Peerless Cliff City was incredibly renowned and prosperous throughout the entire province of Xiang. This was due to the sheer ferocity and eccentric attitude of the people that lived there. It was always a scramble for life and death every day no matter who you were. You would always find yourself being pulled into some kind of scheme no matter your identity. Thus, due to the serious attitude of the population, it naturally had a wide influence socially, economically and politically.

Additionally, its military power was nothing to scoff at! Peerless Cliff City had a very ancient history dating back to a full millennia ago. It was located on a stretch of highland plains that meant they had a signficantic strategic advantage. Due to its geographical significance, they were unwilling to let go of this advantage and heavily invested in its defence. Over time, Peerless Cliff City and its surroundings had become so heavily entrenched that it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to call the place a fortress!

Yet, no matter the efforts Peerless Cliff City went into developing its territory, city officials never dared touch even the outer reaches of the Long Tang mountain range. It was a supernatural mystery that they weren’t willing to provoke the ire of. All year round, it’s mountains were covered in a thick-grey fog. And it wasn’t a strange occurrence for their to be sightings of strange sightings of certain things. Such as people flying on swords, flying beasts of legend and catastrophic weather suddenly seen brewing inside it.

Due to the strange but also famous reputation of these mountain ranges, many brave figures had taken it upon themselves to learn the secrets of the Long Tang mountain range. However, the grey fog posed a massive problem. All who tried to delve into the mountain range would simply find themselves walking outside of the fog after just a short walk, even though they were certain they were walking in the same direction the whole time.

Despite this, they kept trying. But one day, people found themselves stuck in the fog for days. And when they finally escaped, they were starving and desperate for even a drop of water. For some reason, this made the people of Peerless Cliff City even more curious as to what was in the Long Tang mountain range. So, the head of the famous Heng Clan being on of these people sponsored an expedition into the mountain range. They made countless preparations to make sure they made it through the fog and he hired only the best.

In the end, the expedition included about thirty people in total. And as they departed everyone was very optimistic, thinking that success was certain. It was the complete opposite. No one was seen again. And the following day, everyone in the Heng Clan residence was found dead. The head, his family and every single one of their servants and guards. Not a single person was spared. Nobody caught even a glimpse of the killer, and even if they did it was most likely they would’ve died too.

That was when even the peoeple of the Peerless Cliff City were forced to back down. The whole city was terrified of the force that had massacred the whole of the Heng Clan residence in but a single night. There were countless speculation regarding who the killer was but no one knew anyone that was strong enough to do what the killer did. Even the most famous martial artists claimed that even they didn’t have the skill to do what the culprit did.

Thus, it was natural that the supernatural force or owner, no one knew which one it was, that lorded over the mountain range did not wanted to be disturbed or ther would be dire consequences. And that was the end of it. Not a single person dared to travel into the Long Tang mountain range ever again apart from the occasional person with a death-wish. Naturally, neither they were ever seen again.

But, at this moment standing just several meters away from the Long Tang’s broiling fog was a young child seemingly only ten or eleven years of age with short, black hair and tanned skin. He observed the illusive fog for a while, with slight uncertainty and fear of the unknown in his eyes. Naturally, this was Ip An.

After leaving the abandoned buddhist temple he had traveled for two whole months until he finally reached Peerless Cliff City. During this time, he spent nearly all the money he had from Mei Yawen but saved just enough for a inn room after asking around some people in neighboring villages that were inside Peerless Cliff City’s territory.

And when he had arrived at it’s border he was in awe! There was a great stone wall several meters that extended all the way past the horizon. And the guards weren’t any less intimidating. They were adorned in thick, jet black armour that resembled that of a dragon. Each guard was seemingly the size of a bear and at least a head taller than the common man. And like many people that were crossing the border into the Peerless Cliff City’s territory he was naturally a bit nervous.

But as he reached the front of the line and was inspected, they were surprisingly very quick. After just a rudimentary inspection, they let him through and like that they were onto the next person! It was incredible. Peerless Cliff City was like it’s own mini-nation. They had their own border, separate policies and laws that was seperate of those in the Heng province. They were so far entrenched that the Emperor couldn’t order it around all he wanted.

And it’s for a good reason. Or otherwise the emperor would’ve been knocking on their door with his army a long time ago. Their militiary power was nothing to scoff at. Their armies were a cut above the rest. The way they were trained, disciplined and mentally molded. Combine this army with the basically imprenetrable fortress of the Peerless Cliff City territory then it would become a aggressive turtle that wasn’t afraid to bite back! They were basically a separate power. But they weren’t rebels, or the emperor would’ve had to force his hand and upturn the place in order to save face even if it took a long time and a large amount of resources.

