Eastern Northern Liang, Drum-Beating Platform.
Drum-Beating Platform stood at the junction of Eastern Lake Circuit and Tianpin Circuit. A fortified pass had been built nearby. Within lay Chengtian Prefecture, lush with water and grass; beyond stretched the sparsely populated eastern plains.
As in the Southern Dynasty, the closer a place was to Capital City, the more its martial factions were inevitably restrained. Ordinary martial wanderers traveling North and South only truly entered the martial world after leaving Eastern Lake Circuit. Thus, Drum-Beating Platform also served as the eastern gateway to the martial world.
News traveled extremely fast in the martial world. Although only two or three days had passed, Drum-Beating Platform, far away on the border of Eastern Lake Circuit, had already caught wind of the rumors just beginning to blow through Capital City.
At noon, countless martial wanderers passed through the streets of the imposing city beneath Drum-Beating Platform. From a roadside tavern came a storyteller's mysterious, almost incantatory voice:
"The world is divided into yin and yang, and people have both dark and bright sides! Don't be fooled by Grand Preceptor Hua's son, Hua Junchen. By day, he's a wealthy young master idling his time away, but once night falls, he becomes an entirely different man..."
The tavern bustled with people from every walk of life who roamed North and South.
At a table beside the window, two traveling swordswomen sat facing each other, listening to the storyteller as well.
The woman on the left wore a green gauze veil hat. Though her face was hidden, her slender, graceful figure was captivating. Her silhouette alone made it clear she was a great beauty.
The white-clad swordswoman opposite her was somewhat taller. She wore a white dress, her face free of makeup, and her bearing seemed very cold. Two