The sound of Su Ling’er’s pale vermilion fox-fire kissing the sky bronze was like hot water poured across a frozen pond.
Hovering gracefully before the first of the eight massive stone retaining wedges, the fox maiden directed a thread of razor-sharp flame no thicker than a sewing needle into the tiny guide slot. The ancient golden Yang-stone carvings—etched ten thousand years ago by Upper Realm court artificers to weld the eighteen-foot jade blocks permanently into place—glowed blazing bright yellow under the extreme, focused heat.
“The sky gold is expanding, Elder Gu!” Su Ling’er called out, her nine snowy tails fanning wide to stabilize her position against the churning sub-space updraft. “The heat clearance is a tiny fraction of an inch! Strike now!”
Gu Qingfeng didn’t take a heroic stance, nor did he shout a dramatic martial magic chant. He simply drifted forward on the wind, his faded hemp robes billowing around his lean frame. He held his plain willow twig between two weathered fingers.
With a motion as casual as flicking an autumn leaf from a still pool of water, Gu Qingfeng tapped the exposed tip of the first jade wedge with the green bark of the twig.
PING.
A pure, see-through ripple of calm sword intent slipped directly through the heat gap. It didn’t smash the sky bronze or scratch the dark star-iron guide tracks. Like a whisper of morning breeze sliding through an open window, the sword intent bypassed the outer metal housing and rang deep within the…
