Chapter 285
Chapter Title: Heavenly Realm
I figured Mount Tai would be handled by Cheongwol and Dugoseong anyway, and we'd naturally find it when we linked up later. That left me with about a month, so I decided to search the remaining four of the Five Great Mountains.
'Start with Mount Heng in the north.'
After some thought on where to go first, I chose Mount Heng. Huashan, Hengshan, and Songshan naturally hosted Mount Hua Sect, Mount Heng Sect, and Shaolin Temple among the Nine Great Righteous Sects. Mount Heng had no major martial arts faction, making it the easiest place to start.
Mount Heng lay in Shaanxi Province, the northernmost of the Five Great Mountains. The Nine Great Righteous Sects typically claimed the famous peaks, so one might expect a Daoist sect there, but there was a reason it lacked one.
Rumble...
It took half a day to reach the base, where I gazed up at the towering peak. Among the mountains I'd seen, it was exceptionally high and rugged, with sheer cliffs that offered no mercy. The numerous passes scattered about made it impossible for any civilian martial faction to settle. Mount Heng, like Mount Tai, was renowned as one of the tallest and most treacherous of the Five Great Mountains, historically a key military stronghold.
As one of Daoism's sacred sites, small Daoist temples dotted the area. But the absence of a major power like the Nine Great Righteous Sects suggested the terrain forced them to heed the government's watchful eye. While searching Mount Heng, I stopped at a temple called Hyeon-gong Temple.
I entered, met the abbot, made a donation, and paid respects to the Buddha statue before requesting a private audience. Naturally, it was about whether he'd seen the Mount Tai Old Man nearby. The abbot found it odd that a child like me had climbed to this temple hundreds of zhang high but answered anyway.