"Book Elder, you are in remarkably fine spirits these days."
Qiu Yan smiled at the man before him and clasped his hands in greeting.
"No need for such ceremony." The man waved his hand and smiled as well. "This old man has been lucky enough to linger in the Mortal Realm for a few more years, all thanks to you. Had you not obtained that thing from the Yin Side of the Scholar Forest, how could I have drawn out such a lingering breath?"
This was none other than Book Elder, who had once seemed like a guttering candle in the wind. His aged, withered, sallow body had somehow shed all decay, vitality returning as he regained his youth.
"Speaking of the Scholar Forest, I happen to have something from there as well." Qiu Yan did not find this strange. He took an embroidered pouch from his robes and handed it over.
Book Elder accepted the pouch and flicked a finger. The pouch opened, and a beam of light shot forth, solidifying in the air. With a turn of his thoughts, guided by Book Elder's finger, it formed into a rotating ring that floated overhead.
Strands of Fortune wound around the ring, shifting and changing until they vaguely formed the shape of a dragon.
"What is this?" Qiu Yan narrowed his eyes. He had briefly opened the pouch before and sensed the radiance of history within, along with threads of Fortune. Yet now, he clearly perceived that those historical auras and Fortune were gradually forming a cycle of repetition.
"The yin and yang of history, the cycle of order and chaos—these are the very alternations of Human Path history. But now that the continent is about to ascend, this process will be interrupted." As Book Elder spoke, he looked up