The sun blazed like fire; the grotto was cool.
Inside, the cavern walls arched overhead like the roof of a house; winding rock faces divided it into little chambers.
Within those chambers, springs murmured softly, their waters chiming.
Amid shimmering water and shadowed rock, mist curled over one stone pool after another. Stone screens separated the pools, gauze curtains hung from the screens, and bamboo mats lay beneath the curtains. It was a partly natural hot spring bathhouse!
Deeper inside the bathhouse were several private grottoes, each containing a square pool of white stone, its water clear enough to serve as a mirror. Sunlight filtered through skylights in the rock, casting shifting patterns into the water, like fragments of gold rising and sinking, dazzlingly bright.
In one of those square pools, Wang Yang and Le Pang reclined at opposite ends, east and west, their bodies submerged, their heads resting against the pool walls, their eyes closed in bliss.
"More hot water's coming in on my side... hiss... ohhh-"
Le Xiaopang first drew a deep breath, then slowly let it out, finally releasing an exaggerated cry of satisfaction, as though even his bones had softened in the water.
Wang Yang laughed. "Is that really neces-uh... ahhh-"
Before he could finish, the temperature on his side shot up. A languid moan escaped from deep within his chest, as though his flesh had been reborn and every inch of him had been washed through with immortal magic.
Le Xiaopang immediately burst out laughing. "Brother, that sounded even more soul-enthralling than mine!"
Without opening his eyes, Wang Yang struggled to adjust his reclining position and drawled:
"That cry of mine... twenty-odd years of cultivation behind it. You, naturally, can't compare..."
Le Xiaopang laughed. "You haven't even been alive for twenty-odd years."
Wang Yang said