Leaving aside the deliberations in the Hanging Garden, let us return to Xing Yan.
After settling Qiong Tong in, he went searching alone, and within half an hour he had found a lead. Crossing ridge after ridge of flowers and parting layer upon layer of auspicious clouds, Xing Yan finally discovered something unusual in southern Kunlun. Deep within a vast emerald plain, a clear lake lay half-hidden among swaying Jade Flowers and Immortal Herbs. Its waters were deep and still, so limpid they seemed not to exist. Pale-yellow fragments of jade clustered at its center, surrounding a Square Jade Platform. Clear emerald radiance wreathed the platform, flickering and shimmering, bathing its upper reaches in a luminous green haze as though spring grass had sprouted there. The brilliant green light rose and spread, one wave following another, obscuring whatever lay within. From this distance, he could see only that the white jade platform was polished smooth and lustrous, its divine presence sharply manifest. A sacred vitality spread from it in every direction; this was no ordinary place.
Could this be the Kunlun Rebirth Realm?
Xing Yan pondered. According to the great goddess Xi He, Xueyi's chance of returning to life rested entirely with the Queen Mother of the West's Elder Princess, who governed reincarnation in Western Kunlun. Only by imploring this Elder Princess to find and retrieve Xueyi's soul from the Reincarnation Realm could he revive the Plum-Snow Spirit. Thus, the moment he saw the strange jade platform deep within the emerald plain, he wondered whether it was Kunlun's place of rebirth. At the thought, he invoked the Invisibility Spell Lingyi had taught him, Water Without a Trace, concealed his presence, and cautiously approached the jade platform in the lake.
Of course, Xing Yan did not yet know that the Deep-Green