The boys were ripped, the maidens were lethal, the elders were subservient, and the Ice Demon was plotting domestic terrorism.
But as Ji'an and Zechuan walked out to skip priceless fungi across a toxic lake, Lin Ji'an finally felt like she had regained control of the kitchen.
The morning of the Azure Dragon Sect's final martial examination did not dawn with the crisp, inspiring light of orthodox glory.
It bled through the toxic, hazy green canopy of the Eastern Basin like a bad omen.
In the center of the Grand Obsidian Arena, surrounded by towering, bioluminescent acid waterfalls, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense.
Hundreds of local disciples, clad in their pale green and black scale-armor, stood in rigid, terrified formation. Opposite them stood the sixteen elite disciples of the Celestial Sword Sect's Vanguard Retinue.
High above the arena floor, sitting on a massive, opulently carved throne of petrified swamp-wood, was Lin Ji'an.
