At the beginning of yin hour, before first light, a lantern went on in the Qiu courtyard. Yao Qi got up in humiliation. 

Because he hadn’t been able to exit the spiritual sense mustard seed, he had to go to morning class a shichen in advance. As soon as he left his rooms, the mountain wind slammed the door shut behind him, and dew flew in his face, as if branding the word “stupid” onto it. 

Yao Qi raised his sleeve and wiped the water off his face. The rims of his eyes were bright red. 

Xi Ping, who normally couldn’t be woken unless he was struck by lightning, was startled by the sound of the door closing. 

He sat up in bewilderment, narrowed his eyes and looked out the window, watched Yao Ziming go out holding up the lantern, then confusedly stared at his hands for ages—he must have slept in a bad position; his fingers kept shaking. 

As he stared blankly, he happened to look up and suddenly saw a human figure appear at his bedside. 

Xi Ping was caught unawares and nearly bit his tongue—the half-puppet who had eaten a whole box of blue jade had shot up about two chi overnight. He looked like a teenager. 

His little round face had changed shape. As if his scant human skin was insufficient, it was stuck tightly to his bones, so pale it was ashen. The little jacket and little pants no longer met, and his shoulders had torn the seams. He silently stared back at Xi Ping; it was unclear whether he was demanding a life or repayment. 

“You fucking…” Xi Ping recovered and couldn’t resist swearing. “If you scare me to death, there won’t be any more spiritual stones for you to snatch!” 

As if feeling his own inferiority, the half-puppet retreated into the shadows. 

Xi Ping stared at this countenance that had taken years off his lifespan, spent a long time getting accustomed to it, then at last crossly said, “Come here, get to work—first put away my quilt.” 

The half-puppet went over obediently and put away the bedding. 

It seemed that not only his body had grown up, but his intellect, too. Having digested several thousand liang of gold, he at last knew what he was supposed to be doing. 

Suddenly, a breath came out of the half-puppet’s throat. He picked a fresh leaf out of Xi Ping’s bedding. 

Xi Ping’s pupils contracted almost imperceptibly. 

The half-puppet pinched the leaf, his expression changing several times. At last he seemed to come to a decision. He turned and, as though going to a martyr’s death, raised the leaf in front of Xi Ping’s face. 

But before he could raise his hand and gesture, the fickle young master kicked up a fuss out of nowhere. He suddenly burst out: “Where do you think the leaf came from? It’s because of you, you little money-waster, making me run up the mountain in the middle of the night!” 

The half-puppet was stunned by his blustery temper. 

“Anyway, you owe me a hundred liang of blue jade!” Xi Ping said impatiently. “If you can’t pay it all back, you’ll have to work for me.” 

The half-puppet quickly reached out to grab him. 

Wait, listen to me, you’ve been…

“Move, get out of my way!” Xi Ping angrily pushed him away. “I don’t understand your flapping. How can a mute have so much to say?” 

Impatient “ha”s came out of the half-puppet’s throat. 

Xi Ping’s scarce patience was exhausted. He pinched the dragon-taming chain on the half-puppet’s neck. 

The teenager’s throat was instantly clutched by the dragon-taming chain. His limbs locked up. He couldn’t move a muscle. 

Xi Ping said coldly, “I said move. Don’t bother me.” 

Silver light flashed on the dragon-taming chain, then burrowed into the half-puppet’s neck. 

“Go pick up the clothes and shoes I took off last night.” 

The half-puppet was pulled by the dragon-taming chain. He mechanically picked up the brocade robe and boots Xi Ping had tossed aside. 

Xi Ping glanced at him haughtily, then instructed him: “I don’t want the clothes anymore. Wash them and put them on yourself. Take off those grave clothes, don’t go out and make a spectacle of yourself.” 

Then, the willful young master yawned and ignored the half-puppet. He strolled to the study, stretched, got out the white jade proximal, and started to write to his grandmother to report after the fact that he had been well yesterday. 

When he had written a few words, he suddenly remembered something. He looked up. The half-puppet, already forced to the bedroom door, stopped in accordance with his thoughts. 

