The spirit spring in the cave dwelling on Purple Sky Peak still murmured softly, but the Star-Illusion Flag no longer stood beneath the eaves. Han Li sat alone before a bluestone table, the tattered Star-Illusion Flag spread across it. The silver flower at its corner glimmered in the moonlight-the last memento Zi Ling had left him.
He dipped his brush in ink and wrote a letter to Grand Elder Xing Xuanzi on a Jade Slip. His strokes were steady as iron, yet every word was steeped in resolve.
"Your disciple Han Li respectfully reports to the Grand Elder:
During the battle of Sinking Star Island, Zi Ling was swallowed by a Space Rift while protecting me. There has been no word of her since. I have done all I could in the war between the Star Palace and the Inverse Star Alliance, but my heart is set on one thing alone: finding Zi Ling. I now request three years away from the conflict and from my duties to the Star Palace, seeking only to travel throughout the Chaotic Star Sea in search of her whereabouts.
Should you grant permission, I will faithfully observe my obligations. Should you refuse, I will go alone nonetheless-my heart is clear, and heaven and earth may bear witness.
Han Li bows his head."
Before the ink of his final stroke had dried, Han Li slipped the Jade Slip into his sleeve. He gazed out the window toward Magnetic Essence Mountain. The lights of the Star Palace lay scattered like stars, yet they could not illuminate the emptiness within his heart.
The coordinates of the Falling Star Ruins had burned on the map in his sea of consciousness for three days. The faint echoes of Zi Ling's Spiritual Power fluctuations stirred far greater urgency in him