He had written the note himself, and the way of clarity wasn’t the way of memory loss. Zhou Ying could easily “remember” what he had meant: if the Heartless Lotus could infiltrate Jinping City and swagger into Dangui Lane to make mischief, Jinping would have to be in the midst of chaos, and Xi Shiyong would be trapped. 

His “past self” had wanted him to stay here and keep the Marquis company for a while. 

Zhou Ying felt there was no need for this. In this battle, he had done all that an established foundation like him could do. 

And as for the Marquis of Yongning—while it cost the Marquis an effort to stand for too long, he was still giving directions with perfect ease. The Kaiming Cultivators were unlike Heaven’s Design Pavilion. They had practically all begun cultivating within the last fifteen years or so; they were young and inexperienced. Seeing Zhou Ying stand by saying nothing, they all matter-of-factly obeyed the old fellow. The Marquis was urging the petrified Haozhong to go inside and check on Madam Cui…perhaps he meant for her to look after him. Then he called Xi Yue over. Seeing that Xi Yue wasn’t seriously injured, the Marquis bowed to the nearby Zhou Xi and said to Xi Yue, “Please invite His Fourth Highness inside to rest, don’t leave him out in the middle of the street to… Take care.” 

He had made perfect arrangements for the living and the dead. Zhou Ying didn’t see that the Marquis needed anyone’s company. 

But he had nothing else to do, anyway. He wasn’t in a hurry. When the Kaiming Cultivators came to their senses, they trotted over to cautiously pay their respects. Whenever anyone came to greet him, Zhou Ying nodded to them. 

He toyed absently with the heart demon seed and in the end remained above the flowerpot, joining the Marquis in watching the indistinct daylight hanging unsettled in the sky above Jinping.

At present, the shed skin grade battle of the spiritual mountains and the Territory Map was no longer something that an ant of established foundation level or below could see. Lin Zongyi had long ago opened a temporary mustard seed. Looking from Dangui Lane, the sky was a muddle; even the wind had stopped. The Azure Dragon Tower that had seemed to be eternally standing tall at one end of Dangui Lane was gone; this changed the whole look of Dangui Lane. Half the sky had emptied. Who knew where the crescent moon would hang when next it rose? 

Supported by a servant, the Marquis of Yongning sat in a new rattan chair that had been brought over; he couldn’t bear to look at Zhou Ying. His slightly emaciated and dry hand lightly stroked the reincarnation wood sapling—not long ago, while delivering the potted tree to the Marquis Manor, Zhou Ying had said that Shiyong returning was a sign; it meant that the strength of the spiritual mountains was waning, the orthodox sects were stretched too thin. They could no longer control the rampant growth of evil cultivators. There would certainly be great turmoil in the future. He had asked the Marquis to prepare. 

That was when Bai Ling and Xi Yue had used a Perplexing Sword Attack to place a sword array in the Marquis Manor. The Perplexing Sword was the vital sword of Northern Li’s rebel, the Blind Wolf King. Its sword energy could shake a person’s Way of the Heart. It had been extraordinarily effective against that evil cultivator just now who had called himself Shiyong’s friend… Presumably the trap in the Marquis Manor had been tailor-made for him. 

His Highness had also said that with events at this stage, the time for him to establish a foundation and enter a way had come. He couldn’t tell Xiaobao, or else he might refuse to behave and come home, go make more trouble instead. 

As for what way he would enter, there was no need for him to say; the Marquis understood. 

“When I was young, I wanted to go north, but I never managed to set out,” the Marquis said softly, his breath a little short. “In order to protect you, your mother decided to stay. In fact, she had been pampered and spoiled all her life. Her temperament was weak. Back then she was only a girl who had never gone through any trials. I knew her. If I had really set my mind to it, it wouldn’t have been impossible to take her away by force… But I had an old mother and a frail wife. With Ziyi as my excuse, I compromised in the end. My generation has been cowardly. We’ve left it all for your generation to bear.” 

If the child bearing a double curse hadn’t been born, there would have been no consciousness to pry up a corner of the Impassable Sea to escape. Liang Chen wouldn’t have wandered in there by mistake, wouldn’t have come to a fork in the road and been enticed by the Territory Map. Reincarnation wood wouldn’t have had the chance to see the light of day again… All the events that had followed, none of them would have happened. 

As for Zhou Ying and Xi Ping, one might have died in the womb, and the other would probably have become a shepherd at the feet of the Beijue Mountains. They wouldn’t have been forced into “ways” that they had to walk alone and unaided, wouldn’t have been sentenced to serve out prison terms in the mortal world while innocent. 

When the Marquis’s hand fell on the flowerpot, it suddenly began to tremble. “Your Highness, A-Ying… If your grandmother knew, in the future, when we meet in the underworld…she would blame me for it.” 

