Zhi Xiu and Zhang Jue were the only two shed skins remaining in Great Wan, and the Xuanyin Spiritual Mountains were now entwined with the Territory Map, “till death do them part.”

Starting from the growth of an accompanying plant on Flying Jade Peak, the spiritual mountains had been powerless to inhibit this traitorous sword cultivator. If even the spiritual mountains were powerless, then what could the Dignitary Fate do, under siege in the Sea of Stars?

The dust had settled in Jinping.

Having seen the “conclusion,” Zhou Ying bid farewell to the Marquis of Yongning, then added, “I will be leaving the mountains shortly. In all trifles relating to repairs of the Marquis Manor, if you have any difficulty, uncle, by all means have Bai Ling attend to it.”

The Marquis of Yongning seemed to want to say something, but before he could speak, Zhou Ying had broken the link.

The peak masters of Xuanyin had yet to return. Only a crowd of young inner sect disciples remained, watching the collapsed Resonant Stone Peak anxiously; there was no one to step forward and take responsibility.

The dim Bell of Tribulation seemed to have rusted. When the wind blew through it, its chafing made an almost hoarse rustle.

Zhou Ying took out the box full of notes and flipped through them; a rough glance told him that more than half of the notes were now useless.

The current outcome had deviated from what the pre-clarity “him” had anticipated. The previous Zhou Ying had thought: all the evil cultivators had collectively appeared in public and nearly dragged the Lingyun Mountains down into a ditch; though they had failed at the last moment, this had evidently already aroused the dread of the cultivation world. If the spiritual mountains united, the great evil cultivators would stand no chance. They would have to think of a way to split up the four nations. Northern Li was a sealed drum, Southern Shu was on edge, Western Chu was jumping at shadows. If, under those circumstances, the news that “Zhou Ying has entered the way of clarity and gone into seclusion, with no attention to spare for the Luwu” got out, Southern Wan would become a flame certain to attract the insects.

The Zhao family’s scraps of the Territory Map were sure to end up in Zhuoming’s hands; Southern Shu’s Miah rebel would help him “think of a way.” After all, what Wangge Luobao primarily cultivated was the way of “destroying the bridge after crossing the river,” with a side of governing beasts. After using Zhuoming to shake off the Miah clan leader, he wouldn’t permit the lotus seal to remain on his consciousness for long.

Zhuoming was sure to come to Jinping, though the strength of his cultivation was a little lacking. The greatest likelihood was that he would drag Sanyue’s Xiang Ning underwater.

And some person in Xuanyin would have to bring out that hidden portion of the true Territory Map.

The rubbing that had been stripped from the former master of Resonant Stone Peak would be far better than what Zhuoming had glued and patched together. With it, there wasn’t much chance that Xi Ping would be unable to defeat Zhuoming—even in his right mind, the Heartless Lotus wasn’t as clever as Xi Ping.

With Zhao Yin dead, the Xuanyin Mountains would be unable to bring out another complete Territory Map rubbing. If Xi Ping could seize this opportunity to obtain a Territory Map rubbing, he would no longer be a wandering ghost being offered amnesty by an enemy. He would have a bargaining chip he could use to keep Xuanyin in check.

The rest of the path was his to walk. The previous “Zhou Ying” could set his mind at ease.

There were three risks involved in this.

One was the Heartless Lotus. The disciple of Sanyue’s former elder had been deranged to begin with, and swallowing a large quantity of Ways of the Heart within a short span of time in order to stick together a Territory Map rubbing was sure to further damage his mind. With a poisonous beast-taming cultivator at his side to further agitate him, there was no saying how muddled he would get. One couldn’t evaluate him on the basis of common reason—it wasn’t impossible that he might forget what he was doing halfway through the battle, let envy and hatred go to his head, and turn his attack on mortals. So pre-clarity Zhou Ying had spoken to the Marquis about preparing the Perplexing Sword Array at the Marquis Manor. If he added a heart demon seed into the mix when the time came, it would make a perfect treatment for the Heartless Lotus, resolving the problem permanently.

As Zhou Ying saw it, the Heartless Lotus couldn’t make too big of a stir. The second risk was harder to deal with: Xuanyin’s elders.

