Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Twilight in the Magic Capital of Whale Sea always wore two strangely contradictory faces.
Along the western bank of the mother river, the Whale River, towering skyscrapers forged of magical alloys and reinforced crystal still mirrored the gilded brilliance of the sinking sun. Massive magitech billboards blazed to life in a kaleidoscope of neon radiance, while levitating magitech vehicles streaked across multi-tiered skyways like an endless cascade of shooting stars. Yet, the moment one crossed the ancient stone arches of the Riverguard Bridge leading to the eastern bank, reality seemed to regress by a thousand years.
This was the Ancient Road of the Magic Capital—a millennium-old quarter surviving from an era when ancient archmages first raised stone ramparts to hold back the encroaching seas.
Gray granite flagstones, worn smooth and polished by centuries of footsteps, stretched beneath sweeping upturned eaves heavy with somber moss from the twilight drizzle. Black ironwood townhouses lined the alleys, their hanging magical lanterns casting a murky crimson glow that flickered through the thin sea fog creeping in from the bay. The scents of dried herbal medicine, evil-warding incense, and the briny bite of the coastal wind wove together into a heavy, contemplative stillness, utterly divorced from the mechanized clamor of the outer metropolis.
Lin Feng pulled the collar of his ash-gray coat higher against the chill, his boots maintaining a steady, measured cadence across the slick flagstones.