The enormous ship, a thousand feet long, swept overhead, blotting out the clouds and sun.
"We're here. Luo City is just ahead."
Jiang Wei's voice sounded from the bow, his tone calm as his gaze swept over the city below.
The main city of the Luo Family of Qingyun Province was reasonably large, but compared with the Jiang Family's many Divine Islands, suspended above the highest heavens in all their majestic splendor, it was undoubtedly far more "down to earth."
Luo Yue also stood beside the railing, looking down at the city with curiosity in her ice-blue eyes.
Unlike Jiang Wei, she felt that although Luo City fell far short of the grandeur and immortal grace of the Jiang Family's floating Divine Islands, it possessed a weight of its own, rooted in the earth and steeped in a thousand years of history.
Its towering walls were built from enormous blocks of pitch-black metallic stone, covered in sword cuts, axe marks, and ancient formation patterns that silently recounted the storms of ages past.
Buildings stood packed together like scales on a fish or teeth in a comb, intersected by a web of streets where streams of people could clearly be seen moving like ants.
The central district was noticeably more magnificent. Its sprawling cluster of residences formed the heart of the Luo Family.
The warship did not fly directly over Luo City.
Instead, it slowly descended onto an open stretch of ground several miles outside the gates.
Powerful fluctuations of divine power and gusts of air swept dust from the ground, drawing the attention of the Luo Family cultivators stationed on the walls and near the gates. Awe filled their faces, along with a barely perceptible trace of tension.
The cabin door opened, and Luo Yue, Jiang Wei, and several dozen accompanying Jiang Family guards filed out.
The moment she stepped onto solid ground, Luo Yue sensed an atmosphere entirely different from that of the Jiang Family's Divine Islands.
The spiritual energy here was nowhere near as rich or pure as on the Divine Islands. It carried the dryness and roughness peculiar to the Northern Region, and even the air seemed tinged with faint traces of rust and dust.
"Little Yue, that Silver-Scaled Beast is yours. Ride that one." As he spoke, Jiang Wei had already mounted an exotic beast covered in patterned armor.
Several dozen Jiang Family guards had gathered around him, all riding exotic beasts and clad in divine iron armor. The savage beasts beneath them, creatures of Desolate Antiquity, bristled with scales and radiated a murderous chill.
"Where's my youngest aunt?"
Luo Yue looked around, but seeing no sign of Luo Qingluan, she could not help asking.
Jiang Wei glanced behind him and shook his head. "She left the ship as soon as we entered Qingyun Province."
Luo Yue: "..."
That alone showed just how unreliable her youngest aunt was.
The blue-black city gates slowly opened amid the heavy grinding of machinery, stirring up a cloud of dust.
The captain of the gate guards led his men in a respectful salute. His gaze flicked over Jiang Wei and the several dozen murderous-looking Jiang Family iron guards behind him before finally settling on the silver-haired little girl riding a slightly smaller beast in front of Jiang Wei, under his protection.
As a trusted subordinate directly serving the Luo Family, he naturally recognized this young miss, with her unmistakable ice-blue eyes and waist-length silver hair.
"Welcome, Young Master Wei! Welcome... Miss Jiang Yue, back to the city!" the captain called in a booming voice, deliberately emphasizing "Jiang Yue." His words echoed clearly through the rather hushed gateway.
Luo Yue could plainly feel the awed gazes the guards below directed at her.
Jiang Wei seemed not to hear, or perhaps simply did not care. He gave a slight nod in acknowledgment of their salute, then gently squeezed his mount's flanks.
The scaled beast beneath him, covered in arcane patterns, gave a low growl and took the lead into the city along the bluestone road. Several dozen Jiang Family iron guards followed close behind, their armor clanking as an invisible aura of murderous severity and authority spread around them.
The members of the Luo Family's collateral branches who had been peering out from either side, along with passersby in Luo City, instinctively held their breath and backed away, clearing a broad path.
Once they had passed, whispers immediately rose along the street again.
"Are those people from the Jiang Family? Why have they come to Luo City too? Could they also be here for the divine source?"
