It was the morning after Han Shiyong had left Hele Mountain, after the heavy rain in the mountains had stopped.
A man dressed in white feathered robes appeared in the hollow where Han Shiyong had lain. His features were rather soft, but his eyebrows were slightly longer than most, curving upward a little at either end, and a vivid red mark adorned his forehead. This was Yi Shuyuan in the human form of his white crane guise-a transformation within a transformation.
The downpour had triggered flash floods, leaving no other traces where Han Shiyong had lain. Yet Yi Shuyuan bent down, felt around in the mud, and lifted out a charred black rope.
No, not a rope-a snake, burned black.
This snake had no dynasty's destiny shielding it, much less Han Shiyong's luck. Naturally, it was dead beyond all doubt. Yet something inside its charred body had escaped carbonization.
As a mountain breeze blew past, the charred snake in Yi Shuyuan's hand crumbled to dust. The black powder drifted away on the wind, leaving an oval object in his hand, like a translucent red gemstone.
Within that gemstone, red light flickered now and then, like flowing water, like raging fire.
"The Great Toad may have left, but he left me a generous gift."
The dead snake was, of course, the Medicine King Snake. Already famed for its fire poison, it had also absorbed the blood essence spilled by the Great Toad. That immense fire essence had ultimately gathered in its gallbladder, becoming the fiery red gemstone now in Yi Shuyuan's hand.
Just then, Yi Shuyuan suddenly looked to one side. Two trails of fire streaked across the sky: Stoneborn had flown over on his Wind-Fire Wheels.
Hui Mian had returned to normal and was perched on Stoneborn's head, looking down