The world deep beneath the land-wide crust was transformed into a kingdom of rushing sound.
It wasn’t a destructive roar like the collapse of a mountain ridge or the blast of a demonic siege magic charm. It was a vast, ancient mix—the sound power of a thousand dragons singing through underground mountain roots. Billions of gallons of high-pressure, sub-crustal ice-slow meltwater surged through the ancient granite channel. Their white foam crests leapt high into the cave vaulted ceiling before cascading down into the blood water chutes.
The choking fiery heat that had baked the cave for three hundred years was destroyed within breaths.
Where sulfur fumes and blistering rock dust had once made every lungful of air taste like burning copper, the cave filled with dense, fragrant, crystal-clear mist. The air turned shockingly crisp and cool. He smelled of fresh mountain snow, wild crushed mint, and the ancient limestone sweetness of deep world-size caverns. Dormant underground vegetation—ancient jade-moss and living-glow cave ferns that had withered into dry husks hundreds of years ago—drank greedily from the flying moisture. Before the eyes of the companions, tiny emerald fronds began uncurling across the granite walls. It glowed with soft, pale-green light.
High above the roaring white torrent, Lin Xiao rested comfortably against the ceiling vault.
