That night.
A figure silently rose from the Princess's Residence and stepped into the night, merging soundlessly into the vast northern starry sky like a drifting feather.
Lu Changfeng had alerted no one. He wanted to face that legendary Divine Artifact alone and test the conjecture growing ever clearer in his mind.
Meanwhile, a thousand miles away, the bloody battle still raged atop the walls of Elm Grove City.
Wang Jingxian cleaved apart another lunging monster, then leaned against a ruined battlement, gasping for breath. Her silver armor was already battered beyond recognition, her long hair hung disheveled over her shoulders, and exhaustion and blood covered her usually cool, composed face.
Below the walls, the Göktürks' war drums never ceased.
Those undefeated monsters surged like a tide that could never be slain, wave after wave.
She raised her head toward the southern night sky, shrouded in battle smoke, without a single star visible.
The thought in her heart grew clearer and more searing.
When... when will you finally come?
She did not know.
Beneath the very sky she gazed upon, the figure she yearned for day and night was stepping across the stars, racing a thousand miles toward her.
The night was black as ink.
Lu Changfeng headed north across the stars, his robes snapping in the fierce winds.
He flew past sleeping cities and the Yellow River winding like a silver ribbon. In less than a night, he had left a thousand miles of mountains and passes behind.
When a sliver of fish-belly white appeared in the east, a smell of blood so thick it seemed almost solid struck his nostrils first.
Then, at the edge of his vision, appeared the solitary city, still standing amid the battle smoke, yet riddled with wounds.
Elm Grove City.
Lu Changfeng paused