Xu Mingchuan stood upright. Though his face was not handsome, his bearing was steady, and Spiritual Impetus wreathed him like cloud and mist, lending him a presence all his own.
He bowed slightly, raised his clasped hands in salute, then said to Gu Songhan:
"Fellow Daoist Gu, I came to challenge for the arena today, so I ought to make the first move. Please forgive me."
Gu Songhan laughed. "This is a Verification Offering. Of course you should. Win or lose, I thank you, Fellow Daoist Xu."
Xu Mingchuan said no more. He merely pointed a finger.
In an instant, wood essence gathered. A green compass appeared above Gu Songhan's head.
The compass spun. Dao resonance flowed through it, tracing a circle that closed around Gu Songhan like a cage.
Clang!
Gu Songhan did not move, but a wisp of clear qi rose from the Niwan Palace within his head. It was incomparably sharp. In a flash, it shattered the compass's cage, then surged on without losing force. Qi pierced the heavens like thunder tearing through the sky, and in one breath scattered the Azurewood Compass itself.
The compass vanished, but Gu Songhan had become "transparent." His Qi Sea and Dao Foundation, his True Essence and Dharma Seed, were all as plain as pearls glowing in the night.
Their first clash had not been fierce, yet it had been a contest of their Dao Foundations' powers.
Xu Mingchuan's Heaven-Grade Dao Foundation was called the Jumang Compass. Bearing a glimmer of a heavenly god's spirit, it could draw a prison upon the ground and command the power of confinement. It could also measure the strength of an enemy's spells, the quantity of their True Essence, and the grade of their Spirit Artifacts, giving it the power to investigate.
It also governed