Zhuoming clearly sensed the Unbound Furnace escaping his control altogether; the furnace flame began to backlash against him. 

Xi Ping’s voice drilled into the thousand holes of his lotus root hearts. 

“Heard you gobbled up the eternal spring brocade? Heh, there was so much of it. All of Western Chu’s sheep piled up together couldn’t eat as much as you! I’m impressed!” 

“Did you taste it? Can you hold that much? How curious, why do you think this furnace won’t listen to you anymore? Maybe you’ve eaten too much and can’t digest it?” 

Had Zhuoming had a single remaining strand of hair, it would have stood straight up from anger. 

Xi Ping took the opportunity to send a note slicing towards Zhuoming—tragically enough, it was only now that he was getting the chance to properly experience the difference between “half a step from an ascended spirit” and a true ascended spirit. His meridians and essence were hundreds upon thousands of times wider than before. With no full moon sages or shed skins next to him to hold him down, he had the feeling that he could flatten Sanyue’s East Peak with one move…

Of course, one move was all he knew. 

“Finally I get to roll up my sleeves and thrash that damn baldy to my heart’s content,” Xi Ping said to Lin Chi in the reincarnation wood. “Lin-shishu, give me that talisman you mentioned before!” 

Lin Chi: “…” 

His emotions had been rising and falling wildly just now. He hadn’t yet had time to recover. The talismans he had learned by rote before coming here had by now returned to Moon Plated Peak. 

Xi Ping came up empty and had no choice but to use one and the same sword move for the however-many-thousandth time. “Can’t you do anything, master? I’m in a really embarrassing situation here!”  

Lin Chi acknowledged that he couldn’t do anything when it came to fighting. After all, he was only a blacksmith. At the same time, he thought that there was really no need for Xi Shiyong to be embarrassed; it was Sword God Zhi who ought to be embarrassed. 

However unskilled Zhuoming was at hand-to-hand combat, he was still a veteran ascended spirit. He had practically learned this sword move by now and easily found an opening to dodge it, escaping the Unbound Furnace. 

Xi Ping chased him, sweeping the Unbound Furnace up in his mustard seed while he was at it. He simply brandished the Tai Sui Qin like a sledgehammer, slamming it down on Zhuoming’s “tail”—the pond full of lotus roots and stalks. 

Had the Tai Sui Qin had its own mind, it would certainly have rebelled against its master on the spot. The body of the qin hummed and its strings quivered wildly. The spiritual energy it raised was like pummeling fists, striking Zhuoming and the heartless lotus without any method. The technique was faintly reminiscent of what Xi Ping had used back when he had put a sack over Big Dog Wang and beat him up. 

Zhuoming had never experienced this kind of “magic power” before. His reaction was a beat slow. He got a black eye. 

Zhaoting…Zhaoting couldn’t make a sound, anyway. It was pretending that it was no longer in this world. 

Zhuoming gave a low shout, and a handful of lotus seals sealed Xi Ping’s features, trapping his consciousness. 

Xi Ping’s consciousness wasn’t entirely in his body now; he wasn’t afraid of being caught. He was just getting ready to escape and backhand Zhuoming’s face into a pancake when he found that Zhuoming was luring his consciousness towards the West Peak. 

No good! He gave a start: the Luwu! 

Xi Ping didn’t have time to notify the Luwu to evacuate through the reincarnation wood. The heartless lotuses had already assimilated a patch of grass and swallowed up Xu Rucheng, who was hiding there; they were just about to strip off his consciousness! 

It was too inconvenient that there was no reincarnation wood on Sanyue’s mountains. Xi Ping couldn’t reach. 

So he came to a rapid decision. He knocked a crack in the summit of the East Peak and stroked the Discard the False and Keep the True book. A beam of spiritual energy with Yu Chang’s aura hit the Silver Moon over the Central Peak. 

Yu Chang was an authentic evil cultivator. The smell of evil cultivator around him could enrage quite a number of great divine tools. 

