The Emperor of the East said something that Yu Chang didn’t listen to closely. He only wished he could strangle his past self for underestimating the enemy—the blood oath hadn’t stipulated that the parties couldn’t fall out and kill each other after the fact. He’d had a very good plan back then: first sign the blood oath to lower the other’s guard, then, when he was done using him, kill him when he least expected it; anyway, there was no need to pay back a debt to a dead man. 

Just that moment of naïveté, and the lousy stone he had picked up himself was still crushing his foot eight years later. 

“Just because of that, you want me to face a crowd alone, henceforth be pursued to the ends of the earth by those who walk my path?” After listening to Tai Sui briefly tell him what the unusual circumstances in the Lingyun Mountains were, Yu Chang was simply about to go crazy. His speech was so rapid he forgot his poise. “Fellow cultivator, is there something wrong with you? What does it have to do with you and me whether the Lingyun Mountains die or not? Anyway, was this brought about by the rebellion of a clan? The conflict between the Miah and the Xiuyi is of long standing. As for evil cultivators…ha, why don’t you start with Qiu Sha becoming an ascended spirit on the fifteenth of the eighth month? According to you, we’d all be better off committing suicide!” 

Xi Ping interrupted him. “Enough nonsense. Anyway, if Xuanwu falls in the South Sea’s damned hidden realm today, you’ll be in breach of contract.” 

Yu Chang: “…” 

Screw your ancestors! 

And meanwhile, the Emperor of the East, with the Emperor of the East Halberd over his shoulder, had charged towards Xuanwu. While the Snow Wolf and the others hadn’t agreed, their interests were currently aligned, so naturally they also followed him one after another. 

Yu Chang was a step behind. Then he jumped and blended into the shadows on the surface of the water. 

He was one of those rare people who had entered the Way as a child. He had struggled with tears of blood in his eyes for every grain of spiritual stone that had merged with his essence. Resisting the spiritual image brand, he had climbed for over four hundred years, until finally he had climbed to the starting point of those wealthy young masters—the feet of the spiritual mountains. 

No one on earth had better natural endowments than him. No one had a stronger will than him. No one’s road was harder than his. 

The mediocre rabble in the mundane dust were ignorant and cowardly. Stuck in the mud themselves, they could only turn their anger onto those weaker than they were; what use did they have, apart from eating and defecating? 

Shouldn’t the useless die? 

Fuck you, Tai Sui! 

The great ascended spirits reached Xuanwu in an instant. Sword, halberd, and poisonous mist were set loose simultaneously. Yu Chang turned his murderous gaze onto Xuanwu’s back. 

Just another step, and those spiritual mountains would be in their grasp! 

When he openly violated the contract, the blood oath he had signed with his own hand eight years ago immediately retaliated. All the blood in Yu Chang’s body seemed to boil, bubbling around his bones. Next, his spiritual eyes were sealed and his essence congealed. The blood oath locked all the meridians in his body, firmly clamping him in place…and then his Way of the Heart began to waver. Years and years of the past flitted before his eyes like illusions. Once again, he became that powerless child who had thrown himself onto a bonfire. 

Blood nearly dripped from the red eyes that the spiritual image brand had left Yu Chang with. 

Unexpectedly, Yu Chang jumped out of the shadows and knocked back the killing blows all the ascended spirits had struck. Then a sharp spike suddenly broke free of the surface and pricked at the lotus roots wrapped around Xuanwu. 

“What are you doing?!” 

“Yu!” 

“Are you crazy?” 

Yu Chang had never felt such hatred in his life. 

Xi Ping was feeling no better than he was. Right now, he had no time to attend to anything else. He jumped and flew towards the place where the vein of the earth had snapped—Quancheng, which was nearest to the Lingyun Mountains. 

The collapsing vein of the earth had torn a deep gully in the ground, which a person would die falling into. The spiritual energy hidden within it surged out as if going crazy. By unlucky coincidence, the Cloud Soaring Flood Dragon that came once a day was pulling in at just this critical moment. 

The crack in the earth split the rails in two. The unprepared Cloud Soaring Flood Dragon pitched headfirst into the deep gully. A number of Luwu who had been awaiting orders in Quancheng, not caring about exposing their identities, acted simultaneously, narrowly managing to stop the front of the train in midair. 

Before they could find a place to put the Cloud Soaring Flood Dragon down, a nearby slope was knocked down by the collapsing vein of the earth. A herd of boulders carrying violent rage smashed into the village at the edge of Quancheng. 

