The spiritual energy enveloping Xi Ping was wildly sucked away by that book. 

He was a consummate established foundation, and he had just “eaten his fill” of spiritual stones. He had thought his essence was as plentiful as could be; he could swim from the North Sea to the South Sea in a single breath. But in the blink of an eye, better than half of it was sucked away by that lousy book. 

After all these years and all the tribulations he had passed through, he still hadn’t escaped his predestined fate of being sucked dry as soon as he opened a book! 

Xi Ping snatched a sharp noise like tearing silk out of the Tai Sui Qin. A twang swept out, but it was knocked back. That note like the point of a sword stabbed right at him. 

Above the ancient volume that had drained Tai Sui halfway, an identical Tai Sui Qin emerged out of thin air! 

The note sliced off a lock of Xi Ping’s hair. He dodged desperately, his pupils contracting slightly: on his guard against Yu Chang, he hadn’t allowed the Tai Sui Qin to appear at all. He had kept the qin either hidden in the bones of his fingers or wrapped in a layer of mist, yet the book had been able to copy it perfectly like this. Even the name engraved on it was absolutely clear! 

With a soft laugh, that bastard Yu Chang said into his ear, “Nice qin.” 

Next, the copied qin hanging over the book sounded automatically, returning the attacks Xi Ping had just used against Yu Chang in perfect detail. 

Xi Ping’s killing move wasn’t something he had created purely on his own. He had been imitating the sword energy Zhi Xiu had placed with him back then… It was a slipshod mockup, and, with some self-awareness, he had picked out a name for this move. It was called “Anger Shifu to Death.” 

But however slipshod, it was still a sword move inherited from a sword god. It was hard to say whether it would anger shifu to death, but it wouldn’t have much problem slicing Xi Ping himself to death! 

Apart from some motley unorthodox practices, this was the sum total of the moves Xi Ping knew, and that wicked book had stolen it. And he had to protect the surroundings. He couldn’t wreck the Snake King’s Immortal Palace, the bit of property it had taken him so much effort to acquire. For a moment, there was too much for him to attend to; he was truly hard pressed. 

Even worse, when his spiritual energy became sparser, Xi Ping stopped being lit up! 

His shadow and wrinkles, like a fire that couldn’t be contained by paper, all appeared in unison as the dazzling radiance dimmed. 

His shadow, infected by the grit worm, twisted and changed shape, backlashing against its originator, wrapping around Xi Ping and tying his arms behind his back. 

Yu Chang imperceptibly emerged from the shadows and sent some spiritual energy out from his fingertips. All the reincarnation wood trees in sight were destroyed. 

Before Xi Ping’s consciousness could flee towards the reincarnation wood, he was enveloped by a mustard seed. 

“I saw that young lady using reincarnation wood to contact you. In the interest of safety, it’s best to act first,” Yu Chang said directly into his ear. “Tell me, what’s special about reincarnation wood?” 

Xi Ping’s mind buzzed. He nearly spoke the truth. Fortunately, the sturdiness of his consciousness far surpassed cultivators of the same level as him. He put a stop to that thought at the last moment and said with a cold laugh, “Ha, I was just thinking, how could a crooked schemer like you have a perfectly straight club for a vital weapon?” 

Flustered, he revealed a trace of his original accent. 

“Wow, what a genuine Jinping accent. Sounds like it comes from the lap of luxury,” Yu Chang said, laughing. “The grit projection is a minor achievement. The Engraved Heart stamping spike is only for the purpose of fooling others. Those who know of my Discard the False and Keep the True are no longer in the land of the living… If you sold that information, you’d probably be able to raise a hundred thousand white spirits.” 

Xi Ping was stunned by his boasting. “If Your Excellency had been willing to cultivate the way of shamelessness, you likely would have attained miraculous powers by now.” 

Yu Chang didn’t squabble with him to get the last word in. The shadow wrapped around Xi Ping crawled up bit by bit. The talismans Xi Ping had used, the arrays he had drawn, every sliver of spiritual energy that had passed through his meridians was dug up, displayed in perfect detail for Yu Chang to see. 

