In the human world, April's fragrant blossoms had faded; in the mountain temple, peach blossoms had only just begun to bloom.
Long had I lamented spring's departure, with nowhere to seek it, little knowing it had turned and come here.
By April, the Beginning of Summer had already arrived. The peach blossoms south of the Yangtze had long since fallen, but in Western Kunlun, the mountaintops remained white with snow, and the peach buds halfway up the slopes were only just opening.
With no time to admire spring's beauty on the snowy mountains, True Lord Cheng prepared to head south of the Yangtze.
From September of last year to April now, the Daoist had presided over Western Kunlun for a full seven months. Though these seven months were said to have been spent in secluded cultivation, he had scarcely rested at all.
His foremost task during this time had naturally been to unite with the mountains and sea through the Dao and nurse them back to health, and this was nearly complete. His Union-with-the-Dao Land now covered all of the Blood God Child's former territory. Its extent was roughly Western Kunlun in the narrow sense-the dragon's head of the Western Kunlun Mountain range, stretching some three thousand li westward from the range's easternmost end. The Western Sea portion was much the same, encompassing roughly its western end. Measured outward into the sea from the junction of the mountain and sea veins, it likewise spanned some three thousand li.
Six thousand li altogether. To unite himself with such a vast Dao sanctuary had taken the Blood God Child more than seventy years; True Lord Cheng had taken seven months.
Throughout those seventy years, the Blood God Child had been drawing out Earth Qi. Throughout the Daoist's seven months, however, he had