The Xuanyin elders wanted to use Xi Ping. If there was trouble in Jinping, they would first send him back there to see whether he would be easy to prompt. But as soon as they realized that he would seize the opportunity to obtain the Territory Map rubbing, Zhou Ying’s malicious conjecture was that the elders would likely choose to first put out the “fire in the backyard.” If it really came to that, Xi Ping still wouldn’t be caught between two enemies; Zhi Xiu and Duanrui would be certain to step in—when Zhao Yin had passed and the Zhao clan had revolted and the elders had cared only for the Impassable Sea, one could in fact say that it had been the other two who had cooperated to stabilize the Xuanyin Mountains.

Though they were both not quite shed skins, and one was still in seclusion, their combat skills were superb. Moreover, at a time like this, a near-shed skin wouldn’t violate their own will for the sake of safeguarding the orthodoxy of the spiritual mountains, giving them an edge over the real shed skins.

It was certainly unrealistic to hope that they could defeat those two millennia-old codgers, but they would have no problem giving Xi Ping enough room to maneuver.

The greatest risk, however, was that Zhi Xiu would become a shed skin just before the battle.

It was hard to assess what Zhi Xiu’s standpoint would be after becoming an “inhuman” shed skin. And leaving aside that a shed skin sword cultivator was more frightening than a natural disaster, if it came to a fight, there was no way Xi Ping would strike against him. This situation might turn out hopeless.

But the pre-clarity Zhou Ying had cautiously reckoned that the likelihood of this taking place wasn’t great. Though this General Zhi was excessively high-minded, often making Zhou Ying feel that he was pretentious and hypocritical, between Xi Ping and Xuanyin, Zhi Xiu’s standpoint had always been apparent. Except as a last resort, Zhou Ying couldn’t imagine what reason he could have to choose that moment to become a shed skin, and Xi Shiyong, who was always talking about “shizun this, shizun that,” wasn’t about to let him be in a position to need a “last resort.”

If such a thing really did happen, then it would be like the Zhou family’s last-moment failure in the Impassable Sea—fated.

But Xi Ping was very well-acquainted with the Heartless Lotus. With Zhuoming present, his consciousness was certain to be hidden all over. With his hidden bones, he wouldn’t die so easy. It would be a chance for him to make a complete rupture with the spiritual mountains. By the time he had recovered from his injuries and regrouped his forces, some decades would have passed; his ties to the mortal world would have severed. It would be just as well if he went on to be a great demon bringing prosperity to his supporters and destruction to his opponents—it would beat being ground away to nothing in a narrow crevice by the Xuanyin Mountains.

Sadly, no one’s plans were perfect. His “past self” had provided for three risks, but there were three others he hadn’t counted on.

The first was the Silver Moon appearing in Jinping.

Before obtaining the way of clarity’s Way of the Heart and the demon eyes, while Zhou Ying had had his vague guesses, he hadn’t understood the essential nature of the spiritual mountains. Fortunately, this lapse had changed nothing. When the Silver Moon invaded, the high elders had acted at once. Xi Ping had been forced into the Territory Map, and Zhuoming had been caught in the net. The Silver Moon had in fact aided them in keeping Lin Zongyi and Zhang Jue in check.

The second thing he hadn’t counted on was Zhi Xiu. After all, without the demon eyes, not even a paramount spiritual sense could see through the mountain seal of Flying Jade's Peak Master. Who would have thought there would be someone growing an accompanying plant in the Xuanyin Mountains?

But, in fact, neither of these two counted as oversights. They were the results of Zhou Ying’s limited field of vision prior to entering the way of clarity. Therefore, upon discovering them, he hadn’t been surprised. But the last thing he hadn’t counted on had been entirely beyond his expectations—Lin Zongyi.

At the critical moment, Lin Zongyi had betrayed the spiritual mountains. He had died, and his Way of the Heart had been destroyed; he had even nearly fomented a catastrophe. Fortunately he had been able to hold out. He had escaped in time and in the end hadn’t flattened half of Great Wan’s nine provinces.

But even so, his consciousness entering the Territory Map had led to two consequences unforeseen by Zhou Ying: the first was Princess Duanrui, for the sake of protecting Jinping, being infected by the Dignitary of Rule’s shattered Way of the Heart and dying for her country; the second was that new shed skin comprehending something from all this and using the particular relationship between himself and Territory Map to single-handedly push Xuanyin’s fate in a direction no one had expected.

Before entering the way of clarity, Zhou Ying had only wanted to use this tactic to extricate Xi Ping from Xuanyin’s control. At best, he would be able to stand up to the Xuanyin Mountains openly and legitimately, as an equal. At worst, his delusions of “world peace” would be thoroughly shattered, pushing him onto the “evil path” of carnage—whichever direction it went in, there would still be a lengthy struggle.

