Yin-Gathering Mountain

Early the next morning, Yunqi waited outside the courtyard diagonally opposite his own. Only at last night's banquet had he learned that Luo Wanhua, who lived here, was a registered disciple of Yin-Gathering Mountain. He had arranged to hitch a ride on Luo Wanhua's cloud carriage to buy a cloud there.

The main reason Yunqi wanted to buy a cloud carriage now was actually to feed on qi. With one, he could consume solar fire qi high in the sky, great-lake water qi above lakes, and forest-wave wood qi deep in the mountains. How convenient would that be?

Besides, hadn't he received prize money?

He did not wait long before Luo Wanhua pushed open the door and came out. The man was rather thin, yet favored loose robes with broad sleeves, which swayed wildly as he walked.

Feigning indignation, he pointed at Yunqi and said, "You, honestly! Even with prize money bestowed on you, you still need to count every coin. There'll be plenty of things to spend money on later. Buying a cloud today will cost you, won't it? Those brats from Ancient Vine Street were ready to bleed money last night, and we wanted to fleece them. Why did you have to settle the bill behind our backs? You left both sides terribly embarrassed!"

Yunqi repeatedly bowed with cupped hands, laughing. "I won't do it again. I won't do it again."

Luo Wanhua was clearly delighted at heart. With a flick of his broad sleeve, he cast out an aqua-green cloud.

He pulled Yunqi aboard. Yunqi found the feel beneath his feet much like Feng Ji Hu's cloud, soft and yielding, though this one was cooler, rather like standing in morning mist.

"This is my cloud carriage. I named it Rain Lake. Yin-Gathering Mountain lies in the southwestern corner of the sect. We'll head west, cross Western Screen Ridge, and come upon an endless sea of clouds. The tallest mountain in that sea is Yin-Gathering Mountain."

So Luo Wanhua explained.

Luo Wanhua's cloud did not fly very high at first, and he continued introducing the sect's scenery and mountains along the way. They first flew seven or eight li northwest and spotted a mountainside covered in azaleas. Luo Wanhua told him that Cuckoo Valley lay below.

Yunqi gazed at Cuckoo Valley. It truly was a sea of scarlet blossoms, incomparably dazzling.

After another ten or so li westward, Luo Wanhua steered the cloud in a loop to the south, avoiding an area of lush ancient trees and emerald streams and lakes.

He explained to Yunqi that this was the Longevity Garden, home to immortal birds and divine beasts. Ever since several female flood dragons had complained that sect disciples were spying from the air while they bathed, no one had dared fly directly over the Longevity Garden again.

Northwest of the Longevity Garden stood the Pill Workshop, where the sect refined, sold, and purchased pills.

Yunqi looked toward that gentle slope and saw clusters of palaces and temples, people coming and going, and graceful wisps of blue smoke curling upward. Exotic fragrances drifted over as well.

Another five or six li southwest past the Pill Workshop lay the Ten Thousand Immortals Welcoming Guests Peaks, where the guest elders resided.

Luo Wanhua said the places within the sect whose names contained "ten thousand" were the Ten Thousand Tablets Facing Heaven Peaks, where registered disciples like them lived, the Longevity Garden, home to immortal birds and divine beasts, and the Ten Thousand Immortals Welcoming Guests Peaks, home to guest elders. Thus, the sect's disciples called them Little Ten Thousand Mountain, Great Ten Thousand Mountain, and Immortal Ten Thousand Mountain respectively.

Once they passed Immortal Ten Thousand Mountain, Yunqi could already make out the towering Western Screen Mountain range veiled in mist, stretching dozens of li from south to north.

They skirted the southern end of Western Screen Ridge. Here, Yunqi again witnessed the wondrous sight of a boundary between cloud layers. East of Western Screen Ridge, the clouds stood level with the ridge; to the west, they reached only halfway up its slopes.

"The mountains are full of clouds and mist, but those are actually the sect's protective formation, called the Six Dragons Turning Back the Sun, Nine Heavens Cloud Ward Formation. Under its control, the clouds rise or fall as commanded, and the rain and mist thicken or thin at its bidding. We've never witnessed the formation's might, but we've certainly feasted our eyes on its beauty.

