Witnessing a struggle like this, no one could remain unmoved, even if it was a carrion-eating hyena, even if you knew perfectly well that it was bad news. 

Ardently meeting death is admittedly a solemn and heroic affair, but teeth-gritting, blood-sucking will to live is also profoundly moving. 

With a single thought, Xi Ping deferred to his instincts. He plucked the qin strings. The Tai Sui Qin immediately resonated throughout the inside of the Law Breaker. 

He had been very idle as a teenager, alway going to provide accompaniment for dancers and singers. Now he skillfully harmonized with the two phrases of Yu Chang’s consciousness that were stabilizing his Way of the Heart; the place where he joined was as smooth as a river flowing into the sea. 

Yu Chang couldn’t hear his own melody. He only thought that this practically flimsy music poured into his ears like cool spring water. 

His chaotic consciousness suddenly cleared. Something abruptly held up his nearly collapsed and exhausted energy. 

Yu Chang was a person who absolutely couldn’t pass up any opportunity. Following the music, he began to climb fiercely towards the human world. This was something he had done countless times over the past centuries. 

In a little while, the ominous rusty grinding became weaker and weaker, more and more distant. Finally, it was firmly suppressed by the Tai Sui Qin. 

Xi Ping, as if he had been prepared in advance, put the qin away and waited for Yu Chang to catch his breath. Meanwhile, he changed the furnishings inside the Law Breaker Bracelet to the little post station on Longevity Peak in Yu Family Bend—a place they were both familiar with. 

Finally, in about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Yu Chang slowly opened his eyes. 

Of the two of them, one was in the open, and the other was concealed. For a time, neither took the initiative to speak. The expression on Yu Chang’s face was a little complicated. Xi Ping’s emotions were also a little complicated. He suspected he had been bewitched by this old fox’s lies. He inspected his spirit inside and out. 

After a long time, Yu Chang cleared his throat and hoarsely said, “Forget it. I won’t give up my consciousness to let you copy it, and I won’t come after you again. I’ll think of another way to deal with this spiritual image brand… Today’s events, I won’t mention them to anyone else.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

So that’s how he was playing it—to hear him talk, it would seem that he’d been acting under compulsion, not that he had been planning to kill the witness and take the technique of removing brands for himself alone. 

“Oh, wow, how scary, I wonder who could possibly have blown all this hot air,” Xi Ping said mockingly. “Listen, Yu-xiong, which one of us has fallen into the other’s hands right now? There are only two people in this story, and you still managed to count wrong. Maybe you’re getting old?” 

Yu Chang was a habitual liar. Whenever he opened his mouth, this was what came out. He only came around when he was rendered speechless by this rudeness. He thought, true, they’d both revealed their true intentions; they knew each other now. So he also quickly peeled off his human skin. As he examined and assessed the surroundings, he shot back sarcastically, “Is the reason you stayed hidden before because you were scared of getting hunted as soon as you went out?” 

When these two had been plotting against each other, both had been putting on a skilled act. Now, they had temporarily called a ceasefire, so without prearrangement, each revealed his “true heroic quality”: they were both assholes. 

“There’s a whole gang of shed skins lining up. You can go wait at the back.” Xi Ping, idly plucking out a not especially elegant Chu tune, said, “Those two young ladies in Yu Family Bend. Did you do anything else to them?” 

“The grit projections need to be used long term to have an effect. A couple of sentences can only make a person make a ‘momentary false step.’ If a half-immortal meditates and cycles their energy for a while, there won’t be any aftereffects. I never use sinister methods against women…” At this point, Yu Chang rolled his eyes. He knew by now whether “Tai Sui” was male or female—the voice that sounded in this hidden realm must be this Tai Sui’s original voice—which made sense; not just anyone could make up a beauty so she looked as if she’d been beaten black and blue. “I’m not as vulgar as Your Excellency.” 

“Haha, that’s one big fart, you bastard,” said Xi Ping. 

“Well, it won’t knock down your face,” said Yu Chang. 

Xi Ping couldn’t leave well enough alone: “You being so merciful towards women, is that because of your mom?” 

Yu Chang abruptly raised his eyes and said between his teeth: “You’re asking for it.” 

“Yeah, that’s right,” Xi Ping responded. “Come and hit me, then.” 

The veins on Yu Chang’s forehead pulsed. This crazy Tai Sui was actually half a step from an ascended spirit. No matter what, he must be some centuries old, no? Why did he act like an obnoxious little brat? 

He had just struggled back from the edge of losing his mind. He really didn’t want to have another go. Therefore he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and calmed down for a moment. 

