At the old Dragon King's warning, Xing Yan started and hurriedly looked out over the boundless sea before him. All he saw was darkness; nothing was visible. Though he could see no trace of the enemy, he trusted the Lord of the Clouds without reservation. Looking back and finding the beach empty, he grew anxious. "Dragon Lord, let's hurry and call men over to set up defenses!"
"No need."
The Lord of the Clouds showed no sign of alarm. Chuckling, he said, "Xing Yan, we need only withdraw behind the beach and watch the lord of Wave-Subduing Island repel the enemy single-handedly!"
With that, the Lord of the Clouds swept his sleeve, floated up from the reef, and crossed the level beach to the mangroves behind it. Xing Yan followed him back into the island, where he saw a tall man standing beside the mangroves near the beach. With a fair face, three long strands of beard beneath his chin, and a plain cloth robe, he looked rather like a middle-aged schoolteacher. Xing Yan had already met this scholarly-looking man that evening: he was Kong Tu Buwu, the lord of Wave-Subduing Island.
Seeing the Lord of the Clouds and Xing Yan return from the reef, Island Lord Kong Tu hastily bowed. Stroking his long beard, he said, "You must have detected the enemy, Dragon Lord? Please do not worry, Dragon Lord, young lord. These petty thieves who creep in by night cannot pass my island's Mystic Formation Divine Gate!"
He clapped his palms together, and Xing Yan saw a soft white radiance suddenly rise around him. The long sleeves of his cloth robe seemed to lengthen considerably, drifting and fluttering with his hands as they traced strange, twisting runes in the night air. Within moments, his sleeves suddenly froze in