Above the sprawling lands rose towering mountains. It looked like someone had casually scattered ink on rice paper, creating a beautiful landscape painting.

Among all of the mountains was one specific mountain that rose higher than all the others. This was a holy peak to the Firemoon Darkheavens. It was called God Mountain. It looked almost like an ink brush pointing up into the dome of heaven. Countless clouds drifted past the base of the mountain, making it seem like a paradisiac island of immortals floating in the air. The sun shone down on the boulders and lush vegetation on the mountain, making it unusually dazzling and glorious.

The mountain created a clear contrast to the sky behind it, ensuring that whether it was viewed from near or far, it was shocking to behold. Any who got close to it would sense a mountain-toppling, sea-draining energy pulsing off it. It was clearly just one mountain, but its mere existence seemed to make the dome of heaven become dim in comparison, to the point where it seemed capable of suppressing the sky itself.

Xu Qing could be considered well-traveled, but even he had never seen anything like it. Its towering summit rose arrogantly high into the sky. It emanated golden light that, whether inherently or by the bolstering of the sun, spread out to fill the sky and cover the surrounding lands.

Sensing the light caused Xu Qing’s eyes to fill with a profound look. He could feel the power of gods in that golden light! It was a power that contained a certain level of mutagen. Although the mutagen was under control, it was free enough that it could be absorbed normally. He inhaled deeply, converting it into cultivation base power for himself.

The Captain stood next to Xu Qing taking everything in, his eyes shining with reminiscence the entire time. He sighed.

“Back again…” he murmured in a low voice that only Xu Qing could hear. “Let’s go, little Junior Brother. You really need to see this place.”

The Captain patted Xu Qing’s shoulder.

Xu Qing suppressed his astonishment and glanced up at the over 1,800 forbidden mountains orbiting over him. The closer he got to God Mountain, the smaller they shrank down, until they were little more than black dots circling overhead. Though they were small, the vast number of them still made him very eye-catching.

With this many, I should take first place, right?

Xu Qing accelerated, becoming a beam of prismatic light that shot toward the mountain range ahead.

God Mountain grew larger and larger from Xu Qing’s perspective, until he couldn’t even see the summit. It made him feel minute and powerless.

Near the bottom of the mountain was a floating city made up of three smaller sub-cities. Each sub-city was grand and magnificent. They were connected by golden chains, and the immense amount of vegetation growing off of them made them seem very ancient.

The cities were all roughly circular, conforming to the architectural style common among the species of Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity’s time. Nowadays, such architecture was rare, even among humankind.

Sounding very excited, Master Gravesparrow said, “This is the holy city of the Firemoon Darkheaven people. It’s called Heavenfire City! It’s normally opened up to the public only during the Great Hunt and certain other important occasions. I had the great honor of being able to come here three times in the past. This is my fourth time here.

“Flying is prohibited in Heavenfire City, and all who come here are supposed to treat their visit like a holy pilgrimage.” 1

Master Gravesparrow continued to explain some of the other rules of the city as he led Xu Qing and the Captain toward one of the three small cities.

Even from a distance, it looked like a bustling place filled with plenty of cultivators. According to Master Gravesparrow, the majority of the people present were visitors. For the most part, the permanent residents were members of the temples. fгeewebnovёl.com

Their arrival attracted a lot of attention. Truth be told… humans were very rare here. And there was little need to mention that Xu Qing was already famous. Then there was his clash with Tuo Shishan. As a result, his arrival was noticed immediately. The fact that he had over a thousand forbidden mountains made him even more eye-catching.

Xu Qing was used to such things already. As he landed in front of the city gates, his eyes shone. Taking a deep breath, he walked forward.

The city gates obviously weren’t designed with humans in mind. They were some 300 meters tall. Everything else in the city was similar. It was like a city made for giants.

As Xu Qing looked around, he saw cultivators from hundreds of different species, many of them very bizarre and exotic. Firemoon Darkheavens, who were rare outside, were actually the most common cultivators here. The majority of them wore white robes, and wherever they went, they were shown a great deal of respect. They didn’t need to make any effort to seem lofty and aloof. It came naturally.

“Even back in the day, I hated their attitude,” the Captain muttered.

Xu Qing didn’t say anything. Nor did he pay attention to any of the numerous gazes cast in his direction, many of which were hostile. He had something more important on his mind. And that was… to turn in his mountains! By going to God Mountain and handing over his forbidden mountains, he could solidify his ranking. And thus, he looked at Master Gravesparrow.

Master Gravesparrow had been paying close attention to Xu Qing while leading him on his journey. As a result, he knew exactly what Xu Qing meant by that look. Hurrying forward, he led the way.

As countless people looked on, Xu Qing, the Captain, and Master Gravesparrow proceeded through the city. Gossip immediately began to spread, and right about when they reached the halfway point, some Firemoon Darkheaven cultivators stepped out in front of them and issued a challenge. Clearly there were members of their species who weren’t very happy that a human had acquired so many forbidden mountains in the first round.

Xu Qing glanced at them. Seeing that they had no mountains orbiting over them, he ignored them.

A few hours later, as the sun was beginning to set… Xu Qing arrived in front of God Mountain.

Nine huge chains connected Heavenfire City to the mountain. By following the chains with one’s gaze, it was possible to see a huge plaza complex high up on the mountain, where three massive divine likenesses of green stone existed. They represented the gods of sun, moon, and star. Behind the divine likenesses was a staircase that disappeared higher up on the mountain.

