Clouds formed mountain ridges, mist formed valleys; rosy clouds were rainbow robes, stars were hairpins.
The fragrance of the four seasons faded as one cycle came to an end; a thousand ages of dawns and dusks shone upon your return.
In the Immortal Realm, amid some towering mountain range, a pillar of lightning that pierced heaven and earth flashed violently beneath the crimson glow of the Crimson Sun. The lightning pillar was dozens of mu thick, and Immortal Spiritual Energy poured madly into it through openings like loopholes. Within, lightning arcs surged like raging waves. Amid those arcs, golden thunder auras condensed into fist-sized masses and churned wantonly. The pillar's radiance covered thousands of li in every direction, while its thunderous howl startled the secluded wilderness like war drums.
As the sun set, the thunder ceased, and the lightning pillar slowly contracted. When its blinding flames finally vanished, lightning could be seen falling into a majestic palace. The palace seemed half-hidden amid vast forests, yet also appeared to stand alone in another space; immortal mist drifted endlessly around it, concealing its true form. Yet between its flying eaves and interlocking brackets, its long neglect and numerous collapses were plainly visible.
Though the palace complex was ancient, under the lingering light of the setting Crimson Sun, layer upon layer of scarlet phantoms still arose. Within them, fist-sized silver runes sometimes rolled about, while arm-thick golden light flowed and spilled forth. Strands of immense aura scattered through the lush trees and jagged strange rocks around them, like breathing.
The Immortal Realm's Immortal Spiritual Energy was extraordinarily dense. In many places, it gathered into clouds and mist; in a few spots, that mist even condensed into droplets. Any mountain cave in the Immortal Realm, if placed in the mortal world, might become a blessed grotto-heaven. In such an environment, the trees of the Immortal Realm naturally grew all the more massive—none were less than dozens of zhang thick and over a thousand zhang tall. If the trees were thus, how could the mountains be low? Ordinary peaks were tens of thousands of zhang high, and in towering mountain ranges, even a million zhang might be an understatement.
Yet the trees here were slender, only a few zhang in thickness. Faint runes could vaguely be seen on their surfaces, appearing and vanishing along with the flowing scarlet phantoms—truly strange. As for the bizarre rocks, they were densely covered in bead-like growths. These beads were the same bronze color as the mountain stone, yet beneath the scarlet phantoms, that bronze hue flowed like droplets of water. Fine strands of golden light shone upon them, revealing the shape of chains. More than that, the many bizarre rocks were piled up in layer upon layer, but those overlapping places often folded into wrinkles, as though they had fallen within spatial fault lines.
At that moment, beside the strange rocks, an immortal beast resembling a four-legged lizard crawled down a tree. When it drew near, it opened its mouth, and a blood-red tongue lashed out like lightning, wrapping around one of the bead-like growths on the mountain rock. As though plucking fruit, the four-legged lizard immortal beast swallowed the bead into its belly.
The four-legged lizard immortal beast had just stretched out its tongue again when it suddenly drew it back. Alertly, it jerked its head toward the palace. At this time, the ink-green Autumn Hair Moon had just poked its head out over the sky in that direction. The four-legged lizard immortal beast was clearly no admirer of elegance; it had no intention of admiring the Autumn Hair Moon's painted beauty. The instant it turned its head, "Rumble..." A colossal peal of thunder burst from within the palace. The entire palace began shaking violently, and the nearby peaks and trees swayed along with it. It was truly as if the earth moved and the mountains shook.
Then the scarlet phantoms rushed out like a flood bursting through a dam, instantly engulfing the surrounding trees and mountain rocks. The greedy four-legged lizard was swept up as well. Wherever the phantoms passed, flashing scarlet runes instantly appeared upon the trees and rocks. Unfortunately, those runes vanished in a flash, and the trees and rocks were destroyed as easily as dry twigs and rotten wood. If even the rocks fared thus, how could the four-legged lizard fare any better? It struggled desperately. Specks of light flickered madly beneath its scales, and rings of bizarre patterns surged out like waves, but its struggle was far too feeble to withstand the impact of the phantoms. Within moments, it was ground into a pulp of flesh.
"Ah!" With another miserable scream from within the palace, the surging phantoms shrank back like a receding tide. Once they withdrew into the palace, the scarlet color dimmed further, like the Crimson Sun in the sky, carrying the air of a sun sinking behind the western hills.
After the scream, the palace returned to silence. Only the bleak night wind began to howl.
Because the phantoms had destroyed the trees concealing the palace, its full form was revealed. The palace covered roughly a thousand mu and stood over a thousand zhang tall. Apart from its central section, which remained intact, most of it had collapsed into abandoned ruins. Even so, the three large characters on the plaque hanging above its gates could still be seen: "Reception Hall"!
P.S. Tanhua had finally released a new book and felt somewhat uneasy. I hope everyone liked the Immortal Realm Arc and would give Tanhua plenty of support. Thank you...