The autumn morning was calm and golden across the wooden veranda of the Frost-Pine Courtyard at the center of the High Origin Heaven.
Forty-five-year-old Gu Changsheng (Rank 10 Peak Supreme Dao-Father) sat in his favorite cedar rocking chair, listening to the soothing creak of the floorboards beneath his slippers. On the small wooden side table beside his elbow rested a steaming porcelain mug of roasted barley and red-date tea. This sent fragrant curls of white vapor into the crisp morning air while the courtyard chickens clucked contentedly by the vegetable patch.
Right beside him, in a matching wooden chair, sat Empress Luo Qingxue (Rank 10 Ice-Sword Creator Empress).
At this exact moment, the undefeated Empress of the Glacial Sword Dao. Whose single cold glance had once frozen ten thousand star-pirate armadas in their tracks and turned the Avatar of Betrayal into a garden footstool. Was locked in the most intense, nerve-wracking battle of her entire immortal life.
In her slender, alabaster hands, two long knitting needles carved from nine-thousand-year warm jade were clacking together with fierce, unblinking concentration. In her lap sat five large balls of indestructible [Rank 10 Chaos-Silk & Warm-Sun Wool Yarn] in shades of crimson, royal blue, strawberry pink, duckling yellow. Starry silver—and somehow, three of the yarn balls had already tangled themselves around her belt sash like a nest of colorful kittens.
