Shaking the Nine Heavens
The second letter from Spirit City arrived even before the judge himself.
The messenger was a boy of about twelve or thirteen, dressed in the standard short robe of the Spirit Hall. He was sweating profusely from running along the mountain path, and when he stopped in front of the stone house, he bent over and panted for a while before handing over the letter. The envelope was sealed with a dark gold wax seal, but the pattern was not the Sword Star emblem; it was an even more ancient mark—an open city gate with an open eye hanging above it.
Long Tian took the letter and opened it. The letter was only one page long, the handwriting bold and concise. "The Soul Master General Assessment will be held in the central square of Spirit City in ten days. Representatives from the Seven Great Sects and thirty-six main city academies of the continent will be present. Your name is at the top of the invitee list."
Yu Jin stood to the side and read the contents of the letter. Long Tian folded the letter, put it back in the envelope, and handed it to Yu Jin. He then walked to the center of the open space and stood there for a while. As he stood there, the Dragon Shadow slid down from above the door frame and reattached itself to the top of his back, like a folded flag unfolding again, its wings slightly spread and all four eyes open. The Dragon Shadow paused for a moment in the very center of the open space, then slowly climbed upwards until it exceeded the top of the stone roof, hovering about ten zhang above the mountain range—this was the first time it had risen to such a height. The shadow cast by the unfolded membrane covered the entire open space in front of the house. When Yu Jin came out and looked up at the shadow, he paused. The shadow moved very slowly, like a cloud blown by the wind slowly passing over the mountain. Long Tian stood directly under the shadow, his hands hanging at his sides. The two-headed Dragon Shadow that rose from behind him hovered ten feet in the air, overlooking the entire mountain range below. It maintained its position without him having to exert any effort to maintain it, like an inverted bell that was already hanging there, able to stay in place without any ropes.
Ten days later. Central Square of Spirit City.
The plaza was several times larger than the Martial Arts Square, paved with smooth, polished black granite slabs. Three sides of it were surrounded by tiered stands, each adorned with a forest of flags. The Seven Great Sects each occupied a section, with the flags of the thirty-six main city academies lined up in rows behind them. The stands were packed, and the aisles and steps were also filled with people. The news had spread throughout Spirit City in the days leading up to his arrival—a young man from a small town on the southwestern border, born in a blacksmith's shop, who awakened his Light and Dark Twin Dragons Martial Soul at the age of six, had now entered the city with a complete Dragon Shadow that hovered behind him without his intervention. Before his arrival, the crowd had already filled the central plaza three layers deep, and even the rooftops surrounding the plaza were packed with people.
As Long Tian entered the plaza, the previous clamor fell silent within an instant. He paused at the entrance, then walked forward along the wide passage leading to the center of the plaza. His pace was neither fast nor slow, as if he were walking a path whose destination he already knew. The Dragon Shadow hovered about ten feet behind him in the air, moving in sync with him in the same direction above the wide passage. The width of its outstretched wings was almost equal to the width of the passage, and the gray-gold light layer on the edges of its scales was bright but not dazzling in the sunlight. All four eyes on its two heads were open, while the vertical line on its forehead remained closed, like a seal that had not yet been stamped.
Those in the stands saw the continuously moving Dragon Shadow above the passageway, like a flag being spread from one end to the other by the wind. In the area the Dragon Shadow passed through, a thin layer of light continuously flowed across the edges of the flags in the stands, as if the wind had changed the angle of the light. Some people felt a slight disturbance in their Soul Power as the Dragon Shadow passed, like the surface of a well being rippled slightly by a heavy object passing by in the distance, only to quickly return to calm. The fluctuations automatically returned to normal after the Dragon Shadow had completely passed, leaving no extraneous effects.
Long Tian walked to the appraisal platform in the center of the square and stood there. The platform was a three-foot square black stone table, with a transparent crystal embedded in the center and dense magic array patterns engraved around it. The person presiding over the appraisal was an old man with white hair and beard, wearing the highest-ranking silver-white robe of the Spirit Hall, with a golden badge pinned to his chest. His gaze lingered on Dragon Shadow for a long time, so long that the entire square waited for him to speak for longer than the normal duration required for a ceremony.
His voice, amplified by the magic array's loudspeaker, reached every corner of the plaza. "The examinee is Long Tian. Martial Soul: Light and Dark Twin Holy Dragons. Current status..." He paused, glancing at the feedback patterns on the magic array crystal. The light emanating from the crystal's surface had been steadily and continuously glowing since he began speaking, displaying a color defying categorization as it swirled within the crystal, like a river without tributaries maintaining a constant, unchanging flow. He closed the record book, took a half-step back, clearing the entire surface of the appraisal platform. He didn't read the specific numerical values from the magic array's feedback, but the very act of stepping back caused the edges of the flags on the platform to flutter in the wind.
Long Tian raised his right hand, holding it flat in front of him. Simultaneously, Dragon Shadow raised both heads—both heads arched upwards, the scales on their necks opening and closing in turn. Its wings were fully spread, their wingspan covering the entire plaza and the surrounding stands for dozens of feet. A third eye opened a thin slit in the center of its forehead—not fully open, but just a crack. The light shining through that slit pierced the clouds above the plaza, casting a circular, gray-gold halo at the bottom of the clouds. The edge of the halo expanded outwards at a constant speed, growing several times larger before fading and finally dissolving into the background of the sky. The trace left by that light on the clouds did not completely disappear throughout the afternoon, like a curtain painted with an extremely thin layer of paint hanging from the ceiling. The flags on the stands changed direction, drooping and then rising again.
Long Tian returned his right hand to his side. Dragon Shadow retracted both heads to a parallel position, the thin slit on his forehead closing again. His wings folded to his sides, overlapping at the tail to form a closed inverted arc. He stood before the appraisal platform, his hands hanging at his sides, as if he had completed an action he knew beforehand would end, and was now waiting for the surrounding environment to naturally return to its normal state, no longer requiring constant attention. The flags on the stands returned to their drooping angles, the sounds from the crowd returned to normal volume, and the wind blew again from its original direction, leaving a short trail along the edge of Dragon Shadow's scales as it passed through the square. The friction sound continued forward. Long Tian stood motionless in the wind. The Dragon Shadow behind him subtly adjusted the angle of its wing membranes as the wind passed through it to reduce drag, like a flag that had been repeatedly adjusted and had found its most energy-efficient posture through years of wind. The continuously glowing dust particles on the square dispersed from the bottom of the clouds and settled on the steps of the grandstand, the top of the flagpole, and the edges of the crystal surface of the appraisal table, covering a thin layer that shimmered continuously in the afternoon sun, like a layer of evenly sifted fresh snow covering the entire square, continuously making a soft, crunching sound under people's feet.