Only, one lay outside the painting, while the other lay within it.
Yet as the two reflected one another, the mountain ranges appeared all the more imposing in their rolling rise and fall.
They faintly overlapped, lending them an added touch of divinity that stirred the soul.
"Could this mountain be the divine mountain we were truly seeking?"
Someone immediately saw this scene and muttered aloud.
"This disturbance truly is extraordinary."
"Everyone, time waits for no one."
"That mountain path has already opened to us."
Sure enough.
As soon as the autumn cicadas stirred, the autumn wind had already reached every corner of the Mortal Realm.
Within the phantom mountain range, a bluestone path wound upward in layer upon layer, like one rocky ascent after another.
Jade-like blossoms and green leaves adorned both sides of the bluestone steps.
They made the path seem even more secluded and elegant, uniquely refined.
Just as the painting had appeared, those steps first emerged from thin air atop the mountain, then spread downward layer by layer.
They wound all the way to the foot of the range.
At last, that blot of ink seemed on the verge of vanishing.
The stairs appeared to pierce through the distance between the painting and reality.
In reality.
A stretch of bluestone steps silently appeared outside the painting.
Every cultivator raised their eyes to look.
They discovered that a bluestone stairway stood before each of them, and before everyone else as well.
"So we have no choice but to walk it."
The steps remained fixed before them.
No matter which direction they went, a bluestone stairway would be there.
The moment someone took a step forward, they saw the others already making their way up the bluestone stairs.
"Why should you fear? Since we have all come this