The Ruyi iron dragon met Turtle Peak Divine Mountain head-on. One was Xuanzai's Life-bound Dharma Treasure, wielded by a man in his prime and steeped in the Pure Brightness School's might; the other was an aged True Person's sacred mountain sanctuary, displaying Zhengyi's profound mysteries. Two Daoist masters, two divine Daoist treasures. This should have taken place within a tiny space at a banquet, a demonstration and exchange of arts to enliven the feast. It should have been a senior guiding a junior, a junior honoring a senior, showing the warmth and friendship of Daoist disciples and proving that their Dao Lineages shared one breath and branching roots. Yet now, the instant the two met, their battle had already kindled true fury:
The iron-scaled divine dragon stretched a thousand feet from head to tail; the mountain's mystic tortoise rose a hundred zhang high. One was wrought from a divine iron Ruyi's transformations, the other from a sacred mountain's earthen essence. Where the dragon soared, clouds rose and lightning flashed; where the tortoise crouched, the earth shone. The dragon opened its jaws, spewing forth the Northern Dipper's true script; the tortoise raised its head, breathing flying Zhengyi talismans. Where dragon horns struck, rock turned to powder; where tortoise claws reached, iron scales shattered. Surging waters became a thousand layers of silver, snow-white waves; spreading earth condensed into ten thousand miles of enclosing stone walls. The dragon worked its arts, Tianshu's radiance shifting the stars; the tortoise wielded its techniques, moving mountains, hurling stones, and spitting Earthly Thunder.
It was truly a savage battle:
The dragon rallied its spirit and rolled its body, becoming a thousand-zhang stellar rainbow, opening its jaws to swallow; the tortoise shook its head and transformed, revealing a mountain body ten thousand fathoms high, lifting its head to