Fivefold Pilgrimage (First Update)

The air was thin, and the lack of oxygen was exhilarating.

The lantern in his hand was cold and heavy. The black embers inside its glass shade drew in the faint light around them like a curtain of darkness.

Xia Lun took a deep breath and used Symptom Reading to feel the rough, rust-scented texture of the lantern's handle. His focused will traveled along it, slowly seeping toward the lantern's center. The Tombdeep Eye inside stirred faintly.

Thump.

The next instant, that faint stirring became an invisible echo. It rolled toward the vast clouds and valleys in the darkness like the toll of a bronze bell, and the valleys answered with an even stronger echo.

The echoes built upon one another. Xia Lun relaxed and immersed his mind in them. The next instant, his vision blurred.

At some point, the darkness around him had given way to a lead-gray sky.

With a soaring cry, the Blue-Green Dragon shot up from beneath a sheer cliff. It spread its graceful wings, their membranes like cold moonlight, radiating an indescribable allure.

But the next moment, those pale wing membranes burst apart. A dark flame from the Deep pierced through them like a spear, and freezing crystals spread unchecked across torn tendons and broken white bones.

The dragon gave a mournful cry and beat its wings to climb. Then a rain of arrows shot straight through!

Beneath the sheer cliff, countless warriors poured along the rutted mountain road in an endless stream. Enormous Dragon-Hunting Spears and bows rose among them like a forest forged of steel, an awe-inspiring sight.

Amid earthshaking battle cries, Xia Lun's gaze passed over the tide-like army. On a distant rise stood a giant covered in black fur, with a mass of dark flame swirling in his palm.

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