At the end of Dragon Gate Road lay Azure Cliff City.
Heaven's Gate Pass stood outside the city.
Azure Cliff City had been built against a sheer cliff. The city sprawled wide, its walls towering, thick and imposing, soaring into the clouds.
Within stood magnificent gate towers and archery towers, along with residential districts bustling with people going about their lives. It was lively and prosperous, and also a trading hub between the frontier of Great Yu and the Northern Cold Kingdom, with endless streams of carriages and horses.
But that described eight hundred years ago.
Now.
All that remained here was a small mound of earth.
The words "Azure Cliff" were carved on the mound. This was the city.
A sea of military tents surrounded the small mound, firmly entrenched around it.
Several battle flags had been planted along the edge of the encampment.
The flags snapped in the bitter wind, bearing the two ancient characters for "Heavenly Origin."
These were the Li Family's flags.
Each of the Five Divine General Residences had its own title. The Wang Family's was the Heavenly Illumination Divine General Residence, while the Li Family's was the Heavenly Origin Divine General Residence.
At that moment, the bitter wind howled, sweeping up dust and sand.
Beside the sheer cliff behind the military tents, however, lay burial mounds of varying sizes. Tattered scraps of wood carved into memorial tablets had been carelessly planted on them, serving as both gravestones and markers of who the people buried beneath had once been.
Huff, huff.
Nearby, several soldiers in battered armor were digging pits with shovels.
Before long, several more men brought over a stretcher. On it lay a hand, part of a thigh, torn armor, and a crushed helmet.
Once the pit was dug, they placed these inside,