The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

"What is the 'Taixu Jade Planting Technique'?"

When Ding Ning asked this question, the frost on the eaves was dripping in the morning light. Zhao Qing's fingertips brushed across the half-jar of residual wine on the counter, and the turbid wine suddenly shone with light silver like star sand: "The void is the abyss where all things have not yet taken shape; planting jade turns barren land into fertile soil."

The wine in the jar began to surge like a living thing, and the originally sour aroma of the wine actually revealed the cool fragrance of snow-capped peaks and green bamboo.

Ding Ning's pupils shrank slightly - although he could not see the essence of the silver light that seeped into the wine jar, he could sense that some kind of force that subverted common sense was reconstructing the origin of matter. They were neither like true essence nor sword energy, but more like morning mist seeping out from cracks in the void.

This is by no means a simple infusion of spiritual energy, but rather it is something like reversing the growth rings of rotten wood into the creation of seed embryos.

"Watch this." Zhao Qing tapped the pottery jar with his fingers, the sound like a clear chime: "Ordinary yeast can only brew ordinary things, but if the world is regarded as a cellar, and all living things are yeast, then Taixu is the most fair jar."

Three feet of blue cloud rose from the mouth of the jar, and the originally turbid wine became as transparent as glass. This self-clarity was not a crude purification through filtration and sedimentation, but rather like millions of dust particles finding their destined destination.

The floating foam gathered into jade-colored clouds, and the aroma of the wine condensed into tangible light golden threads, which climbed up along the beams.

Ding Ning stared at the extremely fine silver light particles floating in the wine. They were not stationary, but flowed along some mysterious trajectory, like a miniature galaxy falling into the human world.

The most astonishing thing was the row of broken pottery jars behind the counter.

The corn that turned black due to improper steaming three days ago is now stretching and being reborn in the jar, and when the mold spots fade away, it blooms into glass-like crystals; the moldy koji in the corner is peeling off the old dirt, and some invisible vitality is quietly sprouting in its depths.

"Ordinary yeast, when enlightened by the energy of the great void, can absorb and exhale the spiritual rhythm of heaven and earth."

When the last drop of silver light seeped into the bottom of the jar, Zhao Qing brushed his sleeves and pushed the wine cup away: "The poor can make wine with rotten rice, and get the nectar of the Yaochi; pick wild fruits in the barren mountains to make vinegar, and you can refine the marrow cleansing spirit liquid. This is the right way to equalize the natural gap of resources."

Ding Ning grabbed the wine spoon and scooped half a cup. The amber wine spread out seven halos in the palm of his hand.

He smelled the scent of early spring melting snow soaking into the humus soil and tasted the vitality of rotten wood sprouting new buds after being struck by lightning. What was even more terrifying was that every drop of wine was self-circulating - the spiritual energy adjusted its concentration autonomously according to the strength of the drinker's meridians. This was clearly the highest realm of the legendary "Tao follows nature".

The moment the wine entered his throat, all the pores on Ding Ning's body suddenly opened up, and the Nine Dead Silkworm raised its head and screamed in his qi sea.

Those silver sands actually swam among the meridians and turned into stars in the sky.

The true energy that was originally agitated by the Nine-Dead Silkworm was like spring snow meeting the sun, and it spontaneously condensed into crystal jade and settled along the acupoints. A meridian projection like a Taixu star map also floated in the palm of the hand - the end of each meridian was absorbing and exhaling the vital energy of heaven and earth, which was more than three times faster than usual.

Zhangsun Qianxue suddenly lifted the veil and looked towards the front yard in disbelief.

She has always hated foul air, but at this moment, she saw that where Zhao Qing lightly touched with his toes, the old dirt in the cracks of the blue bricks faded into snow-colored crystals, and the spider webs in the corners of the wall condensed into spiritual veins like ice silk.

What shocked her the most was that the Nine Netherworld King Sword in her body suddenly emitted a clear sound - the lonely and cold sword spirit that had been dormant for many years was being quietly nourished by some kind of warm and gentle Taoist rhyme.

"This wine yeast..." Frost froze on her eyelashes as she spoke, "Can it assimilate all things?"

Zhao Qing flicked his fingers and shook out a few bubbles of wine, which condensed into three ice lotuses in the air: "The air of the great void has no fixed form. When it encounters snow, it becomes jade branches. When it encounters fire, it becomes flowing flames."

