Qingcheng Mountain.

One of the four famous Daoist mountains in Huaxia.

The ancient name of Qingcheng Mountain was originally Celestial Cyan Mountain.

It is said that when the Yellow Emperor traveled across the Five Mountains, Ning Fengzi, who was cultivating on this mountain, once taught the Yellow Emperor the art of riding the wind and clouds, known as the "Dragon Ascendancy Technique."

Because of this, the Yellow Emperor built an altar here and honored him as the "Five Mountains Elder," and later generations also referred to it as "Elder Mountain."

It wasn't until the 18th year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang Dynasty, which is 730 AD, that the name Qingcheng Mountain began to be used.

Rumor has it that Qingcheng Mountain is located between the realms of yin and yang, with a winding path to the Underworld, and malevolent ghosts from the Underworld often come out from here to plague the human world.

Real Underworld activities.

Later, great Daoist masters preached here to use immortals to subdue the Underworld.

They gathered the dragon energy of the Yangtze River to vanquish the Ghost King, bringing peace to the area.

It is said that the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling manifested the Dao on Qingcheng Mountain in his later years and ascended here.

After this, Qingcheng Mountain became the ancestral mountain of the Celestial Master Dao, and Celestial Masters from all over the country would come to Qingcheng Mountain to worship the Ancestral Court.

The truth of these rumors is unknown, but friends who have visited Qingcheng Mountain should have one experience:

Qingcheng Mountain is truly quite uncanny.

The peaks of Qingcheng Mountain are surrounded and undulating; putting it nicely, it's verdant with lush and secluded paths.

But in harsher terms, it's summed up in two words:

Gloomy.

Basically, after just a few steps, you might suddenly feel startled for no reason, only to find nothing behind you—these insights come from an anonymous novice angler's firsthand experience.

Additionally, there's another peculiar thing about Qingcheng Mountain.

Even though Qingcheng Mountain is a Daoist Ancestral Court, its back mountain is filled with Buddhist statues, many headless and handless.

Under normal circumstances,

these statues should have been discarded during the flourishing times of the Dao, yet they still remain to this day.

The so-called respect for differences is just an excuse, and whoever says these words probably doesn't even believe them.

Disputes over the Dao tradition have always been matters of life and death, and when one side has the upper hand, they often wish to scatter the other's ashes.

Especially not in their own Daoist Ancestral Court.

It's akin to having someone perpetually living in the wardrobe of your bedroom; wouldn't you find it annoying?

It truly is a very odd thing.

However, not many are aware of such anecdotes, as most contemporary knowledge of Qingcheng Mountain comes from the master of martial arts novels, Mr. Jin Yong.

His book "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" introduced many to Qingcheng Mountain.

Even though the Qingcheng Sect in the novel represents antagonists, it has undoubtedly made the Qingcheng Sect well-known.

Apart from that,

Qingcheng Mountain is also where Bai Suzhen attained the Dao; she set off from here to Yuhang.

Bai Suzhen was at Qingcheng Mountain, Xu Xian was in Yuhang, and Fa Hai was in Zhenjiang.

How could such a long-distance love triangle not be lively?

Yet, these stories happened millennia ago, and the winds and shadows have faded into the annals of time.

Thus, when Lin Ziming and others arrived at Qingcheng Mountain, the only scenes they could witness were the endless mountain forests covered in snow.

Perhaps among them, there stands an ancient tree or two that were witnesses to those ancient legends.

"The main Daoist temples on Qingcheng Mountain include Jianfu Palace, Taiqing Palace, Shangqing Palace, Father-in-law Temple, Laojun Pavilion, Yuqing Palace, Ancestral Hall, Yuanming Palace, and Celestial Master Cave, of which I am the abbot of Father-in-law Temple,"

At the mountain gate in front of Qingcheng Mountain, Daoist Huang was introducing the situation of the Daoist temples to everyone.

Pointing to a direction, he continued as he walked:

"Father-in-law Temple is located on the northern slope of Father-in-law Peak, with the hall enshrining Lv Zu and Ancestor Qiu.

