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Zang Liu sat cross-legged atop a enormous fox, its azure fur glimmering like liquid sapphire. The beast raced across the ground, leaving silver trails of wind in its wake. Riding with him were four members of the Celestial Brush Hall and three other new recruits, each trying their best to stay balanced as the fox soared gracefully, its paws barely touching the ground.
Then all of the sudden, the fox stopped, it's paws and claws grinding against the earth below.
The seven of them lurched forward violently, nearly getting thrown off. The fox's three tails flared wide, trembling, and a low whimper escaped its throat. Beasts of this level didn't fear much. Whatever it saw ahead made its fur stand on end.
Zang Liu looked up and froze.
A man hovered in the air not far from them, robes the color of fresh blood billowing in the wind. His hands were folded behind his back, and a talisman shimmered faintly, hanging on his crimson robes, burning with runes that danced like living fire.
The air rippled around him, thick with heat and a strange spiritual pressure that made the fox shiver harder.
The man smiled, crooked and cruel, his eyes glinting with amusement."Ah… so this is what they're sending to the Celestial Brush Hall these days?"
Before Zang Liu could speak, the man vanished.
The fox shrieked from the sudden movement behind it. A heartbeat later, Zang Liu felt a hand grab the back of his collar. His breath caught as the world spun, clouds, mountains, sky, everything blurred together. He was being lifted.
"Wha?!"
The others screamed his name, reaching out, but he was already gone, yanked upward like a doll in the claws of some heavenly predator.
Wind tore past Zang Liu's ears. His limbs flailed uselessly as they soared higher and higher, until the world below was just a blur of color.
The crimson-robed man's laughter rolled through the sky, deep and gleeful. "Oh, don't worry, kid I got your stuff too!"
Zang Liu's satchel, full of his meager belongings, floated up behind them, wrapped neatly in glowing talismans.
"This isn't funny! Put me down!" Zang Liu yelled, kicking wildly.
"Oh, I'll put you down," the man said, flashing a grin that made his teeth gleam. "Right after you learn to kneel properly before your master."
"What?!"
The man spun midair, crimson sleeves flaring like wings. His spiritual aura burned hotter now, enough that Zang Liu could barely breathe. He looked half-demonic, half-divine power bleeding off him in waves.
"Tell that shitty sect master of yours," the old man said, his voice booming through the clouds, "that Yan Zixuan has taken this one as his disciple!"
Zang Liu blinked, stunned. "Wha—no! I didn't agree to—wait! I—ahhhhhhh!"
Yan Zixuan's laughter shook the sky, echoing off the mountains below. He tucked the squirming boy under one arm like stolen treasure, the talismans around him blazing with scarlet light.
Far above, Zang Liu's screams faded into the clouds as Yan Zixuan soared toward the horizon, his laughter lingering like the last crackle of fire in a burning hall.
-
Nong Xuanfeng and Chen Jie stood atop a tall golem of blackened stone, its every step sending tremors through the earth. Next to them stood members of The Molten Furnace Sect and the other new outer disciples. Heat shimmered in the air as the horizon bled crimson. Before them, a mountain range unlike any they had ever seen reared into the heavens, jagged peaks veined with molten rivers that pulsed like beating hearts.
It dwarfed even the Moonshadow Range and Dragon's Spine Mountains combined. The air reeked of sulfur and steel, yet beneath it all lay a rhythm, the steady hammering of forges echoing through the land.
Far above, bridges crisscrossed the air like threads of steel and stone, some vanishing into deep tunnels carved through the mountain's heart, others arching gracefully into the sides of towering buildings whose windows glowed faintly from the surrounding lava and fire.
Deep within the cavern mouths carved into the cliffs, cultivators could be heard shouting over the roar of flame and metal. Sparks burst like fireflies as they forged blades and armor imbued with spiritual qi.
Two titanic statues guarded the entrance to the range: one bearing a pickaxe, the other a hammer, their stone gazes stern and proud.
-
Song Xue stepped into a forest so still it seemed to be holding its breath. Ancient trees with pale silver bark stretched endlessly upward, their leaves etched with faint, glowing patterns that shifted like ripples on water. The disciples beside her chuckled when she hesitated.
"Well, go on then," one of them said, grinning. "Walk into the rock."
She blinked at them. "Walk… into it?"
They only laughed harder. "You'll see."
Unease pricked her skin, but curiosity tugged harder. When her gaze settled on the boulder they pointed to, she noticed it, the air around it was shimmering faintly, weaving with those same strange patterns.
She took a breath and stepped forward.
The world rippled, and then changed.
Suddenly, she stood in a valley surrounded by nine towering pagodas, each one marked by a different pattern carved into its surface. Between them flowed rivers of qi so thick she could almost see them, twisting through the air like silk ribbons.
Mountains ringed the horizon, draped in waterfalls and mist. The sound of harp strings drifted faintly from one of the pagodas, merging with the wind like the breath of the world itself.
A voice echoed behind her, calm, distant, and melodic.
"Welcome to the Nine Patterns Sect, where creation itself is a scripture."
Song Xue turned slowly, awe filling her chest. "Creation… as scripture…" she murmured, eyes wide as the light from the pagodas danced across her face.
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End of Interlude I