A mortal couldn’t see this swift-as-lightning “immortal skill” clearly. Before Haozhong had time to blink, just as the lotus stalk was about to break through his skull, a talisman came out of nowhere and lit the killer lotus stalk on fire. Haozhong was pulled away by the collar. When he looked again at “Zhou Xi,” his mouth had been slit open by lotus stalks, stretching until it took up half his face. His chin had dropped right off. His front teeth were gone. The Marquis Manor’s new butler plopped to the ground in fright. 

Xi Yue, knife extended, shielded the Marquis Manor. The Marquis waved a hand to dismiss the servants. He stood up. 

“Zhou Xi”—the walking corpse controlled by Zhuoming—tossed his head with force. He’d had a direct collision with Xi Ping via his consciousness, and his brain had been buzzing from the bump with the iron-plated head of that expert in being torn to pieces. Then all the lotus stalks in the city had been burned by the Silver Moon. Now, his vision was swimming. 

Dragging Zhou Xi’s body, Zhuoming, as if drunk, squinted at the Yongning Marquis Manor in front of him. The Marquis Manor was no opulent dwelling. The people of Wan were naturally mincing; even if they were going to show off, they couldn’t be ostentatious about it, or else they would be “descending to vulgarity.” So to Zhuoming’s eyes, this courtyard gate was a little plain, far inferior to his “home”… After all, his father’s surname was Xiang. 

But his home hadn’t had this kind of lantern. 

In his youth, there had been no Moon Plated Gold yet. The lanterns had to be lit, and the wicks would leap about; they weren’t this steady. There were a great many rules at home. The lanterns were lit and extinguished at set times. That bit of dim light was a sight seldom seen all day. His father’s official wife seemed to be worried that he would scare the sun; she had put him in a lightless wing. He couldn’t move, so he only lay there, bored out of his mind, watching the one ray of daylight that leaked into the courtyard, looking forward to the lanterns being lit. 

When he woke, the lanterns were unlit. The next time he woke, the lanterns were still unlit. 

“Zhou Xi”’s eye reflected the milky white lantern over the gate. He straightened out his bearing until he was practically urbane. He replaced his dropped chin and saluted the Marquis of Yongning. “Hello, Marquis, I happened to make the acquaintance of the Misty…of Shiyong. You could say we survived mortal peril together. I’ve long heard that Jinping City is the pearl of Southern Wan, the finest place in the world. I’ve always wanted very much to come and see his home.” 

Xi Yue, treasuring words like gold, said, “My older brother isn’t here.” 

“Yeah, I know.” “Zhou Xi”’s right eye didn’t move a bit, but his left eye swiveled to look at the half-puppet. With a laugh, he said, “He’s been sucked into the Territory Map. Back then, when Xuanyin’s Elder Zhao Yin was sucked into the Territory Map, the Southern Sage was there to stand guard in person, and he was still trapped inside for a full forty-nine days and only escaped using the divine lightning from the high heavens when he became an ascended spirit. Now that the Territory Map wants to steal the spiritual mountains’ light, even the Xuanyin Mountains will collapse. I’m afraid no one will have time to spare to look after anyone else. Why don’t you all come with me and settle down in a ‘nice place,’ then wait for him to come back so you can reunite.” 

Before he was finished speaking, Zhuoming, controlling Zhou Xi’s body, came forward like a ghost. 

Xi Yue met him with a talisman. “Stop!” 

Zhou Xi’s body was only a half-immortal one. Xi Yue’s talisman broke the not-fully-cleansed bones. His form instantly became warped…like Zhuoming in his youth. 

Innumerable lotus stalks reached out from among the fractured bones, holding up the beaten human body. Though Xi Yue wasn’t friendly with Zhou Xi, they were after all colleagues. Seeing him silently become a puppet in the hands of an evil cultivator, to be molded at will, he still felt horror. Zhuoming didn’t spare this puppet body at all. The lotus stalks tore open the wounds and used the no longer flowing human blood as seal ink. A bloody lotus seal came right towards Xi Yue.

Just then, a bolt of lightning fell out of the sky and nailed the expanding light of the Silver Moon. Enormous inscriptions pressed down on Jinping City like a mountain, stabilizing the crushed veins of the earth. At the same time, blazing spiritual light flashed. A whip pierced the air and wrapped around the black dragon’s neck. The Dignitary of Rule and Dignitary of Rites elders had at last arrived! 

