The visitor was a guest, yet he carried himself as though he were the master here. Though he had arrived at the public hall, it was like strolling through his own courtyard.
His ceremonial boots stepped upon the ground, leaving footprints exactly half an inch deep.
This was the [Black-and-White Dharma Realm] Ju Kui had constructed over so long, further reinforced by Qin Zhizhen's [Void Refining], [Iron Wall], and [No Clothes]! It had now contracted to its very limit; wind and rain should have been unable to enter, and no law should have been able to invade.
Ju Kui held a chess piece suspended in silence, while only the lightning shone eternally.
"Those from Book Mountain ought to be greeted by the academy with ritual bells—" Beyond the lakeside pavilion, amid everything that had already vanished, the idol representing destruction slowly emerged in outline. Cang Ming's voice said, "But the age has decayed so far that we have nothing with which to show proper respect."
"Fortunately, heaven and earth have their own sounds. The wind's voice and thunder's voice are both fine." The visitor smiled. "Great sound is music, and music is ritual."
His speech rose and fell with a distinct rhythm, exceptionally pleasing to the ear. Even the atmosphere of destruction brought by the [Gods-Beyond Idol] was dispersed considerably. It was as though he had turned the apocalypse into a paradise, unfolding leisurely grace within the public hall.
"Ritual" was also a kind of order. Different from "law," it existed independently within the [Black-and-White Dharma Realm].
If the Great Void Pavilion, represented here by Ju Kui, had convened court, then Book Mountain, represented by this man, had pitched a tent in the public hall to show that it possessed an order of its own and was not bound by