This was a solid ball made up of soft metal, almost the same color as steel, softer than pure gold. The rich play of spiritual energy surging over its surface was practically visible to the naked eye. This gave the originally silver-white ball a faint coating of golden light. 

Lin Chi found to his astonishment that it could conduct spiritual energy like a cultivator’s meridians. 

The Moon Plated Gold of later generations could also conduct spiritual energy. The “downgraded immortal tools” the nobility played with were all constructed based on this particular property. But the spiritual energy Moon Plated Gold could sustain was extremely limited. When it burned a spiritual stone, nearly all the spiritual energy was wasted for nothing. The amount that could be put to use through Moon Plated Gold was in reality less than one ten thousandth; if there were any more, it would fuse. It couldn’t even activate the absolute most basic half-immortal talisman. 

Downgraded immortal tools were both expensive and impractical. They were little used and little made. Because different arrays on gold smelting furnaces could smelt Moon Plated Gold that was either soft as gauze or a hundred times harder than steel, it had many uses. It had later been taken to mortal factories to make all kinds of machinery. 

This was also an inviolable rule—established foundations had no right to “listen to heaven,” half-immortals had no right to “conduct inscriptions,” and mortals, even if they burned up a whole mountain of spiritual stones, could at most set off some relatively large fireworks; they couldn’t budge the threshold of the spiritual mountains. 

But the spirit-conducting gold Hui Xiangjun had sent him could preserve fifty to sixty percent of the spiritual energy in a spiritual stone it activated. 

This meant that, reasonably speaking, it would only take having a quantity of spiritual stones equivalent to twice the essence of an ordinary ascended spirit cultivator for a mortal who hadn’t cultivated a day in their life to use the appropriate immortal tools to do whatever an ascended spirit could do. 

If it had been Xi Ping in his place, always wandering on the border between righteous and evil, his first reaction would certainly have been to marvel at the heresy of this thing: this lark-like young woman couldn’t be judged by appearances any more than his san-ge—she was also the type that might bring the sky tumbling down any moment. 

But the innocent and shy young master who found himself in that position had grown up reading holy texts and listening to the teachings of the immortal mountains. He was whole-heartedly devoted to following in the Southern Sage’s footsteps, cultivating with his mind full of “bringing peace to all living beings”—as if he himself didn’t belong to “all living beings.” 

Lin Chi had been wild with joy. 

While he once again had the feeling of gazing up at a tall mountain, with the keenness of a toolmaker, countless uses for this thing leapt to mind: no longer would farmers need to wait with their faces in the dirt and their backs to the sky for heaven to bestow its favor, no longer would craftsmen need to travel far and wide carrying boulders of hundreds of jin on their backs; henceforth, all natural and manmade disasters could be dealt with; it wouldn’t take even a full day to fly from Jinping to Yuzhou… Wasn’t this a great achievement that would change the whole world? 

Lin Chi, loving this little metal ball too much to part with it, began to study and analyze it. Only once he began did he discover the disparity—he couldn’t find the trick for it no matter what. 

Expending tremendous efforts, he repeatedly carved metal-refining arrays, but his copies were all failures, vastly unlike the original. Though they were successful in activating spiritual stones, the spiritual energy they could use was minuscule, as if there were an invisible upper limit, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t overstep that boundary. 

He knew that he was missing a very important step, but Hui Xiangjun’s letter hadn’t explained anything, and after sending this thing to him, she had gone into seclusion, planning to create some great work; she had set up a “do not disturb for one hundred years” array. 

Lin Chi spent nearly a full sixty-year-cycle working hard on his own. Fortunately, the Lin family had great resources and could support such a waste of spiritual stones. In the end, he didn’t manage to copy the “spirit-conducting gold,” but his efforts to the neglect of all else couldn’t have been called wasted, either. He had cultivated from an early established foundation to a peak established foundation, raising his level at a speed unprecedented within the Xuanyin Mountains, far surpassing his peers, putting his name down with the Dignitary of Rule ancestor. Even his always stern shifu ceased to meddle with him. 

