The Flowing Cloud Shuttle plowed through the azure waves of the Shattered Star Sea, the spray cleaved by its bow trailing a long, silvery streak in the morning light.
After three days of swift travel, Hundred Herb Island finally emerged through the thin mist-its blue-black mountains resembled a giant beast at rest. Refreshing medicinal fragrances drifted among the layered woods, and beneath the roar of tides striking the shore, the sounds of pill furnaces firing and spirit cranes calling could faintly be heard.
Han Li stood at the stern, the sea breeze lifting the cloth ribbon that bound his hair. His gaze pierced the thinning mist and found the Pill Pavilion's sweeping eaves flickering between ancient branches, like immortal cranes folding their wings to rest after returning to their nests. Beside him, Zi Ling had changed into the indigo cloth dress of a Pill Pavilion apprentice. She had removed her Star-Moon Hairpin and loosely pinned up her hair with a plain silver hairpin instead. Only the Star-Illusion Maze Formation flags hanging at her waist swayed in the sea breeze, making her look like a mischievous disciple who had slipped out of the herb gardens.
"We'll go to Moon-Gazing Slope first." Han Li tapped the jade plaque he carried, conjuring an illusory map of mountains and rivers. The marker for star-tear grass glimmered in a mountain hollow. "Its spiritual energy is strongest on the night of the full moon. It isn't the right time now, but it should suffice for our immediate needs."
They left the shuttle and went ashore. A bluestone path wound uphill, bordered by clusters of dew-congealing flowers laden with crystal-like dewdrops that refracted rainbow halos in the rising sunlight. Zi Ling suddenly stopped and pointed down the slope with her fair hand. "Han Li, is that purple