The Silver Moon’s light swept out at once. Before that, Xi Ping had quickly switched places with a reincarnation wood tree a thousand li away, leaving Zhuoming behind—he couldn’t move easily in Sanyue, and Zhuoming couldn’t move easily outside of Sanyue. Who didn’t have a weak spot? 

The activity on the East Peak quickly drew the notice of all of Sanyue. A shed skin consciousness immediately arrived. “Who’s there?!” 

Zhuoming had no more attention to spare for matching his strength against some half-immortal ants. The moment the moonlight fell, all the heartless lotuses in the pond turned to ashes. 

Next, all the flowers in all the lotus ponds in the Sanyue Mountain Range turned into heartless lotuses. It was only for a flash; before they could blossom, they were cleared away by the moonlight. 

Sanyue was full of low level disciples who hadn’t worked out what was going on. The Silver Moon couldn’t kill them along with the heartless lotuses. The “moonlight” scattered into several concentrated beams, selectively sweeping only over the lotus ponds. 

The moment the lotus ponds were lit up by the “moonlight,” a peculiar inscription formed just where the Silver Moon fell. The Sanyue Mountains gave a fierce shake. For a moment, the Silver Moon’s light was reflected back. 

The “moonlight” quickly suppressed the inscription, but in that interval, Zhuoming and the heartless lotuses had vanished. 

All of this had transpired in a matter of moments. All the Luwu were stunned. Xu Rucheng hadn’t even realized until now that he had taken a stroll at the border between life and death. He heard Tai Sui’s voice in his ear: “Everyone, put on your Luwu masks. There was a possessor of a paramount spiritual sense in Sanyue. I’ve lured him away for you. The rest are all good-for-nothings, you should be able to get along fine from now on. Do good work.” 

After saying this, Xi Ping turned around and sent Lin Chi’s consciousness back to Xuanyin and simply used the Replica to give himself Xu Rucheng’s appearance. He took out an authentic Luwu token and weighed it in his hand. Whistling a tune, he retired in the direction of the rising sun after winning merit, ready to return to Tao County and think of a way to send the Unbound Furnace back to the Xuanyin Mountains. 

Just then, the token suddenly warmed. 

Xi Ping froze. Then his spiritual sense was suddenly touched. He heard Bai Ling’s voice in his ear: “The representative from Xuanyin’s inner sect just touched the Luwu’s communication network. They must be coming your way. Be careful.” 

Out of nowhere, Xi Ping had the feeling that the newcomer was an ascended spirit. 

This must be a delicate perception belonging only to those who had reached an ascended spirit. A high level cultivator would certainly be restraining their aura while in another country. A low level cultivator wouldn’t have noticed them now. Never mind the spiritual sense, they might even have mistaken the person for a mortal while standing face to face. Xi Ping’s spiritual sense was touched, but he didn’t feel a very great sense of danger. He swiftly checked his Replica mask and calmed down—though this was a little unexpected, it wasn’t a big problem. An ascended spirit of the same grade wouldn’t be able to see through Master Lin’s immortal tool. 

Xi Ping continued to walk as though nothing were the matter. Then a cool and refreshing morning breeze blew his way, dispersing the morning mist. A human figure appeared out of nowhere at the end of the faint mist. 

Xi Ping: “…” 

Damn it, the newcomer was Princess Duanrui! 

Wait, this wouldn’t have given him a sense of danger? Was his spiritual sense broken?! 

Wasn’t Princess Duanrui the acting Dignitary of Rites? Wasn’t she busy? Why would she come to Western Chu in person to take over the Luwu’s assignment? Didn’t she think it was beneath her? 

Countless thoughts instantly flashed through Xi Ping’s mind. His hands even went numb—perhaps it was because Liang Chen had used the princess to scare him the first time he had seen her, but compared to the shed skin elders, Xi Ping was inexplicably more scared of her. 

He had to put every bit of his wits into play to maintain his expression: he couldn’t lose countenance. Bai Ling evidently also hadn’t expected who the newcomer would be; he had only said “Xuanyin’s inner sect” just now, and the Luwu, who were of common backgrounds, wouldn’t be able to recognize a great personage like this. The way of clarity and unfeeling eschewed frivolities, was without desires and without adornments. Her attire was plain and colorless, and she had restrained her aura. If he had been Xu Rucheng, he would be likely to think this was only an inner sect established foundation. 

