Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou Central District, Clear Sky Sect.
The Heaven Dou Empire comprised five provinces, four kingdoms, one duchy, and its largest territory, the Heaven Dou Central District, where the imperial capital stood.
The Clear Sky Sect lay three hundred li northeast of Heaven Dou City, at the southern foot of the Tianshan Snowfield. Encircled by mountains and locked in bitter cold, it served as a checkpoint barring the snowmen of the Tianshan Snowfield from advancing south. It was also the ancestral home of the Clear Sky Sect.
The Clear Sky Sect occupied five precipitous peaks, with ravines separating them. Their cliffs rose almost perpendicular to the ground, and iron chains as thick as a man's arm stretched between the peaks.
Each peak formed a defensive line. By the fifth, Clear Sky Peak, the elevation reached nearly three thousand meters. The towering snowbound mountain thrust into the vast blue sky, magnificent and imposing.
The buildings on the mountain were not the least bit luxurious, but neither could they be called plain. Their most striking quality was their sheer solidity: enormous stone structures resembling fortresses.
The main gate stood ten meters tall. Though it could not compare with the Papal Hall or the Imperial Palace, its all-stone construction made it look exceptionally sturdy.
Above the gate, three large characters carved into the stone bore vigorous, powerful strokes, carrying a majestic grandeur capable of standing against the surrounding mountains-Clear Sky Sect!
Only the sect's three to four hundred direct-line disciples and their families could enter the mountain grounds. Its affiliates and outer disciples all lived outside, in Clear Sky City at the mountain's foot.
On a stone platform stood a boy one meter seventy tall, who looked thirteen or fourteen years old.
His tall, strong frame stood as straight as