The silence at the gates was absolute, a vacuum created by the sheer impossibility of the sight before them. It lasted only a heartbeat before the dam broke, and a torrent of whispers flooded the courtyard like a rushing tide.
"Is that truly Li Qiu? The wife of that demonic monster?" one merchant whispered, his eyes wide with a mix of fear and disbelief.
"Look at her... she doesn't look like a prisoner at all," a noblewoman from a minor clan murmured, fanning herself rapidly to hide her trembling lips.
"She looks composed. Reborn. How is it possible for someone to find such grace after their world has turned to ash?"
An elderly cultivator in the crowd, a man who had seen decades of clan warfare, shook his head in genuine awe. His voice was thick with reverence as he addressed those around him.
