A Dragon Lurked in the Abyss

Yunyang Prefecture lay in the southeast of the Great Chen Empire. Its terrain was open and its soil fertile. To the south, Taihe Mountain towered into the clouds in majestic splendor. Mist wreathed the mountain all year round, and from afar, it seemed to float amid billowing clouds and seas of fog, half hidden and half revealed-a magnificent sight.

Lush, shady trees covered the mountain. Ancient vines coiled around its cliffs, where gnarled pines jutted from the rock. White cranes preened beside mountain streams, and deer bounded through the woods. Amid drifting mist and the sigh of pine boughs, a waterfall could just be seen plunging like a bolt of white silk, its waters churning and surging, throwing up mist and scattering pearl-like droplets. The waterfall poured into a small lake at the mountain's foot. Its waters were clear and emerald green, like a mirror inlaid into the landscape when viewed from above.

Hidden within this fairyland of Taihe Mountain was a great cultivation sect renowned throughout the world-the True Martial Sect. Even during the Former Dynasty of Great Liang, the True Martial Sect on Taihe Mountain had been a sacred haven of cultivation!

Meng Xinghe, the sect master of the True Martial Sect, was one of the world's four grandmasters, a rare expert of the Grandmaster Realm whose cultivation was unfathomable. When Zhao Zhen, emperor of the Great Chen Empire, had first raised an army against tyrannical Great Liang and contended for supremacy with the heroes of the realm, the True Martial Sect had supplied vast quantities of provisions and equipment, while also sending disciples and soldiers to give wholehearted support to the rebel army led by Zhao Zhen and Li Xingzhi. After Great Liang fell and the new emperor ascended the throne, Emperor Chen, grateful for the sect's aid, issued a special decree exempting Yunyang Prefecture from monetary and grain taxes for three years. At the end of that year, he again summoned the sect master to the capital to celebrate the Imperial Birthday Festival, but Meng Xinghe politely declined, pleading illness. From then on, many sons of officials in Great Chen entered the True Martial Sect, while talented youths among the common people considered it an honor to cultivate there.

By the lake at the mountain's foot stood a sea of bamboo. Mottled bamboo, Buddha's belly bamboo, and giant timber bamboo grew together in lively clusters. The breeze off the lake carried damp veils of spray, and the dense bamboo swayed in the wind, its stalks rustling against one another. The air held the fresh fragrance of bamboo leaves mingled with tea.

At the True Martial Sect's Bamboo Sea Cottage, Huang Zonghai sat amid dancing bamboo shadows. Before him stood a low table bearing a clay stove, a tea kettle, teacups, and other utensils.

He raised a cup and took a gentle sip, narrowing his eyes amid the curling steam as he savored the lingering fragrance on his lips and tongue. In the white-jade porcelain cup, the tea leaves were slender, straight, and rounded, their fine tips standing proud, their shapes resembling eyebrows. The tea was emerald green, with a fresh, delicate fragrance that lingered. It was superb Old Lord's Eyebrow Tea.

Looking thoroughly content, Huang Zonghai casually chanted, "Milky froth blooms in the cup as the hot tea swirls; coils of incense wreathe the clouds and drift all day. Another year slips by unnoticed in the mountains; surely a fine verse surpasses a marquis's title!"

He had entered seclusion three years earlier and recently succeeded in breaking through. He was the ninth member of the True Martial Sect to reach the True Self Realm and become an elder.

At his level, his mind was open and untroubled, and worldly matters no longer lingered in his heart. Here among mountains and waters, with the clear breeze and bright moon for company, he savored tea and listened to falling snow, watched the sun, moon, and stars, and sensed the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, slowly consolidating his cultivation.

Huang Zonghai closed his eyes and relaxed his body and mind, sensing the world around him. Seated at the Bamboo Sea Cottage beside the lake, he could clearly perceive three eagle eggs lying quietly in a nest on a steep rock face of Taihe Mountain. An almost imperceptible tapping came from one of them. Cracks appeared on its smooth shell, followed by a small hole. The little life within pecked harder, slowly poking its sharp black beak through the opening...

A bright green katydid crawled along a tall blade of grass beside a mountain stream. The short wings on its back fluttered and rubbed together at high speed, producing a clear, pleasant chirping. Suddenly, it kicked with its hind legs and leaped into a nearby patch of grass. Amid the swaying blades, a white crane with a black neck and long beak swept past, plucked the katydid from the grass, and flew away...

