Entering the sect

The old man led Chen Chong to a place called Qiyuan Terrace.

Leaving the room at the far end, they climbed a flight of stone steps hugging the mountainside. The steps were narrow, barely wide enough for two people abreast, with a sheer cliff on one side and bottomless clouds and mist on the other. After roughly a hundred steps, the stairway took a sudden turn around a huge boulder, and the view opened up before them.

Qiyuan Terrace.

A cluster of buildings steeped in ancient charm followed the contours of the mountain, rising in overlapping tiers of sweeping eaves and upturned corners. They had white walls and dark tiles, but the walls were not a fresh white. They were an aged white, washed over and over by the years until they carried a faint tinge of gray.

The tiles, too, were not a bright blue-black, but an old, weather-darkened shade, covered in moss and creeping vines. Wooden corridors ran between the buildings, their stout pillars resting on stone bases carved with pines, deer, and cloud patterns. A breeze stirred the iron chimes beneath the corridors, sending their clear notes ringing into the distance.

Chen Chong followed the old man inside.

Someone came forward to greet them. He was in his thirties, dressed in the Pine Roost Sect's blue-gray Daoist robes, with a brown cloth sash around his waist and a mild expression. At the sight of the old man, he bowed. "Old Li."

The old man nodded. "Register this disciple first. Put him under that youngster Luo Yu."

The man acknowledged the instruction. Having brought Chen Chong here, Old Li left. His footsteps were light, and within a few strides he had vanished around the end of the corridor.

Only as Chen Chong followed the man did he gradually