Chapter 10 Three Years

• When one is enshrouded in the mystique of cultivation, time dissolves like sugar in water. Since acquiring the Secluded Ocean Scripture, Tan Xuan had dwelt within its inked verses—three years passed, marked only by the waterfall’s unchanging cadence. Mist from the cascade wove through his hair, now streaked with silver from prolonged meditation.
• Before Nine Palaces Peak’s thundering veil, his body coiled like a serpent uncoiling, each movement leaving phosphor trails in the air. The Water-Thunder Pearl orbited him like a satellite, its surface rippling with aquamarine energy. He could feel its core pulsing—sixty beats to the waterfall’s every ten drops—a rhythm he’d memorized through years of practice.
• "Release!" His pupils constricted as the pine’s bark—etched with centuries of lichen—became a target. The pearl shot forth, leaving a vapor trail that hung in the air like a comma.