Black Stone City, Inner City. A bustling complex of buildings.
Tier upon tier of buildings undulated across the landscape, their upturned eaves and interlocking brackets packed as densely as fish scales. In the sunlight, the dark cyan glazed tiles gleamed with a solemn luster.
Before the towering, vermilion-lacquered main gate, two cyan jade Exotic Beasts stood guard on either side. Outside the gate stood a ten-foot-tall ornamental pillar carved with coiling dragons, a full display of the noble family's wealth and majesty.
This was the residence of the Tiemu family, a noble house that had stood in the Inner City for two hundred years!
Inside a luxurious mansion along the central axis of the Inner Courtyard, the Tiemu family Patriarch, Tiemu Tianyue, sat with a grim expression. His tall figure was seated upright on a dark sandalwood chair.
Below him, several direct descendants of the Tiemu family were reporting on a series of family matters.
