The dragon veins trembled and quaked. Bursts of lightning that were not lightning, but instead something more, something divine, would occasionally crackle through the ground. Sometimes, little bolts would reach me, but they were spent. Compared to what Zang Zeng had hit me with, it was merely numbing, so I ignored it. I continued. I put one foot in front of the other. My Qi unfurled and dug deep, the roots of a great tree sinking into the walls and stabilizing them. I swung my shovel, my hammer, my pick, or even used my bare hands, a living excavator, shattering every blockage before me and then using the rubble to reinforce the walls. Meimei travelled with me. Sometimes behind, sometimes parallel, sewing everything into shape and smoothing out the flows of energy. The only thing we could do was keep working, so we did. We did our best, listening to the thump and beat of the earth, of Tianlan’s soul, and trusted it to guide us in the right direction. We worked and we worked and we worked—until suddenly we came out of the depths of the earth and into a clearing. And there she was, our Tianlan, standing in the middle of a forest glade, staring up at the titanic trees with a soft smile on her face. She turned to us so we could see her full face, and she smiled. Naturally, our little gremlin got the fussing and hugs she deserved, her laughter echoing through the forest. === I let out a breath (...)