Chang Jun was muttering all kinds of frightening outcomes, pacing back and forth like a trapped beast, his hands shaking fretfully.

Yao Qi, meanwhile, seemed to be in a daze, staring “blankly” at him—he had to stare, because Chang Jun’s seemingly random hand movements were “tapped sweet notes.”

The Yao family’s discipline was too strict. Yao Qi had never gone out fooling around when he was young. He had forced himself to memorize the “sweet notes” because, after learning that Xi Ping had used them to transmit information, his persecution complex had acted up, and he had worried that someone would use this technique against him one day. Strange to say, secret signals used for mischief were extremely easy to learn. He muddled through and then suddenly picked them up, himself not knowing when he had learned them. But if you wanted to study them properly, as a language of code, it would have been even harder to memorize than Detailed Account of Meridians.

Yao Qi wasn’t all that familiar with sweet notes. He was trying to stare a hole into Chang Jun’s hands.

Chang Jun, tapping out sweet notes, asked, “Are you ready?”

Yao Qi miserably knocked his head against the wall, indicating that they were all set.

Chang Jun said, “We can’t put it off any longer. It has to be tonight.”

After getting the idea to blow up an inscription to escape, the two of them had rummaged through their brains to fish out and recall the basic knowledge concerning inscriptions that Luo Qingshi had taught them fourteen years ago—inscriptions were profound, and the Latent Cultivation Temple was only the place where mortals opened their spiritual eyes; originally he hadn’t taught inscriptions, but thanks to Xi Shiyong’s blessing, the provisional disciples who came after him had inexplicably acquired an additional class, giving the mighty Luo Qingshi and the disciples yet another opportunity for mutual torment.

Finally, according to the Land of Turmoil’s monsoon climate, the two of them had calculated that blowing up the inscription at midnight ought to create the least harm. It wasn’t hard to reckon the time, since those evil cultivators had disdained to so much as lay hands on mortal objects and had left them everything in the nature of pocket watches. But the two of them had already missed two midnights because they had gotten cold feet.

Chang Jun said, “It’s almost time. We’re on our last legs. If we can’t do it now, then we really won’t be able to do anything ever again!”

When he was finished tapping out these sweet notes, without waiting for Yao Qi to respond, he exhaled and plopped down next to him. “How could Shiyong be so decisive back then?”

Yao Qi pursed his lips and shamefacedly lowered his head. “Perhaps that’s the difference between mediocrity and genius.”

Chang Jun didn’t bother tapping out sweet notes. He opened his mouth and said, “Come to think of it, if I die like this, there’ll be nothing about me worth recording apart from my dates of birth and death… Ziming-xiong, what do we amount to?”

For some reason, these words seemed to stab Yao Qi to the heart. “What do we amount to?” echoed repeatedly in his mind.

Yao Qi suddenly remembered the Latent Cultivation Temple’s Su-shixiong. On the last day, when he had seen them off, he had gone through them one by one giving instructions and encouragement. When it was his turn, as the last disciple in line, Su-shixiong had perhaps truly been unable to think of any good points, so he hadn’t given him any false praise but had only said to him, “Ziming, the Xuanyin Mountains have one Grand Selection class every ten years. From each generation, in all of Great Wan, only twenty or thirty people are chosen. Having come here, you are already the best of the best. You must do right by yourself.”

You must do right by yourself…

The Turmoilers scattered throughout the wilderness seemed to be making a futile effort to find food in the gaps between the wildfire, occasionally letting out shrieks that only they themselves could understand.

The meaning was “no clues.”

Wei Chengxiang, receiving their secret signals, took out Yao Qi’s disciple name token and glanced at it. She didn’t dare to use her own half-immortal level talismans and was wearing a set of “invisible snake scale armor” that Xi Ping had turned up, her hidden figure mixed in among the Turmoilers.

“The Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm must be a relic of Lancang. It’s too powerful,” Wei Chengxiang said to Xi Ping. “There’s no reaction from the disciple name token. I don’t know whether it’s because the hidden realm is blocking it, or because we’re looking in the wrong place. What do we do? Listen, nephew, when the name token’s owner—this Yao Qi—gets close to his own name token, will there be any particular reaction?”

