This was the far western edge of Huan Country. Towering snow peaks stretched endlessly, and though the sunlight was equally fierce, by the time it reached this place, it had lost all warmth. There was only a bleak, deathly white cold.
The eye could see nothing but snow, not another color in sight. Fierce Gale Force Winds swept past, yet could only lift wisps of white powder from the snowy peaks. That snow had accumulated through countless ages, long since packed solid and hard as iron and stone; even the Gale Force Wind could not scour it away.
The cloudless sky was boundlessly blue, reflecting against the purity of the snow peaks and making everything seem incomparably sacred.
At the edge of the horizon, blue and white met together, as distinctly divided as the Jing and Wei Rivers, exceptionally striking.
Amid this seemingly tranquil snowbound scenery, two streaks of sword light flashed across the sky. Their brilliance should have been dazzling beyond compare, yet within this vast and boundless heaven and earth, they appeared so tiny.
The two streaks of sword light swept past several towering snow peaks, then turned sharply and plunged straight down, vanishing into the endless sea of snow.
Where the sword lights disappeared lay a narrow valley between two snow peaks. This valley was exceedingly strange. Above it, it resembled the other snow peaks, all piled high with snow. Yet from the middle of the valley onward, an invisible array separated everything within from the world outside. The climate within the valley was mild and pleasantly moist, while a scene of blooming flowers and verdant willows blanketed the entire place. Along both sides of the valley, trickling streams actually flowed slowly down the stone walls, gathering at their base into a deep pool of rippling emerald