When the Dignitary of Rule High Elder had already announced that Moon Plated Peak would be assigned to him, letting him take his position as one of the thirty-six peak masters as soon as he became an ascended spirit, a great fog suddenly rose in the Sea of Stars. Soon after, hundreds of meteorites fell in the East Sea. Strange phenomena appeared in the skies. Nearly half the moon became bloody. All signs pointed to the south. 

The four other nations had no idea what was happening. They sent a flurry of messages to ask Southern He for an explanation, but the Lancang Mountains only said that they had no comment to make. For a time, rumors flew everywhere. Some said a highly placed person in Lancang was carrying on evil arts—turning living people into puppets, using blood sacrifices to create spiritual energy…and much more along those lines. 

After hearing about this, Lin Chi was very worried and wrote Hui Xiangjun yet another letter, not expecting that he would receive a response only a few days later. She had left seclusion ahead of schedule, and she said she had made two interesting little toys, one called the “Law Breaker,” the other called the “Riverward,” both inspired by him. She asked him to be sure to come Lancang to have a look when he had a chance…but in the end, he never did embark on that journey south. 

That year, the strange phenomena were only the beginning. It dimly seemed that something had enraged the Way of Heaven. 

There were frequent natural disasters in the five nations. Within Great Wan, there was first a great earthquake in Ning’an, the likes of which hadn’t been seen for several centuries, which nearly broke Jinping’s Dragon Vein. Then it was the whole country, large-scale droughts in the north and flooding in the south. A fatal pestilence rose over the sea; the epidemic spread wildly. The spiritual mountains were everywhere putting out fires, having more business than they could attend to. Lin Chi, an established foundation disciple who was so valuable in the eyes of his elders, certainly couldn’t escape. 

Not long after he received Hui Xiangjun’s letter, he was sent along with others from the sect to Guzhou, which was adjacent to the South Sea, to clear away the pestilence. The pestilence was even denser than they had imagined. Before they could come to a decision as to how to act, there was a tidal wave in the South Sea. 

A wall of water like a mountain stood straight up from the sea and charged towards the shore, instantly flattening three of Guzhou’s cities. None of the crowd of walkers in the mortal world and inner sect established foundations had time to react. 

If it had only been a tidal wave, when everyone recovered, they would perhaps have been able to deal with it. The trouble was that the seawater crashing against the shore carried a heavy pestilence, which was about to pour inland through the waterways. Even worse, under the water were hidden a bunch of monsters that had come out of nowhere; with a premeditated plan to take advantage of the chaos, they took the opportunity to charge onto the shore and wreck the border inscriptions and arrays. 

Faced with the huge beasts and the tidal wave, the South Sea Navy may as well have been made of paper. There was nothing to be hoped for from them. The cultivators also had never seen this kind of spectacle before. As soon as they solved one problem, another came up; for a time, there was more than they could handle. 

Lin Chi was swept away from his fellow sect members and surrounded by seven or eight monsters breathing pestilence. In these dire circumstances, he suddenly heard people shouting for help about ten li away from him. He split off his consciousness to look and saw that there was a Widows and Children Village there—Guzhou could be said to have the most rigid and conservative folk customs of all of Great Wan; women very rarely remarried after being bereaved of their husbands, and to avoid being caught up in malicious gossip, they would move to high ground and form communities with other widows to look after each other. 

The floodwaters had submerged everything around them. The former high ground had become an island in imminent danger. There were at least ten households in this village, half of them with small children or solitary old women. Some monsters were watching the tender-skinned children, already throwing themselves towards the crowd with their bloody maws open. 

Lin Chi saw that the situation was bad, but never mind saving them, as soon as he split off his attention, he himself was clawed by a monster. There was also no time to ask his fellow sect members to come help. In a moment of desperation, Lin Chi waved his long sleeve and tossed an immortal tool towards that little village. 