And when Ip An finally arrived in the city. Ip An was speechless. The colours, the sounds, the beautiful architecture that had been delicately crafted by experts of their craft. The bustling crowds that you could easily get lost in, the shouting street-side merchants always trying to grab your attenion. The flawless street that he walked on, no trace of an unpleasant stench in his nose. Some of the people he walked past werebeautiful! Some wore very luxurious clothes that only made their graceful figures and faces even more breath-taking. And at one moment, Ip An had bumped into another person because he couldn’t take his eyes off of this peerless beauty that had suddenly walked by!

Many had seen this and burst out laughing seeing Ip An’s foolish actions. This actually managed to catch the lady’s attention and made her chuckle seeing his funny appearance! To clarify, Ip An currently was just a little boy and hadn’t underwent puberty yet. He was simply in awe of beauty that he had never seen before in his entire life.

After recovering from this embarrassment, he simply wandered through this city until sunrise in awe. Then, he found a nearby inn and bought a room for the nigh. He had a warm meal that was filled with flavours he didn’t even knew were possible and when he finally retreated to his room for the night his mind blanked. He couldn’t believe it. It was all just like a dream. Just last night, he had been sleeping under the stars with barely anything in his belly. And just two months ago he would’ve been dying to be in his current position. His dream had seemingly come true. He was in the very place that his past-self had been dreaming of his whole life.

And that wasn’t all, he currently had the ticket to become a powerful immortal in his bag! This was just the start for him. He was going onto bigger things already. And he couldn’t even comprehend anything that could possiblly be more amazing than this very city. It had been just a day since he had arrived at his place of dreams, and tomorrow he was travelling to a place of dreams for literally anyone! Not even just the common person. Even stone-faced court officials and rich merchants would easily give in to the opportunity to become an immortal. Ip An, even after all this time really didn’t have time to soak it all in. But, he was slowly adjusting to it and was finding it less and less shocking to think about day by day.

The next day, he asked for directions to Long Tang mountain range ignorant of it’s status within the population’s hearts. He was thoroughly ignored as he looked like a poor beggar trying to scrounge for money. And even when people stopped for him and they heard he wanted to travel to the Long Tong mountains they always gave him an affirmative ‘no’ and gave him a brief warning before leaving. Eventually, he did find a person that gave in but not without eking out a coin from the reluctant Ip An who finally received the hint.

That afternoon, he finally arrived. And here he was. Staring at the broiling fog unsure if he wanted to go through with this. For a while he was uncertain, almost questioning if it was all real in the first place. Would he really go through with this? What if he regretted it?

That’s when he found himself looking back towards where Peerless Cliff City was. He didn’t have to make this hard decision and go down this difficult path. He could just retreat and live his life in the city. It had everything he dreamt about. Stuff that he was familiar with. But this. Becoming an immortal. He was uncertain. What would it really involve? He had heard many legends, rumours and stories about it but nevere really anything that pinpointed what it really entailed.

But, Ip An quickly stopped this train of thought before it got out of control. His grandfather, Ip Nan, had given this chance to him for a reason. And yet. He had the audacity to consider throwing it away? That would not do. He had to do this now before he hid his tail in between his legs and fled. He calmed himself down by breathing in and taking some long breathes.

He knew what he had to do.

Step by step, he approached closer and closer to the grey fog and once he was one step away from entering it he turned back one last time. From here he couldn’t go back. No matter what he did. For a few seconds he relished in this feeling of having one step in two paths. Finally, Ip An gave a small smile and stepped inside the fog.

As he began walking he could see nothing. He tried putting his hand out in front of himself and couldn’t even see that. Of course, Ip An didn’t know about the Long Tang’s infamous reputation and therefore didn’t know anything about it or the fog. He had only heard about it very briefly from people in the Peerless Cliff City and inside the letter. Strangely, when he put his hand out to see it he felt no resistance from the fog. It was as if it was immaterial and didn’t even exist. And whenever he breathed in it felt like he was still breathing in air. Not even a trace of the fog entered his lungs.

Soon, Ip An came to a stop and mumbled to himself, “Alright, i think this as far i need to go. Let’s pull out the medallion.”

Then, he dropped down his bag onto the ground and shuffled around for a couple moments with no idea where anything was inside. When he finally found the medallion he pulled it out and lifted above his head and just stayed still where he was standing. The reason for this action was that in the letter, it detailed the exact steps one would have to undertake in order to join the sect.

It explained that when entered the fog, they would walk a short distance and then lift the medallion above their head. And eventually, someone from the sect would come to receive them. Like this, Ip An stood in place for what felt like hours. The fog remained unchanging as he stood there in boredom. But he was determined. He just thought that even if he were a magnanimous immortal that lived on a mountain then it would naturally still take him a long time to reach someone at the base of that said mountain. But it had been so long that even Ip An was becoming slightly annoyed and impatient.

That’s why he was fine with it. But as time continued to pass it felt like it was already night time. And that’s when the nearby fog suddenly dissipated and a person appeared!