“You keep yourself well hidden,” Yu Chang said feelingly. “In order to conceal your lineage and history, despite clearly having a cultivation level half a step from an ascended spirit, all the talismans you use are half-immortal grade. The detail is impeccable.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

Disgraceful! This red-eyed rabbit hadn’t only schemed against him, he was also mocking him! 

Following the shadow, Yu Chang’s speech seeped word by word and sentence by sentence into Xi Ping’s consciousness: “The technique of removing brands is a source of disaster, and duplicating living people is an even greater taboo. Aren’t you afraid that if this gets out, you’ll come to a bad end? You’d be better off giving it to me. I’ll go down into that hell for you.” 

“In exchange for such great kindness,” Xi Ping said angrily, grinding his teeth, struggling fiercely as the talismans he formed in his hand were dispersed before they could take shape, “do you want me to pledge to marry you?” 

Yu Chang paused strangely. His tone involuntarily became somewhat more serious. “I know you’re wearing a spiritual image mask. If you really are a woman, don’t joke like that.” 

“Are you crazy?” said Xi Ping. “You…”

As he spoke, the shadow climbed up to his face and found the connecting point of the spiritual image mask. 

Spiritual energy coated Yu Chang’s fingertips. He tore off the spiritual image mask. 

The stooped and wizened, vulgar-faced “Tai Sui” swore; the latter half of his sentence changed pitch. His limbs abruptly unfolded. Before this person’s form was visible, a scent assailed the nostrils. 

Yu Chang froze. Beneath the spiritual image mask, there really was a tall and slender woman! 

As if he had taken fright, he backed up several steps, putting distance between himself and “Tai Sui”, cautiously drawing back the hand he had just used to touch “Tai Sui”’s face. His eyes were drawn by that woman’s features. 

This woman might have had poor vision or clumsy hands. She had blindly smeared thick makeup all over her face, red here and green there, and despite all this still looked quite human; clearly her looks weren’t bad. Yu Chang struggled to distinguish the outlines of the features hidden by the uneven powder. He thought she looked familiar. The next moment, he gave a start: how come this person seemed to be Zhao Qindan? 

Wasn’t that young mistress hiding out in Yu Family Bend? 

No, this was wrong, could this really also be a…

But it was already too late. In the moment that Yu Chang’s attention was distracted by that heavily made-up face, the spiritual image mask he held in his hand suddenly broke apart—there was a binding talisman behind the mask, of ascended spirit grade! 

He had just successfully tricked “Tai Sui” into taking that Discard the False and Keep the True, and only a moment later, his fortunes had reversed. 

With the binding talisman on him, all of Yu Chang’s essence instantly stagnated. He couldn’t move a sliver of it. Without a supply of spiritual energy, the Discard the False and Keep the True book fell right into Tai Sui’s hand. That person reached out to smack it, and the traces vanished off that book. Yu Chang felt his vital weapon “disappear” as it lost contact with him. 

At the same time, the shadow wrapped around “Tai Sui” also lost power. “Tai Sui” slipped out of it and made a grab up high. There was a low, buzzing qin note, which sliced towards Yu Chang’s hand from a few steps away. 

In a flash, Yu Chang, having no way out, took out a tinderbox and lit himself on fire! 

This person didn’t seem to be made of flesh and blood, but rather a ball of cotton soaked in lamp oil. The moment the small flame of the tinderbox, which wouldn’t necessarily have lit a pipe on first try, touched his body, it leapt up with a roar into a fire taller than a man. 

Yu Chang was trapped by the binding talisman and couldn’t use spiritual energy, but he could use self-immolation to “cook” the spiritual energy out. This fire that used his flesh and blood for kindling instantly formed a shield. The qin notes bearing sword aura hit the shield head on and actually rebounded. 