Unruffled, Zhou Ying soothed him: “Cicadas have their ends, humans have their lifespans, and spiritual mountains also grow old. The cause was buried thousands of years ago, and now the effect has come. No matter what, this chaos in the world was an inescapable doom. It was nothing you could alter with a single thought. Do not take it to heart, uncle.” 

While they spoke, Xi Yue and some Kaiming Department half-immortals had used talismans to clean up Zhou Xi’s body, carefully sewing up the damaged places. Then Xi Yue took off his own sapphire blue outer robe and covered him with it. He was carried into the Marquis Manor’s courtyard. 

During the passing of the deceased, the living all kept silent. 

From politeness, Zhou Ying watched the final journey of this brother who had a different mother from him, toying with the heart demon seed that held a murderer—time and space inside the heart demon seed were both illusory, different from the outside world. In this space of time, Zhuoming had once again followed Xuanwu into the Sanyue Mountains, had once again been let down and betrayed. 

In that prism like a kaleidoscope, he once again launched his scheme for revenge. 

While taking revenge, he could be completely focused. When he was avenged, his pleasure was practically such that he could have died without regrets. But soon, he fell back from his ecstasy and sank into unending despair, so that he once again became frantic, once again came to a dead end…was once again called away by a sentence from Xuanwu in the illusion, repeating his whole life. 

Zhou Ying suddenly noticed something. His fingertips tapped the heart demon seed. A thread of smoke flew out from Zhuoming’s consciousness. 

Zhou Ying clutched that thread of thin smoke and sniffed out a noxious smell only to be found in spiritual beast feeding grounds. When that smoke came upon a person, it would try to burrow into their sense organs. Zhou Ying felt his own heartbeat suddenly change as it was seized by that thin smoke, as if being dragged into mud. At the same time, his breathing became slightly unsteady. He observed briefly and felt that this was a physical reaction akin to “sadness.” 

So Zhou Ying concentrated and locked onto that smoke, using clarity’s Way of the Heart to knock it apart. His heartbeat returned to normal, and he understood the purpose of this smoke—this must be a method peculiar to the way of beast-taming that could magnify a living creature’s emotions without being noticed. 

Wangge Luobao. 

This Miah rebel who would sell himself in all directions had betrayed the Lingyun Mountains and obtained the sage’s Way of the Heart, and then, as soon as he was strong enough, he had colluded with Zhuoming to betray the Miah clan leader. After usurping the clan leader’s position, he was naturally unwilling to be controlled and manipulated by the lotus seal, so he had turned upon the Heartless Lotus. He truly was a remarkable individual. 

Zhou Ying raised his eyebrows. He watched as Zhuoming inside the heart demon seed escaped Wangge Luobao’s interference, but he only froze where he was and raised his head to cast a glance outward. 

Who knew what those eyes of his that also possessed a paramount spiritual sense saw? Zhuoming had no “great awakening.” Instead, he kept calling for “shizun,” willingly going further into the depths of the heart demon seed. 

In his whole life, only two paths were “true”: the first was whole-hearted adoration as he racked his brains and exerted all his efforts for a nod from his shifu; the later was whole-hearted hatred as he schemed incessantly for centuries to get revenge on Xuanwu. He had single-handedly destroyed Sanyue’s thousand-year glory and reached the pinnacle of life. 

All that a person wanted in life was but one wild fantasy after another. Attaining it, you were left empty-handed and had to go on choosing new illusory goals, like flowers in a mirror, the moon in water, eternally racing on without pause to the next difficult journey. 

What difference was there between racing in the real world and racing in the heart demon seed’s illusion? 

Clarity’s Way of the Heart reflected this mockery in Zhuoming’s glance perfectly. Zhou Ying, immovable as a mountain, savored it briefly, then put away the heart demon seed. 

From Xuanyin’s inner sect, all the ascended spirit peak masters and the middle and late stage established foundations had set out. While the two high elders firmly held down the thrashing Territory Map, the inner sect masters hurried to various spots to steady the mountain ranges and waterways. 

The sage who could suppress the Territory Map was not longer present. All of Xuanyin was fighting the Territory Map with their lives. 

Xi Ping, who had been sucked into the body of the “black dragon,” felt that he had been swallowed by the universe. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was darkness all around. 

Even a half-immortal could see easily in the dark. It had been many years since Xi Ping had found himself in pure blackness like this. He was dazed, almost feeling that he had “disappeared.” He automatically clenched his fist. Just as he was about to form a talisman, he heard someone cry out: “D-don’t use spir…spiritual energy! Do you have a tin…tin…tin…” 

Peak Master Wen’s actions were swift as the wind, but his speech was truly too aggravating. 