“Oh, right, what’s your name?” Xi Ping seemed to be asking casually. Without waiting for an answer, he despotically made his own decision. “Forget it, a name chosen by an evil cultivator won’t be auspicious. Since you’re my house slave, your surname can be Xi from now on… Oh, your name can be Xi Yue.” 

When the white jade proximal lit up, Prince Zhuang had just returned to his manor—he had spent half the night kneeling at the palace and was carried home on a guard’s back. 

A page boy came up to bring him hot tea and pastries. He only picked up the cup and moistened his lips, then pushed the pastries aside without touching them. 

Bai Ling appeared out of nowhere. He took out a small medicine bottle, emptied a pill onto a snow-white brocade handkerchief, and offered it to him. 

A faint, refreshing scent came from the mouth of the bottle. It floated out the window, and a haitang tree at the window that had just put out buds sorrowfully flowered. 

Prince Zhuang didn’t look well, but he seemed to be in a good mood. Smiling, he shook his head and said, “Spring Sunshine Pills are rare, keep it to use for yourself. This thing won’t make up for what’s wrong with me… There’s a letter on the proximal, bring it to me so I can read.” 

Bai Ling held out the pill, not moving a muscle, his expression grim. 

There was nothing Prince Zhuang could do. He had to take the pill and put it in his mouth. “Tsk, a paper man like you, why do you have the personality of a rock?” 

The mutual affection between His Majesty and the Crown Prince was such that it would take more than one or two conflicting political views to whittle it away entirely—when the heads of the Zhang family had rolled, it still hadn’t spread to the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace. If he went to intercede on someone’s behalf, full of affection and concern, His Majesty could use it as a step to come down. 

Only if matters were forced to a new stage could the crack remain on the surface.

Anger and hatred were just like mutual affection; they had to be accumulated. There was no way to accomplish everything in one stroke. It had to be just enough at a time. 

Also, His Majesty liked to see him having “profound sentiments.” 

Bai Ling said, stiffly, “I am only a paper man. I don’t understand the ways of the world. But in the future, if Your Highness plans to injure himself to gain an enemy’s confidence again, I would like to be notified, so as not to end up at loose ends and unable to find any elixirs.” 

Prince Zhuang pointed at him as if tolerating the black cat throwing a tantrum. He made to get up. “Never mind, I’ll get it myself.” 

Only then did Bai Ling silently turn, pick up the white jade proximal, and bring it in front of him.

“God, why so long again?” Prince Zhuang scanned it briefly. He saw that on the proximal was another round of self-praise. Xi Ping had already been talking about his “first-class spiritual sense and unsurpassed natural gifts” for several days in different styles. The reams of pointless nonsense made Prince Zhuang’s eyes hurt. “Fine, take it away, clearly there’s nothing serious…wait.” 

His gaze suddenly stopped on a corner of the proximal. He saw Xi Ping write, winding up: “The little half-human page Commander Pang gave me is ugly, can’t speak or write, and is very clumsy, nowhere near as good as Haozhong. But in the Latent Cultivation Temple, I have to make do with him, so I’ve named him Xi Yue, in the hope that he can pick up some wits.” 

Prince Zhuang’s somewhat pallid fingers stroked the writing on the proximal. “Xi Yue…” 

If he remembered right, Xi Ping had originally had a brother younger than him by three years. When he had been nearly a year old, he hadn’t held out. When the child had died young, a name had already been chosen for him. His name had been Xi Yue. 

Why would he give the half-puppet this name for no reason? 

Weren’t all his servants named after instruments? 

Was it…that he missed home? 

Prince Zhuang frowned—no, that couldn’t be it. This cousin of his acted like he was a horse slipping its reins when he went traveling. If the Marquis of Yongning didn’t cut off his allowance, he couldn’t get that wild ass back to be tied up. He didn’t have any tender feelings like missing home. 

The brat had always only reported the good and not the bad. No matter how much trouble he had gotten himself into, he would come back and act like nothing was the matter. He wouldn’t say a thing unless he had no way out. Something must have happened. 

