Heavy snow drifted down in flurries from the sky, blanketing the vast Lingwu City in silver and making it seem like a city of ice and snow.
Walking through its streets and alleys, one could see snow pits a full foot deep everywhere. One step into them, and a chill seeped up from the soles of one's feet, shooting straight to the crown of the head.
The bitter cold and harsh climate had done nothing to dampen the city's lively atmosphere. Peddlers and laborers still clung to the streets and alleys like ants, sustaining the city's vivid, vigorous vitality.
Compared with the helpless confusion during last year's Great Snow Disaster, this year's snowfall was no better, and the temperatures were even more frigid, but at least they had made preparations.
Every household in the city had stocked up on food, cotton batting, medicinal herbs, firewood, and coal.
Their ability to withstand the bitter climate had improved enormously.
Naturally, far fewer people suffered disaster or died because of the severe cold. Even those who had been insufficiently prepared, or families in especially desperate poverty, could barely scrape by with the care and relief provided by some of Lingwu City's clans, powerful families, and sects.
Atop the Eastern City Tower, Beitang He stood surrounded by several expert guards. Draped in a spotless white, fluffy fox-fur cloak, he folded his arms across his chest and gazed with satisfied greed at the scene below, still so full of life and the warmth of everyday living despite the heavy snow.
Below his feet, a queue stretched like a long dragon, orderly and quiet as it lined up at the city gate. People came and went in an endless stream, displaying the city's vigorous vitality.
A city could never shut itself away or become a stagnant