Unraveling the Silk Cocoon

While Lin Qi and Princess Qingli were speaking frankly and opening their hearts to one another, eight hundred li outside Twin Sun Red Dragon City, a gigantic painted pleasure boat lay motionless in the middle of a surging river. No anchor had been dropped, yet no matter how the river waves battered it, the boat remained exactly where it was. In the night, the stagnant vessel looked like a ghostly shadow.

Inside the pleasure boat, in one of its unknown-numbered cabins, dozens of large chairs were arranged in a circle. Under the dim lights, a group of people with differing appearances sat quietly in those chairs. The atmosphere in the cabin was as heavy and still as lead, and unfathomably eerie.

Among them were the three abbots of the Heavenly Temple, Jiafanluo, the Miro Divine Cult's representative in the Eastern Continent, Princess Ao Wan of the League of Myriad Nations, and several dozen others of every kind. All of them carried themselves with dignified composure, clearly people long accustomed to high positions.

The most eye-catching among them were three beastfolk seated on specially made chairs, their bodies covered from head to toe in long silver fur: a snow bear, a snow wolf, and a snow leopard. They stood over five meters tall, and even sitting, were more than three meters high. Their silver fur was over a foot long, with a faint golden gleam rippling over it. This was the outward mark of the beastfolk royal bloodline!

When beastfolk royalty refused to assume human form and insisted on retaining their beastfolk state, the faint golden radiance on their fur was the finest proof of their status. Clearly, these three were royal members of the Snowfield Federation. Judging by the colors of their robes and the styles of certain ornaments, their