The great desert, a full moon!
Silver moonlight shone over the rolling dunes. All was silent, and the night sky was pristine.
In the prison of an ancient city nestled among the dunes, Fu Qingyang felt himself falling into a boundless abyss. He wanted to wake up, yet he kept sinking beyond his control.
After an unknown amount of time, a cool, stimulating sensation jolted him awake. He greedily swallowed the water at his lips.
"Gulp, gulp..."
After several mouthfuls of water, his soul seemed to return to his body. Fu Qingyang struggled to open his eyes, only to feel pain all over. His bones felt as though they had come apart.
A dignified Level Eight Dominator, yet he did not even have the strength to move a finger.
"Envoy Wang, you're awake?"
A head wrapped in a turban leaned close, its face full of concern.
"Deputy Envoy Jiang..." Fu Qingyang instinctively called out the man's identity, and a brief, fragmented memory came flooding in.
His identity in this instance was Wang Ce, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty sent to Tianzhu Kingdom on behalf of the Tang. However, he had encountered civil unrest in Tianzhu. The king of Tianzhu Kingdom had died in the rebellion, and the insurgents who had proclaimed themselves king had pillaged the diplomatic mission, seizing the gifts the Tang Dynasty had presented to Tianzhu.
Wang Ce and the other thirty-odd members of the mission had fought desperately, but the enemy had been too numerous and too powerful. They had all been captured and were temporarily imprisoned in this ancient city's jail.
Fu Qingyang's injuries had been sustained during the resistance.
"Envoy Wang, you're awake?"
More people gathered around him. They were all members of the diplomatic mission.
The desert night was bitterly cold. The prison