But instead the shed skin masters had slipped off the game board one after another. Through a series of unexpected events, they had squeezed time into a ball, bringing about the “death” of Xuanyin.

The demon eyes could see the Territory Map in the process of fusing with the veins of the earth. The “way” and the “shadow,” both left behind by the full moon god, would no longer be separate. Within a century, Xuanyin’s thirty-six peaks would disperse throughout the veins of the earth. At that point, ascended spirits and shed skins alike would become rootless trees. When the spiritual mountains died of old age, how long would the cultivators live?

The common people were in fact going on steadily now, but in a hundred years, when they had lost the protection of the immortal sect and were living on valuable territory, they would certainly become fish on the chopping block. General Zhi wouldn’t let that happen. In choosing this destination for Xuanyin, he had also made a public declaration that in the coming decades, his sword would be pointed at the whole cultivation world.

In terms of both timing and structure, everything had thoroughly overturned the plans left by the previous Zhou Ying.

Fortunately, he could no longer feel thwarted.

Zhou Ying destroyed the notes that were no longer useful. The box emptied considerably. He didn’t understand why his past self had behaved so superfluously, writing down so many pointless trifles while “blindfolded”—as long as all the goals were laid out clearly, he would attend to them point by point himself; the way of clarity wasn’t the way of imbecility.

Then he picked up the next note and saw that on it was written: Once Shiyong has obtained the Territory Map rubbing, when you see him, smile at him. There will be no more need to worry about him. It’s time to bury the Great Way.

The first half could already be classed in the invalidated pile. With his impassive perspective, Zhou Ying had a sudden realization. All this longwinded repetition with no regard for importance originated in a tangled skein of profound anxieties. It turned out that deep down, behind what appeared to be a cautious, gradual plan, jumbled and disorderly emotions were buried.

Without his deliberate study, a bit of the Way of the Heart Princess Duanrui had given him was silently digested.

Zhou Ying destroyed the note after reading it. When he stood up, he made the robes he was wearing fade to white—he had inherited Princess Duanrui’s way; while he was only a disciple of record from an outer sect, he still maintained a disciple’s etiquette.

Before burying the Great Way, according to the rules, he ought first to pay his last respects to Princess Duanrui.

The disciple standing watch on the Principal Peak was apprehensively waiting for news. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a door. Looking around, he saw the master of the Kaiming Department, who was “cultivating in seclusion,” emerge. He quickly stepped forward to greet him. “Zhou-shixiong…what are you doing?”

Zhou Ying raised his head. Wherever his gaze passed, one white streamer after another tumbled down from the main hall’s eaves.

Then, to the panicked disciple on duty, he said, “Shixiong, please find someone to notify the Zhou and Lin peak masters that Princess Duanrui and Elder Lin have passed away.”

As if disturbed by his airy sentence, the immortal cranes on the Principal Peak gave a long shriek and flew through the white streamers into the air. Their mourning cries lingered.

Zhou Xueru, Master of Green Pool Peak—since Zhao Yin’s death, Xuanyin Mountain’s acting Dignitary of Rites.

She was the eighth daughter of Emperor Shizu, after many years of silence the first possessor of innate spiritual bones to be born to the Zhou clan since the passing of their progenitor. She had been pampered in childhood. At eighteen she entered the Latent Cultivation Temple and was given the title of “Princess Duanrui.” In the same year, she entered the inner sect.

By the time her nephew Emperor Gaozong inherited the throne, she had already entered Green Pool Peak’s way of clarity. Gaozong had given her the rank of Imperial Princess, and from then on had led his whole clan onto a forking road.

Guangyun Palace and the Latent Cultivation Temple both had records concerning Princess Duanrui. Zhou Ying had leafed through them at idle moments.

It was said that she had been very sensitive toward color when she was young and had especially liked things like painting and calligraphy. She was a skilled painter and had once dreamed of entering a way connected to this—the Zhao family had a way devoted to painting and calligraphy. But later, everyone had thought that while her hand was deft enough, she lacked taste and aesthetic sensibility; she wasn’t cut out for this way.

Strange to say, as Great Wan’s imperial family, the Zhous often turned out vulgar princesses fond of gaudy colors; Zhou Xueru had been like this, and Zhou Qing, who had been buried amid a sea of flowers many years later, had also been like this.

