The bright moon slanted westward, its light flowing like water.
Amid the vast mountains and the rising and falling chorus of insects, a figure climbed the stone steps.
The mountain path wound over rugged terrain, leading to a cave half concealed beneath the moonlight.
Towering amid clouds and mist, overlooking the Han River, its rocks like jade walls displaying rare and wondrous forms, this was Hidden Immortal Rock, one of Wudang Mountain's thirty-six rock grottoes. The cave was cool inside. Apart from layer upon layer of rocky walls and strange stones, there were only five Daoists on rush cushions and grass mats.
The five sat or reclined, one in a corner, another on a rock, one balanced on a single leg like a rooster, another pillowed on a thin cord, lying suspended in midair. A lamp hung on the stone wall to one side, its light spreading to illuminate two rows of mottled ancient stone inscriptions, mysterious in the extreme. Though their postures differed, all five gazed toward those two rows of writing, as though they concealed some unknown mystery. Since it was called Hidden Immortal Rock, it ought, as the name suggested, to be extraordinary. Since ancient times, many immortal figures of the Daoist Sect had cultivated their great elixirs here; it could well be called an elixir chamber and furnace.
Three were male cultivators, and two were female. They seemed sunk in meditative stillness, unaware of his arrival.
Lian Youming's interest stirred, not in them, but in the two sets of stone inscriptions.
His gaze settled, and he made out several characters amid the damaged, flaking grooves.
"Taiyin and Taiyang... hmm... strange..."
He would have been fine without looking, but once he did, Lian Youming felt that these crooked carved strokes bore some resemblance to certain handwriting in