Bai Ling sensed at once that something was wrong. Before he could ask, a Heavenly Question landed in the study. 

“Faster than I anticipated. These old things… How can they expect to get hold of him with a couple sentences of their own? Such self-confidence,” Zhou Ying ridiculed. Then he instructed Bai Ling, “Open it, then. It’s from the Principal Peak.” 

“Princess Duanrui?” The ominous premonition in Bai Ling’s heart became heavier and heavier. He picked up the Heavenly Question. “Is it still about you establishing…” 

His voice caught. His gaze was nailed to that Heavenly Question, as if its neat handwriting concealed a dreadful calamity. The sound of paper rustling came from Bai Ling. 

A hand reached out to take hold of his elbow. 

“Careful. That’s a Heavenly Question from the Principal Peak. Though I suppose that having severed her emotions, Princess Duanrui isn’t particular about etiquette, how would it come off if you took one look and ripped it apart?” 

Bai Ling abruptly raised his head: “It says…” 

“Yes, they’re telling me to enter the way of clarity.” He clicked his tongue. The paperman stood there like an idiot, not coming to help him change, so he was forced to slowly put on his outer robe and adjust his sleeves himself. “They know I have spiritual bones and no Way of the Heart and concentrate solely on personal gain. If the spiritual mountains want to rush a malingerer like me into establishing a foundation, naturally they have to grant me a Way of the Heart.” 

“So why is it the way of clarity? Even on Green Pool Peak there are few formal inner sect disciples who take the way of clarity and unfeeling, why do they want you to… My lord!” 

Zhou Ying shushed him. “Don’t shout. The way of clarity severs the emotions, not the senses. I haven’t gone deaf—bring me the fresh fruit Zhou Huan sent yesterday, I’ll take them to the Marquis Manor.” 

When he was young, Emperor Jiahe had worried every day that his throne would get away from him. In his dreams he saw himself bitten by vipers; the vipers were uniformly named “Zhou Ying.” Worldly affairs were hard to anticipate. He had at last become emperor, but not only could he not hold his head up high, he now had the Kaiming Department’s tight grip around his neck and was even more humbled. When he sent things to his brother’s manor, he didn’t even dare to say he was “bestowing a gift.” Lord Yao had become the emperor’s father-in-law, but the high position seemed to have shortened his lifespan. He had departed his mortal frame not long after. It was said that before he had foamed at the mouth and passed on, he had thrice cried out “ancestors above”; everyone said that this cry was auspicious. The venerable old fellow must have gone to be an official in the heavens. 

“Before, of the three elders, one supported the Luwu for the sake of selfish motives, one opposed the Luwu for the sake of justice, and the last paid no attention at all. The supporting one was half unwilling, and the resisting one, ha, he didn’t manage to nip it in the bud. That is the only way the Kaiming and the Luwu were able to muddle through, put down roots, and sprout. Because these are all affairs of the human world—the immortal mountains are above it all, and all that transpires in the mortal world is merely trifling. If a king of beasts in his period of splendor has his tail stepped on by a panicked pika, will he take it seriously?” After changing his outer robe, Zhou Ying reached out and snatched the Heavenly Question from Bai Ling’s hand. He carelessly said, “When the king of beasts is plagued by fears and always baring his teeth, that means he has grown old—the spiritual mountains have also grown old. That Xu what’s-his-name…the one who got into the Sanyue Mountains in women’s clothes, what did he say in his letter last month?” 

Bai Ling’s mind was a tangled mess. He responded automatically: “Within three years, two Xiang clan ascended spirits have passed away. The density of the spiritual energy on Sanyue’s West Peak has decreased since last year. Every year it gets worse…” 

“If the Xiang clan can no longer rule alone, then naturally Sanyue Mountain can no longer continue to hold itself supreme, either. The mountains in Western Chu stand thick as trees in a forest. When a group of tigers determines that Xiang Rong is no longer in the land of the living, it will be time for the Silver Moon to fall to earth. As for Shu…thanks to that brat, I just had a chance to personally experience the crying of the spiritual mountains—whether the evil cultivators in the South Sea succeed or not, from the day the Miah allowed the Ning’an Zhao clan into their home, the Lingyun Mountains were doomed to a bad end. A group of outsiders, with at most some low level cultivators who had just hastily established foundations among them, and in a mere eight years, they have shaken the roots of the spiritual mountains. If you were the high elders, wouldn’t you be wary? Wouldn’t the little houseflies of the Kaiming and Luwu become important? And it isn’t suitable for the mighty to take a hand in mundane affairs. If they want the Luwu not to be influenced by worldly desires, then isn’t the way of clarity a ready-made solution?” 

