The Road to the Western Heaven Is Severed: Chronicle of the Lords of All Spirits

This novice author's first book. Feedback from all you experts is welcome. [Journey to the West setting]

Dongsheng Shenzhou, Mount Qingya. A thick fog.

The fog was not water vapor, but foul air seeping from underground after the spiritual leyline ran dry. Like gray-white snakes, it crept slowly along the mountain ridge, swallowing dead pines and scattered rocks, and even the faint gleam of gold between the cliffs.

The gold was a stone.

Embedded deep in the cliff face, the stone was about half a person tall, its surface covered in a web of cracks. A faint light shone from within them, like a beating heart. Anyone who came closer would see a kind of dark golden liquid flowing deep inside the cracks. It slowly seeped out, then dried in the mountain wind, forming a thin scab over the stone's surface.