"..."
Morning.
Another winter had come. Over the Great Li Dynasty, heavy snow drifted down like torn cotton batting scattered through the sky.
A hundred and ten years had not brought many changes to this dynasty.
In city after city, the bluestone streets had been swept clean. Shops on both sides had removed their door panels early, and the steam from piping-hot buns mingled with the white vapor exhaled by mortals, lending the human world a deeply comforting air of everyday life.
Su Yueli wore a somewhat oversized cloak that concealed her blue-white long dress as she walked through the crowd.
She made no effort to inquire about the rising geniuses of the cultivation world, nor did she spare any attention for the Immortal Dao disciples flying by on swords.
Now that her injuries had healed and her strength had returned to the Thirteenth Realm, those immortal masters whom everyone else regarded as impossibly lofty were merely weeds that could wither at any moment in the long river of time.
She merely... followed the somewhat blurred memories in her mind, walking in one direction.
Fengling City had once been the gathering place of Great Li's mortal merchants long ago.
It was also one of the few places in her life that had ever felt warm... and yet had been an utterly absurd beginning.
In a corner of South Street in Fengling City stood an abandoned temple that had long since fallen into utter ruin.
Its plaque had rotted into pulp, while half its roof had collapsed and smashed the clay statues of gods within.
Snow fell through the holes in the roof, covering the piles of dead grass and several corpses frozen stiff beneath a white blanket.
Those who had died in the snowy weather were all homeless beggars and