The sea of clouds around Secluded Cultivation Cliff surged like waves in the morning light. Han Li sat cross-legged on a bluestone at the cliff's summit, the Water-Magnetic Sword hovering beside him. The pale silver shield of its Star Magnetic Body Protection resonated with the magnetic essence crystal clusters along the cliff face, filtering even the mountain wind into gentle streams of spiritual energy.
On the morning of the seventh day, the Purple Forbidden Enclosure star chart on the Golden Core in his sea of consciousness stabilized completely. The three star positions—Heavenly Pivot, the North Pole, and Shaking Light—blazed brilliantly, and the echoes of the system notification still lingered. His cultivation at the peak of the Core Formation Middle Stage had taken root like solid rock, and he could clearly sense the mark of his nine-hundred-year lifespan within his spiritual sense.
Below the cliff, the outline of a Star-Pattern Boat suddenly came cutting through the waves. The star patterns on the small flag at its bow shone brighter than when it had left the island. It was Zi Ling's vessel. Han Li rose, and as the Water-Magnetic Sword returned to its sheath, it gave a soft magnetic hum that answered the distant fluctuations of the Star-Illusion Flag aboard the boat.
When Zi Ling stepped onto Secluded Cultivation Cliff, the blood bat jade pendant beside her Plain Silver Hairpin had been replaced by a newly forged Star Magnetic Token—a token of identification recovered from a scout at Black Stone Reef. It bore the emblem of the New Leader of the Inverse Star Alliance: a bloodstained crescent moon wrapped around a Magnetic Essence Crystal Cluster. She handed the Star Magnetic Token to Han Li, while the star patterns on her flag unfurled in the wind, replaying the conversation from the wooden cabin