Prince Zhuang muttered to himself silently for a moment. “Didn’t Princess Xincheng recently go to stay at Southern Sage Temple for a few days?” 

“Yes,” said Bai Ling, “she’s on the outs with her husband.” 

“Go write a calling card,” Prince Zhuang said. “I’m going to the Southern Sage Temple to pray for blessings…to request the peace and safety of the country and harmony between my father and brother. On the way I’ll pay my respects to my aunt.” 

In the Latent Cultivation Temple, apart from Yao Qi and the others who had been unlucky enough not to pass the spiritual sense mustard seed, the others didn’t have to go first thing in the morning to the Qiankun Tower to suffer—Elder Su had freed up some time to take them around to get familiar with the surroundings and to lecture on the sect rules. 

The whole way there, Xi Ping listened to Chang Jun filling his ears with gossip; in this way, he learned that this kindly-looking old man was actually a remarkable figure. 

“Elder Su was the previous General Commander of Heaven’s Design Pavilion. He’s experienced six reigns. He only went into retirement because he grew old. When the Lancang traitors surrounded Jinping and Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s elite were all thinking up ways to break out of the encirclement and get word to the sect, he was just starting out. He stayed back to guard the city with General Zhi, and they’re close friends to this day. I hear that his spiritual bones are already complete… That means that he’s in the consummate open-eyed stage, only a step away from an established foundation.” 

Xi Ping, perhaps because he had woken up so early and wasn’t very alert, was absent-minded. He didn’t even listen very closely to what Chang Jun was saying. He casually returned, “So why doesn’t he establish it?” 

A voice behind him said, laughing, “You think you can establish a foundation just like that? For an established foundation, you first have to enter the inner sect.” 

All the disciples hurried to step forward and salute. “Elder Su.” 

Su Zhun wore a straw hat and held a bamboo cane, looking like an unprepossessing woodcutter. 

He slowly walked up the stone steps. “An established foundation isn’t something that happens as naturally as water forming a channel. Sweeping your meridians and cleansing your marrow to complete your spiritual bones is only the requirement a human body needs to reach to establish a foundation. Apart from the spiritual bones, you must also find your ‘Way of the Heart.’ Me, though, I have no idea where to go looking for my Way of the Heart. I can’t enter the inner sect, so I suppose I’ll steep in the dust of the mortal world until I die a natural death.” 

Zhou Xi followed up: “Elder, it must very hard to attain a Way of the Heart, right?” 

“Naturally,” Su Zhun said, smiling. “Look at all living things. How many people spend every day with their heads down, struggling to survive? Those who know what they’re struggling towards and why they’re alive are few and far between. They may not know what they’re about from the beginning to the end of one year, so how are they going to find a Way of the Heart to last thousands of years from start to finish?” 

Another disciple asked, “So, Elder, can you establish a foundation as long as you find a ‘Way of the Heart’?”

Su Zhun shook his head. “You have to proceed according to the rules. An outer sect disciple isn’t permitted to establish a foundation. First you need to have a reception order personally signed by the one of the ascended spirit peak masters to reach the status of inner sect disciple, register under the name of the peak master who issued the reception order, have the peak master assign you a ‘Hall of the Way’ on the immortal mountain… Look, we’ve reached the Yanhai Building. The Yanhai Building is the Latent Cultivation Temple’s library. When you have free time, you can come here to borrow ancient texts—though the valuable single extant copies have spells on them, so you can only read them inside the Yanhai Building. If you want to take them with you, you have to copy them out by hand.” 

Xi Ping had absolutely no interest in the towering Yanhai Building. He took a casual glance, then looked away and asked Su Zhun, “Elder, do you have to be on the immortal mountain to establish a foundation? What about the evil cultivators outside, how do they establish one?” 

His question was like a thunderclap. The disciples, all whispering to each other, suddenly became quiet. Asking in front of the elder in charge of the discipline hall how evil cultivators established a foundation—this Xi Shiyong really knew just what to say. On average, he offended an immortal three times a day. 

Su Zhun was silent for a moment. He looked at him. “You’re asking me…about evil cultivators?” 

