So that was it. 

Within the Way of the Heart of a near-shed skin, Zhou Ying was like a small insect all alone inside a spacious mansion. Because he was so negligibly small, even the sky falling couldn’t have much impact on him. 

But despite this, the moment the heart demon seed reflected the spiritual mountains, he actually felt the Way of the Heart waver. 

Fortunately, this Way of the Heart wasn’t his. 

He hadn’t taken a close look at any of the questions contained within the Way of the Heart, never mind experiencing and inheriting them. Zhou Ying had absolutely no interest in this way. At the same time, having disconnected his emotions, he didn’t care that his cultivation path would end before reaching its destination, and he didn’t care about heartbreak or death. In a peculiar fashion, this meant he accorded with the way; he remained calm. 

Since the formation of the spiritual mountains, Zhou Ying was the only person to reach this point. 

The common people looked to the immortal mountains for guidance, ignorant of the reality. And once you truly set foot on this path, however many unanswered questions there were in your heart, you could still never face this truth. 

Even Princess Duanrui, at the end of the way of clarity, having long ago received hints from her cultivation level and her spiritual sense, was still attempting to find an “exit,” as if it was only that her boundary wasn’t high enough, that she hadn’t quite made it “through.” Once she made it through, she would be able to find the answer she wanted. 

Standing here meant the collapse of your Way of the Heart, meant facing your own hundreds upon thousands of years of utterly meaningless bitter struggle and search. 

Only a person on the verge of death would look this way. 

The Heartless Lotus could only count as halfway capable of understanding him. Perhaps he had also been here. But he was burdened with a hundred and eighty bickering Ways of the Heart. They wouldn’t permit him to preserve his reason for so long before the tombs of the sages. 

Inside and outside the immortal mountains, in the whole vast sea of people, Zhou Ying was the only one to come in solitude to pay homage at the place where the gazes of generations of the dying had converged. 

Fortunately, he was currently incapable of feeling loneliness. 

Just then, the box of papers in Zhou Ying’s mustard seed moved for the third time. He received the third…“guiding last testament” from the past. 

In Jinping City—

Events were happening too quickly. Xi Ping had no time to work out what the “Territory Map” was; he only relied on his instincts, which told him that this big four-legged worm that had been sealed by the veins of the earth crawling out meant nothing good. 

But a person couldn’t fight a “shadow,” and with Xi Ping’s experience and cultivation, he didn’t know how to force this thing back. Next to him there were also the old weasel Xiang tearing right at the Dragon Vein and the damned bald donkey constantly provoking the black dragon. 

Fortunately, Wen Fei had brought along another “Territory Map rubbing.” 

When he poured his consciousness into it, Xi Ping could at last touch the black dragon—the Territory Map itself—directly.

From the black dragon’s body, he heard the loud rushing of rivers and the echoes of human voices underground; he heard a heavy heartbeat coming from within the earth, like a pump, scattering the spiritual energy that gave life to all things, growing more and more urgent. 

Even Xi Ping’s own heart was influenced by that pulse. He quickly dismissed preoccupations and placed a mind calming spell over his ears. 

“Wen-shi… Peak Master Wen, how do we use this thing?” 

Wen Fei answered with his consciousness: “I’ll lure away that crazy shed skin, you think of a way to control the Heartless Lotus and use the rubbing to lure the Territory Map…that dragon back into the veins of the earth, and then we’ll seize the opportunity to repair the hole in the Dragon Vein!” 

In answer, Xi Ping picked up a string of faux lotuses and knocked Zhuoming flying. Zhuoming, wounded, broke away from the Territory Map rubbing. 

Xi Ping quickly covered the rubbing with his consciousness: Go back! 

But the black dragon shadow underground tilted its head towards him: it seemed to be “alive.” After hundreds upon thousands of years sealed underground, its dreams were all of escape. The scraps of Territory Map rubbings from the Zhaos could only touch it, awaken it; they couldn’t command it. 

The rubbing was obviously no dragon-taming chain. 

How was he supposed to convince it to return to the veins of the earth? Use well-meant admonitions, persuade the dragon with virtue? 