A mottled spider dropped from a thick stalk in the bamboo grove, trailing a long strand of silk as fine as a hair that floated in the wind. Above it, the web it had only half repaired was torn open by a gust. The spider swung in midair, wriggling desperately. A speckle-headed kingfisher fluttered past, seized it in its beak, and flew into the depths of the bamboo grove...

Ripples stirred the emerald lake. A grass carp flicked its tail and rose to the surface, poking out its head to release a string of bubbles before plunging back into the water. A softshell turtle that had long lain hidden among the water plants shot out its neck like lightning. Its sharp, nail-like teeth sank savagely into the carp's belly. A thread of blood spread through the splashing water, and the surface slowly grew calm...

Two red dragonflies chased each other through the air. One briefly touched its slender tail to the mirror-smooth lake, sending a ring of ripples across the surface...

As though sensing something, Huang Zonghai opened his eyes and stared at the spreading rings on the lake. A trace of wariness flashed in his gaze.

Little Mirror Lake at the foot of Taihe Mountain was not only the most graceful of the mountain's many scenic sights, but also one of the vital barriers of the True Martial Sect's defensive Crane-Wing Winnowing-Basket Formation.

He had just caught a faint, elusive aura, and there was something vaguely familiar about it...

Huang Zonghai stroked his beard and frowned, his expression growing solemn. He gently extended his flowing sleeve, opened his palm, and reached two fingers toward the still lake.

White radiance suddenly gleamed at his fingertips. As it flickered, the bamboo grove rustled and stirred without wind. The lake lost its stillness, as though a mirror had abruptly shattered. Emerald waters began to churn and surge, and the lake's center roiled like boiling water. In an instant, its surface turned an inky green...

Huang Zonghai's mind shook violently-a mysterious expert had entered the mountain and breached the formation. At the same time, he sensed that aura again. This time, he could distinctly feel that it belonged to a terrifyingly powerful individual whose cultivation was far above his own, and who seemed to be coming straight for him...

He rose involuntarily. The surging lake slowly settled once more, while a thousand thoughts flashed through his mind. In the end, however, he smiled faintly and regained his composure.

For centuries, the True Martial Sect had stood unshaken. Besides the powerful experts it produced generation after generation, its defensive Crane-Wing Winnowing-Basket Formation was exquisitely ingenious, formidable in both offense and defense. Even the world's greatest Grandmaster Realm experts would struggle to break it. Moreover, since Sect Master Meng Xinghe had entered the Grandmaster Realm, scarcely anyone in the world could rival him.

Huang Zonghai truly could not imagine who, apart from those few individuals, would have the audacity to force their way into the True Martial Sect's mountain-defending Crane-Wing Winnowing-Basket Formation.

He Kui stood in a narrow ravine on Taihe Mountain. The True Martial Sect's defensive formation was indeed exquisitely ingenious, proving somewhat more troublesome than he had expected. More importantly, Huang Zonghai, beside Little Mirror Lake, had probably already sensed his presence. Breaking through with all his strength would alert the formation's core, and if that drew out the sect's other experts, it would inevitably cause considerable trouble.

As he pondered, he quietly studied the Crane-Wing Winnowing-Basket Formation. Using Little Mirror Lake on Taihe Mountain as a barrier, it securely enclosed the True Martial Sect's gates and main hall at its heart. The surrounding, undulating mountains formed the crane's wings, while the concealed lake and sea of bamboo formed the winnowing basket. It truly seized the creative wonders of heaven and earth and plumbed the hidden mysteries of sun and moon.

Yet all formations under heaven followed the principles of concealed armor, dividing into the eight gates of Rest, Life, Injury, Obstruction, View, Death, Alarm, and Opening. Their transformations were endless, and their layouts followed the eight trigram positions, including Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Water, Fire, and Mountain.

He Kui had already been an unrivaled expert in the world. During more than a decade of dedicated cultivation, he had studied the martial arts, cultivation methods, and techniques of the world's great sects, including those of the Daoists and the Buddhist Sect.

Master one method, and ten thousand methods opened before you. He had already devoted considerable study to formations, and after investigating for roughly half an incense stick's burning time, he understood the crucial workings of the True Martial Sect's mountain-defending Crane-Wing Winnowing-Basket Formation.

He immediately concealed his aura and entered through the Life Gate. Stepping through the Water and Fire positions, he slowly slipped toward the Alarm Gate, then turned through the Thunder and Wind positions. Without disturbing the formation's core in the slightest, he fixed on the direction of Little Mirror Lake and silently approached Huang Zonghai.

