Shu, Lacquer Mountain.
Beyond this foremost immortal peak of the southwest, to the south, lay Brocade Capital. Mountains rose in staggered, overlapping tiers, and towers and halls had begun to take shape amid the verdant slopes, their foundations following the terrain.
Below, cultivators in green robes came and went, cutting roads through mountains and ordering the spiritual currents, gradually restoring the prosperity this place had enjoyed in ancient times.
On a hill, crimson flames blazed day and night within a gold-and-copper furnace. A boy formed from spiritual fire presided over it, and even the slightest leakage of his aura approached the Purple Mansion level.
It was none other than Wen Guang.
He had recently received orders to enter Shu and refine artifacts to aid in building the sect grounds. The assignment also carried some intention of letting him return to his old home, and now that he was in Shu, the fire spirit could hardly have been more lively.
"The spiritual energy around Lacquer Mountain is much stronger than Red Cloud's. But that Great Mystery Mountain..."
Wen Guang gazed thoughtfully into the distance, as though he could faintly make out that gateway into Shu. In the past, his tradition's sect grounds had stood at Supreme Mystery; Brocade Capital had merely been a territory under its administration.
The Immortal Dao was weak in Shu, where witches and demons abounded. The only nearby Purple Mansion power seemed to be the Wei clan of Longyang. They were exceedingly secretive, and rumor had it that their True Person had only recently attained that realm.
Farther south of Lacquer Mountain lay numerous monster caverns and witch kingdoms, many with beings at the Purple Mansion level. Most, however, stood outside the Immortal Dao and would not heed Li Song's commands.
The boundary was marked by a