The Sunstriders Court stood in the far east, beside Sunrise Valley. For generation after generation, they had watched the sun rise from an abyss in the distant void, yet they could neither touch it nor fathom it, finding it utterly mysterious.
The Queen's palace had also been built outside the valley, established with a thought from the Heavenly Dao.
Outside the palace, elite disciples of the Cloudreach Sect stood solemnly, heads high and chests out, looking at the Giants kowtowing devoutly farther out.
The depths of Yanggu were the true end of the world, inaccessible to anyone else. Only Her Majesty the Empress could establish a palace here, venture down to the valley floor to seek the place of sunrise, and bathe in the morning sun as she contemplated the Heavenly Dao.
That alone was enough to keep the Sunstriders, who had pursued the sun for ten thousand years, kowtowing without end.
The Cloudreach Sect disciples were immensely proud too. How could you uncivilized folk possibly comprehend our Sect Leader's strength?
Previously, the Heavenly Dao had delivered a single divine proclamation before falling silent, precisely to diminish his presence and become mysterious and elusive instead. The ruler standing before the world was Qiu Wuji. Apart from Dabei and a handful of others, most people regarded the Heavenly Dao as something abstract and the Empress as someone real, the absolute sovereign shared by both continents.
Her declaration at the assembly had been domineering too. A glare from her phoenix eyes alone could leave people trembling, afraid to speak.
How was their great sovereign capturing the sun in the depths of Yanggu?
The Giants waited with reverent anticipation, hoping to witness a miracle.
The depths of Yanggu were not the abyss of fire and lava people imagined. Instead, they were a lovely,