Seeing the withered heartless lotuses once again ready themselves to climb up along the gutters, Xi Ping decisively pulled over the Tai Sui Qin. Music holding sword aura pierced through the Territory Map rubbing, firmly hitting the black dragon on the head. 

The black dragon went sideways. It seemed to have been knocked silly.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing?” Wen Fei was perturbed. He nearly let a talisman Xiang Ning had parried snag him. He had no attention to spare to use his consciousness to pass a message. He yelled out, stuttering, “Are-are you…beating up the Territory Map?” 

He’s punched it right in the head! 

“Is that not allowed?” said Xi Ping. 

Then, not waiting for Wen Fei to hold him back, he bashed the black dragon over the head with one beam of sword energy after another. 

Wen Fei’s tongue didn’t seem to be very nimble. “You’ll…you’ll anger it…” 

“Did it look particularly calm to you before?” said Xi Ping. 

“At this point, I only know two sword moves,” Xi Ping cried out towards the shard of Zhaoting frozen in his spirit. Two beams of sword energy slapped the black dragon’s face, one left and one right. On the ground, the dragon shadow’s long beard flew wildly. “Look at me! Don’t you feel humiliated, shifu?!” 

Zhi Xiu: “…” 

Since its birth, no one had pulled a sack over the Territory Map’s head and boxed its ears. The whole dragon was being hammered into the damaged Dragon Vein by the Tai Sui Qin like a nail. 

Wen Fei: “…” 

That works? 

You couldn’t judge by appearances. Shaking his foot in front of the Dignitary of Fate High Elder was nothing; he thought that this hero might think nothing of running naked through Xuanyin’s thirty-six peaks! Where the hell had Zhi Jingzhai picked him up? 

The black dragon returned to its senses. It was beside itself with rage. The dragon shadow’s beard bristled like a porcupine. 

Seeing this, Xiang Ning pushed Wen Fei aside and took the opportunity to slam against Jinping’s already torn Dragon Vein. 

Xi Ping howled: “Elders, Duanrui-shishu!” 

Xiang Ning and Wen Fei both paused in the midst of their struggle: What? Where? 

Xi Ping quietly scattered an immortal tool like a dandelion—this was the same one that, during the revolt of the nine great Zhao ascended spirits, Lin Chi had used at his urging to counterfeit the Bell of Tribulation to scare the rebel faction. 

There came the droning of a bell, crossing all of Jinping City, colliding with the big bells at the Southern Sage Temple in the mountains to the south, striking an echo. 

At the same time, Xi Ping used the Discard the False and Keep the True book to create a handful of lotus seals that he tossed at Xiang Ning’s consciousness. The two attacks overlapped. Xiang Ning’s consciousness shook; he was almost overwhelmed with terror. 

Xiang Ning didn’t belong to Xuanyin. Unlike Xi Ping, he couldn’t immediately work out that Wen Fei hadn’t taken a token when leaving the mountains, so there had to be something fishy going on. From his perspective, Wen Fei arriving with the Territory Map rubbing represented the arrival of Xuanyin’s inner sect. With the Dragon Vein unstable, it was only natural for Xuanyin’s three elders to come in person. 

Xiang Ning was perfectly well aware that he had only been able to become a shed skin because there was no one else in the Xiang clan, and the sect leader, not wanting there to be no one who could curb Xuanwu, had piled up all the West Peak’s resources, personally stood guard, and shoved him up to being a shed skin himself. He was definitely no match for Xuanyin’s old geezers, who had lived through the Great War of Gods and Demons… He might not even be able to beat the near-shed skin rising star. 

The game was as good as lost. Xiang Ning came to a decision—he had to run. 

When Xuanyin came for him after the fact, he would simply deny everything. 

Anyway, the Lingyun Mountains had half-collapsed. The decline of Shu was already a foregone conclusion. Next to the spiritual energy bandits at Xuanyin, those southern barbarians would have no other choice; they would have to side with Chu. Northern Li had always disliked the south with its billowing smoke. They certainly wouldn’t step in to help Southern Wan… Xuanyin stood above the crowd on the continent, but they were also beset on all sides; he wasn’t afraid of them coming after him! 

