All of Wei Chengxiang’s attention seemed to be taken up by the ants on the mountain road. She didn’t even spare the reincarnation wood a glance. 

Both banks of the Xia River had entered autumn. The days were gradually growing shorter. The storm lanterns on the mountain road had lit up, casting ghostly shadows of the mountains and trees. 

Enormous terraced fields of medicinal herbs were situated amid the mountains, yet there was also a clear distinction between them and the mountains. There was only one narrow path to the south, hanging treacherously between the medicinal herb fields and the nearest Sweet Cloud Peak. At its narrowest point, only two people could pass abreast. To either side was a bottomless cliff, and only crude ropes and iron chains to act as railings. 

On a road like this, neither carriages nor beasts of burden could pass. They had to be taken on foot. After the herb collectors finished gathering the medical herbs, they had to carry them down from the mountains basket by basket. There were about a dozen to twenty people per group, walking side by side in two rows. The herb baskets on their backs were six to seven chi long, bearing down on them so that neither their heads nor their feet were visible. Each person held a rope, tying them together, in case they missed a step and lost their footing. 

Zhao Qindan glanced over them, thinking, These people are so skinny. 

Not the carefully maintained slenderness of a beauty, and not the wiry leanness of a martial artist who trained assiduously. The bony joints of the herb gatherers had thin skin like paper stretched over them. As they moved mechanically, they seemed about to break through the skin. 

Like a group of hungry ghosts suffering their punishment in the underworld. 

“Splendid sight, huh?” Wei Chengxiang smiled at the young mistress. “These are the largest medicinal herb fields in the world presently.” 

When a green ore field grew medicinal herbs year round, they would interact with mundane herbs, would gather in one place. Because of this, small-scale green ore fields were either surrounded by a water system or formed a small cliff. These green ore fields were too big. This was a blessed place, and also a dangerous one. After many earthquakes and landslides, they had taken on their current shape. 

Zhao Qindan opened her mouth, about to say “Even if machinery can’t get through here, why don’t they use immortal tools to transport the medicinal herbs?”, but when the words came to her lips, she thought it sounded something like “Why don’t they eat meat if they don’t have rice?”, so she swallowed them.  

“Immortal tools burn spiritual stones, and it’s hard to avoid wastage when an array transports things like spiritual stones or medicinal herbs,” Wei Chengxiang said calmly, as if she knew what she was thinking. “It’s not worthwhile. Comparatively speaking, human labor is  cheapest.” 

Zhao Qindan said, “Mortals can’t remain long in the vicinity of green ore fields. Medicinal herbs sap their vigor. In my…in Great Wan, all the green ore fields cycle between being planted and being left fallow. If they keep working like this night and day, can they live long?” 

“If they’re healthy and strong enough, they should be able to live to thirty. That’s enough,” Wei Chengxiang said. “Chu’s common people aren’t waiting on Xuanyin Mountain’s Grand Selection. They won’t drag their feet on getting married until their twenties or thirties. They do it when they’re thirteen or fourteen. By the time the previous generation dies, the next generation is there to pick up.” 

“What do they expect to get out of this…?” 

“Money,” Wei Chengxiang said. “This awful Yu Family Bend has no land that can be planted. If you don’t work as an herb collector and go west to be a worker in the Moon Plated Gold factories, you’re still eating the Yu family’s food. Over there, an able-bodied worker’s monthly wages don’t amount to a string of copper coins. Converting to Wan currency, it’s no more than seven or eight hundred. Travel is difficult here, and grain is unbelievably expensive. A dan of millet…a dan¹ of rice is close to two strings of coins. How can you get by? Working as an herb collector in the medicinal herb fields, if you’re nimble enough in your work, your monthly wage is five or six times greater. People fight over the positions.” 

The young mistress who couldn’t do sums didn’t understand this at all. Never mind Chu currency, her only impression of Wan’s small coins was using them as the bases of shuttlecocks when she was little. It took her an age of calculating before she could get some idea. In spite of herself, she was disbelieving: “Just for that little bit of money? What’s wrong with saving up? You eat about half a dan of grain in one month, that’s for rice or wheat flour—and I know what millet is, don’t belittle me—if you substitute in mixed grains and millet, you’d still be able to get three or four jin per day. How many people must a family have if that’s not enough for them to eat?” 

When she had been a mortal at home, once she had passed the age of growing taller, she would eat at most one or two liang of rice per meal. Even for her father, you would still only need to add half a bowl of rice. And once you got old, you had to stop eating in the afternoon to keep in good health. 

