At 6:00 AM on Sunday morning, as a sea of white morning clouds rolled around the sheer granite precipices of Cloud-Piercing Peak forty miles north of Sky-Crown City. The Gu Family’s [Rank 3 Spring-Shock Luxury Caravan] parked in a quiet pine clearing at the foot of the five-thousand-foot mountain.
Inside the warm caravan cabin, the three children had just finished eight full hours of peaceful sleep under their self-heating velvet blankets and were brushing their teeth with Auntie Qin’s mint-salt powder. Grandpa Yao , at Rank 4 Early, and Auntie Qin , at Rank 4 Early, prepared a hearty Sunday camping breakfast of Scallion Beef Pancakes and Sweet Soy Milk.
Out on the rocky clearing beside the caravan, Gu Changsheng , at Rank 4 Early, stood with his hands in the pockets of his gray kitchen apron. Looking up at the treacherous, three-foot-wide stone cliff path that wound like a corkscrew up the sheer vertical face of Cloud-Piercing Peak toward Secret Realm #3: The Ancient Sword-Saint Cliff Cave.
Standing beside his father in his neat blue scholar’s robe with his yellow schoolbag on his back, ten-year-old Gu Ye Xiao [Half-Step Rank 4. Darkening Meter: 6%] raised one hand to adjust his silver-framed [Clear-Sky Scholarly Glasses] and gazed up the steep mountain trail.
