Chapter 1 - 30th Birthday Celebration.
Coldwind City.
Atop Phoenix-Soul Pavilion, the wind stirred silk banners gilded with golden thread, embroidered with the Fang clan’s sigil: a soaring raven entwined with lightning.
Below, a garden of jade lilies and crimson peonies spread out like a painting, deliberately maintained to perfection for this very moment.
Fang Yuan turned thirty today.
And yet, it was not the scent of blooming flowers or warm incense that filled the air.
It was tension.
"The Four Great Families are here," a servant whispered, bowing so low his forehead brushed the marble.
Fang Yuan stood by the edge of the terrace, hands folded behind his back.
His black robes fluttered lightly, embroidered in deep violet sigils that only a cultivator of the Golden Core Realm could wear.
His expression, as always, was unreadable, serene, yet cold beneath the surface.
"Let them in," he said.