The next day, the seventh day of the ninth lunar month, three days after Frost Descent, with Cold Dew fast approaching.
Auspicious: demolishing houses, breaking walls, seeking medical treatment, dismantling.
Inauspicious: marriage, opening markets, burial, breaking ground.
This was not an auspicious day.
Early that morning, the area around Wutai Sect's mountain gate was already abuzz with voices. Yet this clamor differed from the lively bustle of an ordinary market; instead, it carried a restless agitation, and the air was thick with the oppressive feeling of wind filling the tower before a mountain storm.
Martial experts, scions of prominent families, and even spies dispatched by other prefectures to gauge the situation had flocked in from across Yunlin Prefecture, packing the plaza before the mountain gate so tightly that not even water could pass through.
Wutai Sect had clearly prepared for this long ago. Its elite disciples had all been deployed, led by stewards and elders, setting checkpoints and patrolling the key passages.
Li Wang stood guard at the main entrance to the mountain gate with Shen Xiuyong, responsible for checking invitations and identities.
Though today was ostensibly for the four sects to jointly discuss the great plan of resisting the Demonic Sect, dragons and snakes were mixed together here. Certainly not just anyone could be allowed into the core area.
Heads surged like waves, and the roar of voices rose higher with every passing moment.
Chen Qing stood somewhat farther inside, sweeping his gaze over the crowd and spotting many familiar and unfamiliar faces.
Before long, he noticed Yan Yaoyang.
At the side of this Chief Disciple of the Gengjin Institute stood a gentle-tempered woman. She was He Lanxin, daughter of He Yueting, Second Manor Lord He of Qixia Mountain Villa, to whom he was already betrothed.
Chen Qing walked