Wait. A little brat…

Yu Chang rapidly considered the whole thing and found that his greatest mistake had been to underestimate that little half-immortal in Yu Family Bend. With his cultivation level, he could see at a glance that that young girl was hardly older than twenty, a little devil who wouldn’t make up a handful, and he had placed a grit worm in her shadow. Everything she said and did, everything she thought had been under his surveillance. It was hard to avoid lowering your guard. 

Now that he thought about it, that little half-immortal had deliberately wandered around Yu Family Bend, leading his grit worm to deal with her, just for the sake of revealing his methods to Tai Sui. In other words, Tai Sui could control something that, while it wasn’t on her, was present everywhere she had passed, and he could use that thing to convey simple messages to her…was it the reincarnation wood? 

Yu Chang suddenly remembered a legend: in ancient times, there had been great numbers of masters. When the mighty shed skins became sages, their Ways of the Heart joined with heaven and earth, while the masters whose Ways of the Heart could not abide within the three thousand paths of the Great Way had become “demonic gods.” When they became shed skins, their Ways of the Heart didn’t rise to heaven. They sank into the earth and created a type of “accompanying plant.” 

That reincarnation wood amulet… Was it possible that it wasn’t a communication device, but an accompanying plant? 

Maybe this “Tai Sui” had by some coincidence attained an ancient demonic god’s inheritance, and his cultivation hadn’t actually reached as high a level as it appeared. 

Yes. When they had fought, Tai Sui had seemed to have a sword in his qin, fairly frightening, but its actual quality… The sword aura was sharp enough, but it didn’t seem to have any alterations. All that changed was the pitch of the music, obscuring the truth, that he only had one trick up his sleeve. 

For Yu Chang, the really fatal thing had been the talisman on that spiritual image mask. On the one hand, it had been very precisely planned. On the other hand, that talisman had been of ascended spirit grade, and with very stable spiritual threads, certainly not the product of an “early ascended spirit” who had just crossed the ascended spirit boundary. It was even more certain that it couldn’t have been the product of Tai Sui, who hadn’t yet reached an ascended spirit. He must have gotten it from someone else ahead of time. 

Maybe this “Tai Sui” really was young, and he was only putting on a false show of strength in front of him. 

Yu Chang’s expression became slightly more serious. Bluffing, he said, “Our cultivation levels are similar. How could you fail to see whether I’ve done any tampering?” 

Xi Ping thought to himself, Fine, I see how it is, as long as he’s alive, his scheming mind is alive, too. 

So then and there he openly said with a smile, “That’s hard to say.” 

Yu Chang thought: He’s quite cautious. 

Then this “Tai Sui” continued: “Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. Your consciousness, I’ve already gotten a clear look and felt it up. You’re already here, there’s no need to be so polite with me. Didn’t you want a paperman to use to remove your spiritual image brand?” 

Out of nowhere, a chill went up Yu Chang’s spine. Then he heard peculiar, raucous music. Not everyone was skilled in distinguishing melodies. Yu Chang only thought it was unpleasant. Before he could tell anything else about it, he saw “himself” land in front of him! 

Since obtaining the “Dragon and Phoenix Symbolizing Good Fortune,” Xi Ping had roughly known how the spiritual image brand sounded. So he had removed the grating portion of the music Yu Chang had brought in with him, which was the spiritual image brand, and had successfully copied a “clean” Yu Chang. 

The copied “Yu Chang” landed in disbelief, found that the spiritual image brand that had constrained him for hundreds of years had disappeared out of nowhere, then met the similarly shocked eyes of the original. 

He understood himself best. The next moment, the copied “Yu Chang,” without another word, turned and tried to run out of the Law Breaker. At the same time, he struck first, his talisman hitting the original. The original Yu Chang dodged, relying wholly on instinct, and wanted to go chasing after the copy then and there, but he heard Tai Sui, watching the fun, say easily, “There’s only one spiritual image brand, not enough to go around. Well, why don’t the two of you talk it over between yourselves, see who I should give it to.” 

The two Yu Changs said simultaneously: “You’re wicked!” 

“Pfft, who are you talking about?” said Xi Ping, making matters worse. “How can the crow call the pig black?” 

When the two Yu Changs inside the Law Breaker began their contest, it was a sight worth seeing. They traded talismans, traps, and powers back and forth, each predicting the other’s movements in perfect synchrony. After watching for a while, Xi Ping even stopped playing tunes to liven things up. He reached a hand out of the Law Breaker, grabbed handfuls of peanuts and melon seeds, and started munching. He even complained, “Eh, too salty.” 

Yu Chang: “…” 

Though they were both consciousnesses, the copied Yu Chang had escaped the brand, while the original had been exhausted by nearly losing his mind. The original Yu Chang finally couldn’t hold out any longer. Adapting to the circumstances, he yelled, “Get out the blood covenant, I’ll sign!” 

