Dawn arrived quietly amid birdsong. Hu Xiaotian opened his eyes. He lay in a hammock secured between the branches of two trees. After a comfortable stretch, he unfolded the map and studied the route. According to its markings, he was to head southwest after passing Blackstone Stockade, follow the main road for thirty li, then enter the mountains. The woods where he had rested stood at the entrance to Purple Dragon Mountain.
After escaping Blackstone Stockade the night before, he had come all the way here and decided to rest in these woods for a night before continuing toward Purple Dragon Mountain.
After washing and eating a few mouthfuls of dry provisions, he continued toward Purple Dragon Mountain. Looking up, he saw that it was not particularly high, especially compared with the surrounding mountains, which all towered above it. Yet the morning glow draped its slopes in a faint purple hue. Nor was its summit as steep as the other peaks; it looked as though someone had sliced it off with a single sword stroke, leaving a flat platform.
Not long after he entered Purple Dragon Mountain, the path ahead vanished completely. The locations marked on the map were not particularly detailed either. It showed that the Headquarters Altar of the Five Immortals Cult should be near the summit. Only after climbing to the top did Hu Xiaotian understand why the mountain was flat-topped: it was a volcano, and its summit was a crater.
Following the rim of the crater, he finally found the Immortal's Guiding Finger marked on the map. This stone figure, too, had formed from accumulated lava. Hu Xiaotian descended in the direction it pointed and eventually discovered a small fissure. Vegetation grew thickly outside it. Without the map, it would have been difficult to discover that