Dusk had deepened. Misty vapor shrouded Spirit Pool Peak, yet the bamboo house was brightly lit within, almost painfully so.
Zhou Wan pushed open the half-closed bamboo door, and the sight before her made her halt abruptly on the threshold.
The floor of the small hall was almost entirely covered by a pile of objects glimmering in every color. Scattered jade slips, unfolded brocade albums, opened brocade boxes large and small, all filled with radiant ores, jewels, spiritwood fragments...
Lin Huaixu sat cross-legged amid that dazzling heap, wearing an unusually grave and focused expression, his brows knotted tight. In one hand, he held up a lustrous white pearl the size of a goose egg to inspect beneath the lamplight; in the other, he pinched a translucent crimson crystal as red as pigeon blood, comparing them with utmost concentration.
Spread out before his knees was the largest scroll of drawings, upon which several breathtakingly elaborate and splendid... phoenix-crown designs had been rendered in fine brushwork.
Zhou Wan remained silent for three breaths before she found her voice again, her tone almost blank with confusion. "...Junior Brother, what are you doing?"
Hearing her, Lin Huaixu looked up. Seeing that it was her, he sprang to his feet, heedless of what he stepped on, and hurried over holding the white pearl and crimson crystal. His face was earnest as he sought her advice. "Senior Sister! You came back at just the right time!"
He pointed to the pearl. "This is a Moon-Soul Pearl, one found only once every hundred years in the depths of Sea Rapture Abyss. It contains pure Shui Yue essence, with a gentle luster that emits a clear glow on its own at night—pure as ice and clean as jade."
Then he pointed at the crimson crystal. "This is Scarlet