The next morning.
The sky was overcast. Dark clouds piled up like spilled ink, and dim daylight filtered through gaps between them. The air was damp; a winter rain was quietly brewing, bringing an inexplicable oppression to the heart.
It was early January. The clammy cold of the south was like a furtive knife, always able to worm in through one's neck and ankles and stab hard.
The people on the streets wore thick cotton clothes, their hands tucked into their sleeves, backs hunched and expressions grave as they streamed toward the Heavenly Secrets Tower.
Today was the day of the court's heaven-sacrificing ceremony. The three hundred boys and girls selected by lot and gathered from the Capital City would be burned to ashes in the sacred fire as an offering to Vast Heaven.
Perhaps even Heaven itself could not bear to watch, which was why the sky was blanketed in gloom.
Wang Beiwang wore a thin, fitted outfit, his weapon wrapped in cloth and strapped to his back. He followed the crowd toward the Heavenly Secrets Tower to observe the heaven-sacrificing ceremony.
This was the court's decree.
The court hoped that everyone, both within and outside officialdom, would attend the ceremony, believing it to be a display of respect and worship for Vast Heaven.
"I heard Yang Er secretly slipped out of the city yesterday and defected to the Northern Dynasty army." Wang Beiwang's ears twitched as he overheard two men whispering ahead of him.
The speaker was a tall, thin young man.
The shorter man fell silent for a moment, then muttered, "If my son had been chosen for the sacrifice and dragged to the square to be burned alive, I'd defect to the Northern Dynasty army too."
The tall young man cursed through gritted teeth, "Using children