"The cloud sea west of Western Screen Ridge turns red at sunset, hence the name Red Sea. The cloud sea east of Eastern Screen Ridge turns orange at sunrise, hence the name Orange Sea.

"I've also heard that the sect intends to build a Southern Screen Ridge to the south, though I don't know the construction schedule."

Yunqi nodded, taking it all in. The Red Sea now lay beneath his feet, boundless and shoreless. Yet, screened by the lofty Western Screen Mountain, it was not red at the moment. The eastern morning sun cast endless shadows here, leaving the clouds a bluish gray.

The clouds rippled gently in the mountain breeze, looking more like an immeasurably vast, deep lake.

In that deep lake, a lofty peak stood alone. Following its height upward, it seemed to reach as high as the heavens.

"That's Yin-Gathering Mountain. More than two thousand cultivators live there. Wherever you go under heaven, no one has a bad word to say about the clouds it produces."

Luo Wanhua pointed to where Yin-Gathering Mountain stood level with the Red Sea and explained:

"This is where clouds are caught and gathered. The masters and disciples cultivate farther up."

Yunqi followed his pointing finger and indeed saw people casting nets over the cloud sea. It was quite extraordinary, and looked much livelier than Bright Governance Mountain.

"Let's go."

With that, he took Yunqi higher into the sky.

Soon, they rose above the height of Western Screen Mountain and emerged over the second cloud layer. Just as Feng Ji Hu had said, this was where the sect's many disciples practiced spells, escape arts, and control arts. Residual spell energies and the radiant gleams of weapons flashed everywhere.

If beneath the clouds lay the grace of immortals, above them lay their might.

Seen from below, the clouds above this central region of Three Pure Ones Mountain were flawless white, like strands and wisps of silk. Seen from above, however, they were dyed myriad colors by lingering spell energies and streaks of escape light, hence the name Rainbow Sea.

Above the Rainbow Sea lay another cloud layer, heaped like cotton wadding. Each cloud was as large as a hill, and Yin-Gathering Mountain's summit still rose above them.

They continued climbing, and Yunqi began to feel cold. Ever since he had consumed pure spirit qi in his youth, he had not felt cold for a very long time.

They traveled through the thick cloud layer, surrounded by milky white. Yunqi could no longer tell east from west or north from south.

Suddenly, everything around them brightened, and the intense light made Yunqi instinctively shut his eyes.

When he opened them again, the wondrous sight of heaven and earth almost took his breath away.

Above him was the sky, a crystalline blue, blue as an upside-down sea.

Beneath his feet lay clouds, white as milk, stretching beyond sight like a plain after days of heavy snow.

This layer of clouds was called the Milk Sea.

Between sky and clouds shone golden sunlight. Visible rays hung at one end from the golden-red morning sun in the east and fell at the other into their eyes. Sometimes the rays gleamed brilliant gold; sometimes they shimmered in a riot of colors. Looking too long made one dizzy.

Several mountain peaks jutted abruptly from the plain paved with white clouds. The nearest was Yin-Gathering Mountain, yet on this plain, that towering mountain could only be called a "hill." To the south stood a sharp peak like a sword; to the east, a mountain thrust out of the cloud sea like a turtle's head; to the north stood a glittering raised terrace, remarkably regular in shape.

Beyond these stood three more mountains at the very center of the snowy plain. Those were true mountains, mountains from which all others looked small. Arranged in a triangle, they faced one another from afar. Even at such an altitude, they remained lush green, like three sacred beings in green robes standing tall between heaven and earth.

"To the south is Sword-Casting Mountain. To the east is Turtle-Crane Peak. To the north is the Flying Immortal Terrace of the Lotus Blessed Land. Those three are Jade Capital Mountain, Jade Splendor Mountain, and Jade Void Mountain."

Luo Wanhua introduced them one by one, following Yunqi's gaze.

"Are there still clouds above this?"

Yunqi asked a question.

Luo Wanhua nodded and gave him a definite answer. "The clouds above have been hidden from sight, but as far as I know, there are at least two more layers. They say the highest layer even nurtures spirit gang, but few people have been there. After all, outside the sect, that altitude would already put you in the third heaven."

Yunqi looked up at the sky. He could see no trace of them, only sense its boundless vastness.

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