Lin Zongyi’s mouth seal was blown down by the wild wind. “Xiang Ning, is Chu declaring war?!” 

When this taciturn mouth opened, two sets of spiritual mountains on the continent reverberated simultaneously. 

Xi Yue’s brows moved. Instantly, the joy of “We’ve been saved” appeared on his face. But then there came a boom. The black dragon shadow rose from the ground and gave a fierce shake, dragging down Princess Duanrui, who had her whip wound around its neck. 

The place where Duanrui landed was the very same Guangyun Palace where she had spent her whole youth. Jinluan Main Hall, carved all over with second-class inscriptions, folded like paper; the nine dragon pillars carved of stone crumbled. Guangyun Palace caught fire. Everyone was running for their lives. No one had attention to spare for putting out the fire. The south-facing heated room bore the brunt. The Welcoming Spring painting by the “Carefree Old Man” that Emperor Taiming had once hung there vanished as soon as it was licked by a tongue of flame. 

All relics of the mortal world were lighter than floating dust. 

Duanrui was after all only a near-shed skin. She was now being entirely dragged along by the Territory Map, which even a full moon sage was powerless against, while Lin Zongyi was in a deadlock with the Silver Moon that was seeping through the Territory Map rubbing. It just so happened that no one had attention to spare for tiny Dangui Lane. 

Zhuoming laughed aloud. The lotus stalks exploded from Zhou Xi’s body. While the Silver Moon was too busy to attend to him, this audacious lunatic freed himself of the hindrance of his half-immortal puppet’s skin, his true body simply swapping places with his accompanying plant! 

Inside the next life spiritual fish in the depths of the sea, Wangge Luobao sat by and watched as Zhuoming disappeared before his eyes. He said nothing, and he wasn’t surprised. 

He only holed up alone inside the fish’s mouth, tapping his right palm with his left hand. In an unusually soft and tender voice, he began to croon an ancient Miah tune—a song of eternal parting used during funeral processions. 

Sadly, Zhuoming couldn’t hear it. 

Jinping’s burst Dragon Vein could no longer prevent the incursion of the ascended spirit evil cultivator. The moment Zhuoming’s true body arrived in Dangui Lane, apart from the reincarnation wood, from every place in the Marquis Manor where there was water, as if a plague of snakes had descended, lotus stalks that would swallow anyone they saw erupted. 

Xi Yue was pushed a hundred meters away and knocked over someone’s courtyard wall when he crashed into it. He was very popular with the Kaiming Department. Though events had happened so quickly that there had been no time to call for help, a large number of Kaiming Cultivators had rushed over upon hearing a stir. 

The half-immortals valiantly charged into the Marquis Manor’s courtyard, shielding the mortals. 

Zhuoming couldn’t restrain his laughter. Without so much as looking at these half-immortal ants attempting to shake a tree, he knocked them aside like dust and landed into front of the Marquis of Yongning—the Marquis instinctively shielded the potted reincarnation wood tree in his arms, even though the big flowerpot was too heavy for him and weighed him down so much that he couldn’t stand up straight. 

Zhuoming’s staring eyes flashed, stabbed by this sight. He tilted his head stiffly. The lotus stalks quickly wrapped around the Marquis’s lapels, dragging the old Marquis so that he staggered half a step; a lotus seal stamped the center of the Marquis’s brow. 

Just then, from the Marquis’s brow and from the Marquis Manor’s courtyard, several beams of utterly cold sword light flew out, carrying the frostiness of the north, and pierced the lotus seal. 

Zhuoming was caught off guard. The blow nearly sliced off half his head. 

The way of the sword was a direct and daring way, but the sword wind that had shot out from the Marquis Manor was out of the ordinary; its chill seemed capable of permeating a person’s spirit. 

The sword wind wrapped around Zhuoming’s already injured consciousness like winding silk. All the malice in the depths of his heart was uprooted, revealing the “seed” buried deep beneath the malice. His paramount spiritual sense-bearing senses were swallowed by lengthy illusions. The Marquis of Yongning before him turned into Xuanwu, into his stranger of a father, into his puppet-like mother, into the frightened, shirking servants…

The heartless lotus stalks extending in all directions flew wildly. Two Kaiming Cultivators, guarding the Marquis with their lives, got him out of the way. The potted reincarnation wood tree fell out of his arms. It landed on the ground and was snatched by the deranged Zhuoming. 

