Just past the hour of Yin, the dawn light had yet to pierce the sky.
Heavy black clouds pressed low over the ramparts of the Imperial Capital. The snow that had fallen anew during the night blanketed the tier upon tier of rooftops and the crisscrossing streets and alleys, temporarily wrapping this bustling megalopolis in a glaring, deathly silence.
Only on the western side of the Imperial City, at the newly completed Estate of the Marquis Suppressing the North, the vermilion gates stood out against the snowy backdrop—startlingly red, stern, and forbidding.
Chapter 329