“There is someone waiting to receive you in the inner sect, codename ‘Young Master Cousin.’ He will contact you directly. We will think of other ways to enter. You must be careful. Do not act rashly.” 

Wearing Zhao Qindan’s skin, Xu Rucheng unconsciously rubbed his earring—one of his earrings was made of gold, and the other was a gold-plated piece of reincarnation wood. He could receive word from his colleagues at any time. 

Right now, apart from the Luwu that Zhou Ying had deliberately exposed when assassinating the princess, the others, along with the Zhao family, had taken up residence in a place twenty li from the outskirts of Dongheng City. In his capacity as “fiancée,” a small cart drove Xu Rucheng directly into the Sanyue Mountains. 

For the young mistress of an important family, this was undoubtedly the greatest of insults. Fortunately, Xu Rucheng had no self-respect. He was only a little panicked. 

A paperman couldn’t be used to enter Sanyue’s inner sect. Whether they were made by Bai Ling or copied by Xi Ping, the papermen were all of established foundation grade. That was fine for running wild in the border territory of Yu Family Bend, but if they’d tried using that to enter Sanyue’s inner sect, the papermen could have been used as burial goods in a funeral procession right away. 

Had Xuanyin’s elders and its thirty-six peak masters been to Dongheng’s Sanyue’s inner sect? Xu Rucheng couldn’t say for sure. At any rate, below the ascended spirit level, he was the groundbreaking first. 

Because of this, buried here, he could also be entered into the history books. 

The improved reincarnation wood divine tool was convenient and easy to bring along. He could confer with his colleagues any time if something went wrong. While dealing with the Zhaos, even Zhao Qindan herself had acted as external support. 

Xu Rucheng touched the reincarnation wood in his earring with his consciousness and asked, “What is the new colleague’s background?” 

“Young Master Cousin”? Whose cousin? 

Even though the Luwu didn’t like using their full names abroad, they still only went by abbreviated versions of their names, like “Lao Tian” or “Da Cheng.” Why was this person taking such a novel approach? 

“Don’t ask,” his colleague told him, “it’s an established foundation senior.” 

Xu Rucheng suddenly understood: oh, no wonder. 

And here he had been puzzled. Using as convenient an identity as a young mistress of the Zhao family, with Young Mistress Zhao herself to provide assistance, it had been so hard for him to sneak in. How could someone else get into the inner sect a step ahead of him to “receive” him? Indeed, sneaking into Sanyue’s inner sect wasn’t like operating in the mortal world. You had to rely on a master. 

In fact, even Heaven’s Design Pavilion spoke of Xuanyin’s inner sect as unreachably high, but here they had “Tai Sui” and “Young Master Cousin,” one established foundation after another stepping up to be used. Where was His Highness Prince Zhuang getting them all? He was truly unfathomable. 

Hearing that he had outside help, Xu Rucheng felt a little more secure. He pushed the carriage window open a crack. 

The spiritual energy in the Sanyue Sect was too dense. Before this, the place with the most abundant spiritual energy that he had been to was the Kaiming Department’s training hall, built with spiritual stones for bricks, the spiritual energy even more abundant than in the Zhao family’s hidden realm. But it wasn’t worth mentioning in the same breath as this place. 

If you said that the Kaiming Department’s training hall was a cup of sweetened water whose sweetness you could barely taste, then the Sanyue Sect was honey so thick you could pick out the sugar granules. 

Xu Rucheng inhaled and exhaled lightly and felt that his lungs and bones were crammed full of spiritual energy. He had never escaped the poverty of the “Kaiming” position. All this way, he’d taken every opportunity to use the spiritual stones in the Zhao family hidden realm to cultivate “on public funds.” Anyone who didn’t take advantage was a loser. 

But now that he had truly reached the spiritual mountains, he suddenly couldn’t calm down enough to meditate. 

The dense spiritual energy made him feel excessively free and easy, then out of nowhere afraid… Xu Rucheng felt that he was about to be swallowed by the spiritual mountains. These spiritual mountains seemed to be “alive,” coldly suspended above his head like the Silver Moon, bringing down heaven’s punishment upon any ants who were unwilling to blindly go with the flow: Hui Xiangjun had been utterly discredited; Southern He’s nation and people had been destroyed for misusing the Gold Imitation Technique; Wan and Chu seemed to have taken these as lessons and used the Gold Imitation Technique with great restraint, yet five years ago there had still been the minor upheaval caused by the fire in the southern outskirts…and then there was barren and desolate Yu Family Bend. 