Xi Ping didn’t deliberately relax his tensed shoulders. Maintaining this not excessive nervousness, he bowed convincingly to this “unfamiliar inner sect disciple.” “Shijie.” 

Duanrui didn’t quibble over the form of address. “The Luwu tokens are nearly all in the vicinity of the Sanyue Mountains. Only you have snuck away.” 

Xi Ping reconsidered: it would be just as well if she took the Unbound Furnace back; that would be open and aboveboard, and guaranteed to be safe…and if it wasn’t safe, that was all right, too. The furnace flame was in his hands, anyway. Anyone who used the Unbound Furnace would be as good as doing it right under his nose. He could spread his consciousness into it any time. 

“Yes, because I encountered a slight unexpected circumstance.” Then he explained what had happened in Sanyue, mixing truth and falsehood. “Then for some reason, there was suddenly a loud sound from the East Peak, and the Silver Moon started chasing after the lotuses to shine on them… I just happened to be near the East Peak and saw to my surprise that something had been left behind in the lotus pond after it was swept by the Silver Moon, so I just snatched it up.” 

Saying so, he quietly put the Unbound Furnace into a little half-immortal mustard seed and offered it to Duanrui along with the mustard seed. “It’s this. Please have a look, shijie.” 

Duanrui sometimes seemed like a stone statue that had grown legs. Hearing that Xiang Rong had become a full moon sage and then passed away, her brows didn’t move at all, as if only one of Sanyue’s dogs had died. And the Unbound Furnace didn’t cause her a sliver of surprise, either. When she accepted it and swept it with her consciousness, like a machine calling a roll, she appraised it indifferently: “The vital weapon of Lancang’s Elder Hui Xiangjun, the Unbound Furnace.” 

Xi Ping made joy flash over Xu Rucheng’s face, then suppressed it, “steadying” himself by force. “My lord’s assignment for us in coming to Sanyue was to investigate the whereabouts of the Unbound Furnace. I didn’t expect the Southern Sage to be looking out for us like this. By coincidence, we’ve actually gotten it. Please take it back to the inner sect, shijie!” 

Duanrui agreed. Suddenly, she raised her head and looked at him. She asked, “How long since you began cultivating?” 

Xu Rucheng had entered the Way during Great Wan’s internal strife, about a year later than Xi Ping himself. So Xi Ping answered ambiguously, “Five or six years.” 

The corners of Duanrui’s lips moved slightly, as if she were smiling. 

Then Xi Ping heard her say, “An ascended spirit after five or six years is unheard of. It seems that the world truly is changing.” 

Xi Ping’s mind buzzed. A breath caught in his lungs. 

She had seen through him?! How could she have seen through him?

Hadn’t Lin Chi said that the Replica could even fool the eyes of shed skins? Could the Golden Hand be relied on? 

Instantly, Xi Ping had an instinct to escape back to Tao County through the reincarnation wood, then forced himself to stop in his tracks—the Replica spiritual image mask had been made by Lin Chi, and the Luwu had been built up by his san-ge single-handedly; now that he had been discovered by Duanrui, neither of them could escape responsibility. 

But Princess Duanrui had saved his miserable life. Except as a last resort, Xi Ping would never want to try his qin against her…and anyway, what was he bluffing about? The princess could bring him to his knees with two lashes of her whip. 

For a time, Xi Ping was caught between a rock and a hard place. 

“It seems that that ancient demonic god’s way has fallen entirely into your hands,” Princess Duanrui said calmly. She seemed to have no intention of getting out her whip—though of course that was hard to say, since she didn’t seem particularly excited when she was cutting people down, either. “He was sunk in the Impassable Sea for so many years. Nearly every generation of Zhous who went into the Impassable Sea set their minds on him, but for over eight centuries, those bones didn’t move even once, so they thought that there was no more Way of the Heart in that skeleton.” 

Xi Ping thought, In fact, there wasn’t a Way of the Heart in that skeleton. They were looking for the wrong thing. 

