The four great elements had always filled all things; what doubt was there of wind and water here? Surely they should inspire a new poem for me. Hidden flowers perfumed the ravine; cold water plants danced in ripples. Lend these to Master Jade Stream beneath both arms; celestial immortals might not yearn for one another. Let flowing water send the traveler home again. Sunset lingered on the layered peaks; dew on the grass had already dampened his robes.
(Su Shi, "Immortal by the River," composed at Wind and Water Cave, used here as an epigraph.)
In the south of the Chaotian Continent, green mountains stretched for thousands of li, with hundreds of graceful peaks hidden in clouds and mist all year round.
The Green Mountain Sect, the greatest cultivation sect in the world, lay here, its true face all but impossible for ordinary people to glimpse.
Ordinary villages and towns lay scattered outside Green Mountain. One town, situated among the Southwest hills, was named Cloud Gathering for the immortal mist that poured down from the mountains.
Cloud Gathering had lovely scenery. In early spring, gentle breezes brushed faces, willow catkins danced lightly, and mist hovered on the edge of visibility, like an immortal realm.
The townspeople walked through it long accustomed to the sight, while visitors in the restaurant marveled without end.
Yin San, sitting beside the window, only wanted hotpot.
"There's no problem in this world that one hotpot meal can't solve. If there is, have two... That saying is very popular in the Nether Capital now. I heard it came from Chaoge, but I think it ought to have been Yizhou. You know what it's like where we live-no sunlight all year, damp and bitterly cold. Who wouldn't like hotpot? May the mushrooms yield a bountiful harvest? You people aboveground like eating them, but we've eaten them for tens of thousands of years. We're sick of them. All I want now is a proper hotpot meal, then to go back and boast about it. What's wrong with that?"
Watching the duck intestines rolling in the spicy red broth and the Sichuan peppercorns bobbing up and down, he swallowed, then looked up at the girl across the table.
The girl had lustrous, jet-black short hair, picturesque features, and a lingering air of childhood. Had she smiled, she would probably have looked impish. But she did not. With her eyes slightly lowered and her long, fine lashes motionless, she resembled a painted portrait rather than a real person.
The room remained just as quiet. The footsteps of passersby outside the window grew clearer and clearer.
"All right," Yin San said. "I admit I stayed to watch the spectacle. But who in the entire cultivation world wouldn't want to see a spectacle this grand? You're going to deal with me just for that? Surely not. Junior Sister, sorry for the trouble, but could you loosen this thing? Even if you won't let me go, at least let me have a couple of bites first. If we don't fish out the beef tripe and aorta soon, they'll be inedible."
The duck intestines had sunk to the bottom of the broth. The peppercorns still bobbed, while the beef tripe and aorta drifted in and out of sight.
Yin San could eat none of them, because a slender, pale-silver metal chain bound his body tightly. He could not move, much less pick up his chopsticks.
The girl sat quietly at the table without speaking.
Suddenly, Yin San said, "Where's your sword? If you'd ambushed me with a flying sword earlier, naturally I couldn't have defended myself. But now you're sitting right in front of me like this. Aren't you afraid I'll suddenly strike back? Do you really think this Sword Restraint can hold me?"
The girl still ignored him.
At last, Yin San grew serious. "The Green Mountain Sect is a great sword sect, a leader of the righteous path. Do you mean to kill without even questioning me?"
The girl finally raised her head. Her eyes were bright and clear, without a trace of impurity.
Looking into those eyes, Yin San felt very relaxed. Then he felt a slight coolness between his brows, like a raindrop landing there.
A small sword hovered silently in the air before his eyes.
He did not know that a bloody hole had appeared between his brows. The opening was small and round, so much so that it could even have been called delicate.
Blood poured from between his brows like an exceedingly thin waterfall, falling into the hotpot.
The blood of a Nether Department disciple was hot too, but compared with the broth in the hotpot, it was cold. The boiling surface gradually stilled.
The life in his eyes gradually cooled as well, leaving only a little bewilderment.
Hundreds of cold, dim flames drifted along the chilling sword intent toward every corner of the restaurant, dispersing upon contact with anything. They were the remnants of the Nether Department disciple's soul fire.
The girl's expression grew slightly grave. Her brows lifted, drawing up the corners of her eyes like slender willow leaves, with a sharpness of their own.
Soon, her brows settled again, and she looked thoughtful.
The little sword flew out the window and vanished into the street.
Her fingers moved slightly. The slender chain binding Yin San became a streak of light that fell around her wrist, turning into a silver bracelet.
"I'm an outer disciple. I don't have a sword."
She stood and spoke to the already dead Yin San.
Yin San's corpse fell to the floor.
She pushed open the door and walked out.
Cries of alarm rang through the restaurant as diners and visitors fled outside in panic.
