A fine drizzle had begun falling from the sky that morning. By noon, it had turned into a torrential downpour, rain pouring down in sheets as if emptied from buckets, shrouding all of Xuanyuan Hill in a veil of mist.
Because of the rain, there were far fewer pedestrians on the streets of Imperial Emperor City. The occasional few who passed by hurried along in rain capes, rarely stopping.
Over the past few months, as news arrived of the Devil Race's tide-like offensive in the west and the successive fall of Plow Province and Xian Province, the atmosphere throughout Xuanyuan Hill had become as gloomy and overcast as the weather these past few days. Everyone felt as though a heavy scale weight were pressing on their hearts. Things were slightly better within Imperial Emperor City, but outside it, the businesses of taverns, restaurants, songhouses, and dance halls had suddenly gone cold as well.
With the nation facing calamity, how many people could still be in the mood for pleasure and revelry?
To support the soldiers at the front, it was said that even His Highness the Crown Prince had ordered cuts to all expenses within the imperial palace. Everything in the palace had been simplified, and all diplomatic banquets held by the Court of Diplomatic Reception and the ambassadors from various nations had been canceled. Once orders came down from above, those below naturally did not dare go overboard. Even the extravagantly wealthy could only shut themselves inside their own courtyards if they wanted to indulge at such a time, keeping everything low-key and no longer daring to flaunt their wealth.
The entire Great Emperor Palace was likewise shrouded in bleak, cold rain mist.
Rainwater poured down from clouds as dark as lead and ink, washing over the reddish-gold glazed