At noon on January 27, as Pandora and Demon Slaying Valley's airship arrived above the Nether Sea in the Ten-Thousand-Mile Gobi, another airship was quietly descending through the whirling snow toward the airship landing field outside Great Tang City.
The Ten-Thousand-Mile Gobi blazed beneath a scorching sun, yet Great Tang City was still caught in a heavy snowfall.
Different places, different climates—much like different states of mind: one burned hot as fire, the other lay cold as ice.
Lan Yunxi stood by the window of the airship cabin, her unfocused, slightly bewildered gaze fixed on the city below as it gradually came into clearer view. The city was prosperous—more prosperous than every city in You Province, and larger than all the cities under Huaiyuan Hall combined. Its master was a young and accomplished imperial noble. Yet at this moment, everything before her—the grand buildings below, the crowds waiting amid the snow and wind to welcome her—held no meaning in Lan Yunxi's eyes. There was not a trace of life in them. Even though she was about to become the mistress of this city, everything here seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with her.
Her engagement to Xuanyuan Wuji was a transaction through and through, and the one who had brokered it was her sect, the Taiyi Mystical Sect.
Not everyone approved of this transaction-like marriage between her and Xuanyuan Wuji. Even her master had privately urged her to consider it carefully, while elders such as Mu Yuan and Mu Lei of Huaiyuan Hall had firmly opposed it. Yet Lan Yunxi had persisted—or rather, submitted to the Taiyi Mystical Sect's arrangements. In this transaction, she had treated herself as merchandise, as the object of trade. What she received in exchange was Huaiyuan Hall formally becoming imperial kin of Great Xia.