In a flash, Xiang Ning had his whole line of retreat perfectly planned out. He skillfully activated his marvelous powers of skedaddling and abruptly retreated, serving up Zhuoming in front of the two great ascended spirits. 

Wen Fei was well aware of the fact that Xuanyin’s elders couldn’t get here fast enough—and even if they did, they wouldn’t bring the Bell of Tribulation. Jinping wasn’t Tao County; no one could bear the responsibility if there really was a three-year drought. 

Anyway, the Bell of Tribulation had to remain in the inner sect to keep watch over Flying Jade Peak. 

Gracious, what were public morals coming to? Here was a young sprout terrorizing an elderly man nearly a thousand years old in broad daylight! 

Wen Fei rapidly pulled together his attention, which had been dispersed by the ascended spirit grade scare machine. He scattered a handful of poison, killing all the heartless lotus stalks reaching out of the nooks and crannies and wiping out all the rats and mosquitoes under Jinping into the bargain. For the next three years at least, there was no need for Jinping to worry about an epidemic. 

Meanwhile, the highly efficient Kaiming Department had transferred a large quantity of spiritual stones from nearby. 

Bai Ling felt that something was faintly off. He roughly calculated the volume of freight and found to his surprise that the spiritual stones that had been delivered to Jinping far surpassed his impression of the Kaiming Department’s reserves. 

Yes, he suddenly remembered, his lord had previously always been storing up the spiritual stones the Luwu collected on the black market. 

His lord seemed to have…expected that such a thing would happen. Had he seen something in the South Sea Hidden Realm? 

Strangely, a bit of Bai Ling’s barely suppressed anxiety lifted. These spiritual stones pouring steadily into Jinping seemed to be his lord coming in person…the one from before. 

As soon as he thought this, Bai Ling suddenly once again found his bearings. He turned around and joined the group of Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s established foundations. 

After Wen Fei finished sprinkling “weedkiller,” he created an inscription in midair, drawing a large quantity of spiritual energy to stab at the black dragon’s head. 

The black dragon, unreconciled, struggled. The veins on the back of Wen Fei’s hand holding his fan stood out. Countless spiritual stones turned to powder and brushed past him. The medicine cultivator’s hands were as steady as the most precise machine in the southern outskirts. A series of inscriptions without a stroke out of place crashed out like a thunderstorm and were picked up by Xi Ping’s utterly merciless sword energy, joining forces to shove the black dragon back into the Dragon Vein. 

Wen Fei landed and staggered. “Quick!” 

Pang Jian gave the order, and Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s established foundations quickly began to repair the damaged Dragon Vein. 

Just as this crisis seemed about to stabilize, there was a sudden change. 

Xiang Ning, fleeing the battlefield in pants-wetting terror, suddenly froze. In silence, some vast will that even a shed skin was powerless to resist engulfed him without warning, instantly suppressing his consciousness. 

At this time, there was a sudden peal of thunder in the Sanyue Mountains. The spiritual energy began to stir, flowing spontaneously towards the West Peak, forming a sinister whirlpool in midair. 

All of Sanyue’s great ascended spirits were disturbed. One after another, they rushed over to the West Peak, but they found that none of them could get near the elder’s residence. 

They exchanged looks of bewilderment. Before they could come up with anything, they saw a sudden burst of glaring light pierce through the dark clouds. 

Someone cried out, “Look, the Silver Moon!” 

The Silver Moon had originally been on Sanyue’s East Peak. After Xuanwu had fled, Xiang Ning, in order to pretend that the sect leader was still there and bolster morale, had placed the Silver Moon on the Central Peak. Now, the invisible “moon” had suddenly appeared in midair and was heading towards the West Peak along with the surging spiritual energy. It landed on the summit of the West Peak. 

The Silver Moon’s cold light burned brightly, pelting down like rain on the summit of the West Peak, turning most of the top half of the peak into a ghastly while silhouette. Then, following the moonlight, a large quantity of spiritual energy poured into the West Peak elder’s residence! 

The ascended spirits scattered like rats, terrified of being splashed by the Silver Moon. There remained only Xu Rucheng, concealed at the foot of the West Peak. This Luwu was a hothead who would even dare to spectate at a shed skin battlefield. Rather than fleeing for his life, his first reaction was always to get a better look and send out the information. 