The central hall enshrines Ning Feng Zhenren and Medicine King Sun Zhenren."

Lin Ziming, walking alongside Daoist Huang, curiously asked:

"Lv Zu must be Lv Dongbin, and Medicine King Sun Zhenren would be Sun Simiao, right?

As for Ancestor Qiu and Ning Feng Zhenren, I really don't know much about them."

Daoist Huang chuckled at these words and said:

"Lin Ziming must have heard of Ancestor Qiu's name, as he is the renowned Qiu Chuji, one of the 'Northern Seven Truths' of the Daoist Quanzhen Sect.

His historical image is much better compared to the fictional portrayals.

As for Ning Feng Zhenren...

Those who haven't been exposed to Daoist culture might indeed be unaware.

He is known as Ning Fengzi, also called Longqiao Zhenren, an ancient immortal.

According to the "Biographies of Immortals," he was the Yellow Emperor's pottery master, with quite a notable background, and Qingcheng Mountain was first famous because of him."

Lin Ziming, realizing this, nodded with understanding:

"So that's how it is."

Afterwards, a few of them walked for about half an hour, passing through the mountain gate and the Daoist Palace one after another.

Finally, they reached the back mountain of Father-in-law Peak.

Upon entering the back mountain, Wei Fan couldn't help but rub his hands together:

"Hiss, it feels a bit cold."

Lin Ziming also exhaled his breath.

To conserve Spiritual Energy, they didn't use any cultivation techniques, so their sensory experiences were no different from ordinary people.

Moreover, the temperature in the Damo Realm was always just over twenty degrees, so suddenly coming to the back mountain did evoke some physical reactions.

They weren't so weak as to be affected by the cold, but there was indeed some discomfort.

Daoist Huang, more accustomed to this, explained as he led the way:

"It is rumored that the winding path of Qingcheng Mountain leads to the Underworld, so the back mountain is always gloomy, and some even call it a half Ghostly Realm.

But scientifically speaking, it's because the mountain side is shaded, and the surface of Father-in-law Peak has an opening, forming a semi-enclosed valley.

Cold air drains downhill, easily creating valley winds, which is why it feels particularly cold."

Lin Ziming looked with a peculiar expression at Daoist Huang, who was eloquently discussing geographical knowledge, feeling that he might share a common language with that Daoist Chen from Wudang, who constantly advocates 'believing in science.'

With such conversations, they continued walking until they finally reached the edge of a cliff.

The cliff area was about a hundred square meters, with a height of slightly over a thousand meters.

The view from the cliff was extremely wide, with nothing but a vast expanse of white in sight, making one think of those grand verses of "A thousand miles of ice sealed, ten thousand miles of snow drifts, looking beyond the Great Wall with only expanse prevailing."

And coincidentally,

the last line of this poem, in a way, quite fits the current situation.

Looking back to the original spot,

to the left of the cliff was a huge boulder about seven to eight meters high, uninscribed, and currently half-covered in snow, its body a mix of brown and white.

Daoist Huang then led a few of them to the boulder, pointing to nearby meditation mats, and said:

"Colonel Lin, Instructor Wei, this is where our three masters and disciples meditate."

Hearing this, Lin Ziming looked at Wei Fan:

"Instructor Wei, it seems we'll need to trouble you."

Wei Fan nodded, then walked to the stone and extended his spiritual sense.

At first,

Wei Fan's expression was relatively relaxed, his demeanor rather calm.

But as time went on, Wei Fan's brows began to knit, eventually furrowing tightly together.

Seeing this, Lin Ziming quickly gestured for everyone to step back a few paces.

Wei Fan's sensory abilities were much stronger than those of ordinary cultivators of the same rank, so his expression likely indicated a particular finding.

Sure enough,

ten minutes later,

Wei Fan opened his eyes with a serious expression and said to Lin Ziming:

"Colonel Lin, although I can't find the source, I... felt Spiritual Energy!"

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