The bustle of Cold River City gradually faded into the distance. When Shen Xiu and Liu Qingyan flew over the healing rift in the icefield once more, the ice below bore almost no trace that it had ever split apart. The air, cleared of its gray mist, had become exceptionally crisp; every breath felt like drinking spring water laced with ice chips. Shen Xiu silently committed the map that had surfaced in his mind to memory. Seven points of light, like seven tiny stars, revolved in the depths of his consciousness, pointing toward corners of the continent he had yet to set foot in.
"Where do we go first?" Liu Qingyan flew beside him, her cloak billowing in the wind. Her voice was shredded into intermittent fragments by the gale, but Shen Xiu heard her clearly.
He fell silent for a moment, weighing the seven points of light on the map. The dense forest in the far south was the most distant from them, the seabed of the eastern sea required diving deep underwater, and the yellow sands of the western desert were plagued by harsh weather. Yet one point lay somewhat west of the continent's center, at a moderate distance. Moreover, the terrain there stirred a faintly familiar outline in Thunder Lord's memories—it was a plateau blanketed in volcanic ash. In ancient times, a violent eruption had exposed old underground passageways. At the end of one such passage should be where the next fragment was hidden.
"We'll go to the ash-covered plateau west of the continent's center," Shen Xiu said. "According to the information left behind by the Sixth Thunder Lord, that fragment's guardian has not completely dispersed yet. It may be able to receive us directly."
Liu Qingyan nodded without asking further questions. She adjusted her direction and