Lin Xiao drifted back to the white jade watching platform, paddling his rounded blue pseudopods through the floating starlight air.
With a soft, elastic pop, the forty-inch sapphire slime orb shifted smoothly into an eighteen-year-old youth clad in simple gray-blue scholar linen. His hair was loosely tied with a pale hemp cord, his sleeves dusted with faint specks of glowing starlight. His dark eyes sparkled with lively, mischievous energy.
At the center of the watching platform stood the master control dais of Emperor Xuan Yuan.
Carved from a single block of starry black glass, the dais was shaped like a lotus stone stand, topped by a circular basin of polished dragon-jade. Within the basin swirled an exact, three-space-folding tiny projection of the Desolate Forest, complete with the five central mountain peaks, the winding river valleys, and the deep underground channels connecting to the world-size core floating in the void before them.
Directly in the center of the basin was a square depression. He measured exactly four inches on each side.
“The keystone has accepted your nourishment, Lord Xiao,” Gu Qingfeng said. He stepped forward with his hands clasped in deep respect. His weathered face was lined with solemn awe. “Now, the old family protocol demands the sovereign’s seal. Without a living master’s soul to anchor the leylines, the core’s revived power will eventually fade back into the earth.”