Fortunately, Xi Ping caught on quickly. Before Wen Fei had finished stammering “tin,” there was a pop as Xi Ping lit a tinderbox—burning pure kerosene, with a mortal-made shell; there wasn’t even any Moon Plated Gold. 

The bean-sized light shone into the distance. Xi Ping saw at once the cultivators lying higgledy-piggledy nearby. He gave a start and quickly bent to feel a walker in the mortal world’s neck. 

“They…they’ve been…knocked out by—by the Territory Map.” Wen Fei approached, following the light. “I-it’s…fine.” 

Xi Ping raised the flame. By firelight, he observed the surroundings and found that he must still be in Jinping City. The surrounding scenery was no different than it had been when he had fallen in. The collapsed buildings east of the Lingyang River were identical. It was only that the whole scene had a deathly air. Apart from the cultivators who had been sucked in, there were no living creatures, and the spiritual energy was extremely stagnant. His nose was flooded with the earthy smell of an ancient grave. 

“We’ve been sucked in like Zhao Yin was back then?” Xi Ping asked. “How big is this place? How did Zhao get out?” 

“As…as…as big as Great Wan, that…that’s how big it is,” Wen Fei said very laboriously. “Zhao…Zhao…Zhao…had help from the South-southern Sage and a h-heavenly calamity to…” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

It was said that the Xuanyin Mountains had four pities: General Zhi didn’t take disciples because of his “puzzlement,” the princess didn’t wear colorful clothes because of her “way,” Master Lin didn’t make tools because he was preoccupied…so Peak Master Wen didn’t speak because he stuttered? 

Why was he unlike the rest? 

Wen Fei’s fox eyes glared. “W-what-what’re you—looking at!” 

Xi Ping considered, then sincerely presented a lousy idea: “Wen-shishu, you say we can’t use spiritual energy here, and you’ve lost your fan. It’s hard for you to talk, and it makes me feel bad to hear it. Why don’t you sing instead? I’ve heard that when…some people sing they stop stuttering. Shan Po Yang or Zhe Gui Ling¹? You don’t have to rhyme or match syllables. I can provide whistled accompaniment.” 

Angrily, Wen Fei said, “Y…you’re teasing me! I’m…I’m telling your shifu!” 

In this respect, Xi Ping was so covered in lice that another one wouldn’t itch—Lin Chi had gone to lodge appeals at Flying Jade Peak’s door countless times. Xi Ping thought, It’s been over a decade. Do you think shifu doesn’t know what I’m like by now? 

“Fine, tell him when we get out. You brought the Territory Map rubbing, what do we do now?” Xi Ping waved a hand. He frisked himself and came up with a piece of reincarnation wood. “Don’t sing if you don’t want to. If you trust me, spill your blood on this. It’ll be faster to use your consciousness to ‘talk’ directly.” 

At any rate, the monk could run away, but the temple couldn’t run with him; if the disciple got him in trouble, at worst he could always go to Flying Jade Peak to demand repayment from General Zhi. Wen Fei didn’t so much as think about it before pressing a drop of his blood to the reincarnation wood. 

“The spiritual energy in the Territory Map is different from the outside world’s. Once it worms its way into your essence, you’ll be here forever.” As long as Wen Fei wasn’t speaking aloud, his speech would be as quick as the words that flashed over his fan. As he spoke, by Xi Ping’s light, he fed a mind-clearing pill to each of the unconscious established foundation cultivators. 

As Xi Ping provided lighting for him, he transmitted the urgent information in his speech to the newly awoken and completely lost established foundations. Then he asked Wen Fei, “If we can’t use spiritual energy, how are we going to get out? Walk? Where’s the exit?” 

Wen Fei’s expression was a little grave. He shook his head and said, “We may not be able to get out in the near future. Back then, the Southern Sage suppressed the Territory Map with his own consciousness, forcing open a way out for Zhao Yin. Zhao Yin followed the lightning of his ascended spirit tribulation to get out… Unless another full moon sage emerges among us to tear open a passage…we’ll have to wait for someone to take care of the Territory Map again.” 

Xi Ping stopped in his tracks. 

All of them put together would probably still be as far from a full moon sage as heaven was from earth. And as for someone who could take care of the Territory Map again…

Just then, the ground suddenly began to shake. There was a roaring in Xi Ping’s ears. Mournful screams suddenly burst into the black stillness of the Territory Map. Xi Ping instinctively sent his consciousness towards the sound. 

In the Ning’an area near Jinping, as the buildings and the ground collapsed, mortals were being swallowed by the Territory Map—the cracks in the veins of the earth had reached Ning’an, and Lin Zongyi and Duanrui were trapped in Jinping, unable to attend to so distant a place!