Everyone was waiting for the kindly Elder Su to explode, but instead he raised his bamboo cane and pointed to a passing straw child. “Record this—Xi Shiyong, add a spiritual stone point for this month.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

Add a what now? 

“Your monthly allowance is three blues jades, distributed on the last day of each month. If you collect ten spiritual stone points, you can go to Chengjing Hall and add them up for an extra blue jade spiritual stone. But if you get points taken away, then your monthly allowance will be deducted.” 

Su Zhun leaned on his bamboo stick and continued his leisurely walk forward. “I gave him a spiritual stone point because he raised a good question. I know you’re all avoiding mentioning ‘evil cultivators’ like a taboo. In the mortal world, if someone has bad luck several days in a row, they say they’ve ‘picked up evil energy,’ touched something belonging to an evil cultivator. When a contagious disease spreads, people say it’s ‘an evil wind entering the body,’ and there must have been an evil cultivator passing by who let out a poison fart upwind. But if you don’t have a thorough understanding of ‘evil,’ how will you know what is ‘just’? Just because you don’t breathe a word and keep your mouths clean, it won’t mean the evil cultivators don’t exist.” 

Zhou Xi was the first to bow his head and frown. “I have received instruction.” 

“No need to be reserved, Your Highness.” Su Zhun waved a hand. “The reason that the sect wants disciples to enter the inner sect to establish a foundation is that Xuanyin Mountain is nourished by a spiritual stone mine. The ‘Halls of the Way’ given to disciples to use to establish a foundation have walls full of spiritual stones. Inside, you can draw in the purest spiritual energy to ensure your spirit remains clear and unpolluted. Evil cultivators are different from us. You know what the market prices for spiritual stones are outside. Without the support of a sect, an ordinary evil cultivator certainly can’t afford them, so they often steal the world’s spiritual energy to use for themselves.” 

“Elder, what is the world’s spiritual energy?” 

“Flowers blooming, trees growing, all living things multiplying without end, all of it depends on the world’s spiritual energy,” Su Zhun said patiently. “An open-eyed cultivator can only take in spiritual energy and use it temporarily. The spiritual energy won’t stay inside their body long and will return to the world. But established foundation cultivators and onwards are different. An established foundation cultivator already has a spiritual body. If they want to raise their cultivation, they must transmute the spiritual energy for their own use, keep the spiritual energy within their body. To give an example, suppose an early period established foundation cultivator enters seclusion in the mortal world and doesn’t leave for ten years. Within a radius of ten or more li from them, the earth will be barren, the people living there will be plagued with disasters and illnesses, and if there unfortunately happens to be a pregnant woman in the area, the child will either be stillborn or deformed. This is called ‘pilfering heaven’s order.’ Our so-called ‘evil cultivators’ aren’t called so for their deeds. They’re cultivators who live by pilfering heaven’s order.” 

All the disciples frequently talked about “evil cultivators,” but this was their first time hearing what an “evil cultivator” actually was. 

Xi Ping thought, I see, it turns out that established foundation cultivators are magic beasts that eat without shitting. 

Zhou Xi blurted out, “Isn’t that bringing calamity on the people and the nation?” 

Chang Jun suddenly saw the light: “No wonder Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s walkers in the mortal world can only be open-eyed period cultivators!” 

“Of course. Did you think that this enormous Xuanyin Sect couldn’t come up with a few powerful figures of the established foundation period and over?” Su Zhun said, smiling. “In the past, in order to end the great chaos, Kunlun to the north, Lancang to the south, Lingyun to the west, Xuanyin to the east, and Sanyue in the center, the five great sects, came together to establish a rule for immortal sects: cultivation is a temporary resting place, but the just path values the world over all and won’t pilfer heaven’s order for its own private use. Luckily, heaven has left us a means by bestowing on us spiritual stones from the ancient past. These things have pure spiritual energy. They save time in cultivation, and they don’t harm living beings. We cultivators of the just path can only use the spiritual energy in spiritual stones. In the open-eyed period it’s all right, but if an established foundation cultivator or above wants to leave the mountain, they must first report their plans to the sect and take their own spiritual stones when they leave. Though they can take along a great quantity of spiritual stones in a mustard seed, it’s still suspect and unsuitable to stay too long in the mortal world, so walkers in the mortal world are all open-eyed period half-immortals.” 