“There are three paths leading up God Mountain,” Master Gravesparrow explained. “They begin at Heavenfire City and lead to the three god plazas.”

Xu Qing nodded, looking away from God Mountain to the chains. Beneath them was a bottomless chasm. The wind caused the chains to slowly swing back and forth. Without any hesitation, Xu Qing walked forward and hopped onto one of the chains. After some thought, the Captain chose to follow Xu Qing on the same chain. Master Gravesparrow was initially surprised, but then he picked one of the chains and hurried after them.

Nothing unexpected happened. Eventually, Xu Qing reached the plaza complex where the three statues were.

The first depicted High God Sunfire. It was hard to determine if High God Sunfire was male or female. The body seemed female, but the facial features were male. A sun rose behind the statue, and a host of evil ghosts were beneath its feet. The statue’s eyes were closed.

The second statue was in no way unfamiliar to Xu Qing. It depicted High God Moonfire. Shē was breathtaking, with an expression as cold as an iceberg. Shē was actually quite different from what Xu Qing remembered from the fight with Crimson Mother. There was a moon behind the statue, which cast cold moonlight that made the statue seem holy.

Xu Qing was very familiar with the third statue…. It was the clay fox, with stars behind the statue. The statue seemed extremely flirtatious, making it hard to look away from.

However, what attracted Xu Qing’s attention was not the three divine likenesses. Rather… it was the fourth statue. That statue was bowing to High God Moonfire. It was skinless and covered with whip marks and countless other wounds. There were even some blades stuck into the statue…. From the look of things, High God Moonfire hated this statue with a deep passion, and as a punishment, forced it to endure humiliation and torment.

Upon looking at the statue, the Captain blinked a few times.

Master Gravesparrow noticed that Xu Qing was looking at the fourth statue, so he quietly explained, “That statue has a mysterious origin. It’s been there for a very long time. My people call that statue the God Defiler. Legend has it that he defiled High God Moonfire and committed a heinous crime, making him wicked beyond redemption. High God Sunfire personally executed him, then chopped his fleshly body into pieces and turned them into this kneeling statue. 2

“It’s supposed to be a warning against others. What’s even more noteworthy is that the official teachings of the Moonfire Temple mention the event. There’s even a special holiday in the Moonfire Temple dedicated to cursing the God Defiler.”

Xu Qing looked at the Captain.

The Captain’s facial expression remained the same, and in fact, he seemed very intent on just listening to Master Gravesparrow. When he noticed Xu Qing looking at him, he turned with great curiosity to look at the fourth statue.

Master Gravesparrow naturally had no way to know what Xu Qing and the Captain were thinking about, so he decided to add something to his previous description.

“By the way, there’s a rule when it comes to Heavenfire City and God Mountain. And that rule is that it’s prohibited to bring an ox here. It’s completely taboo. I have no idea why that rule exists. But I do know that if anyone brings an ox here, it will get killed immediately. In fact, any species even related to oxen in any way have mostly been exterminated by the Moonfire Temple over the years.”

Xu Qing looked at the Captain again. Without a scrap of shame, the Captain continued to look very curious.

Therefore, Master Gravesparrow continued, “Another thing. There’s a taboo against having the character ‘ox’ in your name. If you have that character in your name, you definitely shouldn’t let anyone know about it. Say, Fellow Daoists, do either of you have the character ‘ox’ in your name?”

During their travels, he had obviously come to learn Xu Qing’s name. However, he hadn’t heard the name Chen Erniu at all. He just knew that Xu Qing called him Eldest Brother. 3

Xu Qing shook his head and looked yet again at the Captain.

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The Captain cleared his throat and quickly shook his head. Master Gravesparrow didn’t think much of the situation and prepared to give some more information.

“Also—”

At long last, the Captain couldn’t continue his act. Glaring at Master Gravesparrow, he interrupted, “Alright, we get the picture. Keep leading the way. Why are you jabbering so much?”

1. The author names the city, but then rarely refers to the actual name of the city. In some cases, I’ll abide by his nomenclature, but in other instances I’m going to change the generic “three cities” into the actual name of the city. I’m doing that both for continuity and for ease of reading. There are many times when it makes the dialogue and narrative flow a lot more smoothly when the actual name of the city is used. Basically, it makes sense the way it is in Chinese, but when translated with 100% accuracy into English it comes across clunky and weird in many cases. Incidentally, this is another instance in which I inadvertently created “term crossover.” Earlier in the story in the Moonfire region, we had “heavenfire” as part of the story. In the case of this city, the character for fire is actually different. I could render this city differently, but the characters in the city are the same as those from the name of the species (FIREmoon darkHEAVEN), so I think it’s important to reflect that. In this case there are two different characters that both can mean “fire,” which, if I had really been paying attention to, would have rendered differently (i.e. have one of them be fire and the other be flame, or something like that). Sorry about this. This tends to happen when two terms come up in different parts of the story, and my brain doesn’t connect the parts until long after I’ve already set the translation choice. ☜

2. I want to clarify that the Chinese term that I’m rendering ‘defile’ does not inherently contain the same possible definition of the English term, i.e. “ to violate the chastity of.” I could have used other terms like “profane, desecrate, disrespect, blaspheme.” I just felt that “defile” sounded best in the context. And also, it theoretically could contain the above English definition. There isn’t really a way to tell for sure without further context. ☜

3. I feel like the vast majority of you remember this, but for any who have forgotten, the Captain’s name Chen Erniu has the character ‘ox’ in it. Niu means cow or ox. ☜