He stepped out of the reception room. The door closed silently behind him. The silver-white corridor appeared before him again, its pale blue light patterns lighting up in sequence across the floor to guide him.
He retraced his steps at a steady pace. His inner heaven and earth circulated quietly within him, and the golden light on the Fruit shone a little brighter than before, as though the tea's nourishment had already seeped deep into the roots of the Inner Landscape Tree.
He was thinking about what Yin Wuji had said. Given another chance, he would still take that path. It was not a matter of luck.
It was already afternoon when he returned to Zero Seven No. 3 Residence. The sunlight on the river was stronger than it had been that morning, and reflections from the flowing water cast a shimmering scatter of gold across the leaves.
He sat beneath the oak, leaning against its trunk, his gaze settling on the river in the distance. The order governing its flow was clear to his perception—the rotation speed of every eddy, the disturbance each rise in the riverbed caused in the current, the constraints each stretch of bank imposed on the water level.
He was thinking about the territory. The front lines, the Star Beast Race's subordinate populations, the passage between the Second Astral Battlefield and the logistical supply lines. Qing had entrusted this region to him partly out of trust and partly as a test.
How long could he hold it? How many infiltrating Star Beasts could he clear out? Could he establish an effective defense along that passage?
He did not know. But he knew where to start.
Zero Seven's voice came from behind him, level and steady.
"Mr. Xu Wuyi, the official documents for your territory have