The late afternoon breeze carried the crisp, invigorating chill of the high heavens across Sovereign’s Rest.
On the newly completed cedar deck, the three dark stone basins sat empty, their smooth, polished surfaces gleaming under the golden rays of the dropping sun. The copper heat-exchange radiator grid beneath the stone was already humming with intense earth-heat warmth. It waited for the lifeblood of the mountain to complete the circuit.
Lin Xiao stood by the upper intake channel. He closed his eyes as he connected his mind to the underground waterways.
“Xiao Long,” Lin Xiao called through their aquatic soul-link. “We need the good stuff. Tap the deep quartz spring beneath the Lotus Peak snowfields—the sweet stone vein that filters through the white jade strata.”
High above the mountain summits, a majestic azure dark shape spiraled through the cloud sea.
Xiao Long’s ninety-meter dragon body dipped downward, his sapphire scales flashing like polished gems. With an affectionate, playful rumble that rang through the clouds, the Nine-Clawed Azure Flood Dragon dove into the underground springheads beneath Lotus Peak.
Channeling his innate hydro-sovereign power, Xiao Long parted the underground rock. He diverted a clean, underground artesian vein. Water that had melted from ancient mountain glaciers ten thousand years ago, filtered through three miles of quartz sand, glow-stone crystals, and sky jade gravel.