Spiritual light flashed beneath that small tree. A transport array hidden beforehand was activated. 

But the weak spiritual light of this half-immortal grade array couldn’t attract the lunatic’s notice. Out of control, the Heartless Lotus swallowed everything he saw. He swallowed the item that came through the transport array directly into his spirit. 

The next moment, Zhuoming stiffened abruptly. The lotus stalks that were wreaking havoc stopped moving. They gave a twitch as if dying, bringing down the Marquis Manor’s porter’s lodge. 

On Xuanyin’s Principal Peak, Zhou Ying was holding the third note. On it was written: The Yongning Marquis Manor must not be lost. Get rid of the Heartless Lotus. The Blind Wolf King’s Perplexing Sword Attack is with the Marquis. You can assist with the heart demon seed.

In front of Zhou Ying was a very simple transport array. Through it, he transported a prism-like demon seed. 

While the note said “must not be lost,” it wouldn’t matter if it was lost. Zhou Ying couldn’t feel worry, and because he wasn’t concerned, he was steady. He chose his time precisely. 

The flowerpot of that reincarnation wood tree was a downgraded immortal tool for communication. Across the vast distance, it allowed him to meet the world’s other paramount spiritual sense. 

But Zhuoming could no longer see him. 

Zhuoming clutched his own throat tightly, staring in front of him as though his eyes were about to burst from their sockets, but his gaze was unfocused. The heart demon seed flashing through his pupils had completely blocked his line of sight. 

Zhou Ying could practically hear the rejoicing of the heart demon seed. There was no place on earth more suitable for a heart demon to sprout than on the Heartless Lotus. The moment Zhuoming swallowed it, the demon seed couldn’t hold back from taking root and sprouting in every segment of lotus root. In the blink of an eye, it had formed a big net. 

Every consciousness Zhuoming had swallowed was reflected by the facets of the heart demon seed. Innumerable interwoven loves and hates fractured his mind. 

The Kaiming Cultivators surrounding the Marquis watched dumbfounded as this horrifying great evil cultivator’s flailing lotus stalks withered. His flesh shrank bit by bit as though being dessicated. A shell like crystal formed around him. On countless small facets flashed countless faces belonging to Zhuoming. 

From instinct, Zhuoming was struggling fiercely. As the heart demon nibbled away at him, he was constantly forgetting his own story. He thought vaguely that he had said something; then he heard in the depths of his lotus heart a person saying blandly to him, “Right-side up. Why don’t you put those down?” 

Zhuoming was stunned. Through the prism, he saw his own face—the wan face of his youth, when he couldn’t yet rearrange his features like a monster. 

In his heart, he dimly knew who the person answering was, and he knew what fate it would lead him to if he followed this person, but just like three hundred years ago, his tears still fell uncontrollably. 

That person said to him, “Come with me.” 

The Kaiming Cultivators saw this evil cultivator suddenly stop moving and, as if letting his hands be tied, allow himself to be locked inside a “stone shell,” like a winged insect in amber. The “stone shell” wrapped around him was constantly shrinking. At last it shrank to the size of a broad bean. Because of the refraction of light through the prisms, the transparent stone appeared to be a particular shade of grey. 

One unusually erudite half-immortal suddenly mumbled, “This…seems to be what’s written of in books…a ‘star stone’ from the bottom of the Sea of Stars.” 

Hardly had he spoken than the Heartless Lotus’s unruly lotus stalks fell with a crash. 

Zhuoming had captured the consciousnesses of countless people, trapping them in the lotus stalks, forever unable to reincarnate. 

His own consciousness was trapped in the heart demon seed, forever unable to reincarnate. 

Zhou Ying’s face appeared above the flowerpot. Then he said to the half-immortal who had spoken, “This isn’t a star stone—put it in the transport array and send it over for me.” 

Then he nodded to the Marquis and gently said, “Thank you, uncle.” 

The corner of the Marquis’s eye twitched violently, as if he had been slapped. After a long moment, he finally waved a hand to dismiss the servants coming to support him and softly said, “Your Highness.” 

Zhou Ying took back the heart demon seed. In the midst of Jinping City, wavering on the point of collapse, he smoothly wished good health to the Marquis. When he was finished, he was about to cut off the communication and crush the note. 

Then he saw a line of his own slightly hesitant writing on the back of the note. It said: Wait a bit.