Above the First Line

A ferry from the Central Divine Continent docked at Inverted Mountain under cover of night. It unloaded no cargo. Instead, more than a hundred Qi cultivators disembarked, their breathing deep and steady. All had made progress in cultivation, and every one of them observed the rules.

At Spring Banner Studio, Nalan Caihuan and Shao Yunyan greeted them in person and escorted them to the gate. These cultivators were all practitioners of the Yin-Yang School or Mohist mechanism masters, though they would not ascend the city wall to fight.

They split into several groups, bound for the mirage, the Summer Palace, the Winter Resort Palace, and several Sword Immortal private residences. Among those residences was the Elm Planting Immortal Pavilion, whose foundation was a Bright Moon Flying Immortal poetry tablet refined by its Sword Immortal owner. Nearby stood another residence, occupied by several sword cultivators dressed as women. At the instruction of a Yin Guan lineage sword cultivator temporarily serving as a "Supervising Official," they, too, were permitted to leave the restricted grounds their master had set. The three Golden Core sword cultivators were about to fly on their swords to the city wall. Their master had kept them confined to the residence for years, with nothing to do but Practice Sword, and they were so eager to go that they forgot their skirts and dresses, even neglecting to ask for Daoist Robes from the clothing workshop. They only wanted to reach the wall and kill whatever demons they could. But a little girl with a Chao Shou Yan at her waist and a bamboo box on her back stopped them. She said the three of them could only go to the mirage. Otherwise, they could obediently return to the residence and keep practicing swordsmanship.

Five Yin-Yang School cultivators and Mohist