Where the lotus petals fell, emerald-colored mycelium emerged from the cracks in the counter, instantly repairing the damage caused by corrosion and cracks.

She was not surprised that the other party, who had been hiding for many years, suddenly revealed his identity as a cultivator. She just smiled at the two of them and said, "The Tao is in the ants, and the Tao is in the bricks. All things contain the seeds of the Tao, but they lack the strength to break the shell."

"Ordinary cultivators gather spiritual herbs to build the foundation of their Taoism, but they do not know that rotten grass and fireflies can also illuminate the night."

When the last word was finalized, a crystal clear jade tree rose from the half-jar of remaining wine. What hung between its branches were not fruits but solid Tao principles.

The moment Ding Ning stretched out his hand to touch it, a vast amount of spiritual enlightenment poured in like a galaxy.

In a trance, he saw a farmer holding a rusty sword to split the spiritual stone vein, a weaver guiding a silver shuttle to penetrate the barrier of the talisman array, and a child holding charcoal to write "Health Preservation Secrets" on the city wall - those words penetrated the bricks and stones, melting the black ice of the North Sea into spring water;
He saw that every flying dust particle glowed silver in the morning light. In a trance, the rubble of Changling's eight hundred streets and alleys, the silt in the ditches, and even the rust on the shackles of the criminals, all became peerless spiritual materials that needed to be carved...

When Ding Ning's sudden realization gradually faded away, Zhao Qing suddenly took a step forward, and lightly swept the silver light from his fingertips. The cold wind that leaked in through the broken window frames condensed into rolls of solid ice silk. The natural patterns on the silk were exactly the first core method of "Taixu Zhongyu Jue".

Changsun Qianxue put away her spiritual thoughts and avoided his gaze. As one of the most gifted practitioners in the past and the eldest daughter of the Gongsun family, she had her own pride and persistence, and would never spy on the martial arts passed down by her master without his permission.

Even though this "Taixu Zhongyu Jue" seemed to be extremely advanced and had the amazing ability to completely subvert the entire world, and the aura that emanated from it seemed to be naturally integrated with the "Jiuyou Sword Jue", and the two were highly compatible, he remained unmoved.

However, from a practical point of view, the "Taixu Zhongyu Jue" has a total of eighteen levels, and the number of words in each level is double that of the previous level. The whole text is over 160 billion words. The beginning seems easy to convert to, but it does not mean that the same will be true later.

Such an appalling total number of words, which may break the record for the longest martial arts technique in history, is actually not too exaggerated. Although it is the latest achievement in the art of cultivating and planting "magic seeds", it has incorporated a series of complex "gene editing" regulation techniques, thus achieving a huge leap forward.

After all, both "Nine Dead Silkworm" and "Nine Nether Sword Art" were created by the Nether Emperor in the past, and their realm was not inferior to Zhao Qing's. Therefore, they have a lot in common in conception and rhyme, making Ding Ning and Changsun Qianxue the best candidates to practice this skill in the world.

"Do you plan to continue living in this wine shop? Lord Liling is narrow-minded and vindictive. He suffered a great loss in Wutongluo and will definitely find ways to retaliate in the future."

Zhao Qing took a deep look at Ding Ning, knowing that he had mastered the first level of the skill in a very short time. He could not help but feel relieved and said calmly, "Since you don't want to move away, and Li Lingjun has set his eyes on this place, then I will let him die."

"Kill him directly?" Ding Ning asked while holding the jar of wine.

Zhao Qing nodded.

Seeing that she was serious, Ding Ning's eyes narrowed slightly, and he pondered secretly in his heart, calculating the feasibility of this action.

The mansions of the powerful and wealthy are often large in scale and extremely luxurious. Naturally, they are not just for showing off their own power and financial resources, and the gap between them and the common people. Not only are there many formations that can assist in spiritual practice, but they can also create a home combat advantage that is beneficial to them.

Especially a large courtyard like the Li Ling Palace, which is several miles in circumference and has multiple walls, is no different from a small imperial city. In essence, it is equivalent to a military fortress. There are many guards and monks inside. Ordinary assassins may not be able to break through the first line of defense.

Based on his understanding of Li Lingjun, he would definitely be afraid after ordering his men to commit several murders. He would most likely choose to stay indoors and hide in his mansion in the name of apologizing.

