Traces

Winter.

A thick layer of snow had long piled up around the Xia Capital, whilst the winter air pervaded the world. On the third floor of an elegant restaurant it felt quite warm and comfortable.

Good wine was kept warm.

Xue Ying and Jing Qiu sat facing each other, drinking the delicious fruity wine while chatting. Even though there were other guests on the third floor, they were seated quite far from them. Although Transcendents were, more or less, friendly with each other, they valued privacy, hence they would often just give each other a nod as a greeting and would not disturb other Transcendents. Xue Ying and Jing Qiu clearly enjoyed this type of environment.

"Jing Qiu, after the Faction Head thoroughly examined your progress yesterday, your ranking jumped to fourth," Xue Ying praised. "Even though they say that Transcendent mages improve much slower, from what I see, your improvement is quite fast."