Changbai Mountain.
The Underground Fortress.
Light footsteps rose and fell in measured rhythm, coming from below the mountain, entering its interior, then passing through hidden passages all the way into its depths.
This was the heart of Changbai Mountain, in the literal sense. Even Li Da had never reached this place when he came to obtain the Old Medicine formula years ago. The footsteps stopped, and a gaze settled.
By the flickering firelight on all sides, the place proved to be an underground palace.
It was indeed an underground palace.
And an enormous tomb.
The stone walls on all sides bore faint carvings depicting a person's life, while dragons and phoenixes adorned the stone pillars, fantastical and magnificent, grand in their imposing splendor.
But what chilled the blood was that everywhere the light reached, white bones covered the ground, piled into hills and arrayed like forests. Dim ghostly flames drifted from those skulls and skeletons, flickering in and out of sight within the great hall.
There were too many.
Too many skeletons to count.
Listening closely, one could hear the wind whimpering like ten thousand ghosts wailing.
Dust swirled through the hall like strands of lonely souls dancing, making the skin crawl, as though one had entered the Nine Netherworlds.
Nor were these skeletons arranged at random. They formed concentric circles, piled from the inside outward, each successive ring rising higher. At the center of that ghastly sea of bones, heaped like hills and forests, a woman sat cross-legged.
The White Lotus Sect Master.
"What is it?"
The messenger was the White Lotus Sect's Vice Sect Leader, the only person who dared enter this place.
"The Green Gang sent an invitation!"
The White Lotus Sect Master formed seals with her hands, her arms turning as though multiplying into thousands. As