The place where he had trained in seclusion was only thirty li from Thunderclap Valley.
For Loa now, that distance took only an instant to cover.
He did not hurry inside. Instead, he found a sheltered rock face on the valley's outskirts and sat cross-legged. The sky had already darkened, and the night wind on the last day of December was bone-chilling, scraping across his body like knives.
Loa closed his eyes, his palms and soles facing the heavens.
The Battle-qi inside him circulated slowly, liquid currents of cyan and purple flowing through his meridians like a warm stream. He did not deliberately drive them, simply letting them flow naturally. One circuit, two circuits, three.
His breathing gradually slowed, and so did his heartbeat.
His consciousness sank into the deepest stillness.
Tomorrow's battle required him to be at his best, his breathing regulated and his mind focused.
January first.
When the first light of morning shone into Thunderclap Valley, Loa opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils, a cyan-purple gleam flashed and vanished.
He rose, stretched his shoulders and back, and tightened his grip on the Hidden Abyss Sword's hilt.
"Time to go."
With the frequency covering his body, he stepped into the valley.
In the outer ring, the silvery-white hemlocks glimmered faintly in the morning light. No electrical arcs attacked him-that simulated frequency acted like a cloak of invisibility, blending him into this electromagnetic environment.
In the middle ring, fine electrical grids began appearing across the ground, but they still skirted around him.
He did not walk quickly, but every step was steady.
Ahead, the Core Region drew near.
That expanse of pitch-black, scorched rock. That dead land without a single tree.
He stopped at the edge of the Core Region.
From here, the Thunder Pool was nine steps