HUFF—
The breath he exhaled quickly turned into white mist in the cold wind, adding a blur to the arched lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses.
This was a peak in the Kunlun Mountain range, where the mountaintop was shrouded in snow and perpetually frozen. The clouds and mist winding through the mountains created the illusion of a fairyland.
Bai Haozheng, an Intelligence Analyst from the Special Affairs Bureau, walked at a leisurely pace on the broad path paved with black slabs. He wore only a thin suit, seemingly unaffected by the biting cold, his eyes fixed solely on the metallic gate that merged with the mountain at the end of the road.
The path, its flagstones intricately inscribed with Talismans, was strictly guarded. Every three steps stood a sentinel and every five a post, all fully armed and unswervingly vigilant.
