The Mount Taihang Mountains.
Gray smoke surged into the sky, churning the white clouds.
This mountain range stood guard in the north, separating the lands beyond the frontier from the Central Plains it sheltered. It had always been a prize contested by military strategists. In bygone days, Wei Taizu had cracked his whip here and led his armies south along its eastern foothills to unite the realm.
Now the Yuan Wei dynasty had been utterly destroyed. Its latest Emperor Wei, Tuoba Tianjue, had been executed in Luo Capital and reduced to ash. Many members of the imperial clan had been driven to the Northern Sea as well, with only a small branch remaining.
Xu Xuan had already entered Mount Taihang. Standing in the Great Void, he surveyed the region from afar.
These mountain ridges and peaks had once been magnificent and towering, known as the dragon's spine. Unfortunately, they had suffered the great upheaval at the end of Late Wei. Even though True Lord Fangji had ultimately intervened to prop up the realm's dragon veins, the calamity had never fully subsided.
Throughout Mount Taihang, mountains had collapsed and the earth had split, leaving a landscape where no vegetation grew. Only the outlying ridges extending north remained reasonably intact, standing unfallen. This was where Heng lay.
Honored as the Northern Mountain, Heng possessed deep, substantial earth qi. It could actually be divided into western and eastern mountains, with the Heng River running between them before flowing into the Tang River south of Mount Taihang.
A Golden Core cultivator of "subduing earth" had once attained the Dao on the western side, granting the mountain earth of constancy. It was thus named [Mount Heng], meaning the mountain of constancy, which subdued and guarded the north. To the east, the Guo River flowed in