Green Luo.
It was early spring, the season of Awakening of Insects. Cultivators in dark Daoist robes traveled between the mountain peaks, parting the clouds and trailing streams of multicolored light. The mountains bustled with activity, with the Pill Room and Scripture Repository drawing the most visitors.
Above the clouds, a fire crane beat its wings, stirring gusts of burning wind. It stood as tall as a person, streaks of flowing flame running through its crimson feathers, its long beak sharp as a sword. At that moment, it crouched upon the clouds.
Three women stood beside the crane, each wearing a different expression.
Fan Huayan's gaze held a trace of worry. Her cultivation had already broken through to the sixth level of Qi Refining. Beside her stood her maid, Xianghe, whom she had sent north to gather news over the years and had now recalled.
Upon clear, pale water stood a figure in a blue-green skirt—Fan Qingzhu, whose cultivation was at the early stage of Foundation Establishment. She gazed toward the Spirit Peak where the sect master resided, waiting patiently.
On Azure Sky Peak, countless silver filaments surged and gathered above True Abode Hall. Thunder roared, striking down again and again. A figure manifested and absorbed every last drop of lightning overhead.
Xu Xuan had returned from Peaceful Mountain over a month ago and had spent that time studying the Sword Treatise on Life-and-Death Qi. This scripture pointed directly to the lineage's secret essentials, using life-and-death qi as a sword. Legend held that the King of Yue had entered the netherworld in a dream and had his soul imprisoned there; the Yue Maiden had relied on this art to enter the Netherworld alone and retrieve her sovereign.
The sword scripture was exceedingly obscure, almost as difficult to comprehend as the