Dao-Treasuring Peak, Path-Seeking Courtyard.
Xuanming slept for ten days and ten nights.
When his tenth lifetime ended, he should have awakened, yet his body merely twitched twice before falling still.
As the wine's effects faded, Xuanming saw a butterfly in his half-waking state, dreamlike and illusory, dancing within his Mystic Pass.
It came from the Jade Scripture of the Inner Yellow Court.
It was formed from thirty-six strands of primordial chaos qi.
The butterfly circled his Primordial Spirit, and with each circuit, the ten-thousand-zhang-tall spirit shrank a little.
After nine circuits in each direction, his three-inch Primordial Spirit mounted the nine-inch butterfly. Flapping its six-inch wings, the butterfly flew out through the Heavenly Gate at the crown of his head.
Splash!
Water splashed.
Through the haze, Xuanming arrived before a great river.
Its source was unknown, its end unseen. Every cresting wave was a stretch of time, holding endless stories.
Every living being saw something different.
"The River... of Time!"
Xuanming was astonished.
He had never expected to return to this place.
The butterfly fluttered onward, carrying him downstream, about to cross the boundary between the present and the future.
Xuanming could not help growing tense, his heart uneasy. He did not know whether this mysterious butterfly could carry him across the timeline.
But he did not stop it. He wanted to try.
Still, to guard against any mishap, he prepared to summon the time boat formed by the Jade Scripture of the Central Yellow Court at any moment.
The butterfly fluttered above the River of Time.
As it reached the temporal boundary, towering waves swept toward it and fierce winds howled, threatening to smash it to pieces.
Amid the fierce winds and raging waves, the butterfly beat its wings, dreamlike and graceful. Primordial chaos qi swirled around it, forming