! How much?!]

[Commoner Zhang Yu: Look at those white lines, they're all the same width from beginning to end! Didn't the person who drew them have a shaky hand? No, this wasn't drawn by a human, it must have been drawn by a deity!]

[Carpenter Zhao Bugong: I've been a carpenter my whole life, and I use an ink line to draw lines; one flick and it's a straight line. But this road is so wide and so long, the ink line can't go that far!]

[Zheng Tong, Director of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Works: Those white lines on the road are so long! As long as the road itself! Even the best surveyors in the Great Flame Kingdom couldn't draw such long and straight lines! And those lines are the same width from beginning to end! How were they drawn?!]

Du Mingyi noticed these comments.

White line?

His gaze moved slowly, step by step, finally settling on those white lines.

In an instant, his legs went weak, and he sat down on the ground.

It wasn't that I was scared, but rather—

Shocking.

He understood the purpose of those lines!

Dividing the road into different channels can separate traffic, allowing vehicles and pedestrians to travel without interfering with each other.

He understands this principle; he thought about it when he was young.

But he never thought about actually painting it.

Because the roads in the Great Flame Kingdom are too narrow.

The Vermilion Bird Avenue is the widest road in the Great Flame Kingdom, but it is only about eight zhang wide. A carriage of a noble family with guards and servants can take up most of it, making it impossible to distinguish any lanes.

And the road in the sky—it's so wide it could be divided into more than five lanes.

Even if the road is wide enough, how can he tell pedestrians which way to go?

Draw a line?

What should we use to draw it?

Even if it's painted on, how long can it last after a rain or a horse-drawn carriage runs over it? Three days? Five days? It'll disappear faster than the painting itself.

But those white lines on the sky—

The drawing was so clear and distinct. So many metal boxes passed over it, and the lines were all intact, as if they had grown on the road from the beginning.

The camera on the celestial screen continued to rotate, captivating the hearts of everyone watching...