Inside the forbidden hunting grounds, the pageantry was dazzling, and the gleaming armor of the imperial guards, decorated with dozens of colorful banners and screens, encircled the mountaintop to form an open-air banquet site.
The hills were adorned with fluttering flags and silk ribbons, while beauties in flesh-toned palace attire either held gold and silver wine vessels or carried pearl and jade-laden trays, moving through the tents to continuously serve a variety of exquisite delicacies and rare treats amidst the ethereal music and laughter, within the joyous banquet of the nobles and high officials.
It seemed as though it was merely another ordinary banquet for the nobility, with all the court officials already drowned in the revelry of wine and dance, unconcerned about the state and society, as if the turmoil and combat at the base of the mountain, so close at hand, belonged to another world entirely.
But the system disagreed.
