Night dropped upon the Grand Desolate Forest, cloaking the ancient ridges in deep indigo velvet. Above the canopy, the twin moons of the Azure Cloud Realm—one glowing with cool pearl-white silver, the other with a faint, crystal-clear azure hue—cast radiant sheets of twin-colored starlight across the dancing waters of the Clear Stream River.
Beneath the huge, star-dusted boughs of the Primordial Spirit Willow, the raised cedar porch of the Willow-Bank Pavilion was lit up by the warm, amber glow of three stone lanterns fueled by sweet pine pitch.
The founding family sat assembled around a broad, eight-foot cedar table that Tie Shan had sanded to the smoothness of fine jade.
Lin Xiao rested comfortably in a shallow carved cedar basin at the head of the table, his semi-clear azure dome gently pulsating with warm, thirty-eight-degree chaos dew. Beside him sat Su Ling’er, her vermilion scholar robes arranged with spotless grace, her three luxuriant white tails curled neatly across the cedar bench. To his left sat Tie Shan, the nine-foot titan bear leaning his massive forearms upon the wood, a glazed heavy clay cup of aged rice wine cradled gently in his golden titan claws.
Xiao Hei rested on the floorboards beside Lin Xiao’s basin, his sleek, tightly packed black hound form curled into a velvet crescent, his ruby eyes blinking with quiet contentment. On the ramp leading down to the riverbank, Old Ba’s ancient, moss-draped shell was wedged comfortably between two smooth boulders, the four-hundred-year-old river tortoise sipping fragrant turnip broth from a dried gourd bowl.
And coiled along the outer rail of the porch was Xiao Long.
The fifteen-foot Horned Azure River Drake rested his majestic, jade-scaled chin directly upon the polished cedar railing, his long ivory whiskers trailing in the cool night breeze. Twin pearl-white horns sprouted from his brow, crackling with tiny sparks of turquoise mist. At the same time, his intelligent golden eyes gazed warmly upon the table.
Su Ling’er picked up a freshly ground inkstick, dipping a fine badger-hair brush into the fragrant black squid-ink. Before her lay a clean scroll of wild silk, its edges bound with braided willow fibers.
“Lord Xiao,” Su Ling’er spoke. Her sweet-sounding voice carried the calm power that rang through the pavilion. “The pavilion is framed. The storehouses are dry. The kiln is producing silver charcoal, and Master Tie has forged the culinary blades. We have shelter, fire, and food. Yet if we’re to endure the coming seasons, our purpose must be defined before the leylines of heaven and earth.”
Tie Shan took a sip of aged wine, smacking his dark lips with a soft rumble. “Speak plain, sister. What does the silk scroll need?”
“Across the Azure Cloud Realm,” Su Ling’er explained, her violet eyes gleaming with hundreds of years of inherited historical knowledge, “there exist only two laws. In the mortal dynasties, beastfolk are hunted for leather, taxed to starvation, or forced into royal slave legions. In the training sects, we’re slaughtered for beast cores, boiled down in pill furnaces, or bound in soul-shackles to serve as disposable mounts. Even among the wild beast tribes of the high crags, the strong butcher the weak in eternal, bloody feuds.”
She paused, looking around the table—at the ancient tortoise, the titan bear, the shadow wolf, the river drake, and finally at the little blue slime resting in his wooden bowl.
“Here, an ancient tortoise shares soup with a titan bear,” Su Ling’er murmured softly. “A sky wolf sleeps beside a fox maiden. A river drake purrs like a kitten upon a cedar railing. In the entire expanse of the southern continents, such harmony doesn’t exist. We must give this valley a name, and we must seal its charter into the earth.”
Tie Shan nodded solemnly, his booming voice dropping to a low, respectful pitch. “The girl speaks the truth. When the poachers or sect elders come, we can’t merely be ‘some beasts living in the woods.’ We must stand under a banner that strikes fear into slavers and gives hope to the hunted.”
All eyes turned toward the cedar basin at the head of the table.
Lin Xiao wobbled slightly, looking at the expectant faces of his companions.
In his last life, Lin Xiao had spent eight years working in the supply chain department of a regional freight company. He had seen corporate mission statements filled with hollow buzzwords—‘synergy,’ ‘paradigm shifts,’ and ‘market dominance’—written by executives who never stepped foot on a loading dock and cared nothing for the people breaking their backs in the freezing rain.
He had always hated pompous declarations. But sitting here under the twin moons, looking at this strange, amazing family of outcasts and survivors, Lin Xiao felt something profoundly genuine stirring within his fluid core.