Xi Ping’s focus was always different from that of others. “But then, if they encounter an established foundation or ascended spirit evil cultivator and get into a fight, won’t Heaven’s Design Pavilion get the worst of it?” 

“There aren’t so many established foundation evil cultivators. Ways of the Heart are already rare. The vast majority of people, even if they grow up in the mountains among spiritual stone mines, will only get as far as the open-eyed period. If they’re lucky and forge a Way of the Heart, then cultivate by means of pilfering heaven’s order, there will be a great quantity of impurities and turbid matter remaining in their bodies. Those who can cross the barrier of the established foundation are rare. Even if your will is stauncher than the average person’s, at most you’ll reach the middle established foundation period before becoming obsessed with distracting thoughts and throwing your mind into chaos.” 

Xi Ping, having heard this much, began to feel doubtful: since established foundation cultivators were so rare, then didn’t that mean that the vast majority of “evil cultivators” in the world were actually only half-immortals? 

Since half-immortals couldn’t keep hold of spiritual energy, then of course they also couldn’t harm the environment. 

Even Xuanyin Mountain’s outer sect half-immortals could walk through the mortal world as they pleased, so why did half-immortal evil cultivators have to be wiped out? Couldn’t you wait until they had established a foundation and lived up to their crime to kill them? If you were worried they would harm heaven’s order, why not offer them amnesty in the immortal sect and lead them onto the just path?

Also…if most of them reached the middle established foundation period and lost their minds, then what was going on with the ascended spirit “Tai Sui”? 

Before he could ask, Elder Su had already begun enumerating the forty-eight sect rules of Xuanyin. 

A pile of “do not”s poured into Xi Ping’s left ear, and a bucket of “must”s seeped into his right ear. In sum, it was this: hard work and plain living, surviving off grass, studying hard night and day, and no fun! 

Having heard this, he felt that his limbs were hollow; there was nothing left to live for. 

After Elder Su finished reciting the sect rules in one breath, he exhaled gently, as if exhaling ten years of pent up frustration. A holy light shone in the old man’s smile; deeply satisfied, he took the black-faced disciples to visit the Latent Cultivation Temple’s Songchuang Great Hall, Chengjing Hall, the discipline hall, and other such places. They roamed in a big circle. When the sun had begun to sink, Elder Su, despite still not having expressed himself to the full, at last let them go eat. 

But Xi Ping, who had always been the most eager to eat, lingered for a while without leaving. When the others had scattered, he followed Elder Su into the Yanhai Building like a shadow. 

Elder Su removed his straw hat, and Xi Ping attentively came over to brush off the moisture and fallen leaves and hang it up. 

“Is there something else?” Su Zhun said, smiling. “I’m a stingy old man. I’ll only give one spiritual stone point, no more. Why don’t you go find someone else?” 

“I didn’t come to beg,” Xi Ping said. “Elder, there’s something I’m extremely curious about, and I wanted to ask you.” 

“Oh?” 

Xi Ping said, “You said that all evil cultivators go mad after establishing a foundation, but before I came to the Latent Cultivation Temple, I met an evil cultivator who claimed he was in the late ascended spirit period, half a step from shedding his skin. So, what, was he just blowing hot air?” 

Su Zhun knew at once whom he was asking about. “At a certain level, an evil cultivator becomes a calamity. The inner sect will certainly send someone very powerful to deal with them. For you, the right thing to do is to focus on cultivating and working towards opening your spiritual eyes while you’re at the Latent Cultivation Temple. That first hand experience is your good fortune. Don’t ask too many questions about it.” 

Xi Ping wouldn’t let it go. He followed up, “But what if something slipped through the net?” 

“There’s an abyss in the inner sect called the Sea of Stars that can glimpse the designs of heaven,” Su Zhun said, smiling. “Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘the net of heaven is wide, but nothing slips through’?” 

