After the passing of late autumn, despite the lack of snow, the chilliness in the air became heavier by the day.

The harshness of winter could be felt from the icicles—long, unbroken, as thick as a child’s arm, as pointed as a blade—beneath every family’s eaves in the Jade Capital.

The Jade Capital was the capital of the Dagan Dynasty.

The Dagan Dynasty was flourishing, abundant in resources in its immense land. The population reached several hundreds of millions, and it was the strongest nation in the world.

This year was the sixtieth year of the founding of the nation. Sixty years since the domination of the world.

In these sixty years, the four generation of emperors of the Dagan Dynasty governed their nation well. It had reached a very prospering period.

The “Martial Duke” residence was southeast to the Jade Capital. Its land was sized a hundred mu, and it had a very open terrain. Right at the entrance was a stone statue of a qilin, painted red and three persons tall. The vermillion entrance that had sparkling copper nails and copper rings, bright garments embellishments, a bounty of energy lingering about, as well as the door servants with sharp eye expressions and various things, showed the position of the “Martial Duke”.

[TN: One mu is roughly equivalent to 666.67 square meters.]

“Martial Duke” was a prominent figure in the Dagan Dynasty. Surname Gong, given name Xuanji.

Not only was that person high in nobility ranking, he also had the highest position within officials. He was a Grand Secretariat and the teacher of the prince. He was skilled in both military affairs and academics, and when he was young he could continuously shoot arrows from strong bows requiring nine hundred catties of force. Slaughtering several hundred enemies atop a horse was akin to a leisure scroll about a courtyard.

After outstanding military services at the age of twenty-two, he gave up his martial abilities and strived for academics. He was in the honour roll for the imperial examination—ranking in third—and as a result, he was awarded an official position, thus joining imperial politics. He had also once obtained the highest praise by the fourth generation emperor of the Gadan Dynasty, “Running an army after mounting a horse, soothing the citizens after dismounting a horse.”.