A light snowfall had just happened over Ji City, blanketing both inside and outside of the city, and the fertile land several tens of thousands of miles around it with a thin sheet of white snow. Wisps of smoke rose continuously from the chimneys in countless towns and cities. The faint smoke twisted and mixed with the cold breeze and fog in the air, like a huge veil that made the sky look gray, and prevented the sunlight from reaching the ground. The biting breeze of the early winter blew across the wilderness, whistling as if millions upon millions of foul ghosts were howling everywhere. From time to time, large sheets of snowflakes were brought up by the breeze, whirling and sweeping across the land.