Luo Binghe's palace melts away, and Qing Jing Peak assembles itself around them. The buildings on Qing Jing are simple—as the scholar's peak, its asceticism suggests a focus on higher matters—but the natural beauty of it is striking. Bright spring bamboo grows in small groves, thickening into forests at the edges of the training grounds and giving way to ancient cypresses and firs. The other peaks of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect dominate the horizon, gentle and imposing, Qiong Ding to the north and Wan Jian to the south. The late morning sun dapples the ground with bamboo shadows and sparkles off the rainbow bridges connecting the Twelve Peaks. There isn't much difference, but Luo Binghe based the vision on his most recent memories of Qing Jing, when he met Shen Yuan in the other reality, rather than his memories from childhood. Thinking of it like that helps mute his adverse feelings toward this place. Luo Binghe suffered here, but not in the version where Shen Qingqiu's iron fist was replaced by Shen Yuan's gentle hand.

He gestures to a small cottage built from bamboo. "This is the peak where Shen Yuan teaches his cultivation disciples, and there is his residence." He doesn't bother to identify it as the place where he himself studied cultivation; it's not as though he learned anything.