Hostility

"Is this Dragon Abyss Path?"

"Elder, your eyes are keen. Dragon Abyss Path stretches five hundred and eighty-six li in length, forty-six li at its widest. No beast has ever known its full depth. The abyss is divided into three tiered platforms, each with entirely different scenery.

Rumors outside claim that the deepest part of Dragon Abyss Path leads to a dead abyssal realm—no light, no algae, no warmth, no life. In truth, it is a vast cold spring, bursting with life, a ready-made habitat for Dragon Sturgeon."

"Cold spring?"

"The cold in cold spring does not mean coldness of temperature; it means cooling descent. The Green Water Pool in the Turtle Clan's territory is one of the Great Marsh's cold springs—a river within a river, water within water. But not every cold spring is a paradise. Some are superior, some inferior, and some carry deadly poison, forming dead regions that stretch for hundreds of li."

"Sounds like a brine pool."

"A brine pool?"

Long Binglin did not understand.

Given Liang Qu's knack for tinkering with food, was it some kind of salty brine? The big fish swam onward, its shadow stretching without end.

Liang Qu did not explain further. Standing atop the fish's head, he looked down over the land below.

Dragon Abyss Path—as its name implied, it was a deep canyon gorge.

A banquet had been held for the Imperial Envoy at noon. They had set out for the Turtle King's territory in the afternoon, then spent another half day traveling. The setting sun slanted down, orange-red light spreading through the water. The last faint glimmers of light only made the canyon's boundless darkness all the more pronounced.

There was little life on either side of the abyss, only bare, hard rock walls, with the occasional turbulent current