Outside the pocket world, the days passed quietly. Within it, however, time flowed at an entirely different pace, and before long, twenty years had gone by.

In a secluded valley carpeted with orchids, the clear ring of a sword echoed through the air. Luo Chen stood among the flowers in white robes with a jade belt fastened around his waist and the Primordial Slaughter Sword in hand. He moved slowly through one form after another, paying close attention to every turn of his wrist and shift of the blade. As the sword moved, traces of the ambient spirit energy seemed to follow its tip.

For him, those twenty years had meant enough time to make progress in more than one area. After raising his proficiency to Grandmaster level in Fire Phoenix's Prairie Blaze, he had done the same with Flame Dragon's Descent. Further improvement, however, had become very difficult. Spells of that caliber ate up an enormous amount of mana, and practicing them too often would inevitably disrupt his cultivation. Rather than force the issue, he had allowed himself to progress more gradually.

Beyond that, he had also completely broken all of the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion's restrictions and finally brought the treasure under his full control. That was a tremendous gain in and of itself, but the real surprise came when he gained access to its internal spaces. Scattered across several...