"But that already happened."
"Yes. I'll go to the Law Enforcement Hall first and look into this case." Pei Ye kept the short note in his hand. "See you, Xu Peak Master."
"...See you."
Xu Shang watched the composed, decisive boy leave in silence. Suddenly, she seemed to feel that this was how her husband had been in those days before he left, rushing from place to place.
Behind the five peaks, the Law Enforcement Hall.
These cliffs lay shrouded in the deep, towering shadows of the five peaks. It was noon, yet the mist remained dark and dense. Pei Ye followed a long, straight path through it to reach the ancient scripture tower that "held six hundred years of Kongtong," guarded by the Great Sima Mountain.
Gan Zifeng had said that the Great Sima Mountain was generally chosen from among the elders and peak masters of the previous generation: someone without family or ties, willing to spend the rest of their life with scriptures for company. From then on, they organized Kongtong's scriptures and sword texts and maintained the Mountain-Protection Formation, never appearing again, becoming a shadow in an ancient tower deep in the mountains.
It was said that Grand-Martial-Uncle Ji had once volunteered to serve as the current Si Mountain, but as he was truly a pillar of present-day Kongtong, he could not lay down his responsibilities, and the matter was dropped.
Now, his guide had stopped at the end of the straight path and saluted with clasped hands. Holding the Law Enforcement Hall's record token, Pei Ye approached the tower alone. When he looked back, the guide was already gone. He raised his head; the tower's roof, too, vanished into the mist.
This was probably the largest and tallest tower Pei Ye had ever seen. Built