Under such circumstances, the difficulty of sneaking into Liling Jun's mansion and successfully assassinating the Chu hostage would be almost as difficult as assassinating a general with a large number of troops in a heavily guarded military camp.

Moreover, as a notorious hostage of Chu, if Li Lingjun were assassinated or just injured, it would definitely trigger a delicate change in the situation between the Qin and Chu dynasties, which would affect the entire situation.

Therefore, when they detect that something is happening in his mansion, the nearby Changling garrison and corner towers will certainly provide the most timely support.

In terms of the risks of this matter, even if it is not as difficult as rescuing Lin Zhujiu from the Dafu water prison, it will not be much different. But in terms of the gains, it is just to vent some anger and eliminate some hidden dangers... Isn't this a bit of a loss?

Although Ding Ning had no good feelings towards Li Lingjun, and knew that the other party had sent people to assassinate her because he coveted Changsun Qianxue, this incident happened before she entered the Aries Cave and had nothing to do with Zhao Qing, so there was no need to involve her.

So, he hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "This matter involves a lot of things, would you like to consider it again?"

"At noon today, red fire fell from the sky. The Chu hostage was unable to avoid it and died in the mansion."

Zhao Qing did not say anything more, but just announced the date and manner of Li Lingjun's death in advance. When leaving the wine shop, he suddenly smiled and said, "When the time comes, you can just watch from afar."

……

When the sun was hanging over the eaves of the hostage house at noon, the sound of twenty-seven black iron prison carts rolling over bluestone slabs startled the gray sparrows perched behind the screen wall. Zhong Zheng pressed his forehead against the gap in the fence, blood stains covering half of his distorted face, and he tried to curse in Chu dialect.

The spit hit the sound-proof array and exploded into tiny crystals.

Not far away, Lord Liling stood on a nine-step gilded platform, looking down at the thousands of guests below, his fingers in his wide sleeves stroking the black jade ring that Xu Fu had given him in the morning.

"Can you smell the odor of rotten wood?"

He suddenly spoke, his voice wrapped in true energy resounding through the courtyard, causing the jade beads on everyone's waists to collide. The clear sound even drowned out the rattling of the prison car's chains. Purple energy flowed between his drooping hair, which was the manifestation of the vitality stimulated by Xu Fu's elixir.

Thousands of nanmu low tables were arranged along the central axis, and the amber wine in the celadon cups on the tables reflected the surprised faces of the guests.

"The other day, I happened to find an ancient tree by the Dongting Lake, and I was delighted."

Li Lingjun tapped the white jade ruler on the desk with his fingers, and the remaining pages of Chu Ci under the ruler suddenly caught fire, and the ashes condensed into the shadow of rotten wood hanging in the air: "I never expected that although the surface is lacquered with gold and jade, the inside is full of termites."

He suddenly flicked his sleeves to shatter the phantom, and the sparks splashed on the three nearest low tables. The amber light in the wine cup rose into a three-foot green flame, and the intoxicating fragrance filled the air like mist.

"Zhong Zheng and others are these termites."

Li Lingjun picked up the flame in the lamp with his fingertips and let it condense into the shape of a Xiezhi in his palm, "They are gnawing at your reputation and tarnishing my own door—" The Xiezhi roared and flew over the heads of the crowd, and the scattered sparks burned the four words "uphold integrity and uphold chastity" on the bluestone slab.

There was a crisp sound of cups falling to the ground from the back row.

Li Lingjun's lips curled slightly, and as his wide sleeves rolled up, nine bronze chimes fell from the beams. He waved his hand lightly, and the hammer wrapped in pale golden true energy hit the "Zheng" bell in the center. The sound waves spread like ripples, shaking everyone's Qi Hai Yu Palace slightly hot.

"This bell is called 'Xixin'." He walked down the steps, his woven gold shoes stepping over the burn marks on the bluestone slabs. "From now on, those who wish to support the country with me should drink 'Xixin Wine' and strike 'Mingzhi Bell'."

Lu Siche clapped his hands at the right time, and dozens of guards carried the red lacquered wooden box and filed in from the side door of the martial arts arena. When the lid of the box was opened, the soft light of the South China Sea Pearl and the cold light of the Lantian Lingyu complemented each other, illuminating the guests' sudden rapid breathing.

"I will add ten times the monthly quota left by Zhong Zheng and others and place it here."