Xi Ping and Bai Ling received his message at the same time. 

Bai Ling frowned: “What does that mean?” 

The Silver Moon thought Xiang Ning had disgraced himself, so it had decided to cook him like an evil cultivator? 

But after a moment’s blankness, Xi Ping’s pupils contracted sharply. “Peak Master Wen, out of the way—”

Before he could finish, Wen Fei’s spiritual sense was also touched. 

This former general commander of Heaven’s Design Pavilion reacted extremely fast. First he waved his sleeve to sweep all the established foundations away. Then he flung his fan up high and opened up a temporary protective mustard seed, shielding himself and all the walkers in the mortal world behind it. 

The sleeves that had floated up in his haste had yet to settle when from the nearly sealed crack in the Dragon Vein began to ooze a quiet light…like moonlight—it was shining through Xiang Ning’s consciousness. 

However unworthy a shed skin, he still belonged to the spiritual mountains. A shed skin’s greed was never purely his own foolishness. 

The wailing of the Lingyun Mountains had not only shaken the western continent; it seemed that it had also awoken the terror of the other spiritual mountains. 

Terrified Sanyue, desperate to maintain its position as “sole authority,” had pointed a sword at Xuanyin. 

Just like Lancang over two centuries ago. 

The fatal moonlight, using the consciousness of the perhaps already dead Xiang Ning as a medium, seeped out of the crack in the Dragon Vein, passing through the whole area of Jinping and Ning’an. 

It was as if a peculiar string of lanterns had been lit underground. 

The Silver Moon’s instinct to destroy evil still remained. As soon as it latched onto its old acquaintance Zhuoming, it immediately wiped out all of his hidden lotus stalks. 

The other cultivators, who had “status” and were under the protection of the Xuanyin Mountains, didn’t turn to ash beneath the Silver Moon’s light, but they still couldn’t budge. 

Wen Fei’s fan fell to pieces. The inscriptions on the Lingyang River’s west bank melted in the moonlight coming out of the ground; there was no more distinction between Jinping City’s wealthy and poor. 

Like fracturing porcelain, the level ground silently cracked. 

Jinping’s Dragon Vein, which before had only broken in one place, was now completely shredded by the malignant moonlight. The black dragon shadow underground was free of its fetters. 

The dragon’s head swallowed Jinping City. The dragon spread throughout Southern Wan broke free of the veins of the earth. The Territory Map’s seal was broken! 

The black dragon that had been imprisoned for thousands of years turned its head and roared towards the Xuanyin Mountains, opening its mouth wide. The spiritual energy of the human world and the immortal mountains surged into its mouth. 

It was striking back against the spiritual mountains! 

Just like Zhao Yin in the past, the consciousnesses of all the cultivators closest to that black dragon were sucked into the Territory Map. 

The half-immortals on the outer rings protecting the mortals as they fled all went blank—with one exception. 

Zhou Xi, who just happened to be maintaining order in Dangui Lane, paused. In the chaos, lotus seals appeared in his eyes. The consciousness of this person who had once been the favorite of heaven was swallowed up like a stone sinking into the sea. 

There were no ripples. 

“Zhou Xi”’s eyes simultaneously made several circles in different directions, then fixed on the Yongning Marquis Manor—the only place in all of Dangui Lane with a light burning at the gate. 

In the sudden upheaval, no one noticed one of their colleagues going missing. 

“Zhou Xi” seemed to have been half-paralyzed. Limping, he went inward along the path of Dangui Lane. He began to croon a strange ditty indistinctly: “Papa's knife’s in need of honing, Mama's got the water boiling…” 

From several zhang away, the butler Haozhong, desperately counseling the Marquis to go inside, saw the “blue-clotheser” dragging one leg behind him as he walked. He froze, then stood up and said, “Exalted?” 

“Zhou Xi” stared at the potted reincarnation wood tree the Marquis was holding. The twitching corners of his mouth formed a smile. 

Haozhong stepped forward. “Can I…” 

A lotus stalk erupted from “Zhou Xi”’s mouth, aimed right at the center of Haozhong’s brow.