Inside Long Manor, tranquility reigned. Hu Yuan sat alone in the stone pavilion, surrounded by lush trees and the gentle murmuring of a stream. Cradled in his arms was a jade slip, emitting a faint cyan glow that flickered in his palm like a ghostly fire.
Hu Yuan lightly traced his fingertips over the jade slip, feeling the texture and warmth of its surface. Carved along the edge was a half-sentence left by his father, Hu Canghai: "Hidden in the fire of the heart, unlocked by the laws of fate." Time had worn the characters down until they were blurry, but in Hu Yuan's eyes, they were branded as deeply into the depths of his soul as if carved by fire.
"Heart fire... laws of fate..." Hu Yuan murmured softly, as though these four words held boundless mysteries. His fingertips continued to caress the smooth surface of the jade slip, and the swirling cyan glow seemed to sense his call, trembling slightly.
Chapter 400