Dawn glimmered faintly, and purple Qi came from the east.
With each measured breath, strands of spiritual Qi streamed into his meridians.
Guided by the Purple Firmament Daoist Scripture, they circulated through his body, were refined into sword Qi, and flowed into his Sword Mansion.
After days of leisurely travel, most of his anxious urgency had dissipated.
Over the past few days, apart from Dawn Gathering Qi and his daily cultivation to keep his spiritual power and sword Qi full, Song Yan had spent most of his time resting with his eyes closed, settling his state of mind. Occasionally, he admired the surrounding scenery and chatted with Yang Zhu.
Although he remained a man of few words, after several days he had grown fairly familiar with the local language. He could not speak it, but could now understand most of it. Sometimes, he took out the sea chart to examine it.
The sea chart was incomplete; at least two more pieces should be needed to complete it. However, the complete chart should contain several different routes, and Yang Zhu's chart already recorded one complete route, from the shores of the eastern Dark Sea all the way to "Yingzhou."
He did not know whether the other sections were the same.
It was now the morning of the sixth day.
The caravan entered a great canyon. Ahead, on either side, two enormous ridges gradually converged.
The ridgelines rose steeply, their summits crowned with jagged, jutting rocks, like a gigantic falcon drawing in its wings, poised to launch.
Song Yan looked up and immediately felt a sense of familiarity. Looking around at the plentiful bamboo groves and green pines on both mountainsides, he found the place increasingly familiar. Yang Zhu, the merchant association's proprietor, had set a little table beside Song Yan and