Bintie City

The iron-clad cartwheels rolled slowly, leaving two deep tracks across the somewhat withered yellow grass.

Sitting in the carriage, Li Huowang looked over the grassland before him, recalling his last experience in this place.

He actually knew little about Qingqiu. Other than knowing that most people here belonged to nomadic tribes, and that its people were lean, dark-skinned, and wiry, he understood little else.

Oh, right. He also remembered Qingqiu's two highly unusual sects: Zhongyin Temple, which worshiped death, and the bizarre Lion Dance Palace.

"The grass in Qingqiu has really turned yellow. Could this be an omen of something?" Li Huowang leaned slightly to the left, his fingers brushing through the yellow grass.

Then he recalled the recent heavenly calamity. That disaster, which had robbed people of taste and smell, had vanished after lasting only three short days.

That was hardly cause for celebration. This calamity had been insignificant, but what if the next one was terribly severe?

Li Huowang dearly wanted to find out what was happening, but unless he went to White Jade Capital now, no one could know what had happened in Beyond the Heavens.

Just then, his exceptionally keen eyesight spotted a tiny black dot upon the distant yellow horizon.

As the carriage drew closer, the black dot gradually grew larger, eventually revealing the outline of a city. It continued to expand as they approached.

"So this is Qingqiu's Bintie City?" Li Huowang murmured as he looked toward it.

He had made some preparations before coming. This was Qingqiu's only city, and likewise its capital.

In a place like Qingqiu, where there was neither wood nor stone, building a city was nearly impossible. Yet Bintie City alone had risen from the ground by sheer force in an empty place devoid of materials.

Qingqiu's ruler, the