Xi Ping was silent for a moment, then, enduring humiliation for the sake of his objective, he answered, “Supposedly. Outer sect disciples only take back their name tokens when they’re transferred or return to the Latent Cultivation Temple to advance their cultivation. The thing’s supposed to come with a warning system and be able to make a person bear in mind their position or something. I’ve never felt it, anyway. I figure it’s only a sense of ritual, don’t rely too heavily on it.”

Wei Chengxiang thought, What kind of useless flummery is all this? The Xuanyin Mountains are made of nothing but unnecessary formalities. She was just about to say something when her spiritual sense was suddenly touched. She raised her head abruptly and saw something come out of nothing amid the obviously empty and deserted wasteland, splashing out a bit of spiritual energy. The weather on the Southern He Peninsula was so humid that the air was about to start dripping, but a cluster of sparks had flown out of there!

“What kind of power is that?”

A thread of Xi Ping’s consciousness was inside the reincarnation wood amulet hanging around her neck. He froze abruptly, past events suddenly reappearing before his eyes.

“That’s no power… Someone’s ignited an inscription.”

Though they had made all possible preparations, the result of igniting the fireproofing inscription was outside of Yao Qi and Chang Jun’s expectations: this inscription didn’t make anywhere near as much of a commotion as when Xi Ping had blown up the Qiu courtyard. It only blew open the cell the two of them were imprisoned in. Before the sparks could break through the ascended spirit hidden realm, they were knocked back.

But the harm to them was enormous. They were both simultaneously sent flying.

Yao Qi’s vision darkened. He had the impression of shattering on impact. For a moment, he became confused in his daze; his unremarkable life even began to flash before his eyes.

The sounds of angry cursing and jumbled footsteps came much faster than his hearing could recover. Before Yao Qi could come back to his senses, he felt a constriction around himself. He had been bound by a spirit-binding talisman!

The evil cultivators under the Queen Mother of the West’s command had reacted extremely fast, swiftly coming to take care of them.

Yao Qi was lifted off the ground. There was a roaring in his ears. Someone dealt him a heavy blow, knocking his murky mind awake.

This was it. They had failed completely!

Yao Qi knew that evil cultivators often put their hidden realms in remote and deserted places, and those without an inscription key couldn’t even find the entrance. The explosion that had just nearly jolted him to bits had not only not gotten out, it had also angered the evil cultivators here!

Yao Qi struggled to open his eyes and saw Chang Jun also being dragged like a dead dog, blood flowing from the orifices of his face; it was unclear whether he was dead or alive.

The evil cultivators tossed them into the same place, and they didn’t lock them up again. Instead, they surrounded them murderously, talking over each other in the ancient Southern He language. They seemed to be debating whether to kill these two Wan dogs. One of them lost his patience halfway through his sentence, pulled his sword, and slashed at Chang Jun’s leg.

All the blood in Yao Qi’s heart froze into ice: no!

Just as his eyes were about to burst from their sockets, all of a sudden, the whole hidden realm shook violently. The evil cultivators went silent and raised their heads in alarm to look around.

The invisible inscriptions in the air above the hidden realm lit up one after another. Next, there was an alarm whistle and the sound of tearing silk. With each tear, an inscription disappeared. Aggressive talismans burst in.

They’d been discovered! A master was attacking the hidden realm!

The Turmoilers who had just been searching in the wilderness had vanished like voles. Wei Chengxiang, recovering from her shock, had withdrawn two li away. She landed at the foot of a withered reincarnation wood tree and stumbled for half a step before finding her footing.

She swiftly let loose her consciousness and scanned the surroundings, saw that it was relatively safe, then reached into a hole in the reincarnation wood tree and twisted.

There was a creak as gears and bearings began to revolve. A boulder at the foot of the tree moved aside, revealing a concealed mechanical door.

Wei Chengxiang took out the qiankun pouch she had just used to scoop up the Turmoilers and shook it out; one after another, the Turmoilers who had been protected inside the immortal tool ran out of the pouch, and then, without needing her to instruct them, filed into the mechanical door under the tree, going underground. A thread of steam emerged, perfectly blending in with the water vapor on the ground.

Only then did the spiritual wind raised by cultivators fighting at close quarters surge their way. As if verifying something, Wei Chengxiang touched the intact stealth armor she was wearing. “Damn it, who’s that? They came so fast!”

When Yao Qi and Chang Jun had desperately set off a few fleeting sparks, Xi Ping had confirmed the location where the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm was concealed. Making a prompt decision, he'd had Wei Chengxiang ignite a signal flare specially used by Great Wan’s southern mines.

While these things were specially provided for use by the mine supervisors, when it came down to it, they were made by the Xuanyin Mountains. Xi Ping could get his hands on as many as he wanted.

The signal flares were divided into different grades. The one Wei Chengxiang had set off was an “emergency” flare, visible throughout the whole Great Wan mining area. After tossing it, she had immediately fled without hesitation. But despite this decisiveness, she had a thrilling close encounter with a group of black-clothed people… Fortunately, the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm had captured their attention, and the immortal tool from Moon Plated Peak was reliable.

Without further ado, the black-clothed people began wildly hammering at the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm. There was no lack of established foundation masters among them.

Wei Chengxiang couldn’t quite catch her breath in the sudden spiritual wind blowing her way. “Are they from the Mining Office? No, never mind the Mining Office, not even Heaven’s Design Pavilion would necessarily be able to react this rapidly.”

“Well, of course,” Xi Ping said. “Apart from the bitter ex-husband, who else could it be?”

Wei Chengxiang: “…”

She’d forgotten that detail.

“While all the nations are in turmoil, the situation is in constant flux; it’s hard to be sure of anything. If anything happens to one of the other nations’ Mining Offices, they can bring inner sect masters in at any time. Only Great Wan effectively has no inner sect now,” Xi Ping said. “People go for soft targets. Even thinking with his toe, the Emperor of the East could have guessed that the Queen Mother of the West and her people would move their hidden realm to Great Wan’s encampment. Out of twelve shichen in a day, he spends ten and a half of them sticking pins into a doll of the Queen Mother of the West. If he had been following that as his way, he might have become a full moon sage by now. He understands Yang Wan better than you do.”

“What a guy.” Tightly wrapped in the stealth armor, Wei Chengxiang returned to the vicinity of the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm. “You men truly have a breadth of mind that never disappoints.”

“What are you talking about? You can’t tar us all with the same brush. Look at me—I’m very broad-minded.” In order to demonstrate his “breadth of mind,” Xi Ping cast aside his face and sat on it. “Aunt—look out for the Emperor of the East. The stealth armor won’t hide you from an ascended spirit’s eyes. Change to a Luwu mask.”

No sooner had he spoken than Wei Chengxiang saw the Emperor of the East Halberd descend from the sky, leaving a tear in the hidden realm.

The Queen Mother of the West and Lord Guang’an weren’t there. As the sole ascended spirit present, the Emperor of the East steamrolled over everyone else.

While the two sides were locked in battle, Wei Chengxiang pressed the spiritual image mask onto herself, changing her appearance to match the black-clothed people and removing the armor. She mixed in with the Emperor of the East’s people. The Emperor of the East’s self-satisfied laughter sounded above her head. “That woman and her little boy toy have some nice stuff! You can keep whatever you take!”

The Emperor of the East’s subordinates were true evil cultivators who were in the Land of Turmoil year in and year out—of the type of the former Exonerators. These types established foundations just for the sake of running amok. They didn’t care about cultivating their hearts; when their Ways of the Heart backlashed against them, they lost their minds and died. They had no bottom line. Hearing these words, their eyes glowed blue with avarice. As if they had taken a strengthening tonic, they strove against each other to be the first to charge in.

With the hidden realm broken, there was no more obstruction between Yao Qi and his name token. The name token immediately warmed up slightly.

Xi Ping instructed, “Half-immortal, act within your capabilities. Don’t show off.”

Wei Chengxiang said, “Cut the crap.”

She made a dash following the name token’s directions. When she spoke, it was in a deep masculine voice: “Over here!”

The black-clothed people running around like headless flies thought that she had found some great treasure and instinctively followed her. The evil cultivators guarding Yao Qi and Chang Jun saw a large-scale attack and were forced to join battle.

An established foundation cultivator in front of her stabbed at Wei Chengxiang with his sword. Wei Chengxiang ducked under the sword, leaving him to the black-clothed person behind her, and rolled into the thicket next to her. The thicket and the stealth armor concealed her. She went into and out of the armor. When she rolled back out, she had already used the spiritual image mask to turn herself into the person who had just tried to cut her down.

Yao Qi and Chang Jun had already recovered by this point, escaping death by the skin of their teeth…though they hadn’t escaped altogether. They were fearfully looking at each other in dismay.

When cultivators fought, naturally there was spiritual energy scattered everywhere. There was spiritual energy for them to use now!

Chang Jun was the first to come to his senses. He breathed deeply from the diaphragm and used spiritual energy to burst the cords binding him. When he had just freed his legs, he saw an “evil cultivator” running towards him.

Chang Jun turned pale with fright, wriggling on the ground like a big caterpillar. In his flurry, the top of his head banged against Yao Qi’s nose. The magic iron-head attack nearly brought Yao Qi to tears.

“Don’t cry, stop struggling!” Wei Chengxiang, who was always fighting evil cultivators, tossed out talismans with a swiftness comparable to Pang Jian’s in the past. Two silencing and paralyzing talismans fell on the two of them. She held her fingers together like a knife and cut apart the spirit-binding cords on the two of them, then tossed Luwu masks, reincarnation wood amulets, and Yao Qi’s disciple name token towards them all together. With a snap of her fingers, she undid her own talismans. “Don’t just sit there!”

Yao Qi and Chang Jun both had civilian posts at the southern mines and were unaccustomed to using Luwu masks. In this emergency, their brains overheated, and they both took on the appearance of Wei Chengxiang’s current disguise. The three of them stared at each other like triplets.

Wei Chengxiang: “…”

Was it possible that among the criteria orthodox sects used to pick their disciples, one was “stupid enough”? This had also been Zhao Qindan’s style when she had first defected… So how had that Tai Sui, who was always pulling evil tricks, managed to get in?

“It shames me to say,” said Xi Ping, “that my respected teacher, moved by my kindness and sincerity, recommended me.”

Yao Qi and Chang Jun reacted half a beat late. They used the Luwu masks to change into different evil cultivators who had been guarding them and followed Wei Chengxiang outside the ring of battle. When they had just gone around the cell where they had originally been imprisoned, they saw two of the Queen Mother of the West’s people running over in a panic. From a distance, they called in the Southern He language, “Sneak attack, think of a way to notify Her Highness…”

Then the two evil cultivators’ voices abruptly came to a halt as they stared at Yao Qi and Chang Jun in shock—by coincidence, these two evil cultivators were precisely the “templates” Yao Qi and Chang Jun had used.

Wei Chengxiang’s vision darkened: amazing.

Not waiting for them to speak, she jumped out of the circle of the two pairs of “twins” to demonstrate her innocence and cautiously called the nickname of one of the two evil cultivators: “Ergui, what’s going on with you guys?!”

She had been a visiting courtier serving under the Queen Mother of the West. Though she had made no close friendships, there were still many people she recognized. As soon as she called the name, the evil cultivators immediately tacitly acknowledged her as one of them.

The original evil cultivator was beside himself with rage. “Spies! Get them!”

Yao Qi and Chang Jun had been dizzy to begin with. Adding in that they couldn’t speak ancient He, their expressions as they stood there were already giving them away.

Wei Chengxiang quickly joined the evil cultivators, then pulled her sword on the two “brilliant products” of the Latent Cultivation Temple.  Outwardly boiling with rage, she said, “How bold!”

Her words were dramatic, but her feet were half a beat slow. When the two evil cultivators had charged forward, she struck like lightning, bringing them down from behind. Then she smoothly cut their fingers open and smeared them over a reincarnation wood amulet. Xi Ping effortlessly snatched away their consciousnesses—ultimately, Wei Chengxiang couldn’t bring herself to kill the Queen Mother of the West’s people; this was safest.

She took everything off the two evil cultivators and put their senseless bodies into her qiankun pouch.

Only then did Chang Jun force out the words, “Might I be permitted to ask, Your Excellency…”

Wei Chengxiang smiled. “A Luwu. I’m nobody.”

Yao Qi: “…”

This person turned out to be a commoner, a Kaiming Cultivator whose spiritual eyes had just opened. What kind of “best of the best” were they? Su-shixiong had lied to him!

Wei Chengxiang skillfully hid to observe the battle, taking the two useless clubs with her. “Coming this aggressively to ransack the place, the Emperor of the East must know that the Queen Mother of the West and Lord Guang’an aren’t here?”

“Ah,” said Xi Ping. “Yu Chang is wavering between