Xi'An.

When they reach Miko's house, Chan tells her what he had in mind: he asks her to give a sample of her DNA to Lani, so that he can make sure they aren't related. It's not that he had a suspect they could be related, he just wants to make sure of it, since Gu had a lot of children from different women and in different times. He just wants to be careful, but doesn't insist if Miko doesn't want to do it.

The Ambassador from Great Huang shows to be in quite a hurry to return to his land, so they aren't left with too much time for preparations.
Morax manages to write their "scripts" so that ZhongLi can give them to each.

~ At the palace, there are no progresses concerning the intruder, as he found a way to flee from the guards. They can easily figure out that whatever the man went to say, young princess Taihe must have been willing to listen. She becomes especially determined to avoid ZhongLi at all costs and even locks herself up in her room, refusing categorically to come out.
* The man who intruded the palace is one of the sailors of the crew of the ship that took the Ambassador and the others to the south. Someone with no plausible connection with the girl, but who was likely asked to pass a message to Taihe.

(…)

With the gifts packed, the scripts delivered and the due protections from the cold being handed, the three can follow the Ambassador and his Entourage to the location where their ship is anchored.
Nothing notable happens during the travel on the sea, except the presence of a strange bird, that seems to be the pet of one of the sailors, who flies off shortly after the ship lifts anchor.

They reach the northern continent after three days of sailing. The ship itself is particularly fast and equipped with a system that allows it to melt ice, by releasing a large amount of a specific potion.
The cold becomes increasingly unbearable as the ship gets closer to the destination, until one morning, it finally docks, by an entirely frozen land. Despite having drunk potions to protect from the cold and even wearing special underwear and a very thick fur coat of an unknown - to the south - animal, the temperature is still unbearable.

The three are invited to take place on a large sleigh, which is pulled by two huge polar bears. The Ambassador of Great Huang travels on a different sleigh, always pulled by polar bears.
The beasts aren't incredibly fast, but neither slow. It takes them about 10 hours to reach the capital city, Xi'An.

The city is surrounded by thick, black walls of obsidian and it's clearly much smaller than Guyun. There are many houses outside the walls, squeezes as close as possible to them.
Their sleighs move right towards the gates and even inside the city.
Even if it's already pitch black, regardless being around 5pm, there are enough street lamps to see some details.
There are very few people outside and most of them are busy in something: fill some big furnaces with wood and coal, patrolling, knocking on the doors of the houses outside the city to hand goods… The furnaces manage to keep the city at a temperature of -20° during the day. Sun never shines there and it's pretty dark even during the day. It's a very harsh place for life, but some animals and plants managed to adapt to the place, also making it possible for people to live there, although with huge difficulties.
It's also evident that the houses inside the walls are mostly richer, but not only, while the houses outside are all poor.

The manors inside Xi'An have very wide glass windows and even whole glass walls. Some even have gardens surrounded with glass walls, which are the only parts of the city that aren't covered in snow and when some green can be seen.
All the people outside are werewolves, others come out of home very rarely and only before darkness falls, as temperatures go even below the -20 at that point, despite the furnaces.

The sleighs move swiftly through the main street, that is completely empty, leading up to the huge and imposing Imperial Palace. It's bigger than the whole city.
The sleighs stop at some distance from the first gate of the palace, where the three are told to get down and wait, while the ambassador goes inside to report to the Emperor and explain the situation.
While they are left to wait — by a guards' post, which has its own heater — a young man approaches. He has long blonde hair and blue eyes and is wearing a rather rich hanfu and a thick fur. He was heading to the gate, but as he notices the three, he approaches them, instead.