"According to The Classic of Mountains and Seas…"
Arthur spoke calmly as he explained his reasoning.
"Amne Machin Mountain lies to the south of Qinghai Lake, which matches the description of 'south of the Western Sea'."
"Not only that."
He continued,
"In The Classic of Mountains and Seas, it records that around ancient Kunlun there were the Red River, the River (the Yellow River), the Yang River, the Black River, the Weak River, and the Clear River."
"All of these waterways—or their remnants—can be found around Amne Machin Mountain today. Even their general flow directions align with the descriptions in the text."
"From this, it's not hard to deduce that this place was the location of Kunlun Mountain in antiquity."
Arthur's analysis earned him a look of pure admiration from Hermione.
Ranni, too, felt proud of her king's breadth of knowledge.
As for Huoxuan—she didn't really follow the details.
To be precise, she couldn't be bothered to think that hard. Still, she grasped the gist of it.
"So you're saying ancient Kunlun was basically Amne Machin Mountain, right?"
Huoxuan jumped to her feet and strode toward the Kunlun range.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
She'd taken only a few steps before freezing in place.
Turning back, she asked Arthur awkwardly,
"Uh… which direction is Amne Machin Mountain, exactly?"
Arthur let out a long sigh.
"If you don't know the way, why are you charging ahead so confidently?"
Then he added, genuinely puzzled,
"And I'm really curious—since Mount Shu and Kunlun are both among the Four Great Powers of the Eastern Cultivation World, why are you so unfamiliar with Kunlun?"
Li Xuanzhen had once told Arthur that the four most renowned forces in the Eastern cultivation world were Mount Shu, Kunlun, Maoshan, and Qingqiu in the northeast.
Even if Mount Shu and Kunlun weren't on friendly terms, they should at least have some level of contact.
Yet Huoxuan didn't even know where Kunlun's mountain gate was.
That made no sense to Arthur.
"Tch, those Kunlun folks…"
Huoxuan waved her hand dismissively.
"I really can't stand them. They cultivate the Dao of Supreme Forgetting—cutting off emotions, suppressing feelings, unmoved by joy or sorrow. Once they reach a high level, they're basically walking pieces of wood."
"Talking to them is unbearably dull. I couldn't be bothered to interact with them at all."
Arthur nodded in understanding.
That explained everything.
Once he had a general idea of what Kunlun was like, Arthur abandoned his earlier thought of paying them a courtesy visit.
Originally, he'd felt that since they were already on Kunlun's territory, it would be polite to at least say hello.
Now?
Not anymore.
People like that were exhausting to deal with—rigid, dogmatic, inflexible, and utterly unwilling to adapt.
When Arthur had first met Melina, she'd given him a similar impression.
Fortunately, she'd changed over time, becoming far more emotionally expressive.
But from Huoxuan's description, the people of Kunlun sounded even worse than Melina had been back then.
One Melina had been tiring enough.
Arthur had no desire to face an entire sect of "wooden planks."
Amne Machin Mountain was a branch of the Kunlun mountain system.
Alongside Mount Kailash, Meili Snow Mountain, and Gaduo Juewo, it was revered as one of the Four Sacred Mountains of Tibetan Buddhism.
Sometimes, Arthur felt that Buddhism was truly relentless—no matter where you went, its presence was unavoidable.
He didn't exactly hate Buddhism, but he certainly didn't like it either. The other three women felt much the same.
So the group deliberately bypassed the famous White Jade Monastery near Amne Machin Mountain and focused solely on searching for phoenixes.
In ancient times, there hadn't been just one kind of phoenix in the Eastern lands.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas recorded several multicolored divine birds, which could be further divided into numerous subspecies.
Dumbledore had once told Arthur that he'd seen a fire-red phoenix in Kunlun.
That kind should be the Chun-bird, one of the phoenix variants.
The Piya, citing Shi Kuang's Avian Canon, stated:
"The red phoenix is called the Chun."
As for where to find one, Arthur already had a rough idea.
In The Classic of Mountains and Seas, it was recorded that phoenixes resided both to the west and to the north of the Kaikang Beast.
