A picture of everything that had happened this month gradually took shape in Lu Qing's mind amid the chatter of the many cultivators here.
This was Azure Ridge Market, and Azure Ridge was the name of the volcano everyone spoke of.
Before coming here, Lu Qing had already memorized the basic place names.
Azure Ridge Mountain had not originally been a magma volcano. No one knew what tremendous change had occurred in some bygone age—perhaps a rare treasure had emerged, perhaps powerful experts had fought a great battle. Opinions differed.
The result was that the earth veins within Azure Ridge Mountain had shifted, leaving it in its present state.
There was also a cultivation sect nearby called Phoenix Gate. The name alone struck Lu Qing as extraordinary.
Yet he had never encountered any record of this Phoenix Gate in the sect's archives.
Only upon arriving did he discover that an impressive name did not mean outstanding strength. It was little more than the local bully of this region; placed within the vast Northern Province, it was merely a small third-rate or second-rate sect.
This sect took the Phoenix as its totem, so its visualization techniques and divine abilities naturally bore the Phoenix's name. Yet the Phoenix was an Immortal beast, sacred and spiritual, comparable in status to the True Dragon. Where could they possibly find a Phoenix to visualize? Over generation after generation, all they had was the White Phoenix.
The White Phoenix was a spirit bird with snow-white feathers and snow-white eyes.
It had nothing to do with the Phoenix's undying nirvana. Aside from its name and its fondness for cleanliness, it had few similarities.
It existed only here in the Northern Province; elsewhere, people might never even have heard its name.
Lu Qing had read too many books,