The village clock tower collapsed like a pile of sandy soil. In less than the blink of an eye, stones and mud had buried the village. 

The lead Luwu was almost stunned. But the next moment, the place that had been buried moved. Countless reincarnation wood trees grew wildly in an instant, narrowly managing to create a gap people could run for their lives through. 

From the depths of the thicket, someone loudly shouted: “Go!” 

The Shu, scared silly by the abrupt natural disaster, didn’t understand the Wan language he had blurted out; they were only startled back to their senses by the voice. 

A timber mill at one corner of Quancheng collapsed. The bodies of a row of tree-felling machines ruptured. Machine oil splashed, setting fire to the reincarnation wood trees holding up the “sky.” 

The burning pain of the trees, the bone-deep hatred coming through the blood oath—Xi Ping felt every bit of it. 

Even that as Yu Chang hated the ignorant people of the world, what he had originally hated were the spiritual mountains. 

The silent wellness talisman had been hanging inside his lapels. The disordered spiritual energy roiling at the place where the vein of the earth had ruptured snapped the string. Xi Ping flew by in midair and picked up a child trapped in the rubble, then threw the child towards the fleeing crowd. The unguarded wellness talisman rolled off of him, falling right into the burning thicket. 

The little brocade bag holding the wellness talisman had been embroidered with extremely fine silk. It was only lapped briefly by the flames, yet when Xi Ping reached out to snatch it back, the delicate colored threads embroidered on it were already burned through. 

Some people were running wildly, some were calling the names of their loved ones in heartrending cries, some were running unwillingly, dragged away by others, wailing as they ran…

Xi Ping’s ears were full of sounds that seemed to come from a pit of suffering. He squeezed the burned brocade bag containing the wellness talisman in his hand—it was called “wellness,” yet it couldn’t even protect itself; it also couldn’t really safeguard this body that had crawled out from the bottom of the Impassable Sea…and had been crushed to thousands of pieces and turned to dust. 

And the Lingyun Mountains were about to fall. The sky that had loomed over his head was also about to fall, amid tears of blood. 

He had once been…

He had once been an idler picking fights beside the Lingyang River. 

For a divine tool to leave the mountains, there had to be a shed skin overseeing it. Just now, Xi Ping had roughly seen the location of the South Sea Hidden Realm through the reincarnation wood amulet. With a shed skin’s speed, the divine tool would nearly be there by now. 

Looking at the response speed of the Lingyun Mountains, they were just as bewildered as an outsider like him. When the Cauldron of Nine Dragons, Lingyun’s shed skin, Xuanwu, and the South Sea Hidden Realm all came together, what would happen? 

What should he do now? 

“Shifu,” Xi Ping said blankly, “I…I don’t understand.” 

Was it that past generations hadn’t stood high enough? 

Was it that later generations had the will but not the strength? 

Hui Xiangjun, who had seen through the nature of the spiritual mountains and turned herself into flame, had been unable to shake the spiritual mountains; the Luwu who were hidden everywhere and all the many and varied toilet bulletins had only been able to disgust the important personages a little, and had still been unable to shake the spiritual mountains; the Riverward, the Law Breaker, the Late-Autumn Red, the great demon of the East Sea, Zhou Ying when he had nearly lost his mind, the laborers who had suffered in silence, the evil cultivators crying out indignantly against injustice….none of them had been able to shake the spiritual mountains. 

But now, the spiritual mountains were about to collapse into some handfuls of dust…because of the internal strife among the Shu, who believed that “If you are not one of us, we cannot be united.” 

If the spiritual mountains “died” because of a lowly reason like this, then wouldn’t their death be very unjust, very sorrowful? 

Before Zhi Xiu could answer, Xi Ping’s somewhat numb spiritual sense was suddenly touched. 

In the South Sea, Zhuoming had in fact already sensed Yu Chang using the amulet to contact the Misty Willow, but he hadn’t done anything. He had only quietly fixed on the reincarnation wood Yu Chang carried—even the lunatic hadn’t thought that with the hidden realm yet unopened, and the “sacrificial offering” Xuanwu yet to be absorbed, these two irresponsible clods would defect at a time like this. 

Had that Misty Willow gone off his rocker? What was he playing at? 

Zhuoming had been caught off guard. The lotus stalks had relaxed for a moment. 

