At the Sky Curtain in the central region of the Five-Colored World.
Two streaks of Sword Qi rose from Ascension City, shooting straight into the clouds. Between heaven and earth, the several layers of cloud seas, high and low, were stirred by the Sword Qi into enormous whirlpools.
The dazzling sword lights each traced an arc through the clouds and earth, reaching roughly the same height as the Sky Curtain gate, though still tens of thousands of miles away. The sword lights abruptly halted, and in an instant revealed two figures: one with a jade hairpin in his hair, dressed in a blue robe; the other wearing a yellow cap and green shoes, with a Hiking Staff in hand.
The two sword cultivators each split into over a dozen streaks of sword light and swept toward the gate. Their escape methods were identical, and they moved even faster than a Flowing Rosy Cloud Boat.
A lean-faced old man in a Confucian robe stroked his beard and smiled. "I have to admit, when it comes solely to traveling, those Sword Immortals are more dashing. A flash of sword light, racing like wind and lightning; unbound by heaven and earth. Just watching them gives one that crisp, clean feeling of no dragging through mud or water."
The other old man nodded. "Back then, I simply lacked the aptitude for becoming a sword cultivator. Otherwise, I might not have been willing to labor so hard over scholarship."
These two Confucian Temple Attendant Sages tasked with guarding the Sky Curtain of the Five-Colored World were respectively the first Grand Libationer of Liji Academy and the founder of He Shang Academy.
The two old men had each brought along a Confucian scholar from their own Literary Vein, both young gentlemen. They were to jointly guard