“Your Highness,” Xi Ping said, “I became an established foundation at the bottom of the Impassable Sea and was sealed by the three high elders. After escaping illegally, I went on to become an ascended spirit in Sanyue, all without receiving permission from any spiritual mountains. I’m even more of an evil cultivator than that Qiu Sha, who disturbed the four great spiritual mountains. Aren’t you going to ‘expel evil’?” 

Through the spiritual image mask, Duanrui looked into his eyes. But Xi Ping was no longer the disciple in the Latent Cultivation Temple who had trembled with fear while letting her examine him. Unflinching, he looked back at her and said, “No matter who is caught in the middle, relations between Xuanyin and me will not improve.” 

“That is correct. Dignitary of Fate and the Dignitary of Rule may not be wholly without regrets now.” As if she hadn’t heard the provocation in his words, Princess Duanrui continued as evenly as before, “They misunderstood cause and effect. They thought at the time that the tolling of the Bell of Tribulation and the strange phenomena were all the result of the ancient demonic god appearing in the world. They did not think that the waves of tribulation had already risen, and the demonic god’s way was reborn to answer that tribulation—had you left the mountains some years later, perhaps they would not have punished you.” 

Xi Ping gave a somewhat sarcastic laugh. 

“Time and fate are not things you can understand merely by sitting in the Sea of Stars. When such things ought to come, neither you nor Xuanyin Mountain can defy them,” Duanrui said dully. “Even though you have obtained the Unbound Furnace to repair Zhaoting, your shifu will still not leave seclusion at once. Since ancient times, shed skins have had to join their hearts with heaven and earth. If he remains unwilling, there will be even more push and pull. If I were you, I would not hide in Tao County.” 

The corners of Xi Ping’s eyes twitched slightly. How had she guessed even his connection with Tao County? 

“The rule that evil cultivators cannot become ascended spirits has been broken. The world will become more and more chaotic in the future. Evil cultivators everywhere will be like bamboo shoots after spring rain, all breaking through to become forces to be reckoned with. But none of them will be your friend,” Princess Duanrui said. “Your foundation is too shallow. Tao County is a tiny flame. Whether it burns or goes out in the end will depend on how great a wind you can raise. It is impossible for you to rest content, warming yourself by that candle flame. You ought to understand this.” 

Xi Ping was silent for a long time. 

Duanrui waved a hand at him and put away the mustard seed holding the Unbound Furnace. Her figure flashed, and she was already dozens of zhang away, her white clothes merging with the mist. 

“Duanrui-shishu, wait!” Xi Ping suddenly called her to a halt. “Zhou Kun buried a heart demon seed in the Impassable Sea, and then it was brought back to Xuanyin by the Bell of Tribulation. The Dignitary of Rites Zhao Yin must have lost his mind on account of that. You must be care…” 

“Unless humans go extinct, the demon host will live forever,” Duanrui’s voice came from afar. “One ought not to treat one’s shadow as an enemy. If one’s Way of the Heart is clouded with dust, then perhaps that is dust one has stirred up oneself. Thank you.” 

Hardly had she spoken than she disappeared into emptiness. 

In order to pin down the Zhou clan, the Xuanyin Mountains had pushed the Zhou family’s genius who took after her ancestor into the way of clarity and unfeeling, cutting away her selfish motives. The way of clarity and unfeeling viewed all things equally. If there was no difference between oneself and others, then what difference would there be between immortals and demons? 

She was half a step from a shed skin, her Way of the Heart nearly perfected. It didn’t belong to the Zhou family, and naturally it didn’t belong to Xuanyin either. 

Over eight centuries ago, Hui Xiangjun had opened up the skin of the spiritual mountains and buried an inextinguishable seed of flame. A wind from beyond the bounds of the laws had blown, and the Zhou clan had snuck into the deep sea. 

Now, there was an answer to all these portents. 

The bright sky tore the mist away bit by bit. Then the morning light seemed also to shine through Xi Ping’s body. He disappeared where he stood, scattering into countless lowborn reincarnation wood trees.