Yu Chang’s hair and skin were quickly charred by the flames. In an instant, he was beyond recognition. On the point of extinction, the color of the flames approached gold. This ruthless person roared, then actually escaped the binding talisman that was of a higher cultivation level than him. A fireball carrying spiritual energy opened a line of retreat for him. The “Tai Sui” facing him seemed to be extremely averse to fire. He scrambled hastily out of the way. 

Yu Chang wasn’t set on continuing the fight. Once he got free, he peeled the raging flames burning him off his body and got on his sword to flee. 

But the qin music wasn’t willing to let him go. It came from all sides, chasing him like his own shadow. 

This “Tai Sui”’s music changed from the sharp and harsh mode of a sword cultivator from before; at first, the music sounded straightforward and mild, but the final notes had a befuddling sinister air to them. When the music began, the forms of countless “Tai Sui”s crowded around from all sides, all of them papermen. 

In a moment of desperation, Yu Chang suddenly tossed out the fireball he had peeled off himself. Ring after ring of papermen surrounding him touched the fire and went up in flames, flickering in midair. 

In the starless, moonless night, the ashes of burning paper filling the sky looked like they belonged to a preposterous funeral. 

Yu Chang, who had nearly exhausted his essence, couldn’t go on. His vision went black, and he fell from the sky, falling into a river by the border of Tao County. 

The river quickly extinguished the embers of his flames and swept him towards its lower reaches. Next he was stopped by a reincarnation wood tree laying across the water. When the coarse tree branches stopped the man who had nearly burned to coal, they tore his flesh open. Pus and blood stained the whole tree. Xi Ping’s consciousness, hidden in the reincarnation wood tree, probed Yu Chang’s spirit, which was on its last gasp. 

“Caught you,” Xi Ping thought. “One hundred thousand white spirits.” 

First he used a paperman to put several sleeping talismans on Yu Chang, then snatched his consciousness into the Law Breaker Bracelet. Only then did he appear in his true body to clean up the scene. Wincing, he disdainfully lifted Yu Chang’s blackened body through a layer of spiritual energy and took him back to the Snake King’s Immortal Palace. He sent word to Wei Chengxiang: “It’s all right now.” 

Wei Chengxiang breathed a sigh of relief. “Reincarnation wood is also safe? That was close. There are remarkable hidden talents among Western Chu’s common people.” 

The first time the reincarnation wood trees had shaken gently beside the medicinal herb fields, Wei Chengxiang had heard it and had known that Tai Sui had found her. She had relaxed and nearly given way, but fortunately she had touched the prohibition on her mustard seed. 

All the things inside her mustard seed put together weren’t as expensive as the mustard seed itself. Even sewing it up with needle and thread would be a waste of the thread. The only use of a prohibition was to protect the reincarnation wood amulet—she was keeping herself from using the amulet to contact Tai Sui. Though she couldn’t remember why at first, as a cultivator who had moved through the lower levels of the black market for many years, Wei Chengxiang’s basic principle was: if she urgently wanted to do something but was stopped by her past self, she shouldn’t hesitate, shouldn’t think that she was rationally weighing the advantages and disadvantages; even if there was a colossal enticement before her, she still had to turn and go back the way she had come. 

She had kept to that until she heard the reincarnation wood trees giving her a second signal. Tai Sui was telling her to play along. 

“You two hurry up and find a safe place to meditate. Don’t do anything for now. This brat has too many tricks, I’m afraid he’s left some hidden threat on you,” Xi Ping instructed. “Once I’ve dealt with this guy, I’ll take you to a safe place to eliminate the bad luck.” 

As he spoke, holding his nose, he returned to the Snake King’s Immortal Palace with Yu Chang, who had been burned until he stank of reeking flesh. 

The “Tai Sui” in the Snake King’s Immortal Palace was also a paperman controlled by him. But when Xi Ping had made the paperman inside the Law Breaker, he had first encased it in Zhao Qindan’s consciousness, changing the paperman into her form. Then he had enveloped it in a Luwu mask. 

The ascended spirit grade talisman behind the Luwu mask he had gotten at the last moment from Lin Chi. Its level was strong enough to control a consummate established foundation; the talisman only needed to be activated. 

