Preparing for War Also Meant Taking a Wife

At Taifu Golden Summit, outside Elder Bai's Affairs Department, Liu Xiaolou waited outside while Steward Liu kept him company.

It was not just the two of them. More than ten people were awaiting summons at the same time, and the Affairs Department bustled with activity.

Seeing this, Liu Xiaolou could not help but grow curious. He lowered his voice and asked, "Oldest Sixth, has the sect encountered something recently? A wind came from the far north, carrying snow pellets and shards of ice as it howled across the boundless wilderness. That figure stood motionless, the edges of his cloak long covered in frost blossoms, as though he wore a layer of transparent armor. His left eye was sunken deep as a well, silver threads seemingly tangled within its gray-white pupil. Whenever it twitched faintly, his entire face convulsed for a moment—that was the lingering neural backlash of the Harmony Law imprint. Yet his right eye was clear as a star, reflecting the slowly turning Big Dipper in the depths of the sky.

Su Yan lowered his head and gently stroked the jade flute with his fingertips. He had reforged this flute by melting together thirty-seven kinds of cold iron fragments, nine lengths of frozen marrow thread, and a drop of blood from his own heart. It was no longer an ordinary magical artifact, but an "Artifact of Inquiry" bearing the resonant frequencies of seventy-two memory seeds. Every finger hole corresponded to a forgotten name, and every pattern recorded a piece of erased history.

He closed his right eye and brought the mouthpiece to his lips.

When the first note rose, the earth fell silent.

It was neither melodious nor mournful, but a jagged sound that nearly tore the air apart—as if someone far away had violently snapped a taut string