High above the northern plateau of the Floating Mountain, the clouds parted to reveal a sinuous coil of sky sapphire scales. Xiao Long, the Nine-Clawed Azure Flood Dragon, glided through the upper troposphere with majestic grace, trailing misty halos of rainbow-bright storm dew.
In his hundred-meter sovereign dragon form, his golden antlers scraped the lower stratosphere. But his expression was one of intense, playful focus. Opening his massive jaws, Xiao Long exhaled a gentle, billowing breath of condensed Yin-water origin mist.
Instead of turning into rain, the sky vapor crystal-hardened under the guidance of forty thousand delicate water-control runes inscribed upon the mountain’s outer rim. In the crisp mountain air, the mist condensed into thousands of hovering, ball-shaped water-pearls, each the size of a pigeon’s egg and polished to flawless sight clarity. These pearls drifted across the sky, aligning themselves with the magnetic leylines of the floating continent like an invisible network of sky sight satellites.
Lin Xiao, floating nearby on a raised cloud terrace in his azure slime form, nodded with satisfaction. “Sight clarity is ninety-nine point nine percent. Dao Spirit, link the water-pearl relays to the Pagoda’s spatial tracking runes.”
“Ringing linkage established,” the Dao Spirit responded smoothly within his mind. “Thirty-six thousand Scrying Eye runes activated throughout Floors 001 through 100. Each milestone arena is equipped with thirty-six independent watching angles. Light signals will transmit via sky water-hum deep ring with zero perceptible latency.”