In order to keep Yu Chang distracted a little longer, Xi Ping had had a sudden thought and applied thick makeup to the young mistress’s face—when a person saw a face that was both strange and familiar, they could never resist trying to recognize it. He hadn’t thought that while the idea was perfect, the result would be poor. He had turned a beauty into a monster. 

The last time Xi Ping had applied makeup was when he had been putting it on his own face. The outcome had been exceptional, making a sensation that drew the notice of half the Lingyang River. He had been quite regretful then, thinking that his features were too strong to be suited to makeup. 

Now, he had verified a few things: first, there was nothing wrong with his looks—both light makeup and heavy makeup would always be appropriate for a beautiful man. He was only bad at applying it. In the future when he had a wife, he absolutely couldn’t paint her brows for her, or else at the first stroke of the brush, the lady would become a widow. 

Second, however great his self-confidence, he had to admit that his sort of “half a step from an ascended spirit,” having relied on happy coincidence to reach that stage, was as different from a consummate established foundation who had cultivated for centuries as heaven was different from earth. 

Yu Chang’s grit projections, which could listen in on a person through their shadow, were scary enough. If he hadn’t taken enough precautions in advance, that Yu would have had him under control in a couple of sentences. No wonder he used his own vital weapon so rarely. And as soon as that vital weapon came into his hand, it could imitate his opponent’s power. Working in concert with the grit projection, it could even clearly see what talismans and arrays the opponent had used recently. 

And never mind that—after Yu Chang was restrained by Lin Chi’s talisman, Xi Ping had resisted showing himself, because he had suspected this person would have some backup plan at the bottom of his bag for when he reached an impasse. It was indeed as he had expected, only Xi Ping hadn’t thought that this “backup plan” would be so resolute. 

This person was vicious and merciless, crafty and cunning. He had so many powers it was impossible to keep up. And Young Master Xi, supposedly of the same level as him, only had one power: cheating. 

Fucking ridiculous. 

Though Xi Ping’s face was as thick as a city wall, he still couldn’t help feeling inferior. He would have loved to find a place to go into seclusion and get to work right now. 

Third, Xi Ping had found that if he only had the “score,” he could use his qin to play others’ powers. 

This was a sense that Bai Ling had given him—Bai Ling had sent him a complete paperman, and when Bai Ling himself had entered the Law Breaker Bracelet, Xi Ping had found that the paperman’s melody was embedded in Bai Ling’s music. 

Playing the paperman melody to make a copy only worked if he was inside the Law Breaker Bracelet. If he played outside, there was no response. But when he tried to play the segment that came before the paperman outside the Law Breaker, starting from a certain note, his spiritual energy began to be absorbed by the qin. Xi Ping immediately realized that the segment that came before the paperman might be the “score” for creating papermen. 

He had tried it out while chasing Yu Chang. It worked pretty well. 

But Xi Ping guessed that when the original owner used the power, he would achieve new knowledge each time he practiced it, and it would become greater and more flexible. He could only copy the general idea—though that was enough. 

In other words, in the future, he could use the Law Breaker Bracelet to collect “scores,” so that next time he fought he wouldn’t only have the “Anger Shifu to Death” sword move in addition to some unorthodox low level talismans. 

As he planned, Xi Ping dragged Yu Chang’s body into the secret room of the Snake King’s Immortal Palace, surrounded him in layer upon layer of prohibitions, then quietly disappeared and entered the Law Breaker Bracelet. 

He wasn’t expecting to get a scare as soon as he came in—there was a fire inside the Law Breaker Bracelet! 

Xi Ping’s first reaction was to check that the spiritual stones inside the bracelet were safe. Then he noticed that the fire was a part of the “set.” 

In the interests of deliberate mystification, when he had tossed Yu Chang’s consciousness into the Law Breaker Bracelet, he had told the Law Breaker to change the Snake King’s Immortal Palace set to “the surroundings most familiar to the guest.” 

