The Mysterious Terrace rose high, and bing radiance surged upward.
Xu Xuan arrived and gazed down, the Scarlet Radiance token shining in his hand, proclaiming this place's origins.
The Mysterious Terrace stood some sixty feet tall, its foundation built of vast wood and its entire surface engraved with golden sun and red cloud patterns. Tiered steps provided a place for listening to scriptures and receiving instruction. At its summit lay a Dark Azure meditation cushion, above which shifting firelight seemed to form a black-robed Daoist expounding the scriptures.
"Bing fire shines brightly, illuminating the six directions. As Heavenly Brilliance, it draws down the radiance of the sun; as the earthly furnace, it smelts metal and stone."
Daoist courtyards and treasure pavilions surrounded the Mysterious Terrace, with many smelting furnaces among them. One could picture the cultivators who had once passed through. Even within this Grotto-Heaven, the Great Scarlet lineage had held a fief-a testament to the favor the Imperial House had once shown this Dao.
On the second tier of the terrace stood a white skeleton, poised to draw a sword. It held only a scabbard; the Sword Artifact itself was nowhere to be seen.
The skeleton wore colorful robes, its slender, delicate frame marking it as a woman. Around her, heavenly fire seemed to have fallen and golden suns crashed to earth, while the aura of a bing fire divine ability lingered undispersed.
When a Purple Mansion cultivator died, their divine abilities usually unraveled and their life dissipated, transforming into spirit treasures and wondrous phenomena. How could flesh and bones remain? Yet this white skeleton had survived in defiance of that rule. Judging by her posture, she had suffered no apparent injury, as though death had struck her down in an instant.
"A Purple Mansion cultivator of our monastery."