Bai Ling was looking at him in disbelief. “Does that…mean that you were ready for this? Since when?” 

Zhou Ying smiled without answering. 

Back in the Latent Cultivation Temple, Princess Duanrui had revealed this intention—that ancestor who took nothing to heart had stopped in her tracks and, almost indiscreetly, had asked, “How does all that you see appear to your eyes?”

He hadn’t responded. 

Back then, he had been only a step short of losing his mind. He couldn’t find clarity… Now, he would at last be able to resolve his cares and accept the princess’s Way of the Heart. 

“No need to worry. The way of clarity isn’t death, and I won’t cast aside the Kaiming and the Luwu,” Zhou Ying said as he walked out. “You can continue to work with me afterwards, anyway, just like before. Perhaps I’ll treat you better.” 

In front of the Marquis and his grandmother, Zhou Ying was a junior. In front of Xi Ping, he had to act as an older brother. Much of the time it was inappropriate for him to indulge his temper. Therefore, when he was unhappy, there was only Bai Ling for him to pick a fight with…and he was always unhappy, so he was always picking fights over nothing. 

The way of clarity could sever attachments, and it could also sever resentments. He would probably be much easier to serve then. 

For the sake of convenient communication, Bai Ling carried a reincarnation wood amulet with him. In his consternation he heard Xi Ping suddenly ask, “Bai-da-ge, are you with san-ge? Why isn’t he answering me?” 

Bai Ling didn’t know what to say, and he didn’t have attention to spare for him. “My lord, if the Viscount finds out in the future…” 

“He’s coming home soon.” 

Bai Ling froze. 

“Had the high elders not given him the disciple name token, I wouldn’t have received Princess Duanrui’s letter,” Zhou Ying said. “As for the future…we’ll see about it then.” 

After he left, as before he had come, the joys and sorrows of others would have no impact on him. 

Bai Ling babbled, “But since ancient times, the way of clarity has never produced a shed skin! This way…” 

“Heavens, you do think far ahead.” Zhou Ying laughed aloud when he heard this. “I do not wish to be a shed skin.” 

“Then…then what do you want?” said Bai Ling. 

Once again, Zhou Ying didn’t respond. He only narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky. 

The eclipse had yet to pass. The lights of Jinping burned anxiously. 

He had often been ill in his youth and unable to speak or laugh loudly. Therefore, he had always been sedate, every word and gesture ponderous. 

But now, when he had been weathered by decades of dust, his step suddenly became light. 

Zhou Ying ducked down and got into a carriage—now, the west bank of the Lingyang River had also started switching over to using steam carriages. 

There was no need to speak of the east bank. The houses and shopfronts had collectively retreated. The bluestone streets that a girl had once run across entering the city to buy osmanthus duck had long ago been swapped out for broad roads. A number of railway lines passed from the southern outskirts into the city along the river, with “jingling cars” running back and forth over them. A single car could convey a few dozen people. 

The ticket seller wearing a little red-brown cap stuck his head out the window and shook a big bronze bell to warn pedestrians to get out of the way. As he shook it, he looked towards the sky, muttering something, praying for someone to bless them and release the sun. 

The sky in Jinping wasn’t clear today, but it was still fairly calm. 

But in the west, the Shu were fighting for their lives. 

The turbulent spiritual wind blew through the Lingyun Mountain Range and rushed right towards the South Sea. 

The western continent had already been in the rainy season, and now torrential rains poured down over it. The veins of the earth snapped, dams burst. Lingyun Mountain’s inner sect disciples and the Dragon Subduing Knights flew around like headless flies. 

In the air above the South Sea Hidden Realm, Xuanwu, having nearly become a “stepping stone to fortune,” had struggled free because of Yu Chang thrusting his oar in. 

Wangge Luobao and Zhuoming had fallen short of success at the last moment. 

How could Xuanwu allow them to flee? A shed skin’s consciousness immediately enveloped the whole South Sea, trapping all the ascended spirits. The Miah cultivators desperately protected Wangge Luobao. As the spiritual beasts were constantly brought out under control of cultivators of the way of beast-taming, the sea became a slaughterhouse. 

Yu Chang changing sides at the front line could make people hate him enough for it to reflect on eighteen generations of his ancestors. Anyone who had the chance would deal him a blow. 

But while he had saved Xuanwu, Xuanwu didn’t take him for an “outsider.” Treating everyone alike, he had entered him into the category of “evil cultivators whose lives must be taken”—Yu Chang’s appraisal of himself was extremely accurate; indeed, there was no one on earth who had it harder than him. 