A middle-aged man appeared on the street, where the thin mist had yet to disperse. His expression was indifferent, his face lean, his gaze cold and deep, and he possessed an unmistakably immortal bearing.
"A fiend from the Nether Department came swaggering into our Green Mountain Sect. Death was more than he deserved."
Hearing this, how could the people fail to guess his identity?
Visitors from other commanderies were startled and hurriedly dropped to their knees, not daring to look up.
The townspeople also fell to their knees, calling him Immortal Master. But having lived in Cloud Gathering for years, they had heard many tales of the Green Mountain Sect's immortals and even occasionally glimpsed an immortal master themselves. They recovered their wits more quickly, feeling that what had happened today was far too unusual.
The Nether Department and the human race had been enemies for tens of thousands of years, their bitter hatred difficult to resolve. But since True Person Chunyang of the Green Mountain Sect and the Divine Emperor of that time had joined forces two thousand years ago to defeat the army led by the Nether Master at Great Marsh, the two sides had gone many years without a major war and even had dealings in private. Even in places such as the capital, Chaoge, or Windknife Commandery, captured Nether Department fiends, unless they were spies, would now usually only be sent to the Demon-Suppressing Prison, awaiting an opportunity to exchange prisoners with the Nether Department or demand money and goods. All the more so for the Green Mountain Sect, an immortal sect beyond the mortal world, whose conduct had always been detached. Why had it struck so ruthlessly today?
A gentle breeze swept away all the thin mist on the street. A dozen or so young people gathered before the restaurant, all fine in appearance and bearing. They were outer disciples of the Green Mountain Sect.
"Greetings, Master Meng."
The young disciples bowed respectfully to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man addressed as Master Meng said solemnly, "A great event is imminent. All of you, take care."
The disciples answered yes in unison.
"Leave once you've finished cleaning up," Master Meng added. "Do not disturb the mortal world too long."
The girl walked out of the restaurant.
Looking at her, Master Meng's expression softened a little. "Well done, Layue."
With those words, a streak of sword light shot into the sky, and he was gone.
"Senior Sister."
"Senior Sister Zhao."
The Green Mountain Sect disciples gathered around the girl, their faces full of admiration, respect, and affection.
The girl named Zhao Layue was only twelve or thirteen, clearly younger than her fellow disciples, yet for some reason they called her Senior Sister. When she instructed everyone to clean up the inn, remove all traces, and ensure that the fragments of the Nether Department fiend's soul fire would undergo no abnormal changes, no one questioned her. Her authority was considerable.
"The immortal master was right. Heavenly Light Peak issued the Three-Thousand-Li Forbidden Zone seven days ago, yet this fiend still dared to linger. He was courting death."
Watching the corpse being carried out, a disciple could not help shaking his head. "Who knows what he was thinking?"
"It's not so bad here. I heard even the senior brothers from Twofold Forgetting Peak went to the Turbid River to suppress demons. Their sword light lit up South River Province."
"What's that compared to this? The night before last, the Four Great Guardians suddenly woke at the same time and ate half the starlight out of the sky!"
The disciples discussed it excitedly. Zhao Layue said nothing, quietly watching the gray sky, her thoughts unknown.
Green Mountain had nine peaks, hidden in clouds and mist.
Heavenly Light Peak was the ancestral peak, where the sect master resided.
Twofold Forgetting Peak was the second peak, where the Green Mountain Sect's strongest young disciples cultivated the sword.
Whenever the Green Mountain Sect faced a truly great event, it would activate its great formation and issue a ban proclaimed across the continent.
-Within a specified distance of Great Green Mountain, no one could enter or leave at will. Those without invitations would be killed without exception.
The greater the distance covered by the ban, the graver the matter.
Before True Person Taiping entered closed-door cultivation from which he would not emerge without a breakthrough, the Green Mountain Sect had issued an eight-hundred-li ban, shocking the world.
Extending eight hundred li outward from Great Green Mountain, the ban had covered a fifth of the Chaotian Continent.
To support the Green Mountain Sect's ban, His Majesty the Divine Emperor had even dispatched tens of thousands of troops north overnight to deter the Snow Nation in the Northern Lands and the Nether Department.
And now the Green Mountain Sect had actually issued a Three-Thousand-Li Forbidden Zone?
Just what sort of great event was about to take place?
Zhao Layue's eyes suddenly narrowed slightly.
For the gray sky she had been watching all this time suddenly brightened.
The sun stood high overhead, and the clouds and mist gradually dispersed. The distant peaks flickered into view like countless enormous swords aimed at the vault of heaven.
The disciples followed her gaze, looking toward the peaks.
Sunlight shone on their youthful faces, all filled with reverence.
Braced as though facing a great enemy, because of the Three-Thousand-Li Forbidden Zone—today, the Green Mountain Sect was about to greet its most important event in a thousand years.
Their great-granduncle Jingyang was about to ascend.
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