Behind Mist Valley stood a stretch of palaces and towers like something out of an immortal realm, encircled by a stream that ended at a waterfall cascading straight down.
Below the waterfall lay a pool, with a rainbow arching between the falling water and its surface.
Fish occasionally leaped from the pool, while a flock of cranes frolicked nearby.
Had an outsider seen this beautiful scene, they could only have sighed in admiration. What an earthly paradise!
This was Sound Valley, one of the Three Valleys of the Central Plains, a place rarely visited by outsiders!
Around the palaces and towers, along the streams and lakeshores, young men and women gathered in twos and threes, chatting merrily or playing the instruments in their hands.
The beautiful sounds of flutes, vertical bamboo flutes, zithers, konghou harps, pipas, and other instruments wove together into passages of music in the air, drawing listeners helplessly into their spell.
It was plain to see that every one of them wore an expression of enjoyment.
Whoosh!
Just then, however, the sound of something cutting through the air interrupted the people of Sound Valley as they played.
In the mere blink of an eye, the figure responsible for that sound had already rushed into Sound Valley's main hall.
Everyone nearby cast puzzled looks toward the main hall.
Clearly, they recognized the figure they had just seen.
Anything that could make that figure so anxious had to be a major incident!
And so, they no longer had the heart to keep playing.
Quite a few had already begun hurrying toward the main hall.
Sound Valley's main hall stood within the tallest tower here!
Inside, the hall was open on three sides, while exquisite landscapes were carved across the wall at the rear center.
Strips of sheer white gauze