After Daoist Nanguang left, Rao Zongzhi and Luo Linwang had no choice but to fill Hou Niao in. There was no helping it: this fellow was far too deficient in Xiuzhen theory and basic knowledge. They could understand how he had managed to climb from Qi Gathering to Bridge Linking in less than four years; such an achievement was proof enough of his talent. But precisely because he had climbed so quickly, and focused too much on fighting, he had accumulated little in other areas, and his range of knowledge was narrow.
"The Spirit Communion Grotto-Heaven is one of the many Grotto-Heavens in the Xiuzhen circles of the Brocade Continent..."
A Grotto-Heaven was a wondrous spatial phenomenon. Daoism described it as a place where immortals lived, with the implication that another world lay within the cave.
The Chart of Palaces and Mansions of Heaven and Earth said: "The Ten Great Grotto-Heavens lie among the famous mountains of the earth. They are places where Heaven has sent groups of immortals to rule."
Aside from dividing the Universe as a whole into thirty-six layers of Heaven and an endless expanse of cosmic space, the Xiuzhen world also described in detail the various spaces connected to the Brocade Continent. These were the Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands.
The so-called Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands mainly referred to sacred cultivation spaces within the greater world. They encompassed Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Jingzhi, Water Mansions, Divine Mountains, islands, and more. Specifically, they included the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, Thirty-Six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, Eighteen Water Mansions, Five Sea and River Divisions, Twenty-Four Administrations, Thirty-Six Jing Retreats, Ten Continents and Three Islands, and the endless void.
Grotto-Heavens did not exist in reality, yet were closely connected to it. In theory, anyone could go to a Grotto-Heaven, but opening the