When Yun Ye was young, he had used dirt to create obstacles for ants. Ants that were originally racing across the plains would suddenly discover a high mountain had appeared before them. When they tried to take a detour, they found high mountains surrounding them on all sides, forcing them to expend tremendous effort climbing over one mountain after another.

Before Heaven, humans and ants are remarkably similar. However, the Heavenly Lord was using white snow as dirt to create obstacles for everyone. The Emperor had already burned a self-reproaching edict to Heaven and vowed to thoroughly reform his past mistakes. Yet Heaven seemed like a willful child who didn’t understand reason, continuing to scatter profuse and abundant snowfall.

Roads that had already been cleared would be covered again by white snow after just one night. This great snowstorm in the sixteenth year of Zhenguan had continued falling for six days with still no sign of ending.

The bells of Jianfu Temple rang ceaselessly throughout the night. The bell tower and drum tower would sound again every two-hour period. The entire city of Chang’an had fallen into inexplicable fear.

Yun Ye could no longer sleep. Chang’an had never experienced such prolonged heavy snowfall. The Heavenly Lord seemed intent on making up all at once for an entire winter’s worth of missing snow. The snow in the courtyard was already waist-deep. This was a great disaster, absolutely a great disaster. Even the well-prepared Yun Family estate would suffer disaster, let alone those families living in thatched cottages and burning firewood.

He mounted Wang Cai and rushed all the way toward Yushan. Yesterday, the road had been dug out to the thirty-li marker. Gou Zi’s elderly mother and wife had already been taken to his house by the old soldiers. Gou Zi was at Yushan and wouldn’t be able to make it back for some time.

Today they should be able to break through the road to the Yun Family estate. Following the snow path, he soon reached the end of the road. Everything before his eyes was a vast expanse of white. Yun Ye couldn’t even distinguish where exactly he had arrived.

Wei Zheng was truly supervising the road excavation. At this moment, Wei Zheng showed not the slightest trace of a renowned minister’s bearing. His face was iron-blue as he continuously issued orders to those officials, his tone harsh and severe.

Fortunately, Yushan blocked some of the wind and snow, so the disaster here wasn’t as severe as Yun Ye had imagined. They could see they were about to reach the vicinity of the memorial archway. Yun Ye put on a pair of woven rattan shoes. The enormous bottom surface area could ensure Yun Ye would float on the snow surface without sinking down. If Yun Ye hadn’t created these snow shoes, Li Er would probably have already started going mad and killing people by now.

Over a hundred messengers wore these kinds of shoes, desperately drilling into the vast white snow, advancing toward their objectives. During the first four days, Li Er could still calmly issue orders. By today, his two eyes had already turned blood-red, his entire body radiating a cold aura, like a ferocious beast that could devour people at any moment.

Yun Ye returned home. Xinyue, Na Rimu, and Lingdang had cried themselves nearly to death because rumors claimed Chang’an had already been buried by the heavy snow. When the old grandmother saw her grandson had returned, she breathed a sigh of relief and went back to her Buddhist hall to worship Buddha, hoping the heavy snow would stop soon.

He had no time to comfort Xinyue and the others. Coming to the shed in the back courtyard to look, his anxious heart finally settled. The hot air balloon had been completed, and the enormous bamboo basket had also been installed in position. If Yun Ye still hadn’t returned today, Xiao Wu had planned to forcibly send the hot air balloon into the sky, following the wind to Chang’an City to take a look.

Wei Zheng, with his hair in disarray, also entered the Yun household. Seeing the enormous hot air balloon, he said to Yun Ye with a gloomy expression: “Can it fly?”

“Flying in heavy snow weather is extremely dangerous. If the hot air balloon accumulates snow on it, it very likely won’t be able to fly up, or it might fall down halfway through the flight.” Yun Ye had no confidence whatsoever. Throughout his lifetime, he had only seen hot air balloons but had never ridden in one, much less piloted one. If they flew now, the possibility of seeking death was very high.

Duan Hong, drenched from head to toe, walked in through the moon gate. With reddened eyes, he said to Yun Ye: “His Majesty has commanded that the hot air balloon must ascend into the sky!” These words were spoken in a manner that brooked not the slightest disobedience.

He understood Li Er’s thoughts. The heavy snow had trapped Chang’an City into an isolated city. At this time, he desperately wanted to know exactly what conditions were like outside. Enclosed spaces most easily produced feelings of helplessness in people, especially for someone like Li Er whose heart had always contained the entire realm. Now the heavy snow had forcibly severed him from his empire, so how could he possibly settle down?

There could be no retreat, nor was retreat possible. At this moment, Li Er was devoid of emotion. Let alone Yun Ye—even if it were Li Chengqian, he would also command a forced ascent. To reassure the soldiers and civilians of Chang’an City, the hot air balloon had to fly up no matter what.

Li Chengqian and Li Tai also rushed over. At this moment, Yun Ye had already begun heating the hot air balloon. The kerosene canister spouted roaring flames. Over a dozen strong men took turns cranking the wind vanes, forcing hot air into the balloon envelope. The deflated balloon envelope gradually swelled up. In the end, it actually stood upright. If it weren’t for eight ropes fixing it firmly to the ground, it would have flown away long ago. When the hot balloon was deflated, one couldn’t tell just how large it actually was. After it swelled up, Li Tai discovered it was actually this enormous. Its height was a full eight zhang. Blown by the wind, it swayed wildly. The spacious field seemed unable to contain its massive body.

