Everlasting Bright Mountain

While the Lingxian Sect was busy with the autumn harvest, Lin Xiao finally slipped out of the small dark room in the Formation Hall.

It was late that night. Thick clouds veiled the moon, and the wind howled through the darkness.

The main hall of the Formation Hall had long since gone dark.

In the depths of night, a figure flashed past. In the blink of an eye, it had passed through the gates of the Formation Hall and vanished into the darkness.

The people of Xiushui Village called the mountain range behind them the Northern Mountains. Viewed from above, it was immense.

The Northern Mountains did not form a straight line. Eight valleys and nine peaks made up its main spine, while three branches extended from it. Two of those branches ran parallel to each other, forming a ravine at the end of the range. The third stood alone as a ridge slanting out from the middle.

Countless hills and dense forests surrounded the entire range.

Although the Northern Mountains now belonged entirely to the Lingxian Sect, the sect had officially made use of only a small section at the very front—the mountainside, Azure Cloud Peak, the valley between Azure Cloud Peak and the next peak that served as a plaza, and, as something of an addition, another section of Azure Cloud Peak and a small valley behind the mountainside.

The rest remained in its untouched natural state.

Without alerting anyone, Lin Xiao made his way alone to the far end of the Northern Mountains.

There, two ridges—one high and one low—ran parallel to each other, enclosing an extremely deep ravine between them.

Suspended in midair between the two ridges, Lin Xiao gazed at the dark, silent mountains before him. The chill wind made the place feel cold and desolate. He then opened his private vault and glanced at the pile of items he had placed at the very front.

He flexed his fingers. He was a little nervous, but anticipation outweighed everything else.

He had no idea whether the final result would turn out as he imagined...

Hesitation was not in his nature, so he did not linger. He took one of the objects from his private vault.

It was a cube that looked very much like a Rubik’s Cube, only slightly larger than an adult’s fist.

At first glance, the cube appeared completely black. Upon closer inspection, however, one could see countless fine lines glowing with a strange radiance.

Those luminous lines crisscrossed through the cube, dividing it into countless smaller pieces.

And if one looked even more carefully, one would discover that the black cube was actually transparent. Its interior could be seen clearly.

Layer upon layer of small cubes, sliced apart by the glowing lines, overlapped within it. They appeared to be solid objects frozen in place, yet they also seemed to be constantly changing.

But if one focused even harder, nothing could be seen at all. There was only a single black mass, quietly held in the darkness.

Looking at the black cube in his hand, Lin Xiao was highly satisfied.

This was the result of several months of painstaking work!

After holding himself back for so long, he had finally reached the last step!

Unable to contain his excitement, he gently tossed the black cube into the air. It immediately hung there, suspended.

Lin Xiao raised his right hand and faced his palm toward the black cube. Then, with a sudden spread of his five fingers—

The four corners of the black cube seemed to be pulled apart by several invisible threads. The entire cube instantly loosened and changed shape.

In the blink of an eye, the scattered cube transformed into a vast mesh of interlocking grids. Luminous patterns ran through it, layer upon layer, and it began expanding at a visible speed.

Lin Xiao lightly curled his slender index finger. A pitch-black opening suddenly appeared in the complex, dazzling mesh.

He reached into his private vault again and took out something compressed into a small ball of light. With a flick of his left fingertip, he sent the ball straight into the center of the dark opening.

The insertion complete, Lin Xiao closed the fingers of his right hand. The opening snapped shut.

Then he spread his thumb, index finger, and middle finger apart with force, rotating his wrist slightly upward.

By then, the mesh that had been scattered apart had unknowingly spread over the two ridges, stretching across them like a canopy that blotted out the sky.

In the next instant, Lin Xiao brought his three fingers together and gave his wrist a slight flick. The luminous patterns that had seemed to flow endlessly across the vast mesh suddenly froze in place.

At this point, Lin Xiao drew a slow breath.

The final step.

He continuously channeled the vital qi within his body into his right fingertips, calming his mind and steadying his breathing. His right hand, which had previously manipulated everything with ease, became rigid and perfectly still, as though bound in place.

In the silent night, both the enormous mesh in the sky and Lin Xiao, who controlled it, seemed to have been frozen in time.

The next moment, Lin Xiao’s right hand began pressing downward, slowly.

The enormous canopy spread across the heavens descended along with his movement, enveloping the ravine between the two ridges.

At the same time, invisible yin energy surged in from every direction.

Guided downward by the descending mesh, the yin energy was drawn into it.

As the mesh continued to fall, the rocks and trees below seemed to acquire a strange black sheen—something even more unfathomable than the night itself.

For a time, the scene in that stretch of heaven and earth resembled a silent upheaval of the world.

After a long while, when the vital qi within Lin Xiao was nearly exhausted, the mesh finally settled over the ravine between the ridges and merged with it completely.

A cool breeze swept through.

The place returned to normal. From time to time, the night cries of birds could still be heard among the trees, as though nothing had happened.

Anyone who saw it would take it for an ordinary mountain ridge and nothing more.

Only Lin Xiao knew what had truly changed here.

He looked down at the mountains below, released the technique keeping him suspended, and descended alone to the place where the ridge joined the main body of the mountain range.

At some point, a massive stone stele had appeared there.

Three characters were engraved upon it:

Changming Mountain.

Ding—the host has successfully constructed and added the sect building [Changming Mountain] independently. The reward has been issued to the private vault. Please check and claim it.

The system’s notification rang out in Lin Xiao’s mind.

But this was not the time to check his reward.

He was more eager to witness the results of his work with his own eyes.

The entrance to Changming Mountain was the enormous stone stele before him.

However, the method of entering was somewhat unusual.

In the depths of the night, amid these desolate mountains and wilderness, Lin Xiao bent his index finger and tapped the stele four times.

Three taps for humans, four for ghosts.

If Lin Dayou had been there, he certainly would have given Lin Xiao a thorough beating for doing such a thing.

As the fourth tap faded, a chill wind rose from the flat ground around the stele. It swept up the fallen leaves, filling the air with a rustling sound.

In the tranquil night, it was as though something was gradually taking shape.

A dense mist slowly enveloped Lin Xiao, cutting him off from the outside world.

Before long, wisps of white vapor began to emerge from the stone stele.

The white vapor gathered together and gradually solidified. Little by little, it took the shape of a face.

The face had eyes, ears, a mouth, and a nose, but it did not look human.

Those long, narrow eyes, that pointed nose and mouth, and the long ears growing from either side of its head...

It was clearly a white fox!

Yet Lin Xiao did not seem surprised by the white fox’s appearance. It was as though he had known all along that it would come.

And indeed, that was exactly the case.