Qin Yueshan held Yuming firmly as they flew. The wind tore at his burnt robes and stung the wound at his ribs, but the pain was muffled beneath the rhythm of his newly awakened dantian.

  They traveled east. For a few hours the landscape was familiar: dry hills, terraced farms, mortal villages clustered around wells. It was the Xia Prefecture that he was so familiar with.

  The settlements followed a simple logic: they generally clustered around spiritual veins, with powerful cultivators congregating in the center.

  In the Liu Family’s Xia Prefecture, water flowed down. The Liu Family took the first gulp of it, various prominent clans took the next chunks—by the time it reached rogue cultivators there were only a few drops left.

  By the late afternoon the terrain began to change. The hills smoothed out. Streams appeared, and those streams turned into rivers.

  Countless rivers.

  They joined, branched, and joined again, intertwining throughout the landscape.

  The settlements changed, too. They no longer clustered around wells, but sat around water. And they were well kept, clean. They weren’t necessarily wealthier, but more deliberately maintained.

  The structures seemed to have greater concavity. Xia Prefecture was filled with rigidity; roads were cut in straight lines, crops were planted in squared terraces. But here the roads curved along the riverbanks, the crops followed the waterways.

  By the next morning, the rivers had become so dense that layers of mist filled the valleys.

  A quiet valley where the mist was thickest emerged from the fog.

  The center of the valley had the densest mist. Broad platforms poked from the hillside, their surfaces etched with fine formation lines. Beads of water gathered along the platforms, congregating into small channels that flowed downwards.

  The mid-valley was filled with basins. Groups of herbs Yuming didn’t recognize surrounded the basins, glowing with various colors. Cultivators weaved between them, taking time to examine the herbs carefully.

  Below all of it stood a cluster of finely constructed buildings that resembled mortal palaces.

  There weren’t any walls around the compound, nor were there grand copper gates. It emerged from the surrounding waterways, reached its peak, and then faded away.

  Pristine turns to Dew, and Root turns to Bud, but Clear Mirror reveals True Name, and True Name escapes Samsara. But at the root is Yin and Yang, until the wheel grinds stable Self.

  Pristine turns to Dew.

  A thought arose in Yuming’s mind.

  I’ve spent my entire life watching systems that hoard to compress. I’ve never seen gathering happen gently.

  Yuming had been contemplating his cultivation for the entire journey.

  He had achieved a minor triumph: reaching Dantian Awakening. He was also temporarily away from the Zhan Branch.

  Ideally, he’d reach Qi Condensation and escape.

  But how would he reach it?

  The Unbroken Ledger True Scripture gave him some techniques to practice in order to condense. But without knowing the underlying logic, how could he be sure he wasn’t walking into a trap? Or doing irreparable damage to his foundation?

  He had decided that grinding Yin and Yang to form stable Self was the most correct mechanism; it seemed to be what the Scripture quietly encouraged. But there was a problem—

  He no longer had a distinct Yin and Yang!

  Chenming had partially dissolved, and the rest of him faded into Yuming. There was also an Ancestral Tree fragment mixed in there as well.

  There is no more Yin and Yang to grind stable Self.

  So it was best to observe all he could—especially when he vaguely connected this place to an important line in the Scripture.

  Qin Yueshan descended, Yuming still in hand.

  She had been mostly quiet for the past day and a half, but she spoke now.

  “This is the Verdant Dew Pavilion,” she said. “It’s a Foundation Establishment level sect with a connection to my Jingquan Sect.”

  She motioned toward the various gardens below. “They have excellent medicines here. We are still a long way from my Jingquan Sect, so I will recover here.”

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  She approached the entrance before giving Yuming a stern look. “Your every move is being watched here, don’t try anything.”

  Yuming nodded and squeaked out a “this Junior understands!”

  Qin Yueshan had been quite accommodating during their journey, all things considered. She probably wasn’t allowed to treat him too badly—he was, after all, a Liu scion. Also, he had run toward her during the battle. She might have been starting to doubt her original assumption that he was Tianjue’s compliant pawn.

  She hadn’t interrogated him either. Yuming found this concerning.

  She probably has a more reliable way of interrogating me at her Sect.

  Qin Yueshan reached into her storage pouch and grabbed a new set of robes for Yuming. They weren’t his usual crimson, but turquoise.

  His heart stirred slightly upon seeing the storage pouch—it used spacial techniques to store large amounts of items in a small container. Now that Yuming had opened his spiritual sense, he’d be able to use one too.

  Qin Yueshan landed on a damp stone platform and properly oriented Yuming, ensuring he looked presentable.

  For a moment, the two silently waited.

  Soon, the fog ahead drew together and grew denser. It gathered into a hazy column that lazily drifted down the stone steps.

  The column thinned as it approached Yuming and Qin Yueshan.

  Yuming heard Qin Yueshan’s clear voice ring in his mind: ‘This is Jade Balance True Person. Act appropriately.’

  True Person…

  ‘True Person’ was the formal title adopted by many Foundation Establishment cultivators. In Xia Prefecture, it wasn’t always used. But here might have been different.

  Beyond that, this True Person used a Daoist Title: Jade Balance. The practice of high cultivators using Daoist Titles was less prevalent in the Chudeng territory, which was more clan and family based.

