Ghost Island

Outside Listening Bamboo Pavilion, the morning light was faint.

Emerald bamboo spread like a sea, swaying gracefully in the morning breeze. Spirit dew gathered on the leaves and pattered down, flowing into a hollow in a slab of bluestone, then trickling through bamboo pipes carved into the shape of roaming dragons and into a small pool.

In the pool, several Jade Water Lilies had not yet fully awakened from last night's quiet. Their petals were half-curled, spirit mist curling around them. Now and then, spirit carp flicked their tails, shattering the poolful of morning glow and stirring up rings of ripples.

Shi Jingtian's rough, massive body was sprawled beneath a thousand-year spirit bamboo. His bald head rested against the bamboo trunk, his mouth gaping wide, his snores booming like thunder, each one louder than the last and shaking the spirit dew from the bamboo leaves ahead of time. Crystal-clear drool ran from the corner of his mouth onto the front of his robes, glistening in the morning light. Every so often, he smacked his lips and mumbled indistinctly in his sleep, "Heh heh... grilled lobster... man-woman, don't snatch it... that's mine..."

Not far away, Tu Jiao sat cross-legged atop a green-jade stone stool, her neat short hair stirring lightly in the wind. Her eyes were half-closed, and a faint gray, murky glow shrouded her body—the sign that the Great Primordial Scripture was circulating. The ancient, weighty aura of the Primordial Hegemon Body flowed slowly through her, steady as a mountain. Only, between her valiant brows, she would occasionally frown slightly because of the thunderous snoring not far away. Clearly, enduring it was quite a trial.

Murong Taxue stood quietly before the pavilion doors, her moon-white gown trailing over the ground, her posture straight as a Winter Plum Blossom in frost