Chapter 17 — Object Driving

"Freezing ice into a wall!" Zhang Qingyue murmured. It had been well enough before he began cultivating, but now that his practice had deepened, he felt all the more keenly the difficulty and sheer unattainability of reaching Qi Hao's realm.

He thought again of that night, of Tian Lingsu beside the lamp in this very room, those gentle yet burning eyes!

At that moment his heart felt pierced by a sharp needle.

The black iron rod lay quietly on the floor, and from nearby came the monkey's and the dog's playful noises. Zhang Qingyue suddenly felt that he and this rod were so very much alike—even the rod lying there on the ground seemed, in his eyes, to bear a share of loneliness.

"Ai," he sighed. He tried to picture himself reaching that realm, and then, in a posture utterly relaxed and utterly unconcerned, for the first time in his life he made the "Object Driving" gesture that Canglan Sect disciples had made countless times: he beckoned to the black iron rod on the floor.

That one instant seemed to last forever.

Quite naturally—without even a trace of sorrow, as a matter of course—Zhang Qingyue prepared to accept his failure. And then he saw the black iron rod on the floor move.

Just so lightly, so faintly, as if waking after a long sleep—it moved!