The beast tribes were a formidable force, far more daunting than the humans...
In the Phoenix Clan, women set off at the century mark after choosing their sacred elixir, destined to face trials alongside their chosen mates.
The Empress lavished Elara with ten carriages of lavish attire and necessities and included rare palace herbs like the eternal frost lotus and millennium dragonroot—treasures mundane within the palace walls but miraculous to the impoverished beast tribes.
Each herb held the potential to heal scores of their people.
To exert her dominance, the Empress demanded the Beast King himself fetch Elara, a move meant to remind him of his fortunate fate in securing such a noble mate.
Elara was the jewel of her eye, the direct heiress of the Phoenix lineage. For the Beast King, being chosen by her was a fortune he could not have earned in many lifetimes.
My destiny was cast in far grimmer terms than in any past life.
Previously, the Empress, fearing boredom from my premature demise, had grudgingly granted me a fragment of herb to cling to life amidst the beasts.
Now, she handed me nothing but a worn sack and hastened my descent from the mountain.