The workers who were nearly starving to death couldn’t see the light of day when they raised their heads, so they said “Moon Plated Gold eats people.” 

A thought appeared out of nowhere. Xu Rucheng suddenly thought: It seems that everything in the world is decided by the spiritual mountains. 

The spiritual mountains differentiated mortal and immortal, demarcated national boundaries. The great divine tools that could wash away all the world’s “demons” had been birthed by the spiritual mountains. The full moon divinities and the shed skin sages had been approved by the spiritual mountains. Even whether a place was barren or fertile was determined by the outstretched veins of the earth of the spiritual mountains. 

Just then, the carriage stopped. 

Xu Rucheng gave a start and unconsciously squeezed the earring hiding reincarnation wood, then heard the old Xiang family maidservant who had led him into the Sanyue Mountains say in a strictly businesslike way, “Knowing you had been forced to leave your home, young mistress, His Highness made ready some clever servants specifically for your use, all well-trained. Please choose some you find suitable to bring along, young mistress.” 

As she said this, someone pulled open the carriage door for him. Xu Rucheng raised his head and saw eight young women, each with a different type of beauty, standing in a row. They bowed to him in unison. 

Where would a laborer whose ancestors hadn’t washed the mud off themselves in eight generations have seen such a spectacle? Xu Rucheng was petrified and averted his gaze. But as soon as he lowered his head, he glimpsed the nail polish on his own nails and at last remembered: Right, I’m like them. 

The old maidservant sent by the Xiang family pulled a long face, her features almost dangling to her insteps. As if reciting a funeral oration, she said, “Everything is plain in the immortal mountains. Please excuse us, young mistress. According to regulations, the imperial grandson ought to be accompanied by six servants, and a principal wife can command five servants. His Highness lives simply and frugally. He is still one person short of the six person quota.” 

So? 

Xu Rucheng, all at sea, waited for her to continue, but the old maidservant didn’t go on. She stood there like a stump, keeping herself to herself. 

Just then, among the eight candidates, the woman furthest to the left quickly raised her eyes and cast a glance at him. 

This woman had a pair of bewitching peach blossom eyes that shone. With one look, she nearly made Xu Rucheng’s face heat up. He was just about to avoid her gaze when he heard an unfamiliar man’s voice through the reincarnation wood: “Don’t just stand there. She’s telling you to show some sense and not surpass your ‘husband.’” 

Xu Rucheng choked on a mouthful of steam. “You… Sir, are you the ‘Young Master Cousin’ senior?” 

“Indeed,” the person answered briefly. “There is a regular order to the mortal servants that the Xiang family sends into the immortal mountains. If you find the right connections, you can sneak in. It’s on your account that this was possible. Otherwise, the next selection of servants would be ten years from now.” 

Xu Rucheng: “…” 

Not only had he found an established foundation master, this was also an established foundation master who could stoop or stand as necessary! His Highness Prince Zhuang’s powers were truly vast! 

Though to return to an earlier subject, it was no wonder Sanyue had a bunch of good-for-nothings who couldn’t open their spiritual eyes in eight years. Occupying the immortal mountains, these Xiangs lived mundane lives, treating the immortal mountains like their own home. What kind of lousy way could they cultivate? 

Xu Rucheng asked, “Senior, who should I pick?” 

“Whoever you like. Don’t pick me, at any rate,” the “Young Master Cousin” said. “Just pick four whose looks you think are a little worse.” 

Xu Rucheng was confused. He thought, If I don’t choose you, how will I bring you in? 

But the Xiang family’s old maidservant, perhaps unhappy that he was holding things up, urged him cuttingly: “These are all servants born in Prince Qing Manor, with clean backgrounds, all bearing our family’s seal. Those spies and sneak thieves certainly can’t sneak in among them. Would you like them to state their horoscopes, young mistress, so you can see whether there is a clash between you?” 

