"...My Light Boat Has Passed Ten Thousand Mountains.
—Chen Qingzhou, Year 21 of Anhe, fifth day of the eighth month."
Before he had even written the inscription, the moment the poem's words appeared—
Chen Yi's Perfection Calligraphy Artistic Conception had already manifested.
Just like Farewell to Duke Changming in Shu Prefecture before, scenes shifted above the words and lines.
At first, atop towering mountains stood a city enclosed by lofty gray-white walls.
Rosy light spilled in every direction, veiled by mist and clouds, like dawn after dark clouds had gathered and rain had poured down, casting the city named "Baidi" in dazzling colors.
After that, a man in a spotless white robe appeared, riding a boat through the waves along the river below the mountains.
The river surged onward, the sail billowed, and both boat and man pressed forward together.
As the boat passed through the mountains, apes cried out from both banks, their calls chaotic and clamorous, yet unable to drown out the sound of the small boat cleaving the waves.
Nor could they conceal the man's singing.
Yet before anyone could make out what he was singing, the small boat had already passed through mountain ranges stretching thousands of miles, speeding across a tranquil river.
Vaguely, within that Calligraphy Artistic Conception, the man's appearance could be seen—he looked almost exactly like Chen Yi.
After a long while.
Chen Yi came back to himself. Looking at the artistic conception emerging on the Yunsong Paper, a faint smile touched his lips.
There was an indescribable freedom in his expression.
"This gives me an answer."
"I'll go, then."
As the troublemaker lurking behind the curtain, if he did not go and see the outcome of the Burning of Three Towns' Summer Grain, it would inevitably leave something unfinished.
It would probably