“I don’t know,” she said. “Part of me wants to turn back, but with Qing Hancheng’s betrayal, Silkfloss Province is a deathtrap. Still, I didn’t want to lie to you.”0

“Why reveal all this?” Li Yuan chuckled. “If you’d kept it a secret, it would’ve remained secret for a lifetime. Look, I married you to blend deeper into the Holy Tree Temple, and to walk away more cleanly when the time came. With you as my wife, the Holy Tree Temple finally lowered their guard against me, didn’t they?”0

He spread his hands. “Who here doesn’t have their own selfish interests? But if those interests put us in the same boat, why not keep rowing together? It must be a special kind of fate that herded us down one road and made us family. You want power? First you have to stay alive. This world is wild and wide, the winds of heaven never stop—”1

Snow whirled, pale against the dark gorge walls, as if the sky itself were listening.0

“Shuixiang, don’t fall before the wind even starts to howl. Come with me, let’s watch how this grand play ends at the...0