Vast blue waters stretched beneath a sky of clouds—what a paradise in the human world.
There were more than a thousand islands scattered across the lake like stars, like snail shells strewn across a jade-green platter.
Near Da Mu Temple and the lake's central "ancestral mountain," where the Lake Lord's shrine stood, were two islands of vastly different sizes, facing each other across a narrow stretch of water.
The larger Jade Hairpin Island was lined with Palace and Taoist temples and residences. Since Lake Lord Gong Hua preferred peace and quiet and did not wish outsiders to set foot upon the ancestral mountain, Jade Hairpin Island had always served as Autumn Qi Lake's place for receiving guests. The Four Kingdom Monarchs were all currently lodging there, along with several Mountain and Water Spirits who enjoyed relatively good relations with Autumn Qi Lake. They all intended to keep their distance from the courts of the various nations—not deliberately estranged, yet not especially close either. Still, both sides understood that this arrangement was only temporary. Sooner or later, openly or in secret, the courts of the various nations would begin an invisible division of the realm. Qi cultivators could ride clouds and mist, drifting without fixed tracks. Mountain and Water Spirits could shut their doors and remain indoors. Yet cultivation grounds that gathered Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, and shrines that received Human World Incense, were ultimately rooted in one place. Furthermore, shrine incense came from the common people, and those worshippers ultimately belonged to different places by household registration. If a court truly wished to deprive an Idol God shrine of its incense, it need only set checkpoints to block several major roads.
Nearby Luodai Island had been temporarily assigned by Da Mu Temple to those miraculous spirits, ghosts, and Wild