A thousand miles lay sealed in ice; over ten thousand miles, snow drifted. The mountains danced like silver snakes, the plateaus raced like wax-white elephants.
The scenery of the snowy plateau was truly beautiful. Especially now, at night, the plateau lay so close to heaven that starlight shone straight down from the firmament, spilling over the ice and snow in a radiant white sheen, as though the snow and ice themselves were glowing. It was dazzling beyond measure. Presumably, when dawn broke and the rising sun spilled its light, the land, dressed in red and wrapped in white, would be exceptionally enchanting too.
At present, a sea of stars glittered above, while the land below gave off a hazy glow. A silver river of sword light came from the east, racing between heaven and earth-a truly dreamlike scene. But for the Maha Sect followers on the plateau, tonight's dream was destined to be a nightmare.
Brimming with murderous intent, the sword light sped eight thousand miles across the plateau, killing people and bringing down boats along the way. None survived beneath its blades, and none dared bar its path. It reached the very heart of the Maha Sect, the center of the entire Tubo Plateau, before the Great Snow Mountain on the northern bank of the Zangjin River, the snowy plateau's greatest river. By now, apart from Qi Shuming and the Seven Flying and Seven Xiu, only fifty or sixty Emei Sword Cultivators followed the Daoist. The rest had left in groups along the way to care for and conceal the rescued people, awaiting the main force's arrival.
At the summit of the Great Snow Mountain, the highest point of all the plateau's mountain peaks, in a place exceedingly close to heaven, an immense city with red and white outer