At dusk, Tigerhold City, Tiger-Embracing Mountain, Huaiyuan Hall's ancestral hall...
By the time Zhang Tie's flying boat arrived at Tiger-Embracing Mountain, the sun was just about to set. From the mountain, one could watch ten thousand streaks of sunset glow slowly sink beneath the horizon, a sight with a beauty all its own.
Tiger-Embracing Mountain beneath the evening sun carried an added air of solemnity. Huaiyuan Hall's ancestral hall in particular seemed especially majestic, its three golden characters—"Huaiyuan Hall"—glittering above the entrance in the lingering rays of the setting sun.
The afterglow slowly shifted from the square outside the ancestral hall to its gate, then from the gate to the expanse of golden glazed tiles along its roof ridge and the row of auspicious beasts perched upon the eaves.
Before the last light of the setting sun had moved away from that row of auspicious beasts, bronze cauldrons filled with whale oil had already been lit throughout the ancestral hall and the square outside. The flames burning within them illuminated the hall inside and out in brilliant brightness.
"Greetings, Elder Mu Shen..." The flying boat hovered above the square outside the ancestral hall. As soon as Zhang Tie stepped off, two family stewards came forward to welcome him.
Zhang Tie had come alone today. He had brought neither Bai Suxian nor Yan Feiqing. He had come by himself to meet Zhang Taixuan.
"Has the family head arrived?" Zhang Tie asked calmly, glancing at the two stewards.
"He has already arrived and is waiting for Elder Mu Shen in the ancestral hall," one of the family stewards answered respectfully.
"Pass down my order. I have important matters to discuss with the family head today. Without a summons or permission, no one is to approach the ancestral hall or the square around