Deep within the forbidden zone:
By Mirror Moon Lake, where the Ninth Princess had once tried to establish her foundation, only for it to be destroyed by boundless evil:
A Bronze Chariot radiating soft light circled the lakeshore.
Upon the chariot:
Two valiant women sat upright in the driver's seat, urging the chariot onward.
A gentle woman in Brocade Clothes leaned against the carriage wall, sitting cross-legged.
A cold beauty lay across her knees.
The cold beauty stared blankly at the pitch-black sky, lost in a daze like a living corpse.
From time to time, a candle flame flew from her eyes and vanished into the chariot.
Thirty-six Bronze War Horses neighed, their hooves stamping the ground and leaving behind burning hoofprints.
From afar, they looked like blazing scales branded into the earth.
As the wheels turned, two trails of fire spread out behind them.
Darkness churned all around them, trying to extinguish the flames.
Yet as the flames burned, they instead forced the dense darkness to retreat without end.
Within the darkness came all manner of teeth-gritting voices, curses, abuse, and shouts directed at those on the chariot.
However:
The four women aboard the chariot were completely immune to it all.
What did it matter if thousands pointed fingers at them? What did it matter if tens of thousands shouted at them?
They were all the sort who did not give a damn.
After spending so long with Chu Qing, these curses and shouts were nothing at all.
Suddenly, the cold beauty sitting up said, "Someone's coming!"
The gentle woman rubbed her little hand across her face twice. "Why are you so excited?"
The cold beauty said icily, "I've been refining your strange treasure day and night."
"For an entire year—an entire year—I haven't stepped off this chariot."
"An