East Sea Affairs, Hidden Arrangements (Combined Chapter)

Above the Nine Heavens, the massive Flying Boat Fleet had already departed, and sunlight once more poured down from the heavenly vault.

Yet beneath the "Immortal City" on Penglai Island, when one looked up, all one could see was darkness.

Though it was clearly daytime, from below the city, one stood beneath layer upon layer of upturned eaves and interlocking brackets, black bricks and black tiles. The sunlight was blocked out by towering buildings rising one after another.

These buildings were stacked layer upon layer, using obsidian—the most basic spiritual material in the Cultivation World—as pillars and partitions. They rose higher and higher, eventually forming, across the flat expanse of Penglai Island, towering structures that reached the clouds and linked together like mountains, winding and rolling in endless undulations... a Mountain City.

At the very top of the Mountain City were the cave mansions of Nascent Soul True Lords and the High Level of the Alliance. Vast formations drew down Sun and Moon Essence from Above the Nine Heavens, and they enjoyed rootless water descending from the heavenly vault. They watched the sunrise in the morning and the moon at dusk, came and went through the azure void in pursuit of immortality, and fully savored the carefree freedom of the immortal path.

Below the Mountain City lay layer upon layer of upturned eaves and interlocking brackets, black bricks and black tiles. Stacked one upon another, with obsidian as pillars and partitions, these so-called "mountain-body floors" divided the space into enormous sections, housing countless cultivators within.

The lower the level, the lower one's status in Penglai Island's Cultivation World. At the very bottom were mortals, unable even to enjoy the sunlight overhead, forced to survive by relying on spiritual plants such as sunlit moss.

They had to draw spiritual qi from