A poem said:
The lofty pavilion pressed against the heavens; climbing it brought one near the sun.
Clear skies revealed trees amid ten thousand homes; sorrowful eyes watched the mist over the Five Mausoleums.
Beyond the railing, the Qinling Mountains lay low; within the window, the Wei River plain seemed small.
Had I known the principle of purity and stillness sooner, I would always have wished to serve the golden immortal.
These verses referred not to a person, but to the foremost mountain range within the Great Sui-the Qinling Mountains.
Since ancient times, the Qinling Mountains had been revered as the Dragon Vein of Huaxia civilization. They began at Kunlun in the west, passed through Longnan and southern Shaanxi, and reached Zhangbaling in the east, forming the dividing line between the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, as well as the boundary between the Guanzhong Plain and southern Shaanxi.
The eight-hundred-li Qinling Mountains held countless mysteries and countless famous mountains, including their main peak, Mount Taibai, along with Mount Jade Emperor, Mount Shouyang, Mount Taixing, Mount Qinghua, and others.
Thus, quite a few Wulin sects also made their homes within the Qinling Mountains.
Foremost among them was the Taibai Sect, which occupied Mount Taibai, the main peak of the Qinling Mountains.
The Taibai Sect's standing in Wulin was difficult to establish, for the sect was extremely mysterious and had a very long heritage. Its disciples never descended the mountain, so rumors about it were scarce in the Jianghu.
Some rumors claimed that the Taibai Sect had remained secluded on Mount Taibai because it was guarding something, passing this duty down through the generations.
But rumors were ultimately only rumors and could not be taken as truth. Normally, no fool dared come to the Taibai Sect to provoke it or behave