This was a little boat he had made in his idle moments during the last decades while studying the spirit-conducting gold without results, using the “true gold” that Hui Xiangjun had sent him. As long as it had spiritual stones to burn, no matter what the cultivation level of the user…or even if they had no cultivation, they could still activate the established foundation grade array on the boat. 

That boat saved the lives of thirty-six people, young and old, in that village, using ten liang of blue jade; there were no casualties in the whole village. Lin Chi’s situation, on the other hand, was desperate. His essence had nearly been hollowed out by the monsters. Fortunately, masters from Chu, Shu, He, and Wan, the four nations surrounding the South Sea, arrived one after another and took over the situation before he fell off his sword. 

Lin Chi thought that help had come at last and fainted confidently. 

By the time he woke up, that life-saving “boat of great merit” had already fallen into the hands of these four great sects. 

There was no praise and no honors. Lin Chi had never expected to open his eyes to find himself on trial. 

They questioned him: where had this heretical evil object come from? 

The Sanyue Mountains’ Elder Xiang Ning sent spit flying as he spoke: a bunch of women from a mountain village, who couldn’t even write enough words to fill a basket, had actually activated an established foundation grade array without understanding anything about it—and fortunately Lin Chi himself couldn’t make anything above the established foundation level—if the array on that evil object had been of ascended spirit grade, or even shed skin grade, then couldn’t any random nobody shake the mountains and rock the seas? It was appalling! 

Someone from Southern Shu’s Lingyun said that it was no wonder it had been one disaster after another lately, strange phenomena appearing continuously; it was because this evil object that could throw ethics and virtue into turmoil had emerged. 

Xuanyin Mountain stood their ground to defend him, but their words were empty and lacking in confidence; they clearly also knew that their own junior had caused great trouble. 

Lin Chi was an awkward speaker and couldn’t explain himself clearly at all. He couldn’t offer up Hui Xiangjun, and he was stunned by the enormous injustice; he simply held his tongue and said nothing. Sanyue and Lingyun insisted overbearingly on performing a soul-searching on him. Xuanyin’s Lin clan absolutely wouldn’t permit it, and the people from Lancang must have sensed something; they stood vaguely on Xuanyin’s side. The four great sects argued themselves into a mess, finally alerting Li far to the north. 

The high priest of Northern Li’s Kunlun set the final tone: spiritual energy entering the mortal world was inauspicious; this thing must be destroyed. If the one who had done this work did not proffer his methods and arts, it must be that he had an errant heart and ought to be punished with a soul-searching and removal of spiritual bones. 

That was when Hui Xiangjun descended from the sky. 

Whatever she had been doing, her energy was greatly injured; there was practically an elderly lack of agility in her every movement. Light as air, she reached out to pat Lin Chi on the shoulder and placed a silencing talisman on his throat—making him stand there and watch as she carried off the blame and left him with the title of “The Golden Hand.” 

When she died, the spirit-conducting gold of that boat shattered. The so-called Moon Plated Gold that had come down to later generations was only the failed experiment Lin Chi had made in imitation of the true gold…so he persisted in calling the art of refining this metal the “Gold Imitation Technique.” 

Over eight centuries, he had won fame through deception and borne unpardonable guilt. He had shut himself up on the summit of Moon Plated Peak, waiting for the Law Breaker and the Riverward to come into the world once more, waiting for Qiu Sha to come after him to take revenge. 

Since becoming an ascended spirit, he hadn’t taken a single step further along the way of toolmaking. 

Later, his fellows in the toolmaking way had ingeniously designed many instantaneous communication devices, so you could practically have a conversation in realtime across vast distances, much more convenient than before. 

But the letter he was waiting for would never again come flying towards him. There was no one to supply him with riddles to solve…and no one to understand what he said. 

