Twilight settled over the floating cloud terrace of the Myriad Spirit Safe hall with the quiet luxury of an unrushed evening. A gentle mountain breeze drifted up from the valleys below. He carried the sweet scent of night-blooming orchids and damp pine needles, rustling the carved jade wind chimes that hung beneath the cedar roof edges.
Lin Xiao hovered comfortably over a low sandalwood table in his natural form: a plump, semi-clear sapphire-blue sphere roughly forty inches in width. Within his jelly-like body, tiny ripples of golden origin light swirled lazily around his central core, pulsing in slow, contented rhythm. With a flick of an azure slime arm, he adjusted the heat of a tiny blue spirit flame beneath a glazed clay kettle. The water inside began to murmur, releasing the delicate, floral fragrance of wild peach blossom tea harvested from the safe hall’s south-facing cliffs.
Beside him on a woven bamboo mat sat Su Ling’er. The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Maiden wore flowing vermilion-and-white robes stitched with silver cloud motifs. Her nine snowy-white tails fanned out behind her, swaying in slow, rhythmic arcs as her jade-tipped fingers gracefully peeled the semi-clear skin from a frosted mountain plum.
“The autumn harvest manifests without a single blemish this cycle, Lord Xiao,” Su Ling’er murmured, her fox ears twitching slightly with amusement as she set the peeled fruit onto a small celadon saucer. “Patriarch Lu Feng sent word from the surface an hour ago. The mortal trade caravans traveling alongside the armored earth-bear…
