Outside Mountain and River Pass.
Beneath the snowfields sealed in ice for a thousand miles lay an ancient battlefield handed down from distant antiquity.
The most famous battle fought here was the Human Emperor's crushing defeat of the allied Barbarian Tribes, after which he swept across the land and established the foundations of the world's present order.
Throughout the dynasties that followed, both the cultivation world and the northern and southern courts had taken this place as their boundary, fighting hundreds of battles large and small. In the eastern snowfields stood a gorge, supposedly left by the Human Emperor's final battle with his archenemy. It was called "Sword River," which was also where Linchuan County got its name.
But those thousands of miles of blood and fire had long since been buried beneath white snow and yellow sand. Now, the ancient battlefield looked like nothing more than a desolate, pockmarked snowfield.
A campfire burned in the snow a hundred miles outside Mountain and River Pass.
A gray-haired Jianghu performer sat on the trunk of an old tree that had fallen countless years ago. Gazing into the swirling snow, he plucked the sanxian in his hands:
"Dang, dang, dang~"
"Where the wind howls~ war banners rest~ horses whinny bleakly, grieving ghosts and gods. Heaps of white bones bury old dreams; silent heroic souls keep watch over barren mounds..."
The vast, desolate melody echoed across the empty snowfields where tens of thousands of souls lay buried. Before long, faint footsteps sounded:
Crunch, crunch~
The Jianghu performer looked up and saw a black-robed figure emerge from the snowstorm. He stopped playing and greeted him with a smile:
"It's been a long time. Young Hero Wei, you've grown even more mature."
The newcomer was named Wei Jili. His cultivation was considerable, but he