Elder Li's brows were tightly furrowed. He pushed off with the tip of his foot, his figure darting onto the dim white-jade staircase like a swallow. Elder Wei followed close behind, the two of them racing upward along the jade steps, one after the other.
It took Elder Li only a short while to reach the end of the Heaven-Ascending Stairway.
There, at the summit, was a roughly ten-zhang-wide platform of white jade, carved from a single piece of cold jade. It merged seamlessly with the nine hundred and ninety-nine jade steps below, as though it had grown naturally from the mountain ridge itself.
Set into the platform on either side were two octagonal bronze plates, each about two chi in diameter and separated by roughly three zhang. Their rims fit perfectly against the white-jade surface, like markings that had naturally emerged from within the jade. There was not the slightest trace of any join or seam.