Wei Chengxiang thought she was rather cute, and she wasn’t in the mood to offer an explanation, so she let it go with a smile. 

Just then, a cry came to them on the wind. Wei Chengxiang’s eyes grew serious. She made a “quiet” hand gesture at Zhao Qindan. 

In the midst of the green ore medicinal herb fields, there was a person with a speaking trumpet saying loudly: “The immortal mountains have been merciful. Since Tao County encountered a monster this year, fearing that the people’s lives will be disturbed, they want to hurry up and manufacture a batch of restorative pills to give to the common people over there before Mid-Autumn. The main ingredient, the crystalline flower, is a specialty on our mountain. For the near future, the immortal mountains will pay double the price for the medicinal herbs they receive. Our employers are generous, so they’ll double your wages, too. How often does a good thing like this come around? You can make money and accumulate merit, help the country and the people. I bet you’re all going to laugh it up!” 

In the valley, there was an echo of “laugh it up…laugh it up.” An herb collector, whether tired or dazed or something, was so startled by this echo that his foot slipped, and he nearly fell down from the precipice. 

Zhao Qindan gave a cry, bouncing up in alarm, almost tossing out a talisman across the distance. She only came to her senses when Wei Chengxiang reached out a hand to stop her. 

Luckily there were about a dozen herb collectors tied together. If one lost his footing, he would soon be pulled back by his companions. But the basket on this person’s back was knocked open, and two crystalline flowers fell to the bottom of the cliff. 

The number and weight of the medicinal herbs the herb collectors carried on their backs had to be verified in the field and when they handed them over after leaving the mountain, to prevent theft. If the quantity didn’t match, they had to compensate for it. But these were medicinal herbs. Dropping one little flower meant a whole year’s work had been for nothing. 

A half-immortal had good hearing. From far away, Zhao Qindan heard as that herb collector knelt on the ground and let out a wail like a dying cry. She broke out in gooseflesh. In that moment, she suspected that person was going to jump. 

But the colleagues in his group weren’t moved at all. Some were waiting with numb expressions, picking at their hands, some were annoyed that he was holding them up, grumbling and swearing at him, and some were patiently counseling him in low voices, telling that despairing herb collector that there was no use in howling. He was better off using that time to get up right now and make money. 

Zhao Qindan held her breath. If that herb collector jumped off the cliff, she was ready to catch him. But that person didn’t attempt suicide as she had expected. In hardly any time, he once again carefully righted the basket and tied it firmly. Limping, he went on to struggle for survival. 

Zhao Qindan at last slowly let out a breath, feeling extremely disturbed. Her palms were even sweating. 

But Wei Chengxiang didn’t see anything unusual about this. She held down something on her chest and towards the empty air, speaking to herself, said, “Tai Sui, I’ve made inquiries in Yu Family Bend, and I’ve found that apart from distributing grain, Sanyue is also going to distribute a batch of restorative pills to Tao County. After taking them, the people will probably be able to make it through the Moon Shadow period. Do you think there is still a need for our spirit-gathering array?” 

Xi Ping had been keeping an eye on the two of them through the reincarnation wood. He knew perfectly well that when Wei Chengxiang said this, she hadn’t taken the reincarnation wood amulet out of her mustard seed at all…and moreover, she normally didn’t speak aloud when she contacted him. 

What was she doing? 

Xi Ping quickly focused on her and saw that when Wei Chengxiang finished saying there was no need for the spirit-gathering array, next to her, Zhao Qindan’s shadow shook unnaturally. 

Wait, what was that? 

Xi Ping was about to draw Zhao Qindan’s consciousness into the Law Breaker, but he thought of Wei Chengxiang’s peculiar behavior and held back. 

The young mistress who had just been struggling to do a calculation suddenly got a dazed look in her eyes, a thought that didn’t accord with her experiences appearing out of nowhere in her mind. She blurted out: “Really? They’d even exploit their own nearest and dearest to death. Would they really care about the lives of others?” 

Wei Chengxiang seemed not to have expected that she could also catch on quickly sometimes. She turned her head to look at her in some astonishment. 

Zhao Qindan said, “The sages of the Sanyue Mountains have Ways of the Heart, but the half-immortals under them don’t. I’ve heard plenty of things about how vile the reputation of Western Chu’s Qilin Guard is…” 

Having said this, her voice paused involuntarily. A doubt flitted past. Zhao Qindan thought: I heard… What did I hear? Where did I hear it? 

