True Person Dingyi led Cheng Xinzhan out of the Patriarch Hall and deep into the rear of Swordpoint Mountain, arriving before a cliff.
An enormous lake lay atop the cliff. Its overflowing waters formed a waterfall that hung down the cliff face.
Arcs of lightning flickered in the lake like silver-purple water snakes. The lightning fell with the waterfall and crashed into the gorge river below, erupting in thunderous blasts and splashing up countless flashes of lightning.
Eight large characters in thunder seal script were carved into the cliff, arranged in two columns. They read:
"Thunder Pool Restricted Ground"
"Thunderglow Bright Realm"
"Grand Master, please. Once we're inside, mind your eyes."
True Person Dingyi extended a hand in invitation, pointing toward the waterfall.
Cheng Xinzhan thus understood that behind this waterfall should lie the Divine Empyrean School's Thunder Pool grotto-heaven.
The two leaped into the air and flew through the waterfall.
Cheng Xinzhan felt only a flash of silver before his eyes before he entered another world.
Everything within this grotto-heaven shone dazzlingly. There was no sun overhead, yet every part of the void radiated boundless bright light, illuminating everything completely. Mountains, rivers, rocks, and water all appeared a blinding white beneath its brilliance. Flowers, grasses, trees, beasts, insects, and fish were likewise uniformly white. White branches and leaves, white flowers, white feathers, white scales.
This was a world of bright light and perpetual day.
No wonder Daoist Dingyi had told him to mind his eyes upon entering.
But Cheng Xinzhan had practiced the Bright Light Method since the beginning of his cultivation, so he naturally thought nothing of this little lightning glow.
The most wondrous sight lay overhead. There was neither sun nor moon nor stars, only an expanse of white, but close scrutiny revealed fine silver threads spread