On the shores of the Gouwu Sea, towering waves battered the coast, churning up a thousand heaps of snow.
They seemed poised to swallow heaven and earth.
On the spirit island occupied by the Vajra Zen Sect, its largest harbor, Gou Wu Harbor, had long since been packed so tightly with cultivators that not a drop of water could pass through, yet not a sound arose.
A black stone Commander-Appointment Platform, three hundred zhang tall and four hundred zhang across, stood proudly between sea and sky like the skull of a savage behemoth.
Runes covered its surface, faintly linking it to the earth below and the firmament above. Threads of murderous austerity spread outward, setting hearts trembling.
Atop the platform, several figures stood with the stillness of deep pools and towering mountains, their bearing imposing, like deities descended into the world.
At the center, Zhou Yan, the Circuit-Inspecting Governor of Minjiang Province, wore the purple robe of the Principal Fourth Rank;
the water-cloud jiaolong patterns embroidered in gold thread upon it gleamed in the sunlight, every dragon scale seeming to contain the power of thunder.
His face was lean, and faint flashes of lightning flickered as his eyes opened and closed. The pressure of his newly attained Nascent Soul middle stage quietly spread like a thin mist.
To his right, Chen Yan, the prefect of the Minjiang Province Profound Residence, likewise wore a purple robe, though his followed the regulations of the Principal Fifth Rank.
Its hem was embroidered with a mysterious turtle bearing a mountain, as though it carried the weight of a great peak.
His aura was as steady as a mountain, the spiritual pressure of a Dharma Nascent Soul True Lord held condensed and unreleased. Overseeing military and civil affairs across a prefecture spanning more than two