Now, Yu Chang’s consciousness had already woken up after being thrown into the Law Breaker Bracelet. When Xi Ping heard the music he brought in, his first thought was “noisy.” 

Bai Ling’s music was like orthodox court music that went off key at the end, and Zhao Qindan’s music was in classic Wan style—but Yu Chang’s music was so disorderly that it made your head hurt. Many places seemed to have interference, like a person angrily smashing the strings, intense and irregular. 

Right now, the scenery inside the Law Breaker Bracelet was a stretch of low-flying flatland among mountains. People had congregated into a big village there, built roads. There were forty or fifty families. 

A man like a lunatic was standing at the extremity of the flames, flailing his arms and legs as he held up a bucket of lamp oil, screaming and cursing. The mountain wind passed through the valley and caught the lamp oil. The fire surged towards the village like the tide, greedily swallowing buildings and vegetation. 

The people in the village lost their heads from fright, running out with their clothes in disarray. The nimble people in the prime of life were the first to charge out of the thick smoke. They got their family members settled, then ran back into the flames to rescue others, following the cries of their neighbors. 

Xi Ping looked in the direction Yu Chang was looking and saw that he was staring expressionlessly at a family outside the circle of flames. 

A husband and wife, and a child. The boy looked about five or six years old, with a big head and a skinny neck, but from the outlines of his features you could already see how he would look when he grew up. The others in the village were crying and screaming. Only this boy had his head turned to stare out of the image, looking right back at Yu Chang. 

Xi Ping looked on, not showing himself, thinking that not a single word of truth came out of this brat’s mouth. The mother and son were clearly among the first to have escaped the sea of flames, completely unharmed. So much for “burned so badly there wasn’t a bit of intact skin on me.” 

Yu really knew how to make himself seem tragic. 

Little Yu Chang’s dad finished giving instructions to his wife and son and pointed into the distance, probably telling them to get further away. Then he wrapped himself in wet cloth, picked up a water bucket, and charged towards the flames. 

The woman, shielding the child, seemed to reach out to grab someone, but there was no one there for her to grab. 

The people putting out the fire went forward carrying all kinds of water containers, but the mountain wind suddenly became malicious. It abruptly brought the fire forward. Many people, as if made of paper, were lapped up by tongues of flame without coming close. 

The arsonist had already been burned to ashes. All that remained were wave upon wave of ants, crying to heaven and fighting against earth, futilely attempting to protect their families. 

Yu Chang’s eyes were scarlet from the reflection of the flames, but he only watched quietly. This scene made Xi Ping remember the fire in Jinping’s southern outskirts. As he rejoiced that A-Xiang wasn’t here, he got ready to change this nightmare imagery but saw the picture change all of a sudden. 

Xi Ping froze. 

The fire had gone out. The quiet little mountain village had become an expanse of scorched earth. The survivors—including Yu Chang and his mother—were all roaming the ruins with numb expressions attempting to find their loved ones, like wandering ghosts. 

Little Yu Chang’s tall and sturdy dad was gone. His mom’s face was covered in ashes. She was holding him tightly by the hand. 

Not far away, an old woman was desperately digging up a patch of scorched earth with both hands. From the splinters of a collapsed cottage, she dug up a pair of small feet, probably a grandchild of hers who had been unable to get out. She stared blankly for a long moment, then let out a heartrending wail. The cry startled Yu Chang’s mother into a shiver. Her dim eyes focused. She quickly instructed her child, then ran in the direction of the cry to help the old woman dig. 

But when the old woman saw her, her frightening cries came to an abrupt halt. Xi Ping got a clear look at the expression on that face and realized something. 

The next moment, the old woman, like an old beast on the point of death, suddenly found the strength to knock Yu Chang’s mother aside as she came to help her. Pointing to her, she began to yell insults. 

The mournful scolding echoed among the ruins. Gradually, the “ghosts” wandering around all stopped in their tracks, their gazes directed at the lone and helpless woman. 

