The Unclean Realm was cold and bleak in the rainstorm, rivulets of icy water running down the walls and near horizontal flurries sweeping across the courtyards. It was a day when any soft, useless man who didn't know up from down was surely tucked under a quilt, huddled away in safety.

Nie Huaisang stood atop his walls facing the wind, feeling his ever-present fury cool under its onslaught and sighed in relief; he'd join his brother in qi deviation after taking his full revenge and not a second before.