Jiannan Circuit's morning fog was thick.
Mist rose from the valleys, swallowing the rolling green peaks whole.
Only a few blurred, dark-blue outlines remained, like ink stains bleeding across rice paper.
The rain from the past few days had long since washed the official road into a miserable state.
Three riders on three horses moved slowly along the road.
Hooves sank into the mud, splashing water with dull, heavy thuds.
All three wore black garments, wolf-fur cloaks over their shoulders, blades at their waists. Clearly, they were no ordinary folk.
After traveling in silence for a while, they came upon a three-way fork in the road.
Just then.
A crisp clatter of hooves drifted unhurriedly from the branch road to their right.
The young man in the lead frowned. The two behind him stopped at once as well, their previously relaxed expressions instantly turning grave.
As one, all three placed their hands on the hilts of their blades.
The fog churned.
A figure slowly emerged from within it.
Even after the figure drew close enough for them to make out the newcomer, the three men did not relax in the slightest.
The newcomer was also riding a black horse, though it looked entirely ordinary, with nothing exceptional about it.
The rider was a young girl.
She wore the plainest black clothes, her long hair casually tied behind her head with a strip of cloth. Though she wore no makeup, that face of hers was almost excessively beautiful.
For such a stunning young girl to suddenly appear on an official road in this desolate wilderness was rather strange.
"..."
The three had no intention of speaking, and neither did the girl.
She merely cast them a sidelong glance, then lightly tapped her horse's flank. The black horse began to walk, passing