The spy and sneak thief Xu Rucheng thought, We’re going to clash so hard it kills you. 

He had no time for discussion and could only act according to the senior’s directions. With difficulty, he chose four among the eight great beauties who weren’t quite as dazzling and didn’t choose the senior. 

The Xiang family’s old maidservant lowered her eyelids. She seemed to give a laugh. She waved a hand to send the beauties away. 

The rest of the way, they didn’t travel on the ground. The carriage suddenly took off and flew through range upon range of hills shrouded in mist. For a time, the fierce wind blew so strong that Xu Rucheng couldn’t open his eyes. After about half an incense stick of time, he saw in the distance the three Principal Peaks standing abreast. It wasn’t yet dark, yet a mammoth silver moon hung above the East Peak. 

Xu Rucheng’s pupils contracted slightly. He recognized this as the murder weapon that had turned Qiu Sha to dust with its beams. 

There seemed to be a shadow on the Silver Moon…like a smiling face staring at him. 

The West Peak, seen from a distance, was only an ordinary mountain, but when you reached it, it was utterly shocking: from the foot of the mountain to its crest, countless hidden realms of all sizes were layered, expanding the space on the mountain more than ten million times. Passing among them, Xu Rucheng could practically “hear” the crunching of countless spiritual stones turning to dust. 

Within ten meters, you could pass by seven or eight hidden realms. They showed only one side to passersby, like one richly colored painting after another, hanging high and low in space. If you wished to enter one of those hidden realms, you had to have the matching special inscriptions. You definitely couldn’t lose your way and wander by mistake into another’s territory. 

Xu Rucheng was dizzy from the sight. This gathering of hidden realms on the West Peak didn’t seem like a place for quiet cultivation. It looked like one shrunken Dongheng City after another, each with its own form of grotesquery. 

The imperial grandson’s manor was at the foot of the West Peak. Yu Family Bend had already been incredibly rich and powerful in Xu Rucheng’s eyes, but the imperial grandson whose position depended on Yu Family Bend could only measure up to a rather small and very unremarkable hidden realm.

The master was mortal, so there were downgraded immortal tools everywhere in this hidden realm: there were small carriages floating in midair, so mortals, too, could experience “flying a sword”; there was an enormous bellows and an ice maker, so the master could “summon the wind and rain” whenever he liked; there were lanterns inlaid everywhere that could identify the master’s voice and change color according to his orders… Because they were all “downgraded,” they burned spiritual stones but also spat out a large volume of steam. The whole manor was shrouded in mist. 

However sloppy the proceedings, they hadn’t gotten married yet, after all. In an obvious attempt at a cover up, Xu Rucheng was set up in a detached courtyard, separated from the other places in the hidden realm by a river. The riverbed was carved full of arrays and could also only be crossed using an inscription key. With Xu Rucheng’s cultivation level, he couldn’t understand the arrays. He only felt like a bird that had been locked in a cage. 

When he went into the cage…into the courtyard to look, all his things had already been stored. Four maids had arrived a step ahead of him and were awaiting his arrival at the entrance. 

Xu Rucheng took one glance and was filled with gloom—these weren’t the people he had chosen. The ones standing at the entrance right now were the other four candidates. No wonder that senior had told him not to choose him. So why put on the show of making him choose? To make fun of him? 

He fixed his eyes on the Xiang family’s old maidservant. “What do you mean by this?” 

The old maidservant had the inscription key in one hand. She seemed already to be floating on the water. She put on a perfunctory act of surprise: “What? Young mistress, are you unsatisfied with these four in any way? Didn’t you choose yourself which ones you didn’t want and which ones to keep?” 

As she spoke, the old maidservant’s figure was already becoming blurry above the water. She left behind only these words with a false smile in them: “And here I was just admiring the young mistress for her excellent insight, greatly superior to that of others from your honored home.” 

Xu Rucheng was about to defend himself, but the old maidservant and the carriage driver were both gone. A layer of thin fog steamed up from the arrays in the river, trapping him in the little courtyard like a curtain. All around was silence. There were only the sounds of gears turning and the sighs of steam from the various downgraded immortal tools—Xu Rucheng discovered that while he was here, he couldn’t even send his consciousness out. 

What a disgrace! This was house arrest! 

