The Northern Wasteland had long been frozen for ten thousand li. Mountains, rivers, and valleys had all turned snowy white, without a living creature in sight.
Yet within this forbidden land for living things, a party of four had made camp on their way to Tianya Mountain. Now all of them had emerged from their tents and looked up at the night sky, which had turned gold and red.
Wrapped up like a caterpillar, the little girl stood outside the tents with her hands in her pockets. Looking up, she asked:
"Master, what's that?"
Qiu Tianhe wore a sheepskin coat, with a dusting of frost on his hair and beard. After considering it seriously for a moment, he replied:
"Probably sunset clouds."
"But it's nighttime, and there aren't any clouds~"
Xuanyuan Tiangang and his wife stood nearby. This was their first visit to the Northern Wasteland, and they could not work out what had caused the strange phenomenon either. It was too cold outside; after watching for a moment, they wanted to carry the little girl back into the tent and go back to sleep.
Just then, however, they suddenly noticed the golden-red radiance filling the sky retreating toward the northwestern horizon, as though the entire canopy of heaven were moving toward the edge of the world.
Qiu Tianhe judged the direction by eye, then said:
"That glow seems to be coming from Tianya Mountain."
Xuanyuan Tiangang had noticed too. He replied:
"So what if it is? Tianya Mountain is still a long way off. We can't run all the way there... hmm?"
As he spoke, Xuanyuan Tiangang vaguely sensed something amiss and turned to look southeast.
Qiu Tianhe likewise sensed wind and thunder stirring violently in the southeast and put his hand on his saber hilt. Before he could