The year was drawing to a close, and snow was falling.0

The winter chill was cold but colder still was the loneliness buried in the human heart. If there were joy and laughter in the air, a snowy day might be for building snowmen, throwing snowballs, and setting off firecrackers. But for those who wandered the mountains and rivers...joy was a rare thing. More often than not, such figures walked alone.1

Fang Jianlong was alone too. He’d left Bloomtown in Swallowcloud Province months ago. Since then, he'd wandered aimlessly across this land, seeing nothing but war and death.4

Suffering stirred something deep within him.0

And in those months, he’d once reached out with those bloodstained hands to pull a little girl from the brink of death in some godforsaken wasteland.0

For a time, he thought that moment had changed his life. In the hollow of his loneliness, a child’s presence had taken root. Children grew. And he believed that with her, his world might grow too. But soon enough, he learned the cruel truth: long before he ever...0