“Young mistress, please…” 

One of the four maids stepped forward to support him. When her soft and slender hand touched him, Xu Rucheng instinctively shook it off. “Don’t touch me!” 

This maid was a genuine mortal. The girl couldn’t stand being thrown off like this. With a cry, she stumbled, and the rims of her eyes immediately reddened, but she didn’t dare to say anything. She only lowered her head and got down on her knees, retreating. 

Xu Rucheng’s colossal anger caught in his throat. He moved his lips helplessly and nearly ran after her to apologize. Then he heard the established foundation senior impersonating a maid say, “We maids are all lowly people. We are aware that the sight of us displeases the young mistress. But we have already taken brands onto our spiritual images, and neither our lives nor our deaths are free. Otherwise, if we were capable of taking our own lives, we would not be here to offend the young mistress’s eyes.”

At this point, there was even the tremor of a sob being held back. 

Xu Rucheng was dumbfounded, not knowing how this senior had forced out this tearful voice to speak these lines. In spite of himself, he suspected he had the wrong person. 

Then he once again heard the man’s calm voice through the reincarnation wood: “You are being watched from the shadows. Be careful, don’t just stare at me like an idiot.” 

Xu Rucheng was all in disarray. “What…what is your name?” 

Then this mysterious established foundation who seemed to be a reincarnated drama queen walked forward with realistic mincing steps and tentatively lent him an arm. “Entering the inner sect with a new master, we must wait for our master to grant us names. The young mistress is weary from the carriage ride. You ought to settle down first. Do not worry yourself on our accounts.” 

Xu Rucheng didn’t dare to pick a name at random. Apprehensively, he asked through the reincarnation wood, “Senior, what should I call you?” 

There was a momentary silence. “You can call me…Jiangli.” 

The “Young Master Cousin” who had shaken Xu Rucheng was the Luwu’s real cousin—Xi Ping, using a fake voice to fool Xu Rucheng. 

With Xu Rucheng’s half-immortal cultivation, he couldn’t just draw an array in Sanyue’s inner sect to let him come over in a paperman. Anyway, Xiang Wenqing had already personally taught him that it was best for a cultivator’s body and mind to remain one. The papermen at best could bully lower level cultivators. On meeting a master, his consciousness couldn’t run away. If he didn’t die, he would still be seriously injured, go back to being a tree spirit who didn’t know his own name like he’d been for the last five years. 

So Xi Ping had to think of a way to use his true body. 

In order to temporarily leave Tao County, he needed to resolve a few problems: first, the Law Breaker couldn’t leave. Xi Ping had tried it. The Tai Sui Qin couldn’t cross the line of the spiritual energy prohibition. This meant that even if he could leave, he couldn’t take his vital weapon with him. Though fortunately that kind “master of the way of taking the blame” Yu Chang had left him the Discard the False and Keep the True book, so he could bring a copied qin to protect himself. 

Next, though reasonably speaking a great master’s consciousness couldn’t cross national borders, if a person who ought to have been sealed at the bottom of the Impassable Sea openly went out for a stroll, would Xuanyin Mountain notice something…? That was hard to say, and Xi Ping didn’t dare to run the risk. He wasn’t worried about going on the run like Yu Chang, but he couldn’t be exposed in Tao County. That would implicate san-ge. 

So, in the interests of safety, he had gone to Lin Chi to order an item made—that immortal tool that very much resembled a sunburned Riverward that Lin Chi had made and then destroyed. 

This thing’s spiritual sense was taken from the Riverward. It could make a person blend like water into another person’s life. Physical appearance, spiritual image, habits of speech and movement—all of it could be fixed as closely as possible to fit another person’s. Lin Chi had crudely named it the Replica and persisted in thinking that it would do harm. He absolutely refused to yield and was pestered incessantly for three days by Xi Ping. 

“Fine, then,” Xi Ping said when Master Lin was ready to collapse, aiming at what he believed would be Lin Chi’s weak spot, “if that’s the case, there’s nothing else I can do. I’ll have to leave Hui Xiangjun’s Unbound Furnace buried in the Sanyue Mountains. Sanyue couldn’t get hold of her, but they’re doing well enough holding her vital weapon. Maybe they can even perform a posthumous marriage with that Xiang-what’s-his-name, the dead sword cultivator.” 