A voice in her mind answered her: Naturally it was in the Zhao family hidden realm, listening to the elders’ discussions. 

It was as if a fog rose in Zhao Qindan’s head. She was confused for a moment, vaguely remembering that something like this really had happened. That third-rate imperial grandson was a relative of the Yu family by marriage. Before the wedding, the Zhao family would certainly want to find out all about his background. 

So she went on, saying to Wei Chengxiang: “I’ll tell you another inside story. As medicinal herb sellers, the Yu family always treats people according to their position. They’ve already bought off the half-immortal herb purchasers. The herbs they sell to the immortal mountains are at top price but of second-rate quality. At least six parts of each dan is weeds. Since the immortal mountains are in such a hurry to have the materials this time, and the Yu family is even willing to double the herb gatherers’ wages, it’s clear they’re going to reap even greater profits. The medicine makers—it’s mostly open-eyed cultivators who make the elixirs given to mortals—they’ll subcontract out, level after level, and in the end there’s no saying what kind of lumps they’ll end up with. And even so, those inferior pills will most likely eventually end up on the black market, to be sold to poor rogue cultivators like you.” 

Wei Chengxiang frowned and looked her over. “How do you know?” 

“The Yu family nearly gave me a facial tattoo on my spiritual image, is there anything surprising about me knowing something about their dirty secrets?” Zhao Qindan raised her chin slightly, her eyes falling on the herb gatherers. Her haughty expression dimmed slightly. “In Heaven’s Design Pavilion, there’s a record. During Great Wan’s era of Taiming, there was a great drought one year, leaving a thousand li of barren land, and the court sent people to provide disaster relief. The outcome was that more than half the grain meant to give relief was mixed with grit. If it hadn’t been discovered by a senior from Heaven’s Design Pavilion who was passing by, there’s no saying how long it would have been concealed. And as for this awful Western Chu—they’re already doing pretty well if they have grit to eat. How can they expect elixirs? I advise you and the one behind you not to rely on that.” 

Just then, Wei Chengxiang’s shadow also moved. Her clear gaze became hazy. 

A thought arose in her mind: Right. If Sanyue could be relied upon, Tao County wouldn’t have ended up with an evil cultivator as its local tyrant. If Tai Sui really does have a means for removing spiritual image brands, then isn’t that an achievement of boundless virtue? When those big families who prey on the people have lost their watchdogs, how will they continue their tyranny? And those hundred thousand white spirits will be taken care of. 

In fact, she ought to facilitate this business. 

As she thought this, Wei Chengxiang unconsciously felt around for the mustard seed hanging in front of her chest, wanting to take out the reincarnation wood that was sealed in there. Just as her fingertips were about to reach into the mustard seed, they were knocked numb by a prohibition. 

The fingers connect to the heart. Wei Chengxiang, her expression unchanging, sucked in a breath: Wait, why would I have put a prohibition on my mustard seed? 

Just then, the railcar for transporting the medicinal herbs was fully loaded by the workers. It rattled and clanked, spouting steam, and began to run along the Moon Plated Gold tracks that wound like a snake. Two huge carriage lamps swept over, making the shadows of the two young women hiding in the darkness slide quickly, as if they wanted to plunge into their bodies. 

The trees nearby were shaken by the railcar and rustled a few times. 

Wei Chengxiang raised her eyes, and another thought invaded her mind: I’ve been getting more and more paranoid over the years. 

Next to her, Zhao Qindan spoke as though to herself: “Deliberately driving down the wages at the Moon Plated Gold factories, levying exorbitant road tolls, irrigating their medicinal herb fields with human vigor and blood, storing up spiritual image brands used to make slaves… I’ve heard that the head of the Yu family is only an open-eyed cultivator who used spiritual stones and medicinal herbs to force his spiritual eyes open and can’t draw so much as half a talisman. What do they have that’s so great?” 

They relied only on their ancestor having been ruthless enough and lucky enough to have controlled a genius who was at that time just at his lowest point, such that hundreds of years later, a whole family of vermin could lie upon a mountain of gold tyrannizing everyone around them. And the servant who had been forced to sell himself back then had changed overnight, becoming himself a royal kinsman, a high-ranking official of a prominent family! 

The lofty mansions, the tremendous wealth and rank, all depended on a single spiritual image brand. 

