Chen Xuan arrived at his own private courtyard.
The courtyard had blue bricks and gray tiles. An old locust tree stood in the middle, with a stone table and two stone stools beneath it.
As Chen Xuan pushed open the door and entered, sunlight happened to spill through gaps in the canopy, scattering mottled patches of light and shadow across the Bluestone ground.
He closed the door, walked over to the stone table, and sat down. From his robes, he took out the booklet Deacon Liu had given him introducing the Ten Inner Peaks.
The booklet was not thick, containing only ten pages.
Each of the Ten Inner Peaks occupied a single page, with its location, characteristics, inheritance, elders, and other information clearly marked.
Among the Guiyuan Sect's Ten Inner Peaks, Guiyuan Peak reigned supreme. The other nine peaks encircled it like stars paying homage to the moon.
Guiyuan Peak was where the sect master resided and also served as the sect's central hub. However, the sect master did not take disciples; the position was inherited by the blood descendants left behind by the founding patriarch.
The first peak masters of the other nine peaks had been Founder Guiyuan's nine most outstanding true disciples. They checked and balanced one another, jointly assisted the sect master, and managed all affairs great and small within the sect.
Below Guiyuan Peak.
Tianxuan Peak stood first among the nine peaks and possessed the greatest strength.
The Nine Inner Peaks held a ranking tournament once every ten years.
Over more than eight hundred years, more than eighty tournaments had been held, and Tianxuan Peak had occupied the top position for over forty of them.
Sword Peak ranked second among the nine peaks. Famous for its sword path inheritance, it had claimed the top position nearly