The subspace pulsed like a sleeping heart.
ast plains of black stone stretched endlessly beneath a sky that shimmered with faint auroras like bands of violet and jade that rippled without wind. Here, where the mountain's soul had folded upon itself, the Liu clan had built a world within a world.
Settlements clung to the slopes of the shadowed valley, their lights faint but alive. From above, they looked like constellations fallen upon obsidian earth. Every hammer stroke, every murmured chant of cultivation echoed strangely through the cavernous expanse, amplified by the stone itself.
For the first time in many days, the Liu had peace. if peace could be defined as the stillness before yet another storm. Li Wei stood upon the balcony of his new abode, which jutted from the mountainside like a shard of crystal.