If only…

Wei Chengxiang snapped her fingers, released the prohibition on the mustard seed, and pulled out the reincarnation wood. “Senior!” 

In the most secluded little courtyard in Yu Family Bend, a pair of slightly bloodshot eyes opened. Yu Chang laughed: so that was it. 

He’d been wondering how it was possible for someone to use their consciousness to communicate. It turned out that this was the communication token this mysterious “Tai Sui” used to contact his subordinates. This little girl was hardly full-grown, but she was very shrewd. She’d been forced to put on an act this whole time, and she’d been unusually hard to deal with. 

But no matter how clever she was, as long as she had a desire, there would be a crack in her mind. Never mind a paltry little half-immortal, not even an established foundation could escape his Shadow Speaker technique. 

Yu Chang exhaled softly. Wei Chengxiang and Zhao Qindan were unnoticeably wrapped up in a mustard seed. This time, neither of the two young women full of indignation noticed. 

Wei Chengxiang involuntarily spoke aloud the words she was using to communicate through her consciousness: “…I know that stealing an incomplete spiritual image stamp isn’t the same thing as removing a brand that’s been there for centuries, but this Yu Chang seems to think you can do it. Senior, don’t you think you should see him? Oh…all right, I know it’s not convenient for you, so I’ll act as intermediary. Yu gave me a communication token…” 

The moonlight was momentarily blocked by the clouds. The people and the trees were submerged in darkness. Wei Chengxiang’s hand holding the reincarnation wood amulet turned dark, and a “shadow” burrowed into the amulet. 

“Let me see what kind of divinity this Tai Sui who has taken over Wild Fox Country is.” 

He chased the aura inside the reincarnation wood amulet, and at a glance saw at the end of the trail a middle-aged man who looked about the same as the Tai Sui divine image that Tao County had worshipped before. He was inside the Snake King’s Immortal Palace. 

An established foundation…no, higher, half a step from an ascended spirit. 

It turned out there was such a hidden talent in little Wild Fox Country… Wonderful. 

Found you. I’ll be there in no time. 

Greed appeared on Yu Chang’s face. His bloodshot eyes became even redder. In that moment, he seemed only a step away from losing his mind. 

His figure flashed, and he flew off in the direction of Tao County. 

Xi Ping, who had fashioned the Luwu mask into the appearance of the Tai Sui divine image, had no idea that he had already been spotted. After finishing his conversation with Wei Chengxiang, he took the phoenix stamp out of the Law Breaker to examine it. 

The phoenix stamp he had trapped kept wanting to run off towards the northeast—northeast was the direction of Yu Family Bend. There seemed to be something there attracting it. 

If his guess was right, the phoenix stamp probably wanted to go find Zhao Qindan. 

A spiritual image and a spiritual image stamp were a pair. This made Xi Ping remember Liang Chen. 

Back then, Liang Chen had had his mind set on removing the brand on his spiritual image, and his method had been very thought-provoking: he had gone around swindling people whose spiritual image was similar to his into being his believers, making them swear blood oaths to offer up their “life while living, body after death, what they had grown to this day, their future spirit and primordial being,” so he could switch to a shell that had been offered up to be seized whenever he wanted to. 

Even if his true body had become useless, wouldn’t it have been enough to seize another body once? Why would he have to prepare so many backups? 

Even with special powers that could let him seize multiple bodies, the experience certainly couldn’t have been pleasant. Each time you occupied another person’s spirit, your own risk of losing your mind would increase, and your consciousness would involuntarily be influenced by the body. With Liang Chen’s impartiality between men and women, Xi Ping couldn’t imagine how he would have changed after a whole round of seizing bodies. In spite of himself, he broke out in gooseflesh. 

Just then, his spiritual sense was suddenly touched. He noticed that he had been saying what he was thinking aloud. 

Xi Ping flung out a hand. “Who’s there!” 

The mustard seed that had wrapped around him at some point tore at once. A white-clothed man landed in front of him and smiled at him. “This extraordinary individual you mention who could seize bodies repeatedly truly did want to use this method to remove his spiritual image brand—reasonably speaking, each time he seized a body, a bit of the brand would be scrubbed away by a very similar spiritual image. After ‘rinsing’ repeatedly like this a hundred thousand times, perhaps he really could have escaped that slave’s brand. Though the outcome definitely wouldn’t match up to an identical spiritual image… I have looked forward to meeting you for a long time, Grand Duke Tai Sui.”