Southern Chu.
It was spring, and sunlight lay warm and mellow over the land.
More than ten years had passed since the affair of calamity and fortune. Great Li had enjoyed a rare stretch of peace, with only occasional fighting along the northern frontier, too far away to affect Jing-Chu in the south.
The gray waters of the Flame River flowed quietly, winding around mountains and peaks, passing through the mist-shrouded Cloud-Dream Great Marsh, then running south all the way into the sea.
[Flame River]
Ancient Chu revered fire, hence the name Flame.
Green peaks hemmed in both banks of the river, and ancient trees towered into the sky. Amid the lofty mountains and precipitous ridges lingered the upright, balanced aura of Gen Earth.
Furred beasts abounded in the mountains. Bears, tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves could be seen everywhere, but there were no monsters of any real power.
Here and there along the riverbank, one could still see stretches of wasteland where crimson flames blazed, metal and stone melted, and malignant baleful intent drifted loose. It seemed the scene had remained unchanged since the Primordial Era, drawing down wave after wave of heavenly light.
Looking north across the great marsh, one could see a range of white mountains floating amid a sea of clouds. White mist curled and unfurled, and white cranes danced in flight, like an immortal realm secluded from the world. [Martial Mu Mountain]
Compared with Dust-Sweeping, which occupied all of Jian Land, Martial Mu kept a much lower profile.
The mountain occupied only [Cloud Dream], the southernmost of Chu Province's four commanderies. Its cultivators generally remained within their own [Feathered Ascension Blessed Land] to cultivate, seldom intervening in worldly affairs. Only during the Northern Campaign had it sent out a few True Persons.
Of the remaining