Outside the Holy Tree Temple, in a patch of forest so forgotten there wasn’t even a path, two figures suddenly dropped out of thin air.0

Yao Jue took Li Yuan by the hand and threaded between the ancient trunks. Before he could ask what she was up to, the air in front of him rippled like water. He stepped through and walked straight into another world.0

A heartbeat ago, he’d been staring at yellow leaves and tangled undergrowth; now an elegant manor stretched before him. He saw stone bridges over winding streams, saffron leaves swirling in the breeze, and red maples hissing in the west wind. Pavilions, each one gleaming like pearl or jade, rose at different heights among the trees.0

At the vermilion gate, beside the guardian stone lions, stood two women with flour-pale faces and clockwork movements, obviously automaton sentries.0

“So this is…?” Li Yuan had expected a modest country retreat, not…whatever this was. The sight reminded him of the portal that led to the Trueflame Tribe settlement in the tundra, though that place had been grander still.0

Catching his dazed...0