The Central Land portion of the Zu Mountain World's map matched China's traditional history. It resembled Eurasia, though only the East Asian portion corresponded exactly.
Seas surrounded the continent on all four sides. The Northern Sea was the smallest, yet even the farthest North Pole Mountain and Eternal Night Island, shrouded in darkness year-round, lay hundreds of thousands of li away. The Eastern Sea was the largest, with Great Wilderness Mountain at its end. The South Sea stretched the farthest, ending at the Southern Pole Realm of Light, where daylight endured for millions of years without night. Both lay more than a million li from the Central Land.
On the Central Land continent itself, Nuwa and Fuxi had founded civilization through matriarchal and patriarchal societies in succession. From there, history had passed through the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the three dynasties beginning with Xia Qi, the flourishing ages of Han and Tang, and then Song and Yuan. It was now the closing years of the Ming Dynasty.
In a few more years, the Ming Dynasty would fall and the Manchu Qing would enter through the passes. The main Mount Shu story began in the Second Year of Kangxi.
When he had first read the book, Shi Feiyang had found this deeply puzzling. Mount Shu had many chivalrous people who, during the transitions from Song to Yuan and Ming to Qing, refused to live under foreign rule or even suffered persecution. They retreated to remote frontier regions, pouring generations of effort into creating secluded paradises beyond the world.
Some had also encountered immortals who guided them into becoming Sword Immortals. Yet while still mortal, they had cherished their former homeland, willing to offer up their heads and spill their blood in resistance against foreign peoples. Once they forged Flying Swords,