Ever since the Great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth began, the dark of night had become the most terrifying time in the northern wilderness.
Without the protection of sect formations and city barriers, commoners and cultivators alike were reduced to prey hunted by various demonic beasts. No matter if you took to the skies, burrowed into the earth, or plunged into the water, your chances of being hunted down, becoming bait for a demonic beast, or simply ending up as one yourself were extremely high.
This probability increased tenfold or even dozens of times in certain special locations.
For instance, Huayang Mountain.
Huayang Mountain sat at the upper reaches of the northern tributary of Xi Yu Lake, linking the Yin Mountains and the Blackwater River line. It happened to wedge right into the vital node between the Earth Fire Demon Palace and the hinterland of the Xiyu Alliance, holding a rather significant geographic position. At the end of the previous tribulation, this was where the mountain gate of the Shangqing Sect stood.
A mountain need not be high; if there are immortals, it becomes famous.
Though the Shangqing Sect was most renowned for its Taixiao Divine Court, Huayang Mountain, standing no taller than seven thousand feet, still held a unique status.
The three founding patriarchs of the Shangqing Sect had taken Huayang Mountain as their foundation and laid down the world-famous "All-Embracing Heavens" array, communicating upward with the heavenly stars and moving downward with the terrestrial veins. Later generations of disciples used this as a cornerstone to arrange the "True Spirit Hierarchy", summoning and impeaching the deities of the heavens, which thus formed the basic outline of the Taixiao Divine Court.
It was only a pity that the grand demonic tribulation caused the formation, hailed as "indestructible," to collapse from