Noble Daughter of Tianjin, the Taste of Happiness

Ye Qingyao watched the heavy snow outside the window and fell silent for a moment.

"Wait," she said.

"Wait for Father to return."

"A disaster on this scale isn't something we juniors can interfere with."

"All we can do now is guard the Martial Arts Hall and stay out of the way."

"And—"

Ye Qingyao's gaze grew resolute.

"Practice our fists."

"Only by growing stronger can we protect the people we want to protect in this Age of Chaos."

Li Xiang nodded and clenched his fists.

"Practice!"

Amid the wind and snow, the shouts from the Martial Arts Room rang louder than ever before.

The snow did not let up that afternoon.

A howling wind swept fine snowflakes along, carrying despairing news from Blackwater Ancient Town to Linjiang County.

The situation had collapsed.

The territory for dozens of miles around Blackwater Ancient Town had fallen.

The Ghost Calamity was no longer confined to a deep pool. Like a flood bursting through a dam, it spread unchecked. Several nearby towns were swallowed whole, becoming deserted stretches of Ghost Domain where no living person dared enter.

Hell stood empty; evil ghosts walked among the living.

At the edge of that gray wasteland, a lean figure stood for a long time.

Kong Changkong, a great Confucian scholar of the age, had been badly injured in the earlier fighting. His clothes were in tatters, but his back remained straight.

He looked at the black fog that kept devouring all life, and at the townspeople who had failed to escape and were lost within it forever. He let out a long sigh.

"My strength fell short. I have failed the Saint's teachings."

He looked back again and again, but in the end he could not hold back the surging Ghost Tide. Protecting the last group