In the days that followed, Li Yan came by almost every few days to check on the progress of the project and try to contact Qiu Yan, hoping Qiu Yan would accept him as a disciple. But he achieved very little.
Still, Li Yan had helped Qiu Yan after all, and Qiu Yan could not truly refuse to see him altogether. So they did have some contact during this time, though every meeting involved Li Yan pestering him, saying that he had been young and ignorant in the past, and that was why he had made those mistakes.
Yet in Qiu Yan's eyes, the Crown Prince's temperament had changed too strangely. He could not be persuaded so easily. But after being pestered often enough, Qiu Yan had to come up with some means to deal with it. Thus, in the open ground outside the courtyard, he traced through the air with his brush, leaving the two words "Nine Palaces" upon the earth.
The moment the two words took shape, an extraordinary phenomenon arose. Anyone who looked upon them was affected by the transformations contained within, their thoughts and five senses alike battered by the impact. Yet anyone with even a little cultivation knew the value of these two words.
Only someone like Li Yan, born with Dragon Qi protecting his body, could disregard the pressures of those strange phenomena, part the clouds and mist, observe closely, and glimpse a thread of their mystery.
But when Qiu Yan asked Li Yan what he had seen in them, Li Yan answered, "It seemed there was a person stepping forward within them." Upon hearing this, Qiu Yan said, "In that case, Your Highness may as well treat these two words as a movement technique, and call it the Nine Palaces Step. Once you