At 11:55 PM on Saturday night, a freezing autumn mist hung low over the dark waters of Moon-Mirror Lake.
After galloping forty miles south from Red-Leaf Valley without stopping for lunch or dinner—riding three warhorses to. Exhaustion along the rocky mountain trails—Second Prince Qian Ye [Regressor Halo: 71%], Royal Guard Commander General Wei. Twenty exhausted Rank 3 Eastern Palace Guards finally stumbled onto the wooden fishing dock at the edge of the lake.
Qian Ye’s golden robes were caked with road dust, his lips were still stained with dried blood from his morning Qi-backlash at the Flame-Marquis Tomb. His sunken eyes burned with desperate, bloodshot intensity as he stared out at the center of the lake.
“Look, General Wei!” Qian Ye pointed a trembling finger toward the middle of the dark water, where the full midnight moon was just aligning directly above the Lunar-Tide Whirlpool. “The whirlpool is still spinning!
Unlike the Flame-Marquis Tomb on dry land, Secret Realm #2: The Sunken Star-Lake Grotto lies three hundred feet underwater beneath forty thousand pounds of crushing hydraulic force!
Without a royal Water-Parting Jade Talisman and the exact midnight lunar alignment, not even a Rank 4 cultivator could dive down there during the day!”
