Bright Moon hung high in the sky. Mist drifted over the lake, vast and faint, while the water shimmered with flecks of silver, still and tranquil, soothing to the soul.
A figure stood proudly atop the peak, gazing down at the moonlit lake. Above, a sea of clouds hung upside down and spun like a celestial constellation, its vast, magnificent spectacle filling the sky.
"Twenty years have passed, yet each day has been the same. What are the ups and downs of the world to me?" The figure sighed, sounding at once wistful and delighted.
Behind him stood a dozen or twenty people: a mendicant monk with unbound hair, monks in kasayas, Daoist priests in plain robes, and men and women dressed in all manner of jianghu attire.
A scholar-looking man smiled. "What are the ups and downs of the world to you? Alliance Leader Yu, you've seen through the mortal barrier of life and death, grasped the mystery of the true void, and touched the 'Gates of the Immortal Realm.' Your state of mind has truly risen another level."
"Alliance Leader Yu no longer needs another person's aura to draw him along. He can ascend at any time, anywhere—the first person in the jianghu in thousands of years to do so. Of course, the ups and downs of the world mean nothing to him..." said a woman in palace attire beside him, smiling behind her hand. She made no effort to hide her reverence, though there was also a trace of bitterness in her smile.
Yu Banshan was the Sect Master of the Golden Lake Sect and the current Martial World Alliance Leader. From the moment he entered the jianghu, he had displayed a forceful presence, sweeping the world within ten years without meeting a rival. He was hailed