The next morning.
Outside the southern gate of Great Wall Prefecture.
Midwinter snow had fallen all night, dyeing everything between heaven and earth a boundless, pure white.
Yet today, an immense, blazing torrent of spiritual power swept away the bitter cold at Great Wall Prefecture's southern gate.
From the city gate to the wayside pavilion ten li beyond, the snow on both sides of the road had been cleared early, and red carpets symbolizing honor and good fortune had been laid down.
Great Wall Prefecture's three Purple Abode powerhouses—Merit Office Chief Zhu Wuji, Astronomical Bureau Director He Wenyan, and Examination Office Chief Shen Xuance—had gathered beneath the pavilion, together with nearly a hundred immortal officials, great and small, who wielded real authority in the Prefectural City.
The scale and ceremony rivaled a reception for an imperial commissioner arriving from the Qingzhou Prefectural Capital!
Yet the man they were seeing off today was merely a County Magistrate newly promoted from Seventh to Sixth Rank and appointed to Anping County, a remote little county under Great Wall Prefecture's jurisdiction.
But everyone knew that this County Magistrate also bore a title capable of making Qingzhou tremble—[Lord of Northern Peace]!
Outside the pavilion, an extravagantly luxurious and imposing convoy stood ready to depart.
At its center was a top-tier enchanted carriage generously provided by He Wenyan of the Astronomical Bureau.
Three Snow-Treading Dragon Steeds pulled it, their bodies snowy white and their four hooves burning with deep-blue spirit flames.
The cabin was fashioned from ten-thousand-year purple strikewood, its surface densely inscribed with spirit-gathering and defensive formations. Even amid this world of ice and snow, it remained as warm as spring in the third month.
Chu Bai's three newly recruited founding aides—Su Mu, Zhao Tie, and Lin Xuan—stood beside the carriage in brand-new Immortal Clerk