For once, Lin Chi looked stern. “How do you expect me to explain myself to General Zhi?” 

“Well, there won’t be any need for that,” said Xi Ping. “If we can’t repair Zhaoting, you won’t have to explain anything to him anymore, Lin-shishu. You can just burn some paper for him during the holidays.” 

Lin Chi: “…” 

General Zhi hadn’t accepted a disciple in centuries, all for the sake of taking in this thing. Could this be the “individualistic” heroic spirit? Master Lin wasn’t a hero, and he really couldn’t beat this guy. Left with no alternative, he violated one of his basic principles: he took his grievance to the Kaiming Department’s Prince Zhuang. 

Sadly, His Highness Prince Zhuang’s trump card for dealing with this fiend in human form had lost effect—before, Xi Ping had been scared of making him sick from anger; no matter how much trouble he got into, he had always left room to maneuver. Now he was no longer afraid of that. It wasn’t so easy to make a half-immortal sick. 

Zhou Ying ruined two discipline rods and crushed the piece of reincarnation wood he had brought from the Impassable Sea. But he couldn’t keep that brat from showing up right in front of him using papermen with that traitor Bai Ling’s help. 

So a month later, Xi Ping got his wish and attained the Replica. 

He left a sliver of his consciousness in the century-old reincarnation wood tree in the yard of the All Comers Inn and sealed the Tai Sui Qin along with it—this way, though he was thousands of li away, he could still open the hidden realm inside the Law Breaker any time. He wouldn’t hold up the Luwu’s communications or arms smuggling. 

Then he said a word to Tai-er-nainai and freely went on a long journey. 

First, within Tao County, Xi Ping infiltrated the garrisoned troops convoying disaster relief provisions north. With a small trick, he replaced a soldier. The moment he stepped out of the prohibition on spiritual energy, he used the Replica to turn into that soldier. 

As soon as he put on the Replica, Xi Ping understood why Lin Chi had been unwilling to make this thing again. The young soldier’s life history, his joys and sorrows, were all laid out in front of him, as though he was transparent: his father had died when he was an infant, the scar on his forehead came from being hit on the head with a stone by his gambling drunk of an older brother. Under the gaze of his frail, powerless mother, he ran away from home to join the army, filled with ambitions of standing out. But there was nothing in the army to make him stand out. What awaited him was endless humiliation and bullying from his colleagues… Even the lopsided toe on his right foot that had been rubbed raw by his army boots was so real. 

The moment he “became” the young soldier, the silently erupting rage nearly lit Xi Ping on fire. He bit the tip of his tongue and narrowly managed to stabilize his spirit. He was scared into a cold sweat.

No wonder this thing could avoid the eyes of a shed skin—he had simply inherited another person’s everything. 

This thing could drive a person crazy. 

Fortunately, when he had been a tree spirit and unable to control his consciousness, he had been pulled into the bodies of countless people and bled amid the fates of others. He was a practiced hand. 

And when he was sleeping at night, he could pull his consciousness back into the reincarnation wood to rest. 

He changed identities the whole way, the lives of these mortals like boats, ferrying him from Tao County to Dongheng. Taking the opportunity of Prince Qing Manor placing people beside Zhao Qindan, he had removed the spiritual image brand of one of the servant candidates—that girl had a lover; forced by the brand to be a nominal “maid” but in reality a “bed warmer,” she had simply been wishing she were dead, so that counted as him having saved a life—and so, he had infiltrated the Sanyue Sect with alarm but no danger. 

Reasonably speaking, it was seamless… Master Lin was worthy of being called the Golden Hand. Though he modestly called it a Replica, Xi Ping thought this thing would be useful even within Great Wan, never mind in Western Chu. 

But as Xi Ping, following the girl’s instincts, nimbly swept and washed the courtyard, his spine was frozen. 

From the first sentence he had said to Xu Rucheng, that viper-like gaze had been stuck to him, like an ulcer on the bone. 

On Sanyue’s East Peak, in the lotus pond, the heartless white lotuses sticking out of the water all turned to face west like sunflowers, making their blood red stalks tangle and squirm like one greedy, starving tongue after another.