"Thank you," answered Yang Qing with a smile.
He immediately roughly scanned the contents of the talisman. The information was just as thorough as the one he had gotten from Song Guozhi to prepare him for his ceremony.
A report this thorough he couldn't help but feel grateful for the vice warden. Without his involvement, the details would not have been this deep. With the information he had on hand, Yang Qing could make the best choice he could, though the risk was always there that those he chose may end up turning on him, however, the report helped lessen those odds somewhat.
As Yang Qing was sifting through the report, he noticed something that made his brows rise up.
"Senior Shao, what do the animal symbols beside them mean?" asked Yang Qing.
When going through the report he noticed that every name listed there had a symbol of an animal next to their names.
The animals were; a rabbit, rooster goat, rat, dog, pig, horse, and an ox.
When he thought about the symbols closely, he realized they were the zodiac symbols.
"The symbols are the designation of the mountain they are imprisoned at. Those in the qi refinement are imprisoned in the rabbit mountain which is that mountain over there filled with a lot of holes around it…."
Vice Warden Shao An pointed to one of the mountains to the west of their direction. The mountain had little vegetation and was riddled with holes, that made it look like it was a million ant hills combined together.
"The rooster, the goat, and the rat are the mountains that house the criminals in the foundation establishment realm. The rooster houses those in the early stages, the goat houses those in the middle stages and lastly, the rat houses those in the late stage to the peak of the foundation establishment realm.
It's those three respectively," said the vice warden as he pointed towards three mountains that were side by side.
The Rooster Mountain had what looked to be two miniature suns around it. One was golden yellow and the other was dark orange.
The Goat Mountain was barren and only had one single tree growing at the peak. The tree was about 1200 meters tall and had tiny green leaves. However, what was distinctive about it were the large roots and thorny vines that came from that seemed to have traversed the whole mountain.
The Rat Mountain had a few trees here and there, while the mountain was filled with murky black water. Yang Qing felt like the water had corrosive nature to it. If a mortal was exposed to it they would get riddled with all kinds of diseases within minutes and when it came to cultivators, a body refining expert would have internal organs corroded continually. Yang Qing even detected it had the ability to corrode someone's qi.
He couldn't help but wonder what requirements were needed to form an insidious grotto as this one and how the chief librarian even managed to make it his own.
Gaining ownership of such a grotto came with considerable risks, especially in the early stages.
"The Pig and Dog are the mountains that house those in the core formation realm. The Pig Mountain houses those in the early to middle stage of the core formation realm, while the dog mountain houses those in the late stages to the peak of the core formation realm.
It's those two respectively," Vice Warden Shao An said as he pointed to two other mountains.
The Pig Mountain had nothing on it except constant tremors and thunderous earthquakes which immediately repaired itself only for another earthquake to happen. The effects were of varying degrees and accompanying those earthquakes were landslides.
Dog Mountain was the complete opposite of Rooster Mountain. It was dark and gloomy and had a lone moon above it as the only source of light. The moon's light seemed to be dimming. Yang Qing could detect the glow had detrimental effects attached to it especially ones that were targeted towards the mind. One of those effects was inducing mania.
The more Yang Qing looked at it, the more he felt it seemed familiar. He narrowed his gaze on the plants around it and his pupils shook.
'Poison. It's that mountain,' he wondered in shock.
When he arrived, he had seen a mountain that was surrounded by purple smoke that had a dangerous enchanting beauty to it and poisonous plants below it along with insects.
When he closely examined the gloomy mountain, he realized it was the same poisonous mountain from before except the moon above it seemed to be restraining and concealing the poison. Only when he looked closer did he discover minute poisonous elements spread about in most of the plants.
'What kind of crazy place is this grotto?'
Before, Yang Qing only gave the mountains a cursory glance since he was warier of the terrifying sensation he got from the recess of the abyss below the mountain.
After he met up with Vice Warden Shao An, even if he was close to the mountains than before, their effects seemed isolated from him, and at the time he was fully concentrated on committing Shao An's introduction of his new role to memory.
Only now when he purposely evaluated them, did he realize how terrifying those mountains were, and even what he sensed seemed to have been reduced and wasn't the complete effect.
'How do they survive?'
"Lastly the horse and the ox mountains house those in the palace realm. The horse mountain houses those in the early and middle stages of the palace realm and also those in the quasi-palace stage while the ox houses those in the late stage to the peak of the palace realm.
The Horse Mountain is that one, and the Ox Mountain is the one to its right," said Vice Warden Shao An.
The Horse Mountain was the one Yang Qing had taken note off before that had variable changes. One minute it was a scorching desert, the next it was flooding. The changes happened to the weather and the landscape, only the mountainous structure remained but what was on it changed every few minutes, and every change seemed to be a natural calamity, though it did exhibit a calm surrounding once in a while, it was rare. As for the changes, though they seemed normal calamities, Yang Qing detected dao of destruction mixed in with those calamities.
A core formation expert, even one in the late stages would not be able to survive there for more than 30 minutes before their body and soul were destroyed.
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