Spring came particularly late in the 491st year of Ming. It was already the first lunar month, yet the lands south of the river remained wrapped in silver and white.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
The moon neared the western mountains, in the hour before dawn had broken.
Heavy snow began to fall beneath the curtain of night. Yet this was the fifteenth, with the moon full; though Great Yin slanted westward, its radiance remained brilliant. The sun had yet to rise in the east, but light was already beginning to emerge, revealing a fish-belly white. Snow and clouds obscured the sun and moon, but faint daylight still pierced the clouds and shone upon the snowflakes. The snowflakes were already exceedingly white, and the moment daylight struck them, they reflected white light. Though the daylight was weak, the heavy snow filled the sky, its countless flakes reflecting and amplifying one another's faint gleam. For a time, the whole sky seemed white, as though stars were drifting through it-a breathtaking sight. In southwestern Kuaiji, within Quzhou, stood a spirit mountain. Two hundred li north lay Qingzhou, two hundred li west lay Yu Zhang, and two hundred li south lay Eight Min. It occupied a vital crossroads, with convenient transport links. Moreover, the Wuxi River flowed at its foot, connecting directly to the Qiantang River and out to sea, making water transport equally convenient. This mountain was called Purple Tenuity Mountain, a name known to everyone: it was the Main Headquarters of the Haoran Alliance, the alliance of the Eastern Path.
However, just fifty years earlier, this had been an ordinary wild ridge, a barren mountain with nothing remarkable about it. After all, the Divine Land abounded in magnificent mountains and rivers; who knew how many ordinary peaks