A “blood covenant” was a kind of business contract common on the black market. The evil cultivators in the black market didn’t trust each other at all. When they were involved in a major deal or hired someone to do something, the two contracting parties would sign a blood covenant. Anyone who breached the contract would suffer backlash—generally speaking, the one with the higher cultivation had the advantage; after all, the same backlash falling on an established foundation and a half-immortal would have different outcomes—but fortunately the two of them had about the same cultivation level. 

Xi Ping spat a melon seed out of the Law Breaker. Lousy Chu, why did they even have spicy melon seeds! 

He wiped his mouth. “Why couldn’t you have been this agreeable to start out with? If you place a bet, you have to take the loss, brother. You fell a move short, so I’ll be holding on to your wicked little book.” 

That old Discard the False and Keep the True volume was Yu Chang’s vital weapon. Hearing this, veins pulsed at the edges of his forehead. He dodged his other self’s killing blow. “All right.” 

“You prepare the reverse stamping spike yourself, and I’ll help you remove the brand,” Xi Ping went on. “You go out into the wide world and leave your identity in Yu Family Bend to me. Whoever reveals this, his Way of the Heart will break to pieces.” 

He didn’t have a Way of the Heart, anyway. 

Yu Chang roared, “My identity is being a lackey and a prisoner, anyone’s welcome to it! If I had two, I’d do a buy-one-get-one-free deal!” 

As he finished speaking, a reincarnation wood amulet flew towards him, with his blood on it. It blocked the copy’s attack for him. 

Xi Ping said, “You can use that amulet to contact me. Finally, I did just save your life. The favor of a drop of water must be repaid with a fountain. For the favor of a life saved, you must face all dangers, do you acknowledge it? I want you to…” 

Xi Ping had been about to blurt out “perform my errands for a hundred years,” but as the words came to his lips, he stopped himself. 

Since ancient times, people had kept dogs, but they hadn’t kept wolves. This Yu Chang was too rotten. Even with a spiritual image brand, he dared to betray his master. Was there anything he wouldn’t do? 

Anyway, it was a waste of breath talking when your views were irreconcilable. He hated this person. There was no need for them to offend each other’s eyes in the long term. 

“Within ten years, when I have a request, you’ll do three things for me,” Xi Ping said instead. “They won’t kill you, won’t harm your cultivation, won’t touch your Way of the Heart…” 

They were both eminent evil cultivators. How could Yu Chang fail to understand what Tai Sui was thinking? Hearing these requests, he wasn’t at all surprised. He grabbed the amulet and without even thinking about it bit through his middle finger, forcing out heart’s blood to smear heavily on the blood covenant.

His hand was too quick. The blood covenant had already gone into effect when “Tai Sui” finished his sentence: “…and won’t disgrace your ancestors.” 

Yu Chang abruptly froze and couldn’t dodge a hit from the copy. Fortunately, at that moment, Xi Ping sent the copy out of the Law Breaker just in time, and his blow disappeared along with him. Inside the Law Breaker, there remained only one Yu Chang…and the shells of peanuts and melon seeds littering the ground. 

Xi Ping put away the blood covenant. As a creditor delighted with his heightened status, he now looked at Yu Chang as though he were a bunch of chives that could be harvested at any time. He became positively cordial. “Good. In that case, we’ll see each other at noon. I’ll rely on you to handle Yu Family Bend, brother.” 

Yu Chang was silent a moment, calming his ragged breathing. “Permit me to ask, Tai Sui, what do you want?” 

In the shadows, Xi Ping froze, abruptly shutting his mouth. 

He looked at the realistic furnishings inside the Law Breaker. Because it was currently overcast in Yu Family Bend, the “Longevity Peak” inside the Law Breaker was also overcast. 

The heavens were so low they seemed to press down on your head, pressing each person to a fixed height, pressing them into a fixed track. 

What he wanted to know was how lofty those noble people were that they had to make all things live according to the path they had set down. 

He wanted to know whose voice, whose will was represented by the Bell of Tribulation, the Silver Moon, and the other souls of the spiritual mountains he had yet to meet. 

He wanted to know to whom those heavens belonged, what lay beyond the void, why the sages had never looked back after stepping out into that void—

This was also what Chen Baishao, who had been buried in the Blissful Village, what the teenage A-Xiang, counting corpses in the southern outskirts…what many people whose characters were either noble or revolting all wanted to ask. 

He also wanted to know why it was so hard to obtain the right to question heaven and earth. 

At last, Wild Fox Country’s Tai Sui snorted. “None of your business. Beat it.” 

Having said this, he kicked Yu Chang out of the Law Breaker and left him to take care of his own medium-well cooked body. 

