A ritual altar was secretly under construction on Mount Hua. Mount Hua had been undergoing reconstruction for three years, and the secret altar had been under construction for just as long. Very few people knew about it. True Lord Cheng had commissioned it, Zou Shizheng supervised its construction, and those doing the actual work were all direct disciples of Luofu Mountain who had come from the south. They had passed through multiple rounds of selection and were absolutely trustworthy.
The Southern School of the Dao of Alchemy had established the Sleeping Dragon Sect on Mount Hua, founded upon Patriarch Chen Tuan's "Sleeping Dragon Sleeping Alchemy Art" and the Southern School's internal and external alchemy, with Zou Shizheng as its founding sect master. Three years earlier, while restoring the mountain range's earth qi, the Sleeping Dragon Sect had also begun selecting a site for the altar at True Lord Cheng's direction, closely linking the altar's foundations to Mount Hua's mountain root and earth qi. Over those three years, the Sleeping Dragon Sect had brought Mount Hua back to life and built countless palaces and temples. Meanwhile, the mountain's altar had finally begun to take shape.
The altar stood within Lotus Peak, Mount Hua's western peak.
Lotus Peak had always been a famous name. Yellow Mountain had a Lotus Peak, Mount Heng had one, Mount Lu had one, and so did Mount Hua, the Western Peak.
And Mount Hua's Lotus Peak certainly deserved its reputation. As Taibai's poem said, "The White Emperor's gold essence moved primordial qi; stone became a lotus, clouds became..." It referred to this very place. The entire summit resembled a lotus in full bloom, carved by ghosts and gods, standing proudly amid a sea of clouds. Clouds and mist lingered here all year round. The tips of the