Thousand Mountains Snow Dance, Plum Soul Transformed - Dwelling Beyond the Mundane in Truth, Why Shun Mystic Mists and Divine Tassels?

That morning, Lingyi and Xueyi rose early and went together into the deep mountains to gather herbs. When they returned around noon, they spotted Hall Master Zhang in the distance beneath the shade of a tree on the stone terrace, studying a piece of wood and measuring it this way and that. A bench stood before him, with a wooden plane on top and a saw leaning against it. Sawdust and shavings littered the ground beside him, along with a stack of four or five long boards, smooth, even, and freshly colored, evidently just planed.

As they approached the stone cliff along the mountain path, they heard the Four Seas Hall Master call:

"Qiong Rong, bring me that Woodworking Manual again!"

At his call, little Qiong Rong, who had been playing with the sawdust and shavings, promptly answered, "Okay!" She stood up, brushed off her hands, and raced into the Cloud-Sleeve Pavilion to fetch the woodworking book her brother had been studying so carefully.

Seeing Xing Yan suddenly busy with carpentry, Lingyi found it most curious. Before she had even set down her herb basket properly, she asked:

"Xing Yan, what are you doing?"

"You're back, Lingyi? I'm making Qiong Rong a shorter dressing table."

A few days earlier, while helping Lingyi furnish her bedroom, Xing Yan had gone to the Affairs Administration Hall on Flying Cloud Summit to collect a dressing table. He had wanted to get a shorter one for Qiong Rong as well. She had always shared a dressing table with her sister Xueyi, but her small stature made it awkward to use. Having noticed this, Xing Yan had hoped to collect one of a suitable height for her. Only after asking Master Qingyun at the Affairs Administration Hall did he learn that their storeroom held no