He only did his duty at the Xuanyin Mountains, counting the days and waiting until his essence was exhausted, brazenly holding on to the position of one of the thirty-six peak masters without doing a bit of work, accustomed to being silent and dull. If he hadn’t accidentally gotten stuck with the walking disaster of a disciple from next door, he would probably have forgotten the feeling of sorrow and joy by now. 

But that “Don’t be afraid” in the Unbound Furnace smashed the years of accumulated frost that covered him. 

Lin Chi’s consciousness was curled up in the reincarnation wood twig. Back at the summit of Moon Plated Peak, there were tears streaming down his true body’s face, containing eight centuries of accumulated salt. 

The image couldn’t hold a conversation with others. Hui Xiangjun’s gaze was only fixed mechanically on the empty space in front of her. It couldn’t follow people around. 

In that moment, while Xi Ping didn’t know anything about what had happened, he very tactfully didn’t ask any questions, only brought that twig before the image’s eyes, not letting Lin Chi miss her gaze. 

So Hui Xiangjun “looked” into the depths of Lin Chi’s consciousness and, just as if she were speaking directly to him, said, “Don’t be afraid, Zisheng, and don’t listen when those idiots tell you to blame yourself. It wasn’t your fault. I knew that the opportune moment hadn’t come then. It wasn’t yet time for the spirit-conducting gold to appear in the world. But if that had not happened, the opportune moment would never have come. If I had wanted to hide it, I wouldn’t have sent it to you. 

“Whatever people fear will become their desire. When they punished me then, each of them already had ulterior motives in mind. In the future, they won’t be able to hold back. They’ll have taken out all those little things you made, right? The copied spirit-conducting gold is limited by the rules of the spiritual mountains, it can only use a drop of spiritual energy. But even a tiny step is still going forward. This will cause turbulence in the world. If the movement doesn’t come in a hundred years, it will come in a thousand years. When you see the Law Breaker and the Riverward again, that will be when true spirit-conducting gold comes into the world.

“Jiejie won’t be there then. You take care of it.”

After saying this, Hui Xiangjun sighed. “The spiritual mountains…” She shook her head and faced forward. The furnace flame that had disappeared before abruptly began to burn brightly around her. 

With a wave of her wide sleeves, she sat down in midair in the Ancient Chu fashion, upright as a bell. In that moment, she was no longer smiling. All her mildness and amiability suddenly vanished without a trace. Her gaze was like a knife, stabbing at Xi Ping. 

“Youngster, though you hold the Law Breaker, if you wish to take the furnace flame, you must first answer my questions.” 

Xi Ping said, “…huh?” 

Lin Chi recovered and with an effort managed to restrain himself in front of his junior. Hoarsely, he said, “This is called the Heart Examination, a very ancient toolmaking ritual—when the original owner of an immortal tool doesn’t want to let just anyone use their item, they will leave some questions on the tool, so only a successor whose answers accord with the original owner’s intentions will be qualified to use it.” 

“Wait, wait…I need to speak Ancient Chu, too? I don’t know how!” 

Xi Ping was very panicked. Not only did he not know the language, he also didn’t know a single thing about the way of toolmaking. He had only just learned how the furnace fire was lit. What if this toolmaking master asked him what you would get if you cooked Xiang Rong and Xuanwu together in a pot?! 

Lin Chi cautioned him: “Language has its own spirit, regardless of what language it is. Starting now, you must speak cautiously. Once the Heart Examination starts, every word that comes out of your mouth will be viewed as your answer.” 

As if to corroborate what he said, though Hui Xiangjun was still speaking in difficult-to-parse Ancient Chu, Xi Ping could suddenly go around the language itself to understand her meaning directly. She asked, “Do you know where my Way of the Heart comes from?” 

Xi Ping frowned. Just then, he had felt the paperman he had put together before coming here break. 

Zhuoming had caught up! 

“I know, senior,” Xi Ping blurted out before Lin Chi could stop him, “your Way of the Heart was inherited from the ancient demonic god of the eternal spring brocade. You cultivate the mysterious and dry as dust way of toolmaking.” 

