Vermilion pillars and whitewashed walls, shell-studded towers and pearl-adorned palaces; carved carriages and fine horses were everywhere, their splendor softly shimmering.
Looking up, one saw a bright moon already hanging high in Midheaven, shedding boundless silvery radiance, pristine and perfectly round.
Together with the thronging silhouettes and brilliant lamps below, it made for a lively scene all its own...
After leading Chen Heng into an enormous garden and up to a magnificent palace, however,
the Celestial Persons guiding him stopped, standing with their hands lowered at the foot of the long staircase, and courteously gestured him onward.
"Honored guest, please enter. This is the place!"
As they spoke, a richly dressed maidservant who had long been waiting emerged from the palace.
Taking over their duties, she smiled and led Chen Heng farther inside.
Quite a few people had already gathered in the palace, calling to their friends and indulging in pleasure and jokes with rather unrestrained abandon, their tables strewn with spilled wine and cups.
Yet when Chen Heng passed, most showed a trace of surprise, their gazes growing restrained, even their voices unconsciously dropping.
Several inwardly lamented their luck, a hint of helplessness unwittingly appearing on their faces.
The Sweet Glaze Medicine Garden was renowned spiritual soil, painstakingly created by the Brahma Gods of two divisions, and abundantly produced two External Medicines: heavenly wander mud and seven-brilliance nine-radiance zhi.
But with big fish in a small pond, not everyone could obtain External Medicines smoothly. Fighting and struggle were needed to determine the victors and who would claim them.
Several figures listed in the New Year's Day Appraisal were already in the upper hall.
And now Chen Heng had suddenly appeared here as well.
For those ambitious people intent on competing for superior-grade External Medicines, this was certainly no good