The masters present joined in a chaotic struggle, and the established foundation cultivators and spiritual beasts mixed in died by the batch. 

The essences of the dead cultivators surged onto the surface of the sea, raising bubbles everywhere, as if the water were boiling. That gold-armored zheng was worthy of being a fierce beast that could chew up a half-immortal; its intestines were as sturdy as if forged of iron. Before Wei Chengxiang, trapped in its stomach, could struggle free, she was pressed down and buried at the bottom of the sea by all kinds of dismembered bodies. For a time, she danced with the hearts, lungs, and bellies, feeling that she had simply become the base for a pig offal soup. 

The churning spiritual energy over the ascended spirit battlefield collided with what was surging from the western continent. The linking land bridge beneath the South Sea’s Three Islands nearly broke from the quaking. The Miah mortals on the islands fled for higher ground in a flurry. 

Under cover of the rising sea level, Xi Ping put on the Replica and, continuing to contact Bai Ling, who didn’t respond, he took on the appearance of a Zhao family established foundation and slipped through the hidden passage at the bottom of the sea. 

This hidden passage went from the edge of the Lingyun Mountains to the South Sea. It was an unexpected colossus. Xi Ping swept it with his consciousness and felt that he had swept a bunch of tangled skeins—the inside seemed to be stacks of mustard seed spaces, full of twists and turns going in all directions. If someone with slightly low cultivation had wandered in by mistake, they might have lost their mind with a single look. 

He was all alone in front of this incomprehensible maze, struggling to calm his mind and understand what he was seeing, find a way through. 

First Xi Ping tried walking in a little. When he found that something was wrong, he withdrew. But the “maze” was changing every moment without end. He went back and forth several times and soon got dragged in. The spiritual energy around him became even more disordered and bewildering. 

He was full of wits to begin with. Trapped in any surroundings, he could calmly think up a crooked notion and, with an air of complacency, shamelessly saunter out. But now, this “Tai Sui” who was so steady and sedate in front of Zhao Qindan and the others, after a moment of silence, suddenly clenched his teeth, as if he had reached the end of his endurance, and began to tremble all over. 

Just then, a soft sigh came to his ears. “If I were you, I’d go back.” 

Zhou Ying, long fallen out of contact, had finally taken out the reincarnation wood. 

Xi Ping took two deep breaths and laboriously and desperately put himself together. He didn’t want to expose his shameful weakness in front of his family. He forced out a reasonably calm “san-ge.” 

“I just received a letter from the inner sect, informing me that the Dignitary of Fate High Elder had put in a personal appearance, so I didn’t dare to disturb him. Has he gone?” 

“You knew.” Though Xi Ping did his best to keep his voice as relaxed as possible, it still came out in a somewhat altered tone. “You knew—what, san-ge, are you going to teach me how to endure humiliation for a higher purpose?” 

“I couldn’t teach you that. My powers aren’t so vast.” Zhou Ying sighed. Prince Zhuang Manor was very close to the Marquis Manor. The car reached it in the blink of an eye. When the porter saw him coming, he hurried out to receive him as he sent someone to go in to report his arrival. 

Zhou Ying didn’t hide the reincarnation wood. He squeezed the amulet in his hand and stepped into the Marquis Manor’s garden. With his consciousness, he said to Xi Ping, “Don’t you want to come home? They’ve just repaired the courtyard. The stone steps are much smoother. All the lotuses in the yard are blooming. The shade is just right.” 

In the maze, Xi Ping’s tottering composure nearly disintegrated on the spot at his light words. 

“Shiyong, I know that you can’t accept it, but these are the facts.”  

“…What facts?” 

“Those who wish to bring peace to the world cannot break through the canopy of heaven above them. You may have very fine ideas, and others may let the blood go to their heads when they hear them and be willing to follow you, but in the end, because you refrain from taking action against evil for fear of harming the innocent, you’ll find yourself in a dilemma, and those who believed your promises with joyful hearts will be disappointed.” 

“You’re saying that I can’t do it,” Xi Ping said. 

“You can’t,” Zhou Ying said, gently but coldly. “If you could, the demon host from the Impassable Sea would have shattered the Bell of Tribulation eight years ago.” 

“Then you would have died by Zhaoting’s blade eight years ago.” 

“If one can leave behind a name that will go down in infamy through history, what do life and death matter?” Zhou Ying said, laughing. “Only those rogues who climb up single-mindedly, letting everyone else die, not stinting on the misery of the living, can pierce the sky.” 

“Stop trying to convince me,” Xi Ping said, “I won’t… I don’t believe it, I can…” 

He could certainly think of a way, find some way out between the immortals and the demons. He didn’t believe this high-sounding reasoning. 

