On New Year's Eve, the Pan family sat together atop Dingfeng Town's northern gate tower, keeping watch.
That night, everyone in Dingfeng Town whose Internal Power was strong enough to keep them fighting in the bitter cold had gathered on the walls. They spread out and kept a careful watch.
Those whose Internal Power was weaker, and who could not endure the cold as well, formed a Patrol Team and searched the town.
The Lightness Skill experts, led by the three men of the Han Family, held the Town Office with the Town Deputy and Town Commandant, ready to relay messages and rush to anyone's aid.
Every New Year's Eve was an ordeal for the Northlands.
The Northlands lay beyond the Nine Provinces Grand Array. Even the Sky Hero Dynasty had never ruled this place. Through countless long years, the powers of the Central Plains had never established a foothold here.
That meant the Northlands had none of the protection offered by the countless great Formations linking mountains and rivers throughout the Nine Provinces.
All that protected the Northlands was a ring of Formations built on the Golden City Defense Line. Those Formations were powerful enough: once fully activated, even Wilderness People and Wilderness Beasts whose strength rivaled Demon Gods or Immortals and Buddhas could not break through.
But the Golden City Grand Array could only defend against Wilderness People and Wilderness Beasts from outside. It could not stop the demons and monsters already within the Northlands.
At each year's end and beginning, Fortune flowed through the mortal world. Demons often seized the interval after the previous year's Fortune had dispersed but before the new year's Fortune had risen to attack.
That did not happen within the Nine Provinces. Formations stood everywhere, and countless sages and Great Sages had long