Huang Zonghai sensed the once-powerful aura abruptly vanish. While he was silently wondering at this, he suddenly saw a man appear on the opposite shore of Little Mirror Lake, slowly walking toward him.

The man walked in a peculiar fashion. First, he leaned forward and stepped out with his right leg, then dragged his left leg after him and straightened his body. He repeated the motion, inching forward one step at a time... With every step, his crippled leg scraped along the ground like a plow, leaving a long furrow through the grass beside the lake...

The man approached slowly with his head lowered, his hanging hair covering half his face. Reaching the shore, he stepped onto the lake without the slightest hesitation.

His foot rested on the surface with such gentleness that not even a single ripple disturbed the soft water...

He continued the same strange gait: leaning forward, stepping out with his right leg, then dragging his left leg after him and straightening his body. Walking across the lake, he seemed to be walking over an enormous mirror. Whenever his crippled leg dragged across the surface, it was as though a crack had been scratched into that mirror, which slowly restored itself as he straightened.

The sky was azure, dotted with a few white clouds. The clear lake reflected both the heavens and his figure. Walking upon it, he seemed almost to be walking through the sky, treading on clouds. The vast lake made his figure look smaller still. For a moment, heaven and the mortal world were indistinguishable, and it seemed that he alone remained between heaven and earth, trudging onward in solitude...

Huang Zonghai found the approaching figure extraordinarily familiar. This man had disregarded the barrier of the Crane-Wing Winnowing-Basket Formation and appeared here without a sound. Clearly, he had come for him.

Though his aura was concealed, he walked across Little Mirror Lake as though treading through empty air. He approached as easily as if on level ground, in a manner that overturned common understanding and defied the principles of the world. The sight was indescribably uncanny, yet his cultivation truly dazzled both ancient times and the present.

Huang Zonghai believed that with his own True Self Realm strength, he too could cross Little Mirror Lake by treading on duckweed and water. But to conceal his aura and stroll so freely and effortlessly despite a crippled body, as this man did, was beyond him.

The visitor slowly drew near and brushed aside the long hair hanging before his eyes, revealing melancholy eyes and a long, narrow scar on his cheek. Once Huang Zonghai saw his face clearly, he was astonished.

"Bai Xiang Shou?! The visitor was actually Bai Xiang Shou, who had vanished years ago!"

"Brother Zonghai, it's been many years. Have you been well?" He Kui slowly stepped ashore, his boots untouched by a single drop of water, and saluted Huang Zonghai with clasped hands.

Visibly moved, Huang Zonghai said, "Brother Bai! To think it really is you! You vanished for more than ten years. During that time, your master repeatedly sent people to our True Martial Sect to inquire after you. Some said you had traveled to the remote lands of the far west to exchange martial knowledge with Buddhist Sect experts. Others said that when Qin Prefecture fell, you fought to the death protecting the Eldest Prince. I was deeply grieved to hear that dreadful news... I never imagined you were still alive! Where have you been all these years?"

He Kui's original name was Bai Xiang Shou. He was the second disciple of Li Xingzhi, the Great Chen Empire's Imperial Preceptor. Exceptionally gifted, proud, and conceited, he was regarded by everyone as the strongest man beneath the grandmasters.

Bai Xiang Shou fell silent, then firmly clasped his hands toward Huang Zonghai. "The past is gone. Thank you for your concern, Brother Zonghai! These past ten-odd years... are truly too much to explain in a few words!"

Studying Bai Xiang Shou, Huang Zonghai asked with concern, "Brother Bai, your leg... and the blade scar on your face? I truly cannot imagine who in this world could have injured you. You must have come to me over something important. Tell me what it is. If it lies within my power, I will not shirk my duty!"

Bai Xiang Shou raised a thumb in praise. "Spoken like a true man!" Then he stared intently at Huang Zonghai's face. "I remember that when I saved your life back then, you said that whatever I asked of you, you would repay me, even at the cost of your life!"

Huang Zonghai answered solemnly, "Indeed! If you want my life, Brother Bai, take it. I would willingly bind my hands and bare my neck!"

"I don't want your life," Bai Xiang Shou said gravely. "I ask only one thing of you!"

"What do you need?" Huang Zonghai asked in surprise. "Speak freely, Brother Bai!"

Bai Xiang Shou said, "I want to borrow the True Martial Scripture and read it!"

Huang Zonghai stared, stricken with alarm...