Yun Ye jumped into the rattan basket and instructed the household warriors to throw small bags of sand into the rattan basket one after another. He himself began adjusting the size of the flames. Resilient dragon-skin ropes formed a net that cradled the balloon envelope, firmly fastened to the rattan basket throughout. Whether his life could be preserved purely depended on whether these ropes were sturdy or not.

As the sandbags were thrown into the rattan basket, Yun Ye ordered them to untie the ropes one by one. When all the tethering ropes were untied, leaving only one safety rope reserved, Yun Ye turned the rotating valve to maximum. The bronze-cast crane-beak fire nozzle immediately emitted a thunderous boom. The flames instantly rose two chi higher.

Looking at the kerosene canister overhead, Yun Ye could only smile bitterly. He could only hope that those sealing pads made from pounded ox tendons mixed with fish glue and pressed together could work. Otherwise, even if he wasn’t killed by the fall, he would be burned to death.

The crane-beak valve was selected as the best one from over a hundred finished products. Although it had already been polished by those craftsmen until there were no gaps whatsoever, Yun Ye had specifically poured kerosene into it for testing, leaving it for an entire day to see if there were any leakage phenomena. Not bad—no leakage was discovered. This was the only place where Yun Ye felt satisfied. The superb craftsmanship of Great Tang’s artisans gave him hope that he could survive.

Looking at the blazing flames, Yun Ye also muttered to himself inwardly. He hadn’t planned to go up himself. Originally, he had prepared to find a few people who weren’t afraid of death to go up first for testing. Only after it passed inspection would he go up himself. He hadn’t planned to dedicate himself to science to such an extent! It was all this damned heavy snow—it caused him to have no time to train cannon fodder, so he could only steel himself and go up.

Xinyue and the others cried even more miserably because their husband had said before that this thing was unreliable and would need to crash seventeen or eighteen times before it could officially carry people. Who could have known that in the very first test, their own husband would sit in it? How could this be acceptable?

Li Tai suddenly jumped into the bamboo basket, helping Yun Ye organize the various ropes on the hot air balloon, straightening them out and coiling them neatly at their feet. Yun Ye lowered his head and said to him in a low voice: “Get out. It’s extremely dangerous. One of me being unlucky is enough.”

“Why should you monopolize this kind of thing that will be recorded in the annals of history? Heh heh, we sons of the Li family don’t lack courage either. If worst comes to worst, you’ll have a prince buried with you. Be content with that.”

Duan Hong blocked Xinyue and the others from approaching. Wang Cai shrieked and used his mouth to bite the rope, trying to pull Yun Ye back. After Yun Ye stroked his head a few times, he finally quieted down, his wet, large eyes continuously blinking.

“Qing Que, throw out the sandbags. We brothers are going to ascend to heaven right now!”

“Ha ha ha, excellent! Let’s ascend to heaven right now!” Li Tai seemed to have lost his reason; even his laughter sounded off.

Over a hundred people firmly grasped the tethering rope. Even Li Chengqian and Wei Zheng couldn’t help but step forward to lend a hand. Yun Ye once again turned the crane-beak valve to maximum. Listening to the roar emitted by the flame ejector, the hot air balloon slowly rose before everyone’s eyes, gradually passing over the roof of the Yun family home. After Yun Ye discovered that the ascent was very stable, he pulled out the pin on the tethering rope. The hot air balloon, freed from its tether, immediately ascended rapidly into the sky. Yun Ye heard incomprehensible yelling sounds coming from Li Tai behind him. Only ghosts knew what he was shouting.

He kept paying attention to the hot air balloon’s snow accumulation situation. As a result, he discovered he had worried unnecessarily. The accumulated snow slid down the smooth silk curved surface of the balloon on its own. The wind at low altitude was very light. To fly, they had to ascend higher. Li Tai had no objection to this. According to his words, they were already at several dozen zhang now, high enough to kill them if they fell. Whether they fell to their deaths from a height of one hundred zhang or fell to their deaths from a height of several dozen zhang, he would rather choose one hundred zhang.

Li Tai continuously threw sandbags downward. As for whether they would kill one or two people, he completely didn’t consider it. This lordly prince was risking his life in the sky, so unlucky wretches on the ground who got smashed to death deserved it.

Xinyue on the ground had already forgotten to cry. Her husband had truly flown up. Na Rimu even jumped twice, then came to her senses and realized the atmosphere wasn’t right, so she quickly changed to a mourning expression. It was already too late—she was fiercely slapped twice by Xinyue in front of everyone.

Wang Cai saw Yun Ye leave the courtyard sitting on the large ball, neighed once, and ran out of the house gate to chase that hot air balloon. This reminded everyone else. Li Chengqian found a horse, mounted it, and also ran out. Xinyue desperately urged the servants to hitch up the carriage. Getting into the carriage, she raced along the freshly cleared snow road in the direction of Chang’an.

Yun Ye used his telescope to look around in all directions. Everywhere was a vast expanse of white. However, there was one benefit: he discovered that the snow at high altitude seemed to have become lighter. Eight pitch-black bands divided this plain area into a chessboard pattern. This was the so-called “eight waters encircling Chang’an.” He also discovered that it wasn’t only Chang’an that was digging roads—Lantian and Sanyuan were also desperately digging roads toward Chang’an. When those people suddenly saw the enormous, colorful hot air balloon appear in the sky, they seemed somewhat confused. However, after just a moment, they seemed to dig even more vigorously. Some inexplicable fellows even shot arrows at the hot air balloon.

The wind was still very light. The hot air balloon flew very slowly, practically the same as an ox cart. Li Tai kept urging Yun Ye to fly up above the cloud layer to take a look. This fellow was simply a madman. Flying into the dark cloud layer—even if they were lucky enough to emerge, they would also be frozen into icicles.