Misty Cloud Sect, summit of the main peak.
A magnificent hall wreathed in clouds had been carved from a single piece of Cloud-Top White Stone. Its hundred-zhang pillars propped up the heavens, vanishing into the light and drifting clouds beneath the dome. The cold fragrance of a thousand-year-old sandalwood, burned to ash, mingled with the sharp chill unique to the mountaintop, silently ebbing and flowing through the hall.
Those who could stand here were all wielders of power in the Jia Ma Empire.
At this moment, however, the imposing hall, large enough to hold a thousand people, contained only a handful of figures. Every one of them was an elder of the Misty Cloud Sect, someone whose mere stomp could make an entire faction tremble.
Their gazes were all focused on the end of the ninety-nine white jade steps—the Sect Master's throne, symbol of supreme authority.
A figure sat quietly upon it.
She wore an elegant moon-white robe patterned with clouds. Her three thousand strands of dark hair were loosely gathered with a simple jade hairpin, revealing a face of stately, breathtaking beauty. Her presence was like a lone cloud atop a mountain, like the cold moon in the heavens—ethereal and inscrutable, yet imbued with the aloof majesty of one who looked down upon all living things.
Yun Yun, Sect Master of the Misty Cloud Sect.
She sat there in silence, without releasing a trace of Dou Qi, yet her invisible aura filled the hall, leaving the Dou Wang elders so oppressed that even their breathing unconsciously caught in their throats.
Between her fingers, she held a secret letter delivered by a specially trained bird.
Below the steps, an intelligence elder bowed as he gave his report. His voice sounded somewhat hoarse, as though he were straining to suppress his