That day, white clouds drifted across the dome of the sky, and the Great Sun shone over all of Cloud-Rain Island.
Sky, earth, and sea were as peaceful as ever.
But just then, Wine-Brewing Peak within the Cloud-Rain Sect suddenly fell quiet.
It was not deathly silence, but a solemn hush as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth abruptly lost its voice.
First, a faint wisp of blue-gold spiritual light seeped from Ji Yuan's brow and spread through the Lingtai Square-Inch Mountain, out of the cave.
Wherever the light passed, withered foxtail grass in the cracks of Wine-Brewing Peak put forth tender yellow shoots. Insects frozen stiff in the soil rolled over, making faint sounds as they stirred.
Outside the cave, spiritual energy across a hundred li around Cloud-Rain Island began to flow backward.
The mixed spiritual energy once scattered through the forests became milky-white waves of mist. They surged toward Ji Yuan's secluded cave like pilgrims, spiraling into a vortex dozens of zhang across.
The vortex turned slowly, as though to some wondrous rhythm. It stripped away layer after layer of impurities, leaving only the energy's essence to seep through the rock and nourish Ji Yuan within the Lingtai Square-Inch Mountain.
The sudden disturbance also startled the Old Drunkard awake atop Wine-Brewing Peak.
When he first sensed the spiritual energy, he was so shocked that he tumbled from his chair. Before he hit the ground, though, he had turned into a streak of light and reached the sky above the peak.
His first instinct was to find the source of this astonishing phenomenon.
But once he looked closely, he discovered that it came from Wine-Brewing Peak itself!
"Such a vast, magnificent vortex of spiritual energy—and it carries the rhythm of the Great Dao. Could the peak master have...