Yongzhou, Yanxi Commandery, Qingjiang Prefecture, Anyuan County, atop Black Mountain beyond the county seat.
Dawn had just broken. Faint and indistinct, soft light spilled down as though draping the earth in a veil of gauze.
Xiang Yang wore a loose, plain white robe. With a gourd of warm, mellow wine at hand, he leaned against a recently built wooden cabin, gazing at the mountain scenery and the sights along the horizon, utterly entranced.
This was a mountainside peak encircled by lush green shade. Beyond the slope, the ground leveled out, making it well suited for habitation.
After returning to his hometown, Xiang Yang had chosen this spot, hired workers to build a wooden cabin that, though small as a sparrow, possessed all five vital organs, and then settled here, rarely venturing out.
This mountain had been the starting point of Xiang Yang's journey through the martial world in his youth. Here, with audacity that reached the heavens, he had adopted the alias Yang Xiang and infiltrated Black Wind Mountain Stronghold to investigate its circumstances. Later, he had joined the County Yamen constables in wiping out the stronghold.
It was also on this mountain that he had met Yuanbao, Bitter Monk, and the others, and earned the appreciation of Lu Da from the Divine Constable Gate. Only afterward had he been able to erupt forth, rise to prominence, make full use of the Wordless Book, and rapidly grow stronger.
After returning to Black Mountain, Xiang Yang often wondered what his life would have been like if he had not performed so outstandingly back then, if Lu Da had never taken him back to the Divine Constable Gate, and if he had simply remained in service at the county yamen.
With the Wordless Book, his martial arts might still have been formidable,