The Kaikang Beast was said to be Kunlun's guardian—a divine beast that served the Queen Mother of the West and guarded the Heavenly Realm.
Legend described it as a massive tiger-like creature with nine heads, each bearing a human face.
Those faces were said to be eternally stern, eyes wide open, constantly surveying Kunlun to prevent any abnormal being from entering.
Arthur didn't know whether the Kaikang Beast truly existed.
But he assumed it must have, at least at some point.
If it guarded Kunlun by watching over it, then it would logically reside at a high vantage point.
And the highest place in the region was undoubtedly the summit of Amne Machin Mountain.
Which meant—
Phoenixes might exist to the west and north of Amne Machin Mountain.
Of course, that was assuming they hadn't migrated elsewhere over the thousands of years.
Arthur first led the group to search the western side.
They climbed from the foothills upward, passing through forests of pine, birch, and fir.
Along the way, they encountered deer, mountain goats, musk deer, snow leopards, and snow chickens.
They even collected valuable medicinal herbs such as cordyceps, snow lotus, and rhubarb.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of any phoenix.
So they descended and began searching from the northern side instead.
Throughout the entire journey, Arthur kept his mental perception fully expanded.
Finally, around the mid-mountain region, his perception brushed against something unusual.
The sensation was eerily similar to the entrance of Mount Shu's sect grounds—
a connection to another space.
Arthur was certain this wasn't Kunlun's cave-heaven entrance.
Kunlun's true entrance lay at the summit and was currently sealed, refusing all visitors.
To enter Kunlun, one would either need someone inside to open the gate—
—or forcibly break through with supreme spatial mastery.
Arthur could do the latter.
But he wasn't bored enough to go smashing other people's sect gates.
He led the three women to the source of the anomaly.
There, they found a small pool of water roughly ten meters across.
What made it strange was the environment.
The surrounding temperature was well below freezing, with snow blanketing everything.
Yet the pool hadn't frozen at all.
Wisps of steam even rose gently from its surface.
Arthur was certain Amne Machin wasn't a volcano.
There was no reason for a natural hot spring to exist here.
And the spatial entrance he'd sensed—
was directly beneath the pool.
Huoxuan curiously dipped her hand into the water.
The moment she did, she, too, sensed the spatial fluctuation beneath it.
Her eyes lit up.
"There's a secret realm here?!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"And it's hidden so well! If this is a cave-heaven, we've struck gold!"
Arthur raised an eyebrow.
A new term again.
"Secret realm?" he asked.
"What's the difference between that and a cave-heaven?"
Although Mount Shu's library was vast, Arthur had spent most of his recent time reading texts related to phoenixes, not spatial realms.
"Secret realms are spaces that don't fully belong to this world, but are connected to it," Huoxuan explained.
"Some are created artificially, while others form naturally."
"Artificial ones usually fall into three categories."
"First—dwellings created by great experts."
"Second—places where great experts left behind their inheritances."
"Third—places that served as both: the expert lived there in life, and left their legacy behind after death."
"As for naturally formed ones—those are cave-heavens like Mount Shu and Kunlun."
"Cave-heavens are far larger than artificial secret realms and often contain naturally formed heavenly treasures."
"Any one of these could stir up chaos in the cultivation world."
"On top of that, cave-heavens are rich in spiritual energy—perfect lands for founding sects. Every major power dreams of possessing one."
After explaining, Huoxuan frowned slightly.
"But this secret realm is strange."
"Before I touched the water, I didn't sense it at all."
At her level—Refining Spirit Returning to Void—she could easily extend her divine sense.
While its range was smaller than Arthur's mental perception, her control and sensitivity were top-tier for her realm.
Yet she hadn't detected the secret realm until physical contact.
That was abnormal.
Could there be something special about the water?
With that thought, Huoxuan scooped up a handful and examined it carefully—
even probing it with her divine sense.
In the end, she found nothing unusual.
Just ordinary water.
Watching her troubled expression, Arthur smiled faintly and said,
"Don't overthink it. Some secrets are meant to stay hidden—until the right person comes along."
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