It was a colossal tower, standing on a gentle slope beside a fissure in the earth. Tides of magma rose and fell not far away, casting their glow over its dark body until it resembled an iron casting on the verge of melting.
Beyond the undersea ridge, a city emerged at the edge of their vision, built around the tower and beside a great river of magma. Half the ancient city had already slipped into the molten river. The other half was nothing but collapsed ruins, with only the enormous central tower still standing.
Even in ruins, its former grandeur was apparent. Buildings stretched in unbroken rows, their raised, mountain-shaped roofs covered in iron-black tiles engraved with swirling clouds and dragon beasts. Metal chains hundreds of meters long hung from the four corners of the buildings, strung with black wind chimes. The chains rose and fell in the currents, and countless black chimes swayed, playing soundless music.
From Lu Mingfei's position, he could vaguely make out the city's original layout. Broad avenues crisscrossed it, dividing it into districts. At the center of the ruins was a circular plaza like an ancient Roman colosseum, from which four imperial roads extended north, south, east, and west. The enormous tower they had first discovered stood in the middle of the plaza. Intricate reliefs covered its walls, and sharp spikes dozens of meters long crowned its summit. Similar spikes topped the other buildings. Everywhere below lay densely packed spikes, like a thicket of cast-iron thorns.
According to the records of the Sheqi Eight Clans, this was Takamagahara, the supposed dwelling place of the gods. In reality, it had been the royal city of the ancient White King Bloodline, and was now the God-Burial Site where the Sacred Corpus lay interred. It had originally stood