“Be careful…” said Lin Chi in alarm. 

Sadly, the questioner and the questioned seemed to be competing to see whose tongue was more nimble. Before Lin Chi could get a couple of words out, the two of them had already come to the next round of question and answer. 

Hui Xiangjun asked, “And what is an ancient demonic god?” 

Xi Ping didn’t take any time to think. “One of the masters who lost out to the five sages during the battle for the full moon positions. They died, but their ways weren’t extinguished. Their accompanying plants remained in the human world, waiting for an opportunity to seize power.” 

Hui Xiangjun said, “Where is the Way of the Heart I inherited from the eternal spring brocade now?” 

Xi Ping said, “In the Unbound Furnace.” 

The Heart Examination seemed to find his answer too broad and suspected him of trying to muddle through. Once again came the cold question: “Where is it?” 

Xi Ping met her eyes directly for a moment. “In the hidden realm inside the Unbound Furnace, inside the trunks of the eternal spring brocade…by now it may already have been swallowed by a stupid naked egg.” 

Lin Chi went numb all over. “Xi Shiyong, what are you babbling…” 

Hui Xiangjun said, “It isn’t in the furnace flame?” 

Xi Ping said, “No.” 

Lin Chi: “…” 

Sword god, if you can hear me from Zhaoting, can’t you control your disciple?! 

Zhuoming’s consciousness had already reached them, just in time to hear Xi Ping calling him a “stupid naked egg.” He gave a furious roar. The heartless lotus’s stalks instantly pierced through the mountain. Silt fell with a rustle, hitting the furnace flame. 

Xi Ping didn’t so much as turn around. He pressed a talisman to the ground, temporarily stabilizing this small space. 

A trace of an indecipherable smile appeared on Hui Xiangjun’s face. “If you can’t even get my Way of the Heart, how are you going to get my vital weapon?” 

Xi Ping said, “Is a Way of the Heart really that important?” 

The lotus stalks that had penetrated into the mountain smashed Xi Ping’s talisman head on. Xi Ping played a note and tore apart the lotus stalks. 

Lin Chi finally had a chance to put in a word: “She’s the one questioning you, don’t ask questions back!” 

“Cultivators spend their lives cultivating a Way of the Heart and can only inherit a senior’s vital weapon by obtaining their Way of the Heart—that’s also a rule of the spiritual mountains…” 

This ignorant answer of his sent Lin Chi into a breakdown. “Good heavens, no it isn’t! It was like that before the spiritual mountains formed! The ways of the ancient demonic gods are also…” 

The wildly flying notes of the Tai Sui Qin locked with the lotus stalks of the heartless lotus. There was a rumble, and countless intertwined eternal spring brocade and late-autumn red root systems disintegrated. The mountain was collapsing from this fight between the two great ascended spirits. 

“Fine, so it’s a rule of heaven and earth,” Xi Ping said, changing his wording without turning a hair. “So what? Even if right this moment, all the shed skins die off and the spiritual mountains collapse, the plants spread and the demonic gods ascend, all that will happen is that some new spiritual mountains will rise in the mortal world. Mortals, cultivators…everyone will keep on chasing spiritual stones, keep on killing each other for the sake of spiritual stones…” 

Zhuoming, with his features all in disarray, had thrown himself at Xi Ping, the lotus stalks surrounding them from all sides, penetrating the furnace flame just the same as when they had swallowed up the eternal spring brocade. 

Xi Ping said, “We don’t give a rat’s ass about the struggles of heaven and earth and Ways of the Heart.” 

Hardly had he spoken than the Hui Xiangjun in the furnace flame disappeared. The lotus stalks stabbing through the furnace flame instantly turned to ashes. Zhuoming gave a cry of pain. The flame shrank until it was the size of a bean, then sank into the reincarnation wood twig in Xi Ping’s hand. As soon as that happened, the illusory hidden realm inside the Unbound Furnace collapsed—