The canopy of heaven was pitch black. Thunder boomed and occasional bolts of lightning ripped through the darkness. Ice-cold rain fell, soaking Sea-Sealing County.1

Xu Qing stared in the direction of the county capital, his heart pounding with astonishment.0

“The governor perished...?”11

Xu Qing had glimpsed the governor from afar on a few occasions in the Swordsage Palace, but had never interacted with him. That said, he had heard a lot about him. He knew that it was only because of the governor that Sea-Sealing County remained whole, and that the Holytides had never managed to devour it or rip it apart.3

This governor had served in Sea-Sealing County for eight hundred years. Though he hadn’t done anything to expand his territory, he did maintain a balance. He was cautious and conscientious, and had kept Sea-Sealing County in human control the entire time. It had always had thirteen prefectures, which was a rare thing. Over the past thousand years, the other six counties controlled by humans had all lost prefectures.0

Today, the governor perished.7

Xu Qing didn’t know the details of what happened, nor did he have any idea what was happening in the county capital. But as various emotions swept through him, he thought about Arch-Immortal Plumdark, Kong Xianglong, and the others he knew there.0

He...0