Buddhist monks holding golden disks, palace maids holding pure white lotus flowers, servants holding rows of gorgeous curtains, cavalry with curved blades at their sides, musicians blowing conches, playing huqin instruments… A tremendous and sacred procession escorted Tangcang Emperor and the empress dowager out of the imperial palace, leaving the imperial city.

No one in Quicksand City slept.

Everyone who heard the news spread it as quickly as they could, so everyone washed themselves as quickly as possible, put on their best clothes, and then solemnly and respectfully walked out of their doors.

Even some elders who were already elderly to the point where they didn’t usually move, under the support of their children, assembled on the main street outside the imperial city, personally seeing off the empress dowager they loved and respected.

Under the hot and stifling night, two rows of people extended like a dragon. They carried oil lamps in their hands, flickering along the way, as if the flames reached into the heavens themselves.

Many people began to calmly and peacefully chant sutras.

Tangcang has always lacked water since the ancient times. Moreover, the underground spring that extended into Tangcang’s borders, the holy river Tangcang relied on for survival, ever since a hundred years ago, already...