Return Gift

Wu Shuangjiang was trapped within layer upon layer of Small Worlds. The four figures had vanished, but instead of searching for them, he put away his towering dharma form, which could have propped heaven and earth apart, and took his time admiring the first mustard-seed world, built around a chart of the constellations.

Farther out, he sensed the Map of Mountain Search. Wu Shuangjiang was in no hurry. Walking through empty air, he could cross an entire constellation within the Small World in a single casual step. As the sole target of its Suppressive Magic, he collided with the world whenever he breathed or moved. Each step struck it like a surging river crashing against a midstream pillar, throwing up dazzling waves of seven-colored crystal light. Behind him trailed an impossibly fine line that held together without dispersing, making him look like a deity crossing a river of stars.

He strolled as though he were a Qi cultivator newly admitted to the mortal Imperial Observatory, performing the four beginner exercises of observing the heavens at dusk and dawn.

Then Wu Shuangjiang stopped in the void between the Dipper and Ox constellations. Looking back, he saw long lines like the tracks of a life lingering behind him. A Great Dao manifestation of a thread of cause and effect? He found it novel and left it alone, eager to see what happened when his opponent pulled the loose end. He only hoped it would not be all thunder and no rain.

With his hands behind his back, Wu Shuangjiang lowered his head and smiled. "Mr. Cui, they say Qi Chong Dou Niu. Where, then, is the sword light?"

Among the figures of Vast Heaven and Earth, only two truly interested Wu Shuangjiang: Su Zi and the Embroidered Tiger.

He sincerely admired Su