The look in their eyes was like the look of living ghosts. It made you tremble from fear. 

“Beguiling whore…” 

Whispers rose among the villagers. At the same time, Xi Ping heard the grown-up Yu Chang outside the image quietly repeat: “Beguiling whore.” 

“The one who set the fire was that slut’s lover, I heard it all.” 

“That whore was having an affair, her man found out and beat the adulterer, and that’s what brought this disaster on us!” 

“What does your cuckolding scam have to do with the rest of us? You’ve destroyed the whole village!” 

“How can she have the face to be alive…how can she have the face to be alive? My grandson was only four… These are his feet, look, open your eyes and look, these are his feet!” 

The Yu Chang outside the image wore a peculiar smile, his lips moving soundlessly as he repeated one by one the phrases those people spoke.

“Get her! Get her!” 

The woman was besieged on all sides, becoming a target for the survivors’ torrent of rage.

Her onetime fellows snatched away her child, spat on her, tore at her hair. They discussed whether to bring her up in front of a magistrate, but presumed that the magistrate wouldn’t care about a trifle like this, and no one wanted to get beaten into respecting the law, so public sentiment turned towards drowning her. But there weren’t many deep bodies of water in Yu Family Bend, and if they sank her, they were worried it might pollute the water. So, pooling their wisdom, using some unknown person’s idea, they came up with the notion of making her “pay blood for blood.” 

This was very high-sounding, so everyone picked up on it. The woman was placed on a bonfire. 

The moment that the oil-splashed bonfire consumed the woman, a small form fought free of the villagers’ hands and ran straight into the fire. The woman screamed and wailed, telling him to go, but amid the flames, she could no longer shed tears. The boy climbed with hands and feet, his wet little cotton jacket spurting out black smoke. He jumped up and tore the ropes and shackles off the woman. The ropes were covered in lamp oil, and the shackles were so hot that he screamed. He missed his footing and fell from the bonfire. 

The fire had already swallowed his mother’s figure. 

The boy, dressed in flames, turned to glare at her killers. Somehow, he found the strength to rush at the crowd. 

The people fled in a panic, hitting him with bamboo poles. The six-year-old Yu Chang let out a frightening scream. The centuries-old Yu Chang began to laugh quietly. 

Inside the Law Breaker Bracelet, the sound of rusted machinery grinding against itself suddenly sounded, breaking up Yu Chang’s own violent and intense music. 

Xi Ping, who had been staring blankly, immediately realized: Oh no, he’s about to lose his mind! 

He unconsciously moved a few steps, almost appearing in front of Yu Chang. Then he quickly came back to himself: What does it have to do with me? Didn’t I want to get rid of him? Isn’t it convenient if he loses his mind? 

But just then, he saw Yu Chang press down on the center of his brow and suppress all his thoughts within two breaths. 

Inside the Law Breaker, the chaotic music representing Yu Chang sounded once again. Only the master of the Tai Sui Qin could hear how violently the music struggled, going on indomitably, trying to fight through the rusty grinding to survive. 

The expression on Yu Chang’s face was identical to the one he had worn when he had charged into the bonfire at six years old. 

The rusty grinding became sharper and sharper, as if it was about to snap at any moment. The sound made Xi Ping’s scalp go numb. 

But two phrases of music constantly repeated, tightly biting down on the rusty grinding. Though the music was now strong, now weak, though several times it nearly broke off, it still managed to pick up right away every time. 

This was a battle with only one witness, but it was still profoundly stirring. 

Xi Ping suddenly raised his head and realized that this was likely Yu Chang’s Way of the Heart. 

He gently plucked the qin strings, repeating those two phrases of music. He felt a powerful thought surge through the qin: I will not die, I refuse. So what if fierce winds and raging fires attack me, so what if knives and hatchets cut me? If I have but one breath remaining to me, I will fight you all until the end of time—

No wonder he had held out so many under the push and pull of the brand and had even gone as far as half a step from an ascended spirit…

Had even gone as far as the most hopeless position he could attain in his life.