In an instant, the Mountains, quiet and remote just moments before, burst into activity.
Streaks of sword light shot skyward like startled swans. Immortal cranes, auspicious clouds, and all manner of other conveyances followed, converging on the golden summit of Great Expansion Peak.
Only then did the Sect Leader ask calmly, "You said your newly accepted disciple brought back the Great Expansion Sword Diagram?"
Though he appeared to be asking True Lord Wu, he was actually addressing Tang Changsheng.
Tang Changsheng was no fool. He stepped forward and said calmly, "Yes. This disciple once met a mysterious stranger..."
He repeated the story he had made up.
He had told it many times by now, and its details had grown more vivid with each telling.
He said only that he had long yearned to meet Immortals. Hearing in his youth that Immortals lived beyond the seas, he had bought passage on a ship to seek them out and cultivate the Dao.
But a storm had struck along the way, wrecking the ship and sweeping him somewhere unknown. Just when death seemed imminent, a mysterious stranger had saved him.
The stranger had taught him a little cultivation and given him the diagram, saying that if he had the chance someday, he should return it to the Taiyi Immortal Sword Order...
"You said that when you sailed out, you encountered not only a storm and thunderbolts, but also a white light in the sky and a mirage?"
"Yes. This disciple has seen many mirages since, but none resembled that one. What I saw then was like the Heavenly Gate opening onto another world. Iron birds flew high overhead, and great ships belching black smoke sailed across the sea..."
Tang Changsheng spoke with the vivid detail his knowledge of the Mediterranean Sea allowed him.