Cultivating in the mountains, the years slipped by unnoticed. Each day was spent keeping company with silence. In the Spirit Realm, there was no alternation of sun and moon, only tides of mist rising and falling, falling and rising.
Tending the Medicine Field, breathing in and out amid the mist, or reading and practicing swordsmanship-day after day, monotonous and repetitive.
While cultivating, Black Snake kept an eye on events in the Mortal Realm, patiently waiting for the Continuous Rainy Season.
To Black Snake, the greatest advantage of the Spirit Realm was being able to keep cultivating even when there was no rain.
Sometimes the Mortal Realm went months without rain during a drought. All Black Snake could do was wait, unable to accomplish anything.
The Spirit Realm was different. The mist tides rose and fell punctually every day, without interruption. Simply breathing in and out allowed Black Snake to refine Gui Water Spiritual Energy, and growing medicinal herbs was convenient too. Yet rain remained what Black Snake loved most.
Fine rain slanting through the air felt cool against the skin, deepening the colors of the mountain forests. During a downpour, heaven and earth became a wash of gray and white, and the rushing sound was lovely.
However good the Spirit Realm was, it still lacked that crisp freshness.
Another day, another receding mist tide.
The clifftop was clear and bright. Black Snake finished breathing exercises and lay coiled on the Stone Terrace. Lately, something had felt wrong. Cultivation had grown harder, no longer as smooth as before. Black Snake recalled past progress, compared it with the present, and mulled it over again and again.
Black Snake wanted to find out exactly why cultivation had become harder.
There had never been any slacking when breathing in and out amid the mist