It was said that because of her talents, she hadn’t felt any of the restrictions social convention placed on women. Her horsemanship and her martial arts had both been good; she wielded a mean whip. After painting and calligraphy didn’t work out, she wanted to enter the way through martial arts. But when she learned how the sword cultivators of Northern Li lived, she was scared into giving it up. At the time, Hui Xiangjun’s fame had spread in Southern He. All kinds of rumors had flown to the Latent Cultivation Temple. Hearing them gave the teenage girl a deep longing, so she also dreamed of entering the way of toolmaking… She had all kinds of notions, without any settled idea.

While innate spiritual bones meant that you would be half a step from an established foundation as soon as you opened your spiritual eyes, the inner sect had seen that her temperament was slow to mature, so they had instructed her to cultivate for a decade, let her intellect finish growing before she entered a way.

With this delay had come a drastic change in the situation.

Ten years later, Hui Xiangjun had passed away, Lin Chi had been locked up, and the cultivation world was keeping it all a closely-guarded secret.

And the girl who had been full of dreams, even bewildered by her profusion of options, had slowly grown up; then she had learned that she had never actually had a choice.

When her innate spiritual bones had entered the mountains, blue luan and white deer had welcomed her at the gate of the Latent Cultivation Temple. Now, the lively girl had turned into an ice sculpture of an old ancestor, and she had been buried in the East Sea. All the auspicious animals in the mountains cried for her.

Her vital weapon had been a whip. It had lashed evildoers, and it had stopped traitors. It feared neither the gods nor demons of the universe. Purple lightning like dark rime followed its passage.

The whip was called “Remorseless.”

In Jinping City, Zhang Jue, having reached a dead end, left a final word for Zhi Xiu, from unknown motives.

He said, “You will be censured by the whole cultivation world, Jingzhai—I leave you to look after yourself.”

Having said this, he put on his blindfold and returned to the powerless immortal mountains, leaving behind only a crowd of stunned ascended spirits and established foundations.

Xi Ping broke a branch of the reincarnation wood tree, lost his balance, and fell out of the tree, nearly stomping on Pang Jian in the ground.

Neither of them noticed it. Xi Ping said, “Shifu…”

Zhi Xiu’s consciousness could now reach all the way to the Xuanyin Mountains, “escort” the Dignitary of Fate Elder the whole way like his shadow, but with utmost courtesy, he still watched Zhang Jue’s figure depart. Then he finally turned and said to all the people gathered around, “By taking this decision into my own hands, I have ruined the immortal path of the spiritual mountains and let you all down. Today’s affairs concern the fate of the nation. To avoid the information leaking out and attracting the covetous eyes of malefactors, I ask you to keep them strictly secret.”

As he finished speaking, each person felt the might of a shed skin. There was no frightening sense of oppression, but they all understood at once that they would be unable to reveal what they had heard today, as though this were a natural law.

Pang Jian moved Xi Ping’s foot away and emerged from the earth. “Shishu, does this mean that in some decades, Xuanyin will cease to exist?”

Zhi Xiu nodded patiently. “That is correct.”

Pang Jian’s mind roared. He opened his mouth, searched his guts and belly for ages, and finally came up with, “So…so what about you? And all the seniors in the inner sect?”

Before Zhi Xiu could answer, next to them, Wen Fei suddenly roared with laughter. Whether because he was stuttering or because he intended to, he said “good” several times over.

Zhi Xiu raised a hand. Many points of light flew out of the ground and Wen Fei’s fan, which had been destroyed over the veins of the earth, was restored, as good as new. Before the loquacious medicine cultivator had even taken it, writing was already popping up impetuously on the fan.

Zhi Jingzhai, all these years, I've admired you.

Wen Fei took his fan and pointed to Pang Jian. Walkers in the mortal world, come with me to Jinghua Village.

Seeing the words “walkers in the mortal world,” Pang Jian’s lost and uncertain gaze suddenly focused.

Then he earnestly saluted Zhi Xiu. His eyes swept over his colleagues and subordinates. “Walkers in the mortal world are only concerned with events in the mortal world.”

Having said this, Pang Jian waved a hand, commanding the crowd of confused blue-clothesers to follow him, and went after Wen Fei. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to lodge a complaint. Pointing to the disheveled Xi Ping, he said, “Zhi-shishu, we’re powerless against this great evil cultivator. Control him!”