The World, Mind the Flames

At dusk, a young Daoist priest who wandered far and wide arrived outside a martial arts school in Xianyou County City, Qingyuan Prefecture, a small country tucked into a corner of Treasure Bottle Continent.

He claimed to be a friend of School Owner Xu. The young Daoist priest wore a clean pair of Thousand-layer sole cloth shoes and carried a green bamboo Hiking Staff. A sword case on his back showed the hilts of two long swords, one made of peachwood, and a bundle hung across his shoulder.

The gatekeeper recognized the Peachwood Sword. A storyteller at the overpass had talked about them: when Daoist priests who cultivated immortal arts in the mountains came down to travel, most liked to carry a Peachwood Sword for show, whether or not they came from the Dragon Tiger Mountain Celestial Master Mansion.

The gatekeeper was a disciple who had joined the school only a few years ago. With the outside world so unsettled these past years, he asked to see the visitor's Passage Document. In truth, the disciple could barely read. He was only going through the motions. Travelers from elsewhere were already questioned carefully by constables and patrolmen as soon as they hired a carriage, donkey, or mule, or stopped at an inn for food and rest. There was no need for a martial arts disciple to catch anyone they had missed.

The gatekeeper returned the document and said he would announce the visitor.

The young Daoist priest smiled, nodded, and waited patiently.

He had traveled across continents and headed south, finding much the same scene throughout Treasure Bottle Continent. Mountain cultivators eyed everyone as though they were thieves, and ordinary folk below the mountains were no less wary.

Even night watchmen in prefectural and county cities now had people assigned by