The iron chain bridges were gone.
Gu Changsheng stepped down from the carriage footbed and walked to the frosty lip of the Cloud-Abyss cliff. His boots crunched on black ice and shattered granite. Fifty feet ahead of him, eight thick iron cables hung over the edge of the precipice, clanking in the freezing wind.
The cut ends of the iron links were smooth as mirrors. Someone had sliced through three-inch forged steel with a single sword wave.
Below the severed chains, the chasm dropped straight down into a boiling sea of black clouds. Every few seconds, a silver blade of wind tore up from the depths and shaved curls of stone off the cliff face.
“Standard Rank 5 Gale Zone,” eleven-year-old Ye Xiao said, walking up beside his adoptive father. He pushed his [Clear-Sky Scholarly Glasses] up his nose and held a brass wind-dial out over the ledge. The needle spun hard against the glass casing.
“Wind velocity exceeds four hundred miles an hour, Dad. The upward shear carries stray sword qi. If we drive the [Spring-Shock Luxury Caravan] off this ledge, the wooden axles will snap in three breaths.”
“And the soup will spill,” ten-year-old Gu Nian added seriously. He stood on Gu Changsheng’s other side, one small hand resting on his yellow schoolbag and the other holding down his bright yellow bunny apron so the wind wouldn’t flip it over his head. His dark eyes narrowed as he looked across the chasm toward the distant white jade walls…
