Perhaps you’ve never heard of Red Sand City, perhaps you’ve never been to the Western Region’s great desert, but anyone under heaven with any knowledge knows of Helian Fortress. As the saying goes, “The world’s armies are controlled by the imperial clan, but the weapons wielded by those armies all originate from Helian.”
This means that while military forces throughout the world belong to the emperor, the weapons in the hands of those forces all come from Helian Fortress in the Western Regions.
The Helian clan began two thousand years ago when the first emperor in human history, the First Emperor, pacified the world. The ancestors of the Helian clan were the officials in charge of weapons beside the emperor, with the important responsibility of weapon forging handled entirely by the Helian clan. After the world was pacified, the First Emperor rewarded merit and granted honors. The Helian ancestor was commanded to take charge of weapon manufacturing for all national armies, but the Helian clan ancestor made one request: he wanted no rewards, no royal title—only a small city in the uninhabited yellow desert of the Western Regions.
The First Emperor agreed to the Helian ancestor’s request, allowing him to personally select a team of men and, carrying various weapon-forging tools, make the long journey westward. They built Helian Fortress in Red Sand City at the center of the great desert. Eight or nine out of ten weapons in the world come from this small town, and most of the divine weapons and sharp blades famous throughout the world today bear the Helian clan’s mark.
But two hundred years ago, the Helian clan, along with the entire Helian Fortress, disappeared in the desert. After one night, not a trace was left behind. People began to spread legends that the Helian clan were originally divine craftsmen from the heavenly palace, who had now been summoned back by the heavenly gods. The Helian clan became the most mysterious legend in the Western Region desert. For these two hundred years, countless people have ventured into the desert to search for Helian Fortress, but not one person has succeeded.
Bidding farewell to the house owner, Zi Feng and Yusang set out on the road, ignoring the owner’s deterrent warnings as they headed west toward Red Sand City’s Helian Fortress. On the way to Red Sand City, Yusang rode a camel while Zi Feng insisted on riding a horse, so their journey slowed considerably. By sunset, they were still wandering in the desert.
“I told you to ride a camel, but you wouldn’t. Horses can’t go fast on sandy ground.” Yusang felt a bit cold from the night wind and couldn’t help complaining to Zi Feng.
“I am an elegant young gentleman. How could riding a camel compare to the romantic and carefree style of riding a horse?” Zi Feng sat on his white horse, fanning himself, admiring the crescent moon overhead as he responded with a thoroughly arrogant tone.
Yusang rolled her eyes at Zi Feng and rubbed her arms that had grown somewhat cold from the night wind, saying, “This is the center of the desert, with no human traces for hundreds of li. Who’s here to see you acting like an elegant young gentleman? As mortals would say, it’s like a blind man lighting a lamp.”
“You have no appreciation. Fortunately, I didn’t marry you back then, or it would truly have been a waste of my fine bearing.” Zi Feng glanced at Yusang with disdain.
Yusang was amused by Zi Feng’s manner, but after laughing for a while, her face showed sadness again. She lowered her head, and only after a long moment did she sigh heavily, “Zi Feng, if the Fengjian Clan hadn’t been destroyed back then, perhaps I really would have married you now.”
The smile on Zi Feng’s face also became stiff. He pulled his horse to a stop and turned to look at Yusang. After a light sigh, he said, “It’s already not easy that you’re alive. There’s no need to force yourself to be sad. Being heartbroken serves no purpose or benefit—with your intelligence, how could you not understand this?”
“Mm.” Yusang nodded, looked up at the horizon, and couldn’t help but sigh somewhat helplessly, “East, south, west, north—I’ve already collected three of the four great soul artifacts. Now, this soul artifact that fell in the west is truly strange. Although I can roughly sense the direction, I cannot perceive what kind of thing it is.”
Zi Feng looked toward Yusang, his expression becoming somewhat strange. He secretly gripped the dimensional pouch containing the other three soul artifacts in his sleeve, and only after a while did he sigh with an ambiguous tone, “There will always be a way.”
Neither spoke anymore, and the surroundings fell into silence. Only much later, when the sound of approaching hoofbeats came, did Zi Feng look up ahead and smile, signaling for Yusang to look in that direction.
Following Zi Feng’s signal, Yusang turned her head and saw firelight heading toward their location—a group of people rapidly approaching.
“Look here—who said an elegant young gentleman would have no one to appreciate him in this place? Here comes the admirers.” Zi Feng raised his chin quite proudly toward Yusang, then pulled his horse forward a few steps and waited in a handsome pose for that group to approach.
In moments, a mixed group of people on camels and horses was right before them. Leading was a woman dressed in an azure riding skirt with a light robe featuring exotic patterns over it. Her long hair was bound behind her head with broken jade hairpins and an azure silk ribbon, with an azure droplet-shaped forehead ornament hanging from her brow. Perhaps to protect against sand and dust, her face was covered with a red gauze veil, revealing only a pair of bright almond eyes that sparkled with intelligence.
“We have come on Helian Fortress’s orders to welcome honored guests.” The woman pulled her horse to a stop and, like a man, cupped her hands toward Zi Feng in a courteous greeting. Her voice was clear and delicate, yet not at all affected or inappropriate.
“Brother Helian is truly thoughtful.” Zi Feng smiled while examining the woman and pulled his horse forward a few steps. When he drew near the woman, he suddenly extended his hand and lightly lifted with his fan, causing the red gauze on the woman’s face to be flicked into the air.
The woman revealed a countenance as pure as bright moon and clear spring water, yet not lacking in prettiness. Such a woman would be hard to find not only in the center of the yellow sand desert but even in the Jiangnan water towns, not to mention that she possessed the exotic charm and heroic spirit that Jiangnan women lacked.
Zi Feng seemed to be amazed by this woman’s appearance, staring at her fixedly. The woman’s pretty face reddened as she leaped to catch the red gauze in the air, wrapped it around her wrist, pulled the horse’s reins, and gave the horse’s rump a hard lash before galloping away behind the group.
“Take good care of elder brother’s honored guests.” The woman left these words as she galloped away. From the crowd, a middle-aged man stepped forward to cup his hands toward Zi Feng in greeting.
Afterward, that middle-aged man led the way forward, with Yusang and Zi Feng following side by side, and servants holding torches behind them. The group proceeded forward in the great desert under the crescent moon’s reflection.
“What’s going on? Didn’t they say it disappeared? How did you become their honored guest?” Yusang asked in a lowered voice.
Zi Feng glanced sideways at Yusang with some disdain, “When mortals say it disappeared, that’s because mortals don’t understand. You believed it too—how stupid. It’s just an invisibility and illusion spell barrier. You only need to walk the right path and know the method. As for me being an honored guest, that’s where this lord was clever. I investigated their background, then learned to write like mortals and sent a letter claiming to be the descendant of their Helian Fortress ancestors’ old friends. Everything went smoothly after that.”
“You deceived people.”
“Wrong—this is called employing a small stratagem.”
The moon hung like a bowstring. The guide ahead led Zi Feng and Yusang into a sandy gully, following strange steps forward. As they proceeded further, a city gate slowly appeared in the yellow sand before them. The moment the city gate opened for Zi Feng, Yusang, and their party, the moon seemed to momentarily turn dark red.