Yizhou, Lacquer Mountain.
The mountain stretched for a hundred miles, occupying nearly an entire commandery. Its mudstone was brownish yellow, its vegetation sparse, and birds were seldom seen. The mountain itself had collapsed, everything above its waist reduced to sheer cliffs and precipices, the scars of its destruction shocking to behold.
Even so, its broken remains still stood foremost among the thousand peaks of the western frontier. Before its collapse, it had rivaled Mount Dai of the Central Plains in fame, a place where emperors performed the great rites and sacrificed to Heaven, an emblem of wu earth.
Brownish-yellow Wu Light surged from the mountain's roots, carving myriad divine patterns above Lacquer Mountain. A deep, irresistible pressure descended from the vault of heaven, as though it meant to drag the entire sky down into the mud.
The great void was like thin brocade stretched to its limit, constantly sounding with tears and fractures. Wu Light swept across it, clouds blazing with color. Through the fissures in space, countless mystic peaks, spirit palaces, and grotto-heaven vistas could dimly be seen, manifesting before the world.
Kunwei was about to open.
The news raced like lightning through the commanderies of Great Li, from Qing Province bordering the West Kang Plains to Jian Land near the Eastern Sea, then on to Red Cloud and into Heavenly Tribulation Mountain. It reached a sheet of white writing paper on an azure jade desk, which a thunder sparrow picked up in its beak and delivered to the black-robed Daoist seated above.
Xu Xuan's expression was grave as he read the intelligence report. Cultivators throughout Great Li were now watching developments in Shu. From the leaders of immortal sects down to rogue cultivators at Foundation Establishment, all hoped to enter this grotto-heaven and gamble for an opportunity.
Whenever