Ailao Mountain, Bottomless Cave.
The cave was as vast as a sinkhole and seemingly bottomless, dark and damp. Looking down into it, one saw only pitch blackness, like a night so dark one could not see one's hand before one's face. Wailing sounds drifted up from within, like water, like wind, like insects, and like ghosts, as though it led straight to the Yellow Springs.
An enormous ancient tree, too broad for a hundred people to encircle, grew out of this sinkhole. Its bark was smooth as silk or cloth, glowing a spectral green. Its leaves had the texture of scales, dark green verging on black. Chilly winds blew up from the bottom of the cave, setting the scaled leaves rustling. Where the leaves grew thickly, they struck one another with the ringing clang of metal.
There was no knowing how deep this ancient tree's roots reached, or how long its trunk was. Only a small tuft at its very top grew out of the cave and aboveground. Though this was merely the tip of the iceberg, viewed from the ground beside the other ancient trees, that little tuft was still a conspicuous, towering tree.
Its crown spread over a hundred mu, covering Bottomless Cave and shutting out the light, making the cavern seem all the deeper.
At that moment, someone sat cross-legged beneath its crown, on the edge of Bottomless Cave.
He was a rather handsome middle-aged man, wearing a green robe embroidered with black dragons and a golden crown. His eyes were closed as he cultivated.
Just then, faint thunder rumbled above Ailao Mountain. At first, the man paid it no mind and continued cultivating. Only when the thunder overhead persisted, growing louder and closer, did he notice something amiss and open his eyes to look.
Sunlight shone