"Shh... keep quiet! The important people from the Jiang Family are still here!"
The whispers spread through the crowd.
The interior of Luo City and the Jiang Family's floating Divine Islands were two entirely different worlds.
Life here carried a stronger scent of hearth smoke, but also a rougher edge.
Shops and inns lined the broad streets, while hawkers, porters, smithies, and children mingled in the bustling clamor of everyday life.
Yet when Jiang Wei and the imposing Jiang Family procession passed, every voice instinctively dropped. Countless gazes converged on them, filled with surprise and scrutiny, but above all with a bone-deep awe of a Desolate Ancient Family.
Luo Yue's gaze swept over the buildings and crowds on either side of the street.
She could sense the unease hidden beneath that awe. The Luo Family had just endured a great calamity. Although its pillar, Old Master Luo, had awakened, the turmoil within the family had clearly not entirely subsided. The Jiang Family's arrival was like a massive stone hurled into a lake whose waters were already restless.
The procession headed straight for the most magnificent cluster of buildings in the city center-the Luo Residence.
From a distance, they could see that the gates of the Luo Residence already stood wide open.
Several dozen key members of the Luo Family stood outside. At their head were three middle-aged men with steady auras, though exhaustion and worry remained etched between their brows. They were Luo Yue's three uncles.
Behind them stood several Luo Family elders and stewards.
When Jiang Wei reined in his mount and dismounted with Luo Yue, her three uncles immediately came forward.
Leading them was a middle-aged man with a square face and sharp eyes-Luo Yue's third uncle, Luo Qingying. He forced out a faint smile and cupped his hands toward Jiang Wei.
"Thank you for making this long journey, Young Master Wei. Everyone in the Luo Family is deeply grateful! Please, come inside and rest."
His gaze then fell on Luo Yue beside Jiang Wei, and his expression instantly grew exceedingly complicated.
He opened his mouth, but the once-familiar "Little Yue" caught in his throat, finally emerging as a somewhat strained, "...Miss Jiang Yue."
That form of address was like an invisible boundary, drawn clearly between Luo Yue and the Luo Family.
"You're too kind, Third Master Luo."
Jiang Wei returned the greeting without servility or arrogance. His voice was calm, carrying the detachment peculiar to a scion of a great family. "At the Sacred Lord's command, I escorted Little Yue here to attend to her family's affairs."
"The Sacred Lord made it clear that, since Jiang Yue is our family's divine maiden, we will naturally not stand by with folded arms when her father's family is in trouble. Has Old Master Luo's health improved?"
Luo Qingying hurriedly replied, "We are grateful for the Jiang Family Sacred Lord's concern. The Jiang Family's divine physician worked wonders, restoring life with his healing hands. The old master has awakened and is currently regulating his breathing in a quiet room."
"Young Master Wei, Miss Jiang Yue, and our honored guests from the Jiang Family, please follow me to the Conference Hall for tea."
Hearing her third uncle address her so distantly, Luo Yue could not help interrupting him. "Third Uncle, no matter what, you're still my third uncle. Just call me Little
Yue."
When Luo Qingying heard Luo Yue call him Third Uncle and tell him to call her Little Yue, the tension in the middle-aged man's face finally eased a little.
His gaze swept over Jiang Wei behind Luo Yue and the several dozen Jiang Family iron guards, their auras deep and steady, their armor cold and forbidding, before returning to her.
He drew a deep breath, his voice lowering slightly. "Your third uncle was being too rigid."
Luo Qingying stepped aside to clear the way. As he led them into the Luo Residence, he sighed.
"The old master will surely be comforted to know that Little Yue has come back to see him. It's just that the winds blowing through Qingyun Province have grown rather fierce of late."
Those words were like a key, instantly opening the floodgates of the oppressive atmosphere hanging over Luo City.
Old Master Luo had been unconscious for a mere seven days, yet everyone in the Luo Family had already tasted the suffocating pressure of "wind filling the tower before the mountain storm arrives."
That much was clear from her third uncle's exhausted face.
How much of it was an act, however, Luo Yue could not say.