A small world, two cultivators.
Pursuing and practicing their own Dao…
(Raising my hand, I gently wave it toward the observatory. Seals flow beneath my fingertips, and pale golden spiritual light washes over the entire stone platform like running water. We watch with our own eyes as the solemn, ancient observatory slowly transforms in the glow. Its blue-stone surface becomes smooth white jade, and the stone railings around it turn into carved rosewood. In the blink of an eye, the simple stone platform becomes a palace of carved beams and painted rafters, with upturned eaves and interlocking brackets. Jade bells hanging from the eaves ring by themselves in the windless air, their music like the song of heaven. The stone lanterns on either side of the jade steps flare to life in the glow, burning with eerie blue flames. They give off no heat, yet shine brilliantly, casting a strange luminescence over everyone's faces. Even the dust caught in their hair is crystal clear.”
Yongchengzi spoke calmly, but his fingers unconsciously formed the seals he had used all those years ago. A faint spiritual glow seemed to surround him, as though he had returned to that moonlit night.
“Third Senior Brother was the cleverest back then. When he saw Eldest Senior Brother set up an illusion, he wasn't about to be outdone.” Yongchengzi smiled again and smoothed his sleeves, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes relaxing as though he were reliving the scene. “Third Senior Brother took out a pair of silver scissors tempered in moonlight. With a gentle snip toward the moonlit sky, he cut down several wisps of cloud. Thin as cicada wings and light as a hair, they swirled around his fingertips, shimmering with a faint moonlight. The instant they touched the ground, they became graceful palace maidens. They wore water-green gauze dresses embroidered with flowing silver-cloud patterns. As they walked, their skirts fluttered as if wrapped in mist, and when they danced on the jade steps…”
