While Tie Shan turned the High Dragon Plunge into a roaring festival of suds, steam, and cold ale, the southern porch by the Tier 1 Lukewarm Basin was an oasis of undisturbed, moonlit elegance.
Here, the water was held at a gentle, soothing thirty-seven degrees of calm warmth. Its surface was as flat and polished as black jade, undisturbed by rushing waterfalls or loud splashes. Wisps of cedar-scented mist drifted across the wooden walkway planks like semi-clear ribbons, lit up from above by the silver moon and azure moon, and from below by the soft amber pearls resting within the lotus lanterns.
Su Ling’er sat on a low, contoured cedar bench right at the water’s edge.
The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Maiden had bathed earlier at the private washing pavilion, rinsing herself clean with jasmine-tea soap and warm wellspring water. Now, she wore a loose, flowing yukata woven from sakura-pink hemp-silk. She was tied at her slender waist with a wide sash of midnight-blue cloud-silk. The sleeves were pushed back past her elbows, revealing pale, flawless forearms that glowed with a faint, pearl-white sky radiance.
Gathering the hem of her pink robe with delicate fingertips, Su Ling’er gently lowered her bare legs into the pool.
