The thin snow of early spring could not cover the whole earth.
Divine Capital's north gate had already been rebuilt. Not far outside the city, at the former site of Depu, stood a waystation.
The triangular banner of the tea stall beside the waystation swayed gently in the wind.
Inside the tea stall, two sixteen-year-old girls sat at a table, chattering away. One wore red, the other green.
Travelers entering and leaving the tea stall occasionally glanced at the two girls. Their eyes swept over the girls' hairpins, clothing, jade waist ornaments, and boots before immediately shifting away. They neither looked nor listened.
A few merchants took one look and murmured among themselves.
"Whose daughters are they? So young, yet they wear magical artifacts on their heads and precious jade at their waists."
"They look like maids, but they are dressed like this. They must belong to some top-tier princely household."
"Perhaps some fool who does not know better..."
"Near the capital, anyone who dared provoke someone so conspicuous would have long since been wiped out."
After a while, the two girls suddenly stopped together and looked out the window. Their gazes fell upon a carriage arriving from the north. After watching it for a moment, they walked out of the tea stall.
The people inside looked over and curiously gazed outside.
The seemingly ordinary carriage came to a stop. The driver stared at the two girls, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Literary Cultivation guards the four directions. Why has the Martial King chosen to appear?"
Everyone in the tea stall froze, then scattered in an instant like a pack of mice that had encountered a great cat, fleeing in all directions.
The girl in red said with a smile, "My Highness said that the visitor need only take one punch."