Cloud Lord

The moon shone bright amid sparse stars; the breeze was gentle, the clouds light.

A crescent moon hung just beyond the window, casting its glow over the young man sweeping the main hall.

The waiter at Cloud Pavilion Inn was finishing the last of the closing-up. The front doors had already been bolted, and the street outside lay silent beneath overlapping shadows of buildings—not even the chirping of insects could be heard.

Stealing a moment amid his work, the waiter took out the Heavenly Secrets Ranking tucked at his waist and read through its various lists once more, though he had no idea how many times he had already read them.

The excitement on his face eventually turned into a sigh.

"What a pity I can't get the latest edition of the Heavenly Secrets Ranking. I heard quite a few young heroes from various sects have recently made their names in the martial world."

"And there's even a Sword Immortal now, listed separately on the Immortal Ranking. He even knows the Sword-flying Technique."

"I wonder just how powerful this Sword Immortal's sword truly is?"

With a book in one hand and a rag in the other, the young man's face filled with longing.

His eyes held not only yearning for the martial world, but also fantasies of the skies beyond Yunbi County.

He picked up the rag in his hand, tucked the booklet behind his back, and with a wave, sent the rag flying.

"Ho ho... ha... behold my Sword-flying Technique!"

"Hahahaha!"

After standing with his arms folded and chest puffed out in pride for a while, he still had no choice but to retrieve the rag.

After all, he was not the protagonist of some storybook, merely a spectator.

As he lowered the window, he lifted his head.

And saw someone in the sky, drifting away with the wind like a flowing cloud, gliding beneath the clouds and before the moon.

That person was like a celestial immortal, rising on the wind and descending with the clouds.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished into the wind.

"?"

The waiter immediately shoved open the window and leaned half his body outside, straining to peer into the distance, but he could no longer catch that dreamlike, ethereal figure.

The waiter recalled the legends of Yunbi once more. "Could it be...? Immortals descending to the mortal realm?"

Kongchenzi swept through the wind like willow catkins; whichever way the wind blew, he followed.

In a few flickers, he passed over Yunbi County's walls, then skimmed along the treetops beyond the city. His toes touched and bent the grass before he finally arrived at a deep pool smooth as a mirror.

Sheer cliffs towered on every side, and mist curled over the deep pool below, spreading around the Daoist.

"Yun Jun Pool?"

The Daoist immediately recalled the rumors about Yunbi County he had heard during the day. The most famous thing in all Yunbi County was the Yunbi said to reveal the shadow of immortals, hidden beneath Yun Jun Pool.

Now it seemed this new Guardian Deity had manifested here.

He stepped across the water, raising faint ripples over the deep pool and parting the clouds and mist.

As Gao Xian drew closer, the intricate Daoist mark on his brow grew brighter and brighter. At that moment, Gao Xian looked ever more like an immortal, as though he did not belong to this world and might ascend at any moment.

The cliff face before him began to tremble violently. Fine fragments of stone fell away layer by layer, as though the Yunbi were about to peel free from within it.

At last, with a wave of Gao Xian's hand, countless streaks of golden light and talismans surged into the stone wall like a river of light.

"Rumble!"

With a thunderous boom, the Yunbi transformed into a palm-sized, translucent white Jade Pendant and fell into Gao Xian's hand.

It resembled jade, yet it was not jade.

Gao Xian tapped it, and it let out a faint hum, along with a weak flicker of consciousness.

When such dead objects had only just been invested as Guardian Deities, they were always like this, lacking in spiritual intelligence.

With a toss, the Jade Pendant instantly transformed into a bank of rosy clouds, floating above the Daoist's head.

"It can transform into clouds."

Gao Xian now understood the characteristics of this new guardian.

"Since the world calls you Cloud Lord, from this day forth, you shall be the Cloud Lord Guardian!"

Gao Xian replaced the Jade Pendant that had originally hung from his belt and fastened this one in its place.

Early the next morning, chaos erupted outside.

"Fog! There's fog!" someone shouted in the street.

"Yun Jun Pool has misted over."

The martial artists from the inns along the street immediately rushed downstairs, each one overjoyed. Had they not traveled thousands of miles to seize this single thread of opportunity?

"At last, I've waited for it." Guan Shanyuan, the Silver Spear Overlord, had come from beyond the frontier passes. He was so excited that he came downstairs without even intending to eat breakfast, setting off at once.

"Quick, quick, quick! Hurry over!" disciples of the martial world from another room were equally impatient.

"What's the rush? Once the Yunbi appears, it generally won't vanish again for several days. Besides, the morning mist is too thick—you won't be able to see anything anyway. Eat first, then go." An elder with considerable experience immediately stopped them.

Gao Xian got up and ate breakfast. Watching the busy waiter rush about nonstop, he seemed rather excited, as though eager to finish the work at hand.

Gao Xian asked him about it.

The waiter said joyfully, "I told the shopkeeper today that I could go take a look at Yun Jun Pool later. Maybe I'll comprehend some peerless cultivation art too?"

"After all, that's an Immortal Wall."

The waiter went on about the legends surrounding Yun Jun Pool. "I heard that there are even Immortal Techniques left behind there by celestial Immortals, waiting for someone fated to find them."

"And besides..."

The waiter furtively glanced around before saying cautiously, "Last night, I saw Immortals descending to the mortal realm."

"Yun Jun Pool fogged over today. I have to go take a look."

"Maybe I'm that fated person?"

The waiter's heart brimmed with anticipation. His encounter with an Immortal last night had suddenly made him feel that—

perhaps he was not merely a spectator.

He, too, could become the protagonist of a tale, a great hero famed throughout the land.

Before Yun Jun Pool, clouds shrouded the mountains and mist blanketed the air.

The shores of the pool were already packed shoulder to shoulder. Martial wanderers who had come from afar, townsfolk from the city, and villagers from beyond its walls had all gathered here.

There were great heroes eager to gain insight into Sword Intent and martial intent, youths dreaming of mastering peerless martial arts overnight, and ordinary people who had come simply to watch the excitement.

The various sects, schools, and wandering heroes had long since claimed the foremost positions according to their standing.

Upon several boulders at the very front of the pool, Overlord of the Silver Spear Beyond the Frontier Guan Shan stood with his spear held in his arms, waiting for a long time.

Flying Sand Whip He Beidou stood rooted like a stake, gathering his breath, all for the chance to seize that sliver of opportunity.

Master Wutong sat cross-legged in contemplation as well, quietly awaiting the moment.

As the sun rose fully and its light poured down, the clouds and mist gradually dispersed.

Everyone moved at once, preparing to seize the instant the Immortal's shadow was cast forth, to sense that Immortal intent and break through their bottlenecks.

Yet once the mist had dispersed, what was revealed behind Yun Jun Pool was a huge hollow.

The Immortal Wall that had stood here was already nowhere to be seen.

Everyone stared at one another wide-eyed, utterly stunned.

"Where's the Cloud Wall?"

"Such a huge, long Cloud Wall—how did it just vanish?"

"What exactly happened?"

The crowd erupted into an uproar. Yet such an enormous stone wall had been embedded in the mountainside and plunged into a thousand-zhang-deep pool. Mortals could never possibly have taken it away.

Precisely because of that, everyone found it all the more unbelievable.

At that moment, word spread through the crowd that someone had seen Immortals descending to the mortal realm last night—and quite a few people had seen it.

"You saw it too?"

"I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me."

"So celestial Immortals really did descend to the mortal realm last night!"

The crowd looked at one another, unable to help but speculate, "Could it be that the celestial Immortals descended again and carried the Cloud Wall back with them?"