Saint Jia Ma City, Central Plaza.
The sky was clear as a wash, the blazing sun molten gold.
The vast plaza of blue-gray stone had been scorched white-hot by the sun. Now, it was already packed with a sea of people, the clamorous din nearly strong enough to overturn the clouds above. Countless gazes—some reverent, some feverish—converged like rivers flowing into the sea upon the judging platform at the center of the plaza, built from colossal hundred-zhang stones.
Flags stood in ranks around the platform, snapping in the hot wind. The wealthy and powerful from every corner of the empire occupied the best seats for viewing. Those great figures who ordinarily looked down their noses at everyone were now no different from common folk: craning their necks, their faces brimming with burning anticipation.
Once every ten years.
The Jia Ma Empire Alchemist Conference.
It was not merely a ladder to heaven for young alchemists hoping to leap through the Dragon Gate; it was also the empire's grandest feast, where its great powers could glimpse the future and recruit the finest talents.
"Dong—!"
A distant, ancient bell rang out from deep within the imperial city, its booming note instantly suppressing the noise and clamor of hundreds of thousands in the plaza.
In the utter silence, several figures slowly approached along a passage carved through the crowd by the Royal Guard, bathed in the attention of the masses.
At their head should have been Fa Ma, president of the Alchemist Guild.
Yet this six-rank alchemy grandmaster, revered as a pillar of the empire's alchemy world, did not take the foremost position today. He bowed slightly and walked half a step behind, respectfully yielding that supreme place to the person beside him.
It was a mysterious figure in a voluminous dark robe, a