The center of the arena floor split open with the sound of grinding tectonic plates.
A colossal holographic projection beacon, seventy feet in diameter, rose into the center of the Colosseum. A beam of deep emerald light projected upward, filling the entire stadium dome with a living three-dimensional view of an ancient celestial pocket realm.
The crowd stared in breathless wonder.
Inside the projection lay rolling hills of violet jade soil, crossed by sparkling rivers of pure wood-spirit dew. Towering across the misty valleys stood twelve thousand primordial peach trees. Each tree was three hundred feet tall, with golden bark and emerald leaves that rustled in an eternal mountain breeze.
Hanging from every branch were thousands of glowing, ripe crimson peaches, each pulsing with ten thousand years of condensed celestial lifespan.
Beside Lin Mo, Fairy Yao Shu clutched the balcony railing with both hands.
Her knuckles turned white. Tears streamed silently down her cheeks as she looked upon the ancient valley where she had tended every sprout since the dawn of the sect era.
“My trees...” Yao Shu whispered, her voice breaking. “They have not been watered in six months. The soil around the third spring is starting to wither.”
