Dao Rhyme Endures, Mountains and Seas United Await the Return Voyage

The trail carved by the starship through the clouds had vanished from the skies above the Central Spiritual Vein for a full three months. Every morning at dawn, Shen Hao stood on the Star Gazing Platform beside the Spirit Gathering Pool, his gaze crossing layer upon layer of cloud seas and reaching into the depths of the stars. The stars there were boundless, yet there was no longer any trace of that starship covered in Starlight Runes.

His Dao Rhyme had long since fused with the Hongmeng Origin Grand Array. The golden light around him had gained a gentler warmth than before. As his fingertips brushed the Green Stone railing of the Star Gazing Platform, the spot he had worn smooth day after day faintly glimmered with starlight—it was the mark of the residual power of the Starfall Bead mingling with his Longevity Dao Rhyme.

At the proper hour each morning, Zi Xuan would carry a bowl of warm spirit porridge up to the Star Gazing Platform. The porridge contained Origin Spirit Grass newly cultivated in the Spirit Grass Valley of the Southern Territory. Sweet and clear on the tongue, it could nourish depleted Dao Rhyme. She handed the bowl to Shen Hao, her gaze following his toward the horizon as she said softly, "Brother Hao, today's wind carries the salty dampness of the Starfall Sea. Perhaps Lan Ze and the others are crossing a sea of stars much like the Starfall Sea."

Shen Hao accepted the bowl and raised a spoonful to his mouth. The warm porridge flowed down his throat and into his stomach, dispelling some of the chill brought by the morning dew. He turned to Zi Xuan, a faint smile in his eyes. "You are always so good at comforting others. The starry expanse is vast.