The narrow northern alleyway was dark, damp, and smelled of stagnant rainwater.
Grandmaster Dan Chen stumbled over broken cobblestones, his violet master robes torn to shreds and drenched in his own dark, clotted blood. He clutched his chest, his Golden Core screaming in agony from the toxic backlash of the forbidden soul-burning oil.
“I need to reach the teleportation gate,” Dan Chen wheezed, his gray beard quivering in terror. “Once I reach the Central Imperial City, the Grand Patriarch will protect me from these frontier barbarians.”
Whoosh!
A blinding curtain of blue frost dropped from the roof tiles, freezing the alleyway thirty paces ahead into solid glacial ice.
A heartbeat later, a roaring pillar of golden solar fire erupted directly behind him.
Hovering in the frosty air was Chu Lingxiao, her blue sleeves fluttering like cold winter winds, her Taichu Benevolence Sword unsheathed by three inches.
Landing at the mouth of the alley was Mu Qing, her thirty-meter golden phoenix wings casting a warm, sovereign glow over the damp brick walls. Her Phoenix Divine Spear was planted firmly into the cobblestones.
