Qilin Mountain.
Thunderbolts surged, like waterfalls, like crashing waves.
Countless flashes of shattered-silver lightning burst downward, piercing the clouds and slashing through the Great Void. Dense calamity qi gathered here, lifting the rocks from the ground. The mountain stood solitary and straight, like a sword sheathed in boundless silver thunderbolts.
Xu Xuan walked along a celestial bridge condensed from lightning, his expression composed. Surveying the surroundings of Qilin Mountain, he felt that this mountain had not formed naturally, but had instead fallen from the heavens.
At the end of the long lightning bridge, he descended straight to the mountain halls. Numerous pale-silver palaces stood wreathed in thunderbolts, their divine aura radiant, stirring a response from that strand of Void Zheng divine mechanism.
Relics of the Thunder Palace.
Before these palaces towered a Heavenly Gate, cast in bronze and engraved with cloud-and-thunder patterns. On either side, thunderbolts condensed into mysterious characters:
[The guardian qilin administers punishment] [The official xie oversees judgment]
A plaque hung at the very top, bearing three golden characters:
[First Law]
Xu Xuan looked more closely and saw a phantom on either side of the Heavenly Gate.
On the left stood a qilin beast with its head held high and chest thrust out, its feet planted on thunderfire, fierce and imposing. On the right sat a motionless xie beast, thunderbolts its body and laws its skin, its divine eyes fixed on the newcomer.
"Halt."
Both beasts barked angrily, barring his way. In an instant, surging thunderbolts and calamities gathered around him.
Yet the newcomer did not stop. He stepped forward.
Radiance spilled from behind him and formed a tightly shut gateway. White, Green, and black laws took shape within it, beginning to resonate with this Heavenly Gate.
The two beasts bowed their heads, welcoming