A Deliberately Provoked Reckoning

North of Yu Prefecture, before a station in a small border city.

The sun in the sky was mild, but the ground lay beneath a vast blanket of snow.

It was already late in the ten-day cycle, the season for snowfall. Under the influence of the spiritual energy tides, the distinctions between the four seasons had become far sharper.

Summer was hotter, winter colder. It was hard to imagine that just a month or two ago, this place had still been a sweltering expanse.

Fortunately, spiritual energy was abundant, and crop growth had likewise improved by leaps and bounds.

Even with time growing tighter, the stored grain was enough to prevent widespread famine.

Not to mention that this station stood near the border between two prefectures, where people had always flowed constantly back and forth. Now that the railway had been rebuilt, travel had become even more convenient. Supplies from every corner of the land were transported here, awaiting shipment onward to Heyang City.

After the heavy snow had sealed off the city the day before yesterday, the city station should, by all rights, have relaxed somewhat.

Yet the city was now gripped by panic, with every rustling leaf and startled crane taken for an enemy.

"What are you doing? Who allowed you to leave?"

Beneath the city walls, a group of plainly dressed men posing as ordinary mortals were preparing to slip out through a tiny gap at the side of the wall when a fierce shout rang out, making them all shudder.

Looking up, they saw a squad of cultivators dressed in brocade and splendid robes, looking down upon them from high in the air.

"My lords, my lords, this humble one only came here to scrape together a meal! There's no food left at home. In weather