Qianyun Mountain.
Within the Sect Gate, clouds and mist shrouded layer upon layer of buildings nestled among rocky cliffs. Perched atop Soaring Cloud Summit, it stood apart from the mortal world, a dwelling of immortals and gods in the eyes of ordinary folk.
On this day, cultivators streamed in and out of the Sect Gate.
Especially at the Outer Sect gate at the foot of the mountain, envoys from the kingdoms of North Mountain Domain, along with elders and disciples from aristocratic families and sects, gathered in droves. A temporary trading marketplace had even formed below the mountain.
It could be said
that virtually every influential force in North Mountain Domain had gathered here.
Yet though many people had assembled, the overall atmosphere was somewhat subdued as they waited. Even within the temporary marketplace, cultivators instinctively lowered their voices when speaking.
They had been invited to Qianyun Mountain on the surface because an inconspicuous minor family within the domain had dared collude with a demon sect, secretly devising schemes that had cost the Sect's Great Elder his life. The members of that family had therefore been seized and were to be publicly executed, and they had been invited to witness it.
But in truth,
everyone knew that the public execution of that minor family for colluding with a demon sect was merely an appetizer!
There had to be another purpose!
Otherwise, they could have simply beheaded those members of the minor family before the Sect Gate, and the news would naturally spread throughout North Mountain Domain in a few days. Why go to the trouble of summoning them all here?
Moreover,
after Fan Gongliang, one of the three Cave True Realm cultivators, had died, shattering one corner of the three Law Domain Realm True Persons that had made Qianyun Mountain