Where incense burned and jade offerings lay, Ziying dwelled; in the misty depths stood the Longevity Immortal Palace.
Within the Longevity Immortal Palace in the Central Region of Yanzhou, incense curled from one Boshan furnace after another. Sandalwood fragrance and blue smoke wound around the pillars and vaulted ceiling of the great hall, while the resonant chanting of scriptures rose and fell in measured cadence.
"Heaven and earth held mystic numbers; thirty-six transformations returned as one.
"The Great Dao illumined all beneath heaven; forty-nine remained, with one left over.
"Divine abilities numbered seventy-two; the circuit of stars, three hundred and sixty.
"Pass the three calamities and five tribulations, and feathered transformation attained true practice."
Amid the sounds of chanting and cultivation, a figure made his way through the jade halls and lofty towers with faltering steps. He crossed corridors and cloud terraces, passed through encircling galleries and palace pavilions, and finally arrived before the main hall of the Longevity Immortal Palace.
Looking up, he saw towering azure pillars washed in gold within the main hall. On the palace walls to either side were carved images of immortals rising on rosy clouds and ascending in feathered transformation. Azure birds circled amid painted beams and carved rafters, white cranes stood tall, and immortal cranes perched upon bronze pedestals held candle lamps in their beaks, casting brilliant light. Screen after screen bore carvings of mountains and rivers, sun and moon, streams and lakes, seas and oceans. Between gauze curtains and cloudlike canopies, a pool seemed to shimmer as fish leapt and transformed into dragons.
This was where Longevity Immortal Lord Ziying lived, as well as the main hall of the entire Longevity Immortal Palace. Above the lofty vermilion-red gate pavilion hung a plaque inscribed in the Immortal Lord's own hand: The Great Dao