A blazing sun hung high in the southeast. Above the sea of clouds, a small sword darted through the air. It seemed almost alive, moving and stilling with perfect rhythm. Just as it roamed freely through the sky, two pale-red rings suddenly descended from above and swiftly looped around it. In an instant, the little sword seemed to lose all life and plunged downward. Yet after falling barely three feet, the two rings trembled, flew back into the sky, and shot straight into a cave on the nearby mountain peak.
A tall young man dressed in a blue robe then walked out, holding the jade rings and small sword that had just entered the cave. Standing at the cave entrance, he lowered his head to look at the jade rings in his hand, then raised his eyes toward the sea of clouds, white and solid as though tangible, his gaze filled with anticipation.
This was Zhang Xiaohua, cultivating alchemy on Tianmu Peak.
Zhang Xiaohua had long since memorized the flying sword manual obtained from the Azure Water Sword, but he had never found time to practice it. Now, during the idle interval while refining the Bone Condensing Pill, he used his divine sense to command the small sword in a round of practice above the sea of clouds. At the end, an impulse stirred in his heart, and he brought out the refined Dragon Binding Rings to test their power. Sure enough, although the little sword was exceedingly agile, wherever Zhang Xiaohua's divine sense reached, the Dragon Binding Rings followed. The little sword had nowhere to evade. Of course, Zhang Xiaohua himself was controlling both objects, so there was inevitably an element of experimentation involved. Even so, it was remarkably formidable.
Yet as Zhang Xiaohua gazed at the sea of