In a tranquil lake somewhere near Jingshi Mountain, schools of fish swam through water several dozen meters deep. If someone who could not swim lost their footing and fell in, they would surely drown without anyone to rescue them, becoming another nameless skeleton at the bottom.
At that moment, a tiny figure sat cross-legged in the middle of the lake. With nothing supporting him, he simply sat on the water's surface, a sight that defied belief.
After a long while, Ye Uchiha opened his eyes and slowly stood up. His feet rested on the water without sinking under his weight or the pull of gravity. Instead, he stood on the lake as though it were solid ground.
Invisible internal energy, True Essence, surged from his body and extended into the lake beneath his feet without causing the slightest disturbance.
Ye Uchiha gave a low shout and raised his palm. Violent ripples began spreading across the surface, and small-seal-script characters for "Dao," formed from lake water, rose around him on every side.
Ten Thousand Rivers Autumn Waters was a qi-refining art of the Taoist Heavenly Sect. Its primary principle was "release," using internal energy to carry air currents and thereby shape and lift matter. It was the exact opposite of "gather," the principle behind another supreme Taoist art-Heart Like Still Water.
His hands shifted through a series of seals. The floating characters formed from water instantly dissolved into countless droplets, which mingled in midair and transformed into a legendary creature roughly thirty feet long. It had a camel's head, a deer's antlers, a rabbit's eyes, an ox's ears, a snake's neck, a giant clam's belly, a carp's scales, an eagle's claws, and a tiger's paws-a divine dragon from Chinese mythology.
The water dragon opened its ferocious, fang-filled maw and let out