Chessboard, Chess Pieces

Jinhua Mountain.

On the jade plaza halfway up the mountain, more than three thousand cultivators were breathing in and out, drawing spiritual qi into themselves on a platform large enough to hold over ten thousand people.

It was dawn. As the rising sun climbed into the sky, its boundless golden rays shone down. Clouds and mist churned around the mountainside like a vast sea, refracting a glazed brilliance and rising with wisps of immortal aura.

Golden Core Realm True Person Zhao Yanling watched the three thousand cultivators circulate their breaths together and absorb the dawn's purple qi. She said in a clear voice, "The True Lord has said that the Daoist Tradition's cultivation is not merely clinging to cultivation methods. Divine Ability and techniques, pills, formations, talismans, artifacts, music, chess, calligraphy, and painting—every one of them can lead to Dao-Entering, and every one of them can become a method."

"The Daoist Tradition's methods encompass all things. Only by harmonizing with Heaven and Earth's natural course and comprehending the transformations of yin and yang may one bear the aspect of an immortal."

"You all cultivate the Qingyuan Talisman Scripture, so you must understand that the Daoist Tradition's arts lie in upright balance and peaceful harmony, in the grand and righteous path."

"What are called lessons—the morning's purple qi, Liuhua at night, reciting scriptures, practicing sword arts—all are coursework."

Under Zhao Yanling's guidance, after these cultivators finished absorbing the dawn's purple qi, they began practicing sword arts and reciting Daoist scriptures.

At the mountaintop, above the immortal halls of the Cloud Palace between the left and right Dragon Horn Peaks, a blue sun shone brightly in all directions, releasing immeasurable heavenly splendor.

Jiang Sheng stood before the Cloud Palace, looking down at the more than three thousand cultivators practicing amid the sea