Then Xi Ping considered and, with a wave of his sleeve, cleaned up the trash and changed the furnishings inside the Law Breaker Bracelet to Cui Ji’s little compound in Jinping. 

It was said that that place was the cherished dream of all the girls in Jinping. Walking through the door, you could smell at once a refreshing fragrance. There were unique dioramas for every season. Inside was a room provided for honored guests to sit and rest. The tea and snacks were always fresh and warm. He didn’t know whether Young Mistress Zhao had been there, but A-Xiang certainly hadn’t. A-Xiang had lived for some years in Jinping’s southern outskirts without even knowing what Cui Ji was. 

Determining that the two of them had already reached a safe place, Xi Ping pulled them into the Law Breaker—actually, he was inclined to believe that Yu Chang had told the truth about not having tampered with them, but in the interests of safety, he still wanted to check. 

The music A-Xiang brought in with her was about what he had expected, the tempo slightly fast, not too proper at first listen, but with a sense of steadiness that penetrated the roots of your ears. Zhao Qindan was somewhat confused, as before, but compared to the last time she had come, which had been only two days ago, her melody already had a faint change. 

Xi Ping listened closely without hearing any jarring noise that shouldn’t have been there. Only then did he appear inside the Law Breaker. 

Using the Marquis and the Latent Cultivation Temple’s Elder Su as his models, he combined the appearances of these two elderly men, and made a few changes, removing both of their excessively distinguishing traits. In a blink, he became a middle-aged man with a gentle expression, wrapped in a thin layer of mist. 

Wei Chengxiang’s eyes lit up. “Senior!” 

After all these years, she was finally seeing his face. He was a little more sedate than she had imagined. Though it was her first time seeing him, she felt as though she had known him for a long time. 

Xi Ping smiled “benevolently” at her and didn’t speak, but his slightly peach-blossom-shaped eyes said everything for him. 

Zhao Qindan examined the surroundings in astonishment. “Is this a hidden realm…? Is it constructed on the basis of that Cui Ji in the capital?” 

Xi Ping still didn’t speak. He pointed to the honored guest hall hidden beneath a pergola among the little compound’s winding paths. Spiritual stones, elixirs, and even tea and snacks were already laid out there, ready for the two of them to look after their internal injuries. Then he slightly cupped his fist towards Wei Chengxiang: You’ve worked hard. 

Then he turned and left. 

“Wait.” Zhao Qindan hesitated. This person’s cultivation was far higher than hers…even higher than that decision-making eldest shixiong in her clan, even a generation higher than her by Xuanyin Mountain’s reckoning. Involuntarily, she restrained her young mistress’s haughtiness and respectfully said, “Thank you for your aid, senior. What instructions do you have for me?” 

But that transcendent middle-aged man only waved a hand at her. When he spoke, countless echoes were layered on top of each other inside the little compound. 

“It is fated,” he tossed out obscurely, and left the two of them with only a lean rear view, instantly reaching the edge of the hidden realm and disappearing. 

Though half of that unbound long hair was grey, the back still remained erect with perfect deportment. Virtue as profound as deep water, upright as a high mountain, taciturn yet reliable. 

It was what she imagined a father should look like. 

The rims of Zhao Qindan’s eyes turned red—but in fact she had already found that over the years, her father’s back had unnoticeably bent. 

The “taciturn yet reliable old father” left the Law Breaker Bracelet and breathed a sigh of relief. He’d nearly died from stifling himself. 

In fact, he had been desperate to speak just now, and also, because he had just pried up Yu Family Bend’s greatest local thug, he was very puffed up and impatient to show off to the young ladies. 

But there was nothing to be done. He had been too reckless in his acquaintance with Wei Chengxiang, always speaking to her in his original accent. Zhao Qindan was a classmate who had gone to the Latent Cultivation Temple with him. They hadn’t had any chance to talk, and people’s memories for voices weren’t nearly as clear as their memories for faces…but what if? 

What if because of his handsomeness, he had left an unusually profound impression on Young Mistress Zhao? 

As Xi Ping saw it, this was only too likely. So just now, he had only said three words, and deliberately made the Law Breaker Bracelet add an echo for him. You couldn’t say he hadn’t been prudent. 

Alas, wasn’t this always the fate of natural beauties? He just had to be careful. 

After a moment of admiring himself and lamenting his lot, he poured out the excess of his desire for self-expression to Zhi Xiu, babbling complacently towards the shard of Zhaoting in his spirit for the better part of half a shichen. 

It was the middle of the night. Owing to General Zhi’s good temper, he didn’t order the shard of Zhaoting to smash him flat…though of course he also ignored him. 

As day was breaking, Yu Chang saved the master of Flying Jade Peak’s ears. Yu Chang’s somewhat weary voice came through the reincarnation wood: “This is Yu Family Bend’s main residence.”