The wind on Wish-Repayment Ridge was colder than anywhere in the Dragon Palace.
Lin Shisan stood before the dilapidated stone cottage, looking at its half-closed wooden door, an inexplicable excitement stirring in his heart.
Half a step behind him, Zi Yuner stood quietly too, her eyes slightly red.
Inside the stone cottage, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Eldest Princess Zi Ning had already gone inside.
Her long, deep-purple hair was loosely pinned up with a wooden hairpin, and she stood barefoot beside the dust-covered wooden table in the center of the cottage.
She held a letter in her hand, left to her by the Old Purple Sky Dragon King.
The envelope was made of the deep-purple brocade unique to the Dragon Clan.
Its surface bore no decoration, only a dragon-pattern seal at the opening.
Eldest Princess Zi Ning looked down at the letter without opening it for a long time. She merely held it between her fingertips, remaining utterly motionless.
Two more letters lay on the stone table at the back of the cottage.
One bore a dragon-pattern seal at its opening and was meant for Zi Yuner.
The other had no markings at all and lay there simply folded. It was meant for Lin Shisan.
Zi Yuner stood beside Lin Shisan, her gaze passing over Zi Ning's back to settle on the two letters on the stone table.
She recognized the dragon-pattern seal at the opening. It was a seal that successive Dragon Kings of the Purple Sky Dragon Palace used only when passing on the throne.
It was equivalent to the seal of succession on the imperial jade seal of a Human Race dynasty.
Zi Ning took a deep breath, and her heart gradually eased.
Slowly, she unfolded the letter she had held for