" Your Two Masters Before The Incident. "

"There are only two directions on a Nameless's compass — the unknown scenery that spurs adventurous curiosity, and the place that will bury our bones. Sometimes, they are the same thing. "

𝐁𝐀𝐈𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐆

[𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐓]

"Whoever wishes to learn my swordplay, I will teach them. "

𝐉𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐔

[𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐓]

─────

The High-Cloud Quintet was a legendary group of five heroes in Xianzhou history. They were led by Jingliu, the previous Sword Champion of the Xianzhou Luofu.[1] However, they disbanded less than a hundred years after their group's formation.[2]

The High-Cloud Quintet was made up of five members from different Xianzhou ships:[3]

Jingliu, from the Xianzhou Cangcheng.[4]

Jing Yuan, original ship unknown.[Note 1]

Dan Feng, from the Xianzhou Luofu.

Baiheng, from the Xianzhou Yaoqing.[5]

Yingxing,[6] a short-lived species man who came to the Xianzhou Zhuming on a merchant vessel and stayed to study their craftsmanship before coming to the Luofu.[7][8]

Using what he learned from his time with the Xianzhou, Yingxing forged four powerful weapons that came to be used by the other members of the Quintet.[7]

In their heyday, the High-Cloud Quintet were close friends and heroes of the Xianzhou. Jingliu, the Luofu's Sword Champion, recruited four other distinguished individuals; Imbibitor Lunae Dan Feng — High Elder of the Luofu Vidyadhara, Baiheng — an ace starskiff pilot from the most renowned of the Yaoqing's Foxian adventuring flying families known as the "Starskiff Killer", Yingxing — a short-life species craftsman who managed to attain the title of the Luofu's Furnace Master, and finally Jing Yuan — a Cloud Knight Lieutenant who was Jingliu's student, implied to be the last to join.[1]

They were initially gathered to save the Xianzhou Yuque from an assault by the Denizens of Abundance.[3][Note 2] Other feats that the Quintet accomplished in their short span included defeating the borisin at Thalassa, destroying the alliance between the Houyhnhnms and the wingweavers in the Abundance Axis, and defeating the living planet Ketu Mirage.[2]

The group came to an end more than 700 years before the main story,[Note 3] in Year 7379 Star Calendar,[9] when Baiheng sacrificed herself in a great battle against Shuhu. In an attempt to resurrect Baiheng, and also to solve the Vidyadharas' reproduction problem, Dan Feng committed a great sin that was known as the Sedition of Imbibitor Lunae.[3] Upset by the endless cycle of death that war brought about, he used the Transmutation Arcanum to resurrect Baiheng, while also allowing other races to be incorporated into the Vidyadhara species.[10] However, his tampering ended up creating an uncontrollable draconic abomination that wrought great destruction to Scalegorge Waterscape.[11]

Yingxing assisted Dan Feng in the resurrection process by using Shuhu's flesh, which backfired on him, transforming him into an immortal being struck with mara.[12] Jingliu also developed mara as a result of the incident, but it was likely induced by trauma as she was not involved in the resurrection.[13][Note 4] By using