Iron Widow

The final battle to reclaim the Zhou province begins as the Chrysalises set out from the Sui-Tang frontier. Zetian plans on turning on the communications systems and smashing them after the battle to stop the military from coordinating the other Chrysalises against her. The pilots are headed for Mount Zhurong, a giant font of qi where the Hunduns are hiding and where the legendary Yellow Dragon and its slumbering pilot are also rumored to be hidden.

The Chrysalises enter a forest and Zetian is upset by the wanton destruction that their mechas cause, an act of invasion that marks a sharp contrast with the Hunduns’ practice of carving out sustainable footpaths through the forest and showing a level of care for the environment that the Huaxians do not. They meet a nomadic man who shows Zetian a scroll and asks if they can cure “the Emperor” (308). The military warns her and the others to stay clear of the nomadic man, since they may contract Flowerpox, the disease that originally caused the disappearance of the Yellow Dragon and its male pilot, Qin Zheng. (The pilots are equipped with injections to stave off the Flowerpox, but it cannot fully cure the disease.