Xuanwu had seized the opportunity to struggle fiercely, nearly pulling Zhuoming up “by the roots.” 

A group of spiritual beasts suddenly leapt out of the water, throwing themselves towards Xuanwu and Zhuoming as if looking for death. They were immediately pulverized. Flesh and blood flew everywhere. The bloody reek was oppressive. 

Among them, a gold-armored zheng that had been torn to pieces sank into the big whirlpool along with the corpses of several Miah cultivators. As it sank, its slashed abdomen was pushed open by the seawater. Its gory guts slowly flowed out—where no one noticed, in the stomach of the gold-armored zheng was a willow leaf boat with room for only one person. 

With the bloody mist to shield him from others’ gazes, Zhuoming took the opportunity to instantly abandon this small cluster of heartless lotuses and escape to the edge of the giant kelp. 

He reached out and took hold of a reincarnation wood amulet—when they had passed by each other just now, he had taken it off Yu Chang. 

Originally, Zhuoming had been planning to wait until they succeeded, and then, when all the evil cultivators relaxed, to take action against the Misty Willow. He hadn’t expected him to ruin his plans. 

He had to capture the Misty Willow’s consciousness now. 

The Misty Willow was everywhere. That brat’s consciousness was like water—you couldn’t grasp it all with one hand. Even if he went through the reincarnation wood to seal one place with a lotus seal, he could still shatter himself and escape. 

Unless…

Zhuoming held down the reincarnation wood amulet with a bloody hand. His blood soaked into it. The lotus seal went out blended into his voice. 

Up in the blue empyrean or down in the underworld, no matter what nook or cranny the “Misty Willow” had his consciousness hidden in, these words would touch him. If only his consciousness was touched, the lotus seal could catch him. 

Zhuoming said, “Xi Ping, Xi Shiyong!” 

Xi Ping, just caught in a dilemma, was unprepared to have his identity exposed. 

Disciple of an immortal sect, great evil cultivator, Tai Sui, Luwu, Cui Yugan, Cui Buqiong… All the protective armor he had used over the years instantly turned to dust. For a moment, Xi Ping’s heart and mind were shaken. 

The lotus seal carried by that voice seized the whole of his consciousness. 

Zhaoting could protect his body, but it couldn’t protect his consciousness. Zhi Xiu cried out involuntarily, “Shiyong!” 

The next moment, it was as if something had stifled the shard of Zhaoting. The consciousness Zhi Xiu had split off into it was forcibly thrown out. 

A chill poured into the top of Xi Ping’s skull. Something was covering his consciousness. The Heartless Lotus’s indecipherable lotus seal was like mist entering water, dispersing at a touch. 

The reincarnation wood amulet in Zhuoming’s hand turned to ashes. 

Before Xi Ping could recover from the moment of mortal peril, he sensed a particular reincarnation wood tree contacting him. Reincarnation wood was his accompanying plant, but very oddly, he couldn’t sense the location of this tree. 

Next, a mild voice spoke into his ear: “The reason you do not understand is that you are too young.” 

Even in death, Xi Ping wouldn’t forget that voice. It was as if his whole body was frozen. 

That person continued, “In the cultivation world, even your shifu is only an extremely talented half-grown child. He himself still has many uncertainties, so how can he dispel your doubts? His seclusion is just at a critical moment. He is hardly able to fend for himself. Do not impose upon him.” 

This was Xuanyin Mountain’s Dignitary of Fate High Elder—Zhang Jue. 

At the bottom of the Sea of Stars was a reincarnation wood tree that had been pruned neat and upright. 

“With the spiritual mountains present, evil cannot rear its head, and the common people have a place to shelter… The spiritual mountains were born through the hearts of the people. How could they collapse through the hearts of the people?” Zhang Jue said evenly. “What destroys the spiritual mountains are only the demons in people’s hearts. So it was with Lancang, and so it is now with Lingyun. The Xiuyi are skilled in combat, the Miah are beautiful and delicate. Tianbo-zhenren combined the strength of the two clans, stamping out the demons, bringing peace to the western continent. With the two clans now at odds like this, the aspirations of the full moon founder have been rent apart by his unfilial descendants, allowing demons to slip in to fill the void. How can the spiritual mountains continue? How can the people at the feet of the mountains live on?” 

Xi Ping’s lips moved. Bearing enormous pressure, he spat out four words: “I don’t believe it.” 

