What Jinxia Looks Like

What... did Jinxia look like?

Li Mengyun swept her gaze over the crowd—within the vast room, only the candleholder in the corner cast a dim yellow glow. The four Venerables besides her stood beside the Pope, their identical black robes plain and solemn.

Light was scarce in Skywell, and candles were even rarer supplies. She had never found anything strange about it before, but after returning from Jinxia, a thought had suddenly surfaced in her mind.

"Bright."

"Bright?" Wuyi straightened up.

"Everything there is very bright." She answered instinctively. "Even at night. The long streets are ablaze with lights, and every household can afford oil lamps and candles. They even take gunpowder and make fireworks from it, setting them off for the local residents to watch every week. When they explode, the entire night sky shines brilliantly."

"And it isn't just objects that are bright. People are too. Their clothes come in every color, with all manner of different styles. Their complexions are utterly clear, and their eyes seem to hold light within them. I've traveled through so many places, yet I've never seen a city like that. It was simply like... like..."

She pondered her final words for a long while.

Until Wuyi continued for her, "Like the sights you saw when you accepted the Black Gate?"

"...Yes." Li Mengyun gave a slight nod.

Those sights had not all concerned apocalyptic calamity. They had also contained fragments of Skywell's past, when countless people had lived here, their gazes just like that. Those residents could not possibly all have been High Persons, yet there was no sluggishness or numbness in their spirits, as though happiness ever accompanied them. That was also the origin of the name "Kingdom of Heaven."

Her words made the other Venerables frown one after another.

"What