  Evidently the Jingquan territory was dissimilar.

  An old man stepped out of the column.

  He wasn’t much taller than Yuming and had a thin white beard. His robes were white and pale green, without any fancy imagery. Tiny droplets of dew condensed at the ends of his sleeves.

  In his hand he carried a shallow stone ladle, where a thin layer of water rested in perfect stillness.

  His eyes slowly drifted from Yueshan to Yuming. He smiled.

  “This Junior Yueshan (Yuming) greets the True Person,” both said in unison as they bowed.

  True Person Jade Balance waved his hand and chuckled. “No need to be so polite, Fellow Daoist Qin. It’s an honor to have a member of your esteemed Sect visit my humble Pavilion.”

  His gaze drifted to Yuming.

  “And you must be the young Liu Family prodigy that Fellow Daoist Qin wrote of.”

  He examined Yuming carefully. His smile didn’t quite disappear, but his tone wasn’t as friendly as it had been with Yueshan.

  Yuming quickly replied. “Senior overpraises me, this Junior is unworthy of being called a prodigy.”

  True Person Jade Balance side-eyed Qin Yueshan. She wants me to keep watch of the boy while she recovers. But I’d rather not get involved in politics between Great Sects.

  I probably shouldn’t give him a medical examination either. I wouldn’t want to interfere with Jingquan’s business…

  The True Person shook his head. “A junior who has reached Dantian Awakening at fourteen or fifteen—what do we call them but a prodigy? I will have someone show you around our humble sect.”

  Yuming nodded, then heard Yueshan repeat her earlier message: ‘Don’t try anything.’

  Who does she think I am? He thought playfully.

  Soon after, a young sect disciple emerged from the mist and bowed toward Yueshan and the True Person.

  He wore a mossy-green outer robe with a white inner layer that was slightly wrinkled. His sleeves were wide, but shorter than what Yuming was used to. He looked like he was in his early twenties. Yuming could sense that his cultivation was also at Dantian Awakening.

  His name was Mu Chen.

  “Fellow Daoist Liu, welcome to our Verdant Dew Pavilion.” He smiled warmly and gestured for Yuming to follow.

  Yuming gave Qin Yueshan a look, asking for permission. She nodded.

  “Elder Jade Balance has asked me to show you around while Senior Qin recovers.”

  He called me Fellow Daoist…

  Mu Chen didn’t call him ‘Junior Brother’ or ‘Young Master’ but ‘Fellow Daoist.’ In Xia Prefecture, the term was rarely used amongst Spiritual Opening cultivators.

  Yuming liked the way it sounded.

  Mu Chen first led him through twisting rows of lower buildings. The architecture was more modest than Yuming had initially expected. Every structure was positioned to let air flow through it.

  "The lower valley is where we live and work," Mu Chen explained. "The mid-valley is the growing terraces. The upper terraces are for collection."

  “Collection of what?” Yuming inquired.

  “Dew.” Mu Chen said as he continued walking. “Everything here depends on it.”

  They climbed the stone paths between the growing terraces. The basins were shallow pools fed by small channels, each containing different herbs.

  Yuming stretched out his newly awakened spiritual sense and paused.

  The ambient qi here was unlike Mount Zhenyuan. There, qi was dense and directional. It pooled at certain peaks and pressed downward. Cultivation was taking it—drawing it inward and making it yours.

  Here, he felt two different types of qi that formed currents.

  The first was slow and ran beneath his feet. It didn’t have any point of concentration, rather it circulated.

  The other qi hung in the mist around him. It didn’t move or condense, but hovered.

  "The valley has two predominant types of qi," Mu Chen said, noticing Yuming's expression. "Riverflow Qi moves through the earth and water. Mist-Dew Qi hangs in the air."

  He gestured toward the upper terraces where the mist was thickest.

  "When Riverflow Qi cools the collection surfaces, the Mist-Dew Qi settles on them. That's how we get our dew."

  Yuming nodded as the two continued.

  The two climbed higher, and Yuming noticed something confusing: the formations were very delicate. In Xia, formations were dense with qi. If you channeled more qi through them they’d produce more power.

  But the formations here were barely active—their lines were incredibly dull. It seemed that they were grossly underpowered.

  “Fellow Daoist,” Yuming carefully asked. “The formations on the upper terraces, are they meant to draw qi inward?”

  Mu Chen glanced back. “Draw it? Nothing like that. The formations are just meant to adjust the temperature. The qi settles on its own.”

  Yuming nodded and said nothing more.

  He thought of the cycling techniques he'd been taught at Far Lantern Peak. Every one of them was built on the same principle: pull qi in, compress it, circulate it faster, build density. Force and speed. That was how you cultivated.

  These formations didn’t pull at all.

  After they walked a while longer, Mu Chen led him to a small guest room in the lower valley. It was clean and simple. There was a mat for meditation, a mat for sleeping, and a few flowers lining the walls.

  “Rest well, Fellow Daoist. I’ll come for you tomorrow.”

  Yuming sat on the mat after Mu Chen left. The room was quiet. The mist drifted through the open window.

  He held out his hand, palm up, and tried to draw the Mist-Dew Qi into his meridians the way he'd been trained.

  It slipped away.