“But, Elder Su, that’s wrong. How come ‘the net of heaven’ didn’t say anything even when Southern He was marching north?” 

Su Zhun: “…” 

Elder Su had built up great power and influence in Heaven’s Design Pavilion. After many years, he was once again reliving the awkwardness of being struck dumb by a kid knocking over a pot. After choking for a while he at last tactfully said, “The Lancang Sword Sect…was one of the five great sects at the time. They weren’t evil cultivators.” 

Xi Ping was sometimes unreasonable and deliberately misunderstood what others were saying, but he did understand the implications here. 

When Elder Su said this, he got it at once—the great sects operated independently as friendly rivals, coexisting in harmony. Of course the “net of heaven” wouldn’t catch one for the other, because they were all “heaven.”

Evil cultivators relied on pilfering heaven’s order to cultivate, and each one had to be put to death; why would they harm others without benefiting themselves in this way? Because they had no spiritual stones. 

The spiritual stones were all in the hands of “heaven.” 

“Using a cultivation method that harms the people and the nation” and “not part of a righteous sect” were in fact the same thing, but the former gave a little more courage to your convictions. 

But this had always been the case. It was none of his business. 

As soon as this thought arose, Xi Ping tossed it aside. He asked, “I don’t care about the rest, but…Elder, did that evil cultivator really die?” 

“Naturally.” Elder Su pulled a slim volume from a small bookcase and gave it to him. “I’m not opposed to you understanding evil cultivators. If you wish to enter Heaven’s Design Pavilion in the future, it would be a good thing for you to read up.” 

Then Elder Su patted him on the shoulder, took a book for himself, and left. 

Xi Ping fixed his eyes on the book. There were three words written on the cover of the little volume: Evil Cultivator Record. 

This was a product of Heaven’s Design Pavilion. It contained text and illustrations, describing the most heinous evildoers Heaven’s Design Pavilion had captured over the last five hundred years. Xi Ping scanned through it and saw that apart from a few open-eyed period cultivators who had managed to preserve a human exterior, the others looked anything but human.

He even thought he had opened up some third-rate storybook about ghosts. 

In the last five-hundred years, evil cultivators who had been able to reach the middle established foundation period could be counted on one hand. There were no ascended spirit cultivators. 

According to what Elder Su had said, if that Tai Sui wasn’t dead, the inner sect would certainly be able to detect him. 

But…

The night before, Xi Ping had linked himself to the dragon-taming chain with blood, which amounted to leaving behind a bit of his awareness in the half-puppet. Then he had “dreamed” that the half-puppet had seen “him” stand up after going to sleep as if possessed and go into the rear court! 

All the details in the “dream” had been too clear. He had been still scared witless when he woke up. 

But what had confirmed for him that it hadn’t been a dream had been the leaf that the half-puppet had found in his bed. 

No matter what wretched things the half-puppet had done, Xi Ping had decided to forgive him—the little monster was really something. After being held by the neck and threatened, he still didn’t care and wanted to warn him… He was just a little dim. 

If the thing that had possessed him the night before was still around, wouldn’t the two of them be done for? 

So he had deliberately lost his temper a few times and interrupted the half-puppet, not daring to listen. 

Calm down… He couldn’t act out of the ordinary. 

This was Xi Ping’s repeated inward command to himself. He put Evil Cultivator Record back, then, seeming careless, flipped at random through a few other books, not one word in them making it into his eyes. He was considering using the dragon-taming chain to “observe” himself again tonight. 

If worse came to worst, he would tell the Latent Cultivation Temple’s stewards and have them take him to see General Zhi. 

But when he was about to leave the Yanhai Building, Xi Ping suddenly froze. 

He couldn’t even blink! 

Xi Ping watched helplessly as “he” turned around and retrieved Evil Cultivator Record, brought it before his eyes, and opened it again. 

Into his ears…no, inside his head, there spoke a soft voice that made his scalp go numb: “Don’t put it away. I wasn’t finished reading yet.

“You’ve found me out so soon. Sometimes luck really is against me.”