Qin Keqing climbed the bluestone steps outside the great hall, all the way to the highest point in Jade Dragon City.
Snow fell thickly in the Northern Lands. The wind hurled grains of snow into her face, scraping her skin painfully.
She did not raise her protective true qi, letting snowflakes settle on her shoulders until they soon formed a white layer.
In the distance, the thousand-foot divine statue stood amid the wind and snow, its head lowered, its golden eyes dull and lightless as it gazed down impassively over the entire city.
Below the walls, the flames in the Mortal camps swayed wildly in the wind. White steam rising from the boilers was swallowed by the snowy haze almost as soon as it appeared.
She pressed both hands against the wall's bricks, her knuckles whitening with the force.
"Then consider her my Dao Companion."
Those words had circled through her mind countless times. When Zhou Xuan had spoken them in the great hall, his tone had been far too calm, without hesitation or concealment.
She understood the situation perfectly well.
Old foxes like Han Qingyuan had used their seniority and cultivation to bear down on others. Zhou Xuan had needed to give Lin Qingzhu a status that could hold the line beyond all dispute.
If control of the Alliance's finances fell into the Fallen Sect's hands, the entire defensive line in the Northern Lands would rot through in less than half a month.
Rationally, it made perfect sense.
Yet her heart felt stifled. So stifled she could barely breathe.
Qin Keqing closed her eyes, her mind filled with the image of Lin Qingzhu standing in the center of the great hall, clutching her account books.
That woman, whose cultivation was only at foundation establishment, had endured the oppressive might