Moon-Gathering Tower, Quiet Chamber.
Luo Qingge sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, her eyes half closed and her breathing long and steady.
The [Burnt Tail Qin] lay before her. Its strings were still, yet faint, clear notes seemed to emerge from nothingness-the subtle ripples born when the true qi circulating within her resonated with the origin qi of heaven and earth.
She stood at the threshold of breaking through to the Fourth Realm.
Outside the window, moonlight flowed like water.
Lu Changfeng guarded the door, leaning against a corridor pillar with his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing. He had no need to look. His divine sense enveloped the entire Moon-Gathering Tower, and he sensed every fluctuation of energy within the Quiet Chamber.
The Imperial Seal had stirred. He had immediately performed a divination, deducing that it lay deep within Jiangnan, somewhere rich in waters and marshes. The two remaining formations of the Eight Formations Diagram were there as well, but the divination did not bode well.
There was danger.
It was an omen of wolves surrounding their prey!
He had not rushed to act alongside Li Longji. Instead, he first planned to seek someone's help in uncovering the Imperial Seal's secrets. That person was Xu Yuanzhi, the master of the [Monthly Appraisal], whom he had met once before.
Finding him required Luo Qingge's Bird-Speech Art. Since she was on the verge of a breakthrough, Lu Changfeng had volunteered to guard her. Luo Qingge was gifted. She had long mastered the Heavenly Music Sect's "heavenly music secret canon" and had also obtained the Heavenly Fowl Sect's "Phoenix Cry Across the Nine Heavens." Both were first-rate cultivation methods. All she lacked was that final spark.
Once understanding dawned, her spirit and qi would unite, condensing a Dharma Form and carrying