The outskirts of Thin Mist Forest.
Early morning. The sky was gradually brightening.
The sun had yet to fully rise. Only a faint light glowed on the distant horizon beyond the dense canopy, giving the entire firmament a shifting gradient of color.
From brightness at the edge, to brilliant violet clouds, and finally spreading into the black left behind by night.
"Snap."
An extremely faint crackle rang out.
Burned-out, charred firewood lay stacked and crossed. Some residual warmth remained, its rising heat gently stirring the thin mist in the air, but it no longer had any life in it.
A cool breeze blew past, quietly rousing a smear of dark red curled deep within the charcoal. It released its final remnant heat and turned into a spark that suddenly shot up from the charcoal, carving a brief yet violent scarlet trail through the cold air.
Strangely, this tiny flying ember was not quickly smothered by the surrounding water vapor as one might have imagined.
Instead, as if blessed by some power, it hovered and swayed in midair.
It burned. That tiny trace of faint heat at the ember's core was pushed to its limit, raising layer after layer of fine, ripple-like heat currents through the surrounding thin mist.
This bizarre phenomenon that defied the laws of nature continued for three full seconds.
Only then did it finally burn out completely with another crackle so faint it could hardly be heard, turning into a gray-white ember like a snowflake.
It drifted down leisurely and came to rest on a pitch-black object as clear as glass.
Xia Nan raised his hand and blew the dust off the surface of the Snake Scale Arm Shield.
A thoughtful look appeared on his face.
By now, three more days had passed since he had accepted