Li Lingjun suddenly appeared on top of the prison cart, and snapped his fingers to remove the copper lock of the nearest wooden box, letting the top-quality jade in the box fall to the ground. "All according to the "Order of Meritorious Service" finalized by Mr. Lu, promote virtuous people to fill the positions - where is Li Mang?"

The bearded man who was named was shocked, and the two short axes on his waist made a buzzing sound. He was fined half a month's salary last night for contradicting Li Lingjun, but now he saw his master shook out a gilded box from his sleeve. The twelve "Xuepo Pills" in the box were emitting a rich spiritual energy that all the fifth-level cultivators coveted.

"Last month, when you were inspecting the Lishan Villa, you killed seven third-level thieves and fifty-two accompanying bandits in battle. Your armor was stained with blood, and you were invincible. Your majesty was so awe-inspiring that even Xue Shitong, who was reviewing the battle, praised you highly, saying that this battle was worthy of being awarded the title of 'Gongcheng' of Qin..."

Li Lingjun threw the medicine box into the strong man's arms, held his shoulders, and stuffed a lacquer tube into Li Mang's armpit: "A brave and fearless man like Li Jun is the pillar of the mansion." "Thank... Thank you, my lord!"

Li Mang opened the brocade scroll in the tube and found that the picture was a realistic scene of himself trying his best to repel the bandits and protect his master's assets that day. He couldn't help but tremble all over and fell to his knees on the ground with a plop. The bluestone bricks cracked into spider-web-like patterns.

Then, he glared at the prisoner's car with red eyes, and suddenly swung his axe to cut off a piece of his clothes: "Li is willing to serve you wholeheartedly and die for you! If you have second thoughts, I will just do this robe!"

The cursing sounds in the prison van were eliminated by the talisman formation, making the scene even more solemn and murderous.

Li Lingjun returned to the high platform with his sleeves fluttering. He held the copy of the pardon decree he had obtained from Xu Fu between three fingers. The gold thread on the silk was so hot under the sun that it was hard to open one's eyes. "I have asked for grace from His Majesty Yuanwu..."

He deliberately paused for three breaths, looking at the arc of the guests' necks with satisfaction.

The coiled dragon pattern on the corner of the edict slowly moved as he poured his true energy into it, casting a majestic shadow on the table: "Starting from today, two more lectures will be held every ten days. Lord Xu Fu will send his personal guards to teach the "Chongxu Zhenjie" - the twelve seats in the front row will be awarded with enlightenment tea."

The female cultivator carrying the musical instrument case suddenly covered her mouth.

That was a royal tribute that could help people break through bottlenecks. Last year, the Nanrong clan even offered an entire vein of cold iron ore in exchange for a tea tree. She trembled as she untied the secret compartment of the zither box and scattered all the gold leaves that she had originally prepared to use to escape from the mansion on the ground.

"But cultivation ultimately depends on aptitude."

Li Lingjun's tone suddenly turned cold, and he slipped out a jade ruler inlaid with a green snake bead from his sleeve. The two words "Spirit and Character" engraved on the ruler suddenly lit up, illuminating the faces of several wandering guests in the back row. "Qian Mo, you privately sold the sword skills in your mansion to Qi Shang last month. Did I not know?"

Before the thin scholar named by name could speak, the jade ruler had already turned into a stream of light and pierced through his qi sea. When Qian Mo collapsed on the ground, Li Lingjun was wiping his fingers with a dragon gauze handkerchief, as if he had just destroyed a dirty tool: "But I consider that this is your first offense, so I will allow you to earn three months' salary and earn your living."

Zhong Zheng in the prison car suddenly banged the fence frantically. He recognized that the jade ruler was the birthday gift he gave to his master last year.

Li Lingjun seemed to have expected this. He raised his hand and threw the blood-stained jade ruler into the cage. The lightning pattern lock on the black iron fence instantly blasted it into pieces.

"I can't tolerate any sand in my eyes, but I also value talent."

As he spoke, a holy light appeared in the sky above. It was a vision that only the monks at the peak of the Sixth Realm could experience. It seemed to merge with the midday winter day that had become much hotter for some reason. "From today on, a drum will be set up to report the crimes. Anyone who exposes the treacherous will be rewarded with half of their embezzled wealth!"

There was a uniform gasp in the air.

Several retainers who had been drinking and having fun with Zhong Zheng suddenly jumped up, throwing talismans and sword lights at the prison van that was heading out of the mansion.

