Recommendation Tickets, please.
Two chapters today, three thousand words each.
The morning mist over Heaven Dou City had yet to disperse, and the bluestone city walls gleamed in the thin dawn with a cold, ironlike sheen.
The golden iron gates of Heaven Dou Royal Academy had been soaked bright by dew, giving off a cold glint in the morning fog.
Sixteen marble pillars held up the arched portico, each pillar face covered in Purple Vine flowers.
The scraping of the guards' heavy armor startled the gray turtle-doves roosting at the eaves into flight.
Up along the thirty-six basalt steps, the shadow cast by Heaven Dou Royal Academy's main gate happened to cover the final stair.
On both sides of the portico crouched swan stone statues, their pupils inlaid with pigeon-blood stones. When the morning light slanted across the swans' heads, those two points of scarlet would suddenly blaze bright, startling new students hurrying past with books in their arms into a stumbling half-step.
The wind swept past the glazed Swan Geese raised on the triple-eaved hip-and-gable roofs, and in the ripples stirred by the bronze bells at the eaves drifted the mingled scent of Pine Soot ink and ambergris.
A through-draft carried the sounds escaping from a certain splendid meeting room.
The Heaven Dou Prince presiding over the meeting, Xue Shiming, carried himself with extraordinary bearing. Noble yet restrained ornaments were artfully hung over the academy's signature uniform.
A unique fragrance emanated from him, condensed and lingering, curling around him, unusually fresh and pleasant.
The scent came from the Carved Honghu Fragrance Pendant he wore, a true top-tier luxury capable of continuously giving off fragrance for decades, displaying the nobility of his status.
He said softly, "Everyone, please take a look. This is the intelligence we have gathered