Passage Province, Shangyu Commandery, Flying Cloud City...
Night had fallen, and the streetlamps of Anping City were lit. Business began to pick up at the city's inns and restaurants. Outside a restaurant called Ruyi Winehouse on Vermilion Bird Avenue in Flying Cloud City, a waiter with a white towel draped over his shoulder was energetically soliciting passersby.
"Hey, honored guests, please come in! Our prices are fair, and we never cheat the young or the old. Fine wine and delicious food—we have it all..."
Flying Cloud City had originally been a major city in Shangyu Commandery, with a population of over four million. Yet during the Blood Men disaster two years earlier, more than a dozen commanderies in Passage Province had been affected, and Shangyu Commandery had been one of the hardest-hit areas. Flying Cloud City had likewise suffered tremendous losses in that disaster. The entire city, along with dozens of towns outside it, had nearly been reduced to ruins. Of Flying Cloud City's population of over four million, fewer than four hundred thousand had survived.
More than two years had passed. The Blood Men disaster in Shangyu Commandery, Passage Province, had basically been quelled. At the very least, there were no longer any traces of Blood Men in the cities or countryside. Even if a few remained, they were said to have fled into the deep mountains and ancient forests, where they were being hunted by bounty hunters who wanted money more than their lives. Yet the wounds the Blood Men disaster had left upon Flying Cloud City were difficult to heal in a short time.
Although Flying Cloud City's reconstruction had continued throughout the past two years, traces left by the Blood Men disaster could still be seen everywhere. Repairs to some sections of the city walls had