Zhang Jue didn’t quibble with him. He only raised a hand and tapped the reincarnation wood. 

Xi Ping felt his vision blur. The name token of a disciple of Xuanyin Mountain’s Flying Jade Peak fell into his hand—without a doubt, this was a prison more impregnable than the Heartless Lotus’s prison made of lotus stalks. 

“You do not understand now. That does not matter. But since your cultivation has already reached the ascended spirit level, when you return to the Xuanyin Mountains in the future, you can enter the Sea of Stars with me once… You have mistakenly entered a wrong path and taken a very long detour. I have always watched you. Fortunately Jingzhai has led you quite well. In this catastrophe on the western continent, if the monsters are permitted to consolidate power, it will bring great affliction onto living creatures. The spiritual mountains form boundaries that I and those like me cannot cross. Only you, arising from vegetation, are not restricted by national boundaries—child, you have the answer yourself, do you not?” 

Just then, Lingyun Mountain’s inner sect cultivators at last came to their senses as well. Countless points of spiritual light lit up on the mountaintops. Each peak master used their own essence to hold up the collapsing spiritual mountains. The established foundations left the mountains in a panic, making futile attempts to repair the veins of the earth, which were damaged everywhere. 

The spiritual beast farm was also full of chaos. Just as Tai Sui had said, the spiritual energy of the spiritual mountains was indeed leaking out. 

Li Manlong said to Zhao Qindan, “Miss Zhao, this opportunity cannot be lost. You can establish…” 

Before he could finish, Zhao Qindan suddenly pulled him aside—the alarmed cries of the Turmoilers went up; a number of spiritual beasts came charging out of nowhere and destroyed Chief Li’s little house. 

The new goose machine was shoved out by these big spiritual beasts and crushed to pieces. 

Next came a surprise attack of the heavy musk of the bluffing monkeys. Zhao Qindan raised her head and gave a jump of alarm, seeing countless ferocious spiritual beasts charging directly towards them, letting out strange cries—there were big birds whose long beaks were like hooks and spiritual snakes as fast as lightning. And on the fangs of the giant beasts rolling towards them like a mountain, there were traces of blood! 

She didn’t need to ask to know that these were all spiritual beasts from the sealed area. 

The Turmoilers let out shrieks. These frightening spiritual beasts immediately turned into a crowd of little shouting monkeys. Without so much as looking at the people who normally reared them, they ran forward without a look back. 

“Chief Li,” Zhao Qindan said, abruptly turning her head to look at Li Manlong, “I remember you told me that…” 

“The arrays of the sealed area have been damaged,” Li Manlong said. “Miss Zhao, to establish a foundation, you’ll have to change…” 

“Establish what foundation?” Zhao Qindan drew her sword. “Gather your clansmen, follow me!” 

Replies from the Turmoilers were everywhere in the spiritual beast farm. Zhao Qindan flew up on her sword. Gazing into the distance, she saw that an ominous miasma had risen in the midst of the spiritual beast farm. There was clearly no wind, yet the trees and grasses were moving. A snake the height of two people suddenly sprang out of the ground and precisely clamped its jaws onto a passing spiritual beast. In a flash, it had crushed that spiritual beast’s body in its coils and swallowed it. 

That spiritual beast was a sable sheep. 

The strikingly beautiful big horns dangled behind it, bulging the big snake’s chin. The “auspicious omen” was like the wellness talisman; both were bits of foam that couldn’t even protect themselves. 

Zhao Qindan smelled blood on the wind. 

Humans—never mind the Turmoilers, who were half the height of a human—absolutely couldn’t outrun spiritual beasts. 

As Li Manlong directed his clansmen to run to high ground, he lit all the signal flares he had on hand and sent them up into the sky, trying to call the spiritual beast farm’s cultivator stewards to come—but no one paid attention. 

It was already disastrous if a single spiritual beast ran out into the human world. All the inner sect cultivators of the Lingyun Mountains were already hardly able to fend for themselves; who would care about the Turmoilers in the spiritual beast farm? 

Zhao Qindan took out a piece of reincarnation wood. “Tai Sui!” 

But something was hindering Tai Sui; he didn’t respond right away. Out of the corner of her eye, Zhao Qindan glimpsed a flock of west winders flying up in a panic. 

Zhao Qindan formed a talisman with her hand—the only talisman she had learned that was related to beast-taming, which could only control good-tempered ones—and sent it out.