Zhou Ying unhurriedly interrupted him: “If I said that, right now, Xuanyin wanted my life, that I was on the verge of death, and wanted you to seize the South Sea Hidden Realm as a foundation at once, rebelling and letting the Lingyun Mountains collapse like a heap of broken tiles and a hundred million southern barbarians on the frontier die there unburied, would you go?” 

You can swagger before the slavering demon host, be ungovernable before the mighty sages…but can you cackle amid the wailing of ants? 

“San-ge!” 

“I’m teasing you. I’m at your house.” Zhou Ying put the amulet on a small table, meeting the Marquis of Yongning’s astonished gaze. This time, he simply spoke to Xi Ping aloud. “With strange phenomena in the sky, Xi Yue has gone to stand duty at the Azure Dragon Tower. I was uneasy and came with Bai Ling to look in on them. The Miah are skilled at constructing snares and illusions. Bring my consciousness over, I’ll lead you out.

“The spiritual mountains have stood for thousands of years. With the weight of the old pressing down on them, new things can never rise. You are not the one to command a demon host. Stop being obstinate.” Zhou Ying drank a mouthful of the Marquis Manor’s freshly picked Yu Qian tea. Like sending Xi Ping to study when he was younger, he instructed, “Get through with your business and come home.” 

In the South Sea, frenzied spiritual energy poured desperately into the hidden realm, but it was never enough. 

Xuanwu and the great evil cultivators were red-eyed with murder. Just then, there was a long wail in the sky. All the great masters collectively froze for an instant. 

Dense clouds gathered, and an extremely bright golden light trickled down, making one nearly think the eclipse had ended and the sky had lit up once more! 

Next, the shadows of nine dragons cut apart the vast sky. Where the light was, a human figure floated above a big cauldron—this was Lingyun’s Xiuyi high elder of the way of the beast-taming, bringing the Cauldron of Nine Dragons with him. 

“Practitioners of evil ways who desire to plunder the spiritual mountains and destroy the foundations of my nation—you must be punished with a thousand deaths.” 

The nine dragons roared in chorus, the sound of their roars blanketing the South Sea. 

“First cut down all evildoers, then capture the traitors. Do not permit a trace of spiritual energy to leak out and disturb the South Sea!” 

Leaving aside Xuanwu, who was looking directly at the Cauldron of Nine Dragons, all the ascended spirits had sensed the might of that great divine tool of the mountains. At an order from Lingyun’s High Elder, the nine dragons dove with a scream. 

If you said that the Silver Moon made you shudder for no reason, that it had a bone-piercing gloom, then the Cauldron of Nine Dragons was stark, bloody terror. 

When the huge dragons descended, all the ascended spirits who could topple mountains and overturn seas turned into rabbits in the sights of a hawk. When the muzzles of the dragons came down, there was practically nowhere for them to run. They were pressed in succession into the sea. 

An azure dragon sucked away the better part of the whirlpool in the sea. The bodies and essences of the established foundation cultivators who had met tragic deaths all went into its belly, not a bit leaking out. 

Xuanwu was tightly encircled by three huge dragons; he might have been dead or alive. 

The dragons’ scales lit the pitch-black surface of the sea. The silhouettes of the frantically fleeing ascended spirit evil cultivators were nearly fixed in that moment. 

Just then, an unfamiliar sentence in the Miah language came from the bottom of the sea. 

The three great Miah ascended spirits who had been cast aside by Wangge Luobao just before the battle had appeared out of nowhere at the bottom of the sea. The blue-eyed Miah clan leader had a ball of dark blue fire held up in his hand, burning at the bottom of the sea. 

With every step he took, the Miah clan leader recited a line of a secret Miah incantation, and the fire grew a shade brighter, the images of the nine dragons inside the flames became a bit clearer. 

The Miah clan leader’s features had all split open and were bleeding, but the hand that supported the fireball didn’t move a hair. The nine dragons, which were like the punishment of heaven, stagnated in their movements bit by bit as though they were puppets on strings. Finally, they could only remain where they were, struggling slightly. 

One of the Miah medicine cultivators raised his head and spat out a few bubbles, sending his voice up to the sky: “Elder Li, haven’t you forgotten that the Miah also have a share in the Cauldron of Nine Dragons? This is the Cauldron of Nine Dragons inscription that our old clan leader in ‘seclusion’ exchanged his life for. Today we will introduce you all to it…” 

The Miah clan leader took a deep breath. The hand supporting the flames rotted to the bone. His eyes were bursting from their sockets. He was about to shout the final line of the incantation.