“When I woke up in this forest,” Lin Xiao began, his voice clear, calm, and carrying an unrushed weight that silenced the night, “I had no desire to conquer kingdoms, build golden thrones, or command armies. I wanted a quiet patch of grass, a bowl of hot soup, a cup of warm tea. A comfortable place to sleep without someone swinging a rusty sword at my head.”
He extended an azure tendril, gently tapping the silk scroll before Su Ling’er.
“Power in this world is usually an excuse for cruelty,” Lin Xiao said. “People cultivate immortality for hundreds of years, yet they end up with hearts narrower than a needle’s eye, obsessed with stealing other people’s dignity to extend their own worthless lives. I refuse to live like that. And I refuse to let anyone who lives in this valley be treated like livestock.”
Lin Xiao rose slightly above his cedar basin, his sapphire mass streaming a soft, gentle soft glow that lit up the porch.
“Our law shall be simple,” Lin Xiao declared. “First: all sentient beings who come to this valley seeking peace, whether they have two legs, four legs, scales, or fur, are equal under our sky. Second: honest labor is the only currency. No soul shall ever be branded, enslaved, or exploited for another’s profit. And third: we don’t seek war with the outside world. But if slavers, poachers, or arrogant sects come to spill blood in our home, we’ll break their weapons and sweep them from our ridges without mercy.”
Su Ling’er’s hand trembled with emotion. Her brush glided across the silk, recording every word in elegant, flowing calligraphy.
“And the name of our realm, Lord Xiao?” she whispered.
Lin Xiao smiled, his white eye crescents crinkling with boundless warmth.
“This valley isn’t just for bears, wolves, or foxes,” Lin Xiao said. “It’s for every weary spirit seeking shelter beneath the sky. So let this ground be announcedas the Myriad Spirit Safe hall—Wanling Shengdi.”
The words left Lin Xiao’s mouth. Then, a deep, ancient tremor rang through the deep leylines of the Grand Desolate Forest!
HUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Beneath the pavilion, the ancient roots of the Primordial Spirit Willow began to glow with blinding emerald radiance! Vast rivers of underground nature-qi, dormant since the creation of the continent, surged upward through the bedrock. Lin Xiao opened his internal void reserves, channeling a packed pulse of pure ancient chaos origin qi down through the cedar floorboards and directly into the heart of the giant willow.
The huge tree awoke!
Towering three hundred feet into the night sky, the Primordial Spirit Willow unfurled millions of emerald leaves that rustled in a sky, ringing chord. Waves of soft, rainbow-bright green starlight billowed from its canopy like a fountain of auroras, washing across the sixty-li expanse of the Clear Stream River Valley. Where the green light touched the earth, wild sweet grass sprouted. The river waters cleared to liquid jade. And an invisible, dome-like membrane of peaceful, protective boundary wards took root in the surrounding mountain spires.
High above, a bronze chime echoed softly through Lin Xiao’s mind:
The shimmering emerald light slowly settled into the soil. That left the valley wrapped around in an air of deep, unshakable peace.
Su Ling’er laid her brush down. She pressed her soapstone seal into the vermilion paste, stamping the bottom of the silk scroll with the official emblem of the safe hall. An azure sphere surrounded by three fox tails, an anvil, a wolf claw, and a river dragon.
Tie Shan picked up the thirty-gallon earthen vat of fifty-year aged rice wine. It filled every cup upon the table until the amber liquor brimmed to the rim.
Old Ba raised his gourd bowl of rich bone broth with trembling respect. “To four hundred years of waiting... And to the dawn of the Myriad Spirit Safe hall!”
Tie Shan hoisted his stone flagon, his golden titan arm gleaming in the lantern light. “To Lord Lin Xiao! The hammer and shield of this valley shall never falter!”
Su Ling’er lifted her celadon cup of warmed honey-dew wine, her amethyst eyes shining with tears of joy. “To our home, where no spirit shall ever cry in chains!”
Xiao Hei let out a clear, sweet-sounding howl of sky devotion that rolled across the pine ridges. Meanwhile, Xiao Long leaped from the terrace edge, spraying a joyous, sparkling arch of rainbow water droplets over the cedar roof edges!
Lin Xiao drew his cup of warm aged rice wine into his internal heat chamber. That let the sweet, floral warmth wash through his core with radiant perfection.
“To our family,” Lin Xiao said with an elastic, happy bounce. “And to the peace we build with our own hands.”
Beneath the silver light of the twin moons, five cups met in a ringing, ringing toast that echoed through the branches of the ancient willow. The Myriad Spirit Safe hall was no longer an idea. It was an eternal reality, anchored into the bones of the earth.