Night Journey

Along the border where Great Quan met Northern Jin, dozens of riders escorted a woman: Great Quan Empress Yao Jinzhi.

The two riders closest to Yao Jinzhi were an Upper Five Realms cultivator of unremarkable looks, with the face of a middle-aged woman, whom her aunt had invited from Central Divine Continent to serve as a temporary Guest Official of Great Quan—

And Liu Yourong, the Water God of Pine Needle Lake, whom Yao Jinzhi had summoned at short notice. That was why Liu Yourong had not personally replied to the secret letter sent by flying sword from Jinhuang Mansion.

Three riders followed behind them. Two were powerful border generals, one elderly and one in his prime, neither wearing armor at the moment. Both had illustrious military records and now governed territories of their own.

The third was a young man of dignified bearing, dressed in Daoist robes and wearing a golden crown. Shao Yuanran, a first-rank Guardian of Great Quan, was a Daoist true immortal from Golden Summit Temple, a young Golden Core Guest, and the true matchmaker behind the Peach Leaf Alliance. Shao Yuanran and his master, Daoist Baizhen, had known the borderland Yao family for many years. If not for Liu Zong, Shao Yuanran might even have become the Great Quan Yao family's Chief Guardian.

The riders skirted Fox Town, rebuilt just as it had been. It was only a few yellow-mud walls, after all, and the yamen was no better than a straw nest. It looked as slapdash as it had back then; rebuilding it had been easy.

But the inn outside Fox Town was nothing more than ruined walls. Yao Jinzhi reined in her horse there. Though already forty, the Emperor His Majesty was still stunningly beautiful, and for a long time she did not