Li Lingjun stood with his hands behind his back, watching the fight. The smile on his lips grew warmer in the blood, but without warning, he felt a little hot and palpitating: "Is it possible that the earth dragon is burning too strongly today?" He murmured in a low voice, with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

The sundial's bronze needle finally pierced the noon hour.

Millions of feet above the sky, which was as cold as the underworld, wisps of red-gold flames had already begun to flow down from the center of the unfolded metal foil sheets.

It was the "Flying Goddess" manned spacecraft that was launched into outer space a few days ago. After the head cabin returned to the ground, the talisman "Heavenly Punishment" on its wings was still functioning normally.

Although their originally designed flight altitude was not more than several thousand feet, after several rounds of testing and modulation, because they were bringing down the real sun's true fire, which was itself a high-energy true energy in a plasma state, it would not be hindered by the atmosphere. It just took a long time to fall.

Apart from key issues such as difficulty in tracking and locking onto targets, inability to ensure hit rates, and flames that are easily dispersed and drifting, this spacecraft, which is remotely controlled by Zhao Qing himself via starlight link, can already be classified as a "space-based weapon."

Its average output power of about 10GW and the ability to accumulate large amounts of true fire to burn the enemy together give it the theoretical power to destroy a sixth-level innate-level practitioner in a single blow.

However, from the actual combat point of view, although Li Lingjun, who was trained in a greenhouse and reached the peak of the sixth realm, lacks experience in fighting others, his awareness and means of preserving his life are undoubtedly top-notch. If he were to encounter a falling attack of true fire from the sky, his life might not be seriously injured.

To be more precise, even if Zhao Qing overcame the several major flaws of "Heavenly Punishment" in one go and turned it from large-scale killing to single-point focusing, the thirty-two talisman formations built openly and secretly throughout the mansion, the twelve linked formations in the outer courtyard secretly matched the earthly branches, the seven absolute formations in the atrium were modeled after the Big Dipper, and the thirteen restrictions in the inner house corresponded to the evil stars of the zodiac, all of which had the effect of deflecting and refracting light and shadow.

In other words, for attackers outside the mansion, if they want their long-range attacks to truly hit the figure representing Lord Liling, they have to work backwards according to the order of the changes in the operation of these magic arrays, and give precise compensation values ​​to the attack angles before they can barely achieve it.

But a cultivator at the peak of the sixth realm is obviously not a stupid target. Any movement within a radius of several miles is within his perception. If he detects a crisis, he has a plan to deal with it.

But Zhao Qing is not an ordinary person after all.

……

Half an hour ago, the fungus spores were blown by the wind from the ridges of the fields outside Changling City, flying all over the sky and quietly blending into the high-altitude clouds. Half a moment before the incident, they had condensed with countless ice crystals under the remote control of the Suspended Puppet Sword to form biological focusing lenses.

An hour ago, Lu Siche filled a golden-mouthed jade cup with three hundred years of green marrow wine and presented it to his lord. The wine was filled with thousands of stardust that had lost their faint silver glow. Together, they formed a "spiritual plague" specifically targeting the skills and life energy practiced by Lord Li Ling, and it penetrated into the other party's body along with the wine.

Two hours ago, when Ye Celeng passed by the century-old ginkgo tree in the courtyard of Keats Hall, he casually took out a photographic talisman newly developed by Zhao Qing and took pictures of the many secret symbols drawn on it with potions, providing her with the rules and specific parameters of the operation of the thirty-two magic array.

These three factors combined determined the fate of Li Lingjun and put an end to this prince of the Chu Dynasty who indirectly influenced Zhao Qing's plan, was an excellent performer, and was conceited.

……

"Is this... the Spark Sword? No... the target's life is in danger!"

When the originally clear sky three hundred feet above the Liling Palace suddenly began to ripple like fish scales, in an inconspicuous corner of the martial arts field, a middle-aged man wearing a light yellow robe suddenly raised his head, with a hint of disbelief in his eyes.

He was a shadow guard secretly sent by Zheng Xiu to monitor and protect the safety of Liling Jun. His name was Wen Houling.

Few people knew of the existence of Wen Houling, but in the past years, whenever Zheng Xiu appeared on the battlefields of Han, Zhao, and Wei and wielded the Spark Sword that fell from the sky, Wen Houling would follow Zheng Xiu like a shadow.

Always keeping a trick in mind, this is Zheng Xiu's style.

She only appears on the battlefield at the most critical moment, and her appearance is only reflected by the appearance of her sword.

As a close attendant, Wen Houling, who hid in the battlefield with Zheng Xiu, was her backup and naturally very powerful - in fact, Wen Houling was also one of the practitioners in Bashan Sword Field who betrayed Wang Jingmeng.

By now, he had undoubtedly already surpassed the middle level of the seventh realm, enough to dominate among most of the grandmasters.

A few days ago, the only seventh-level master in Liling Junfu suddenly left a letter to say goodbye. It was written by Wen Houling.

When he secretly killed the old master of Chu, he did not reveal any signs of fighting. He even hid in the mansion as an ordinary attendant and continued the assigned undercover work.

But at this moment, staring at Li Lingjun who was walking towards the Dengwen drum a hundred steps away without any notice, Wen Houling knew that she had to show her strength in public and use the most powerful secret method of "Swallowing Light and Devouring Shadows".

Otherwise, if we fail to save the other person's life, it will ruin the plans of Her Majesty the Queen and His Majesty Yuanwu!
Then, the loud sound of a giant mountain of vitality moving forward was heard in the sky. He did not make any unnecessary movements, but took a step towards the direction of protecting the target. Countless gloomy auras seemed to be sucked into Wen Houling's body at this moment.

The area within a hundred feet around him suddenly became extremely bright.

……

There were fine cracking sounds in the sky.

The thirty-two defensive formations were operating at overload at the same time, and the talisman crystals were turning into ashes at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A hundred miles away, Zhao Qing turned his palm and pressed down with an indifferent expression.

The red-gold flames hanging from deep in the clouds began to accelerate, and under the pull of the silver mycelium, they suddenly collapsed into a needle towards the central gilded platform. It was the true fire of the sun that had been tempered by the cold starry sky and the nine-day strong wind.

As the light needle penetrated layer after layer of formations, the fire-proof bells hanging on the eaves of the Proton Mansion all exploded, but the moment they touched the outer layer of silver light, they turned into ordinary iron.

The Chiwen jade pendant on Li Lingjun's waist was blown into powder, and the treasured Seven Treasures Sky-escaping Talisman spontaneously combusted into ashes before it was taken out. The natal object "Li Zhutong" hidden deep in the sea of ​​​​qi was about to manifest, but was wrapped into a cocoon shape by the swimming silver sand.

Wen Houling's secret method of "Swallowing Light and Devouring Shadows" tore open a hundred-foot light trap above the former, but the falling red-gold flames suddenly split into billions of stardust, and each grain of stardust burst out with the charm of green bamboo growing in rotation.

In some indescribable way, they distorted the surrounding vital energy laws, causing his determined method of escaping the disaster to collapse immediately. The "Tian Hulu Sword" that he had just raised into the air suddenly trembled, and the Taotie patterns engraved on the surface actually melted away, and his innate vital energy was also burned to annihilation.

The stream of red-gold flames finally kissed the gilded platform.

Li Lingjun's luxurious brocade python robe turned to dust, revealing the precious armor of mermaid silk worn inside. The high temperature of tens of thousands of degrees from the outside was madly burning this body that had been thoroughly soaked in spiritual medicine since childhood, and it refined into balls of orange-red fragrant elixir.

When Wen Houling fled into the distant shadows in terror and turned back at last, in the peripheral vision, this foreign prince who for some reason forgot to hide suddenly jumped up as if having a hysterical attack and turned himself into a human torch hanging in the air!

It's like the attraction between yin and yang between magnets.

At this moment, Lu Siche, who was only a few feet away from his master and whose cultivation had reached the lower sixth level, just reacted. He did not attempt any futile rescue, but fled hastily into the distance.

When the blazing flames penetrated from his forehead, Lord Liling suddenly became quiet, and his memories collapsed like a sand castle at low tide - the ambergris on the steps of the Chu Palace, the moon-shaped pendant dangling beside Zheng Xiu's ear, and the dragon pearl tumbling in Xu Fu's cauldron, all melted into glass-colored tears in the flames.

What finally came into his pupils were the countless reflections of himself in the misty medicinal vapor.

Every reflection is burning, and every burning figure is clapping and laughing.

boom!
The roar of the gilded platform's collapse startled the wind chimes in the three hundred corner towers of Changling.

……

(End of this chapter)