Dawn broke, tinting the line between sea and sky a pale gold.
Lu You rose from a reef somewhere along the coast, his gray-white Daoist robe fluttering gently in the morning breeze.
He glanced at the intelligence report in his hand, then rubbed his fingertips together. The paper crumbled to powder and scattered into the sea breeze.
Then he took his first step.
The instant his foot landed on the sea, the water for several yards around him abruptly sank, as though pressed down by an invisible palm, forming a vast depression.
Then he took his second step, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. Behind him, the depressed sea rebounded with a thunderous crash, throwing up a wall of water dozens of meters high.
He moved faster and faster, so fast that his body left trails of afterimages in the air. Only long after he had passed did the sea beneath his feet have time to collapse.
The spray formed a white passage stretching for kilometers behind him, as though a road had been cleaved through the sea.
The sea wind struck his face, fierce as a cutting blade.
Lu You's white hair whipped wildly in the wind, his Daoist robe snapping loudly, but his steps never faltered.
As leisurely as a stroll through a courtyard, the Daoist came striding across the sea.
The world between sea and sky raced backward. Clouds swept overhead, and the sun rose in the east before dropping back to the horizon, as though his speed had slowed time.
The outline of Nashen Island appeared in his sight.
It was an isolated island in the ocean, its terrain rugged and covered in dense forest, with clusters of buildings scattered across it. From afar, it looked like a mango embedded in the blue