Going Alone to the Meeting

Dusk.

Wang Dafa sat in the hall of the mansion.

He looked to his left, where the sea lay. Over the water, a mass of low pressure churned and gathered, drawing in vast swaths of dark clouds and whipping up restless waves. The sea wind rustled through the hall. Clumps of black clouds rode the wind toward them, enveloping the broad sea beneath an immense shadow. Everything in sight was draped in deep darkness, and a bleak chill seeped through his entire body.

Turning to look right, he saw the setting sun.

Golden-red sunlight spread into countless red and purple clouds, like burning fire, like flowing blood, like billowing gun smoke, locked in a breathtakingly grand confrontation with the clouds blanketing the sky.

But in Wang Dafa's eyes, a sunset was still only a sunset. No matter how beautiful, brilliant, or scorching it was, it would only bloom for a fleeting instant.

The biting wind carried by those dark clouds would be the ruler of the long night.

"Hiss..." Wang Dafa gently covered his forehead with one hand and drew in a deep breath, as though enduring something. A moment later, he abruptly opened his eyes, his gaze sharp.

In his field of vision, a tall figure appeared at the mansion entrance, framed against the brilliant sunset.

It was Shi Tiexin.

The sunset outlined him in golden-red edges of blood and fire. His expression was solemn, his gaze unwavering.

The bodyguards inside the mansion rushed out, watching Shi Tiexin with both wariness and bewilderment, unsure what to do. The timing was simply too delicate—mountain rain was about to come, and the wind had already filled the tower, yet neither side had torn off the mask. The bodyguards had never expected Shi Tiexin to come knocking at such a juncture. At