Li Xiang was waiting too.
But he was not waiting to see who would strike first.
From the moment the Ghost-Slaying Blade returned to its sheath, only one thing remained in his mind.
Timing.
The lingering dragon roar still rebounded between the Inner Cavern's stone walls.
Azure fluorescence spread from beneath his feet to the edge of his vision, tracing the dragon vein nodes like a vast net being lit up.
Li Xiang's breathing steadied. The heat of blood qi like a furnace slowly rose again within his meridians. The faint red band around his wrist had not completely faded, and it still itched.
He did not look at Sun Qingge or Tian Yan.
He was watching the ground beneath his feet.
Within the three-dimensional map unfurled by [Earth Vein Affinity], the mass of rule-bearing will at the dragon vein's central node was expanding outward at an unstoppable pace.
With every expansion, the azure fluorescence on the mineral rock beneath his feet brightened a little, and the interval between dragon roars shortened by a breath.
It was no longer in the deepest reaches.
It was moving upward.
Like a fish that had slept on a riverbed for a thousand years, hearing the spring thunder and rising to the surface for air.
Li Xiang roughly estimated its position and distance in his mind. His pupils narrowed slightly.
There was more than one route upward.
In the deeper regions of the Inner Cavern, the earth vein branches split into at least three paths, each leading in a different direction.
No one could say which path the Azure Dragon Soul would emerge from.
It was not that the deepest reaches held only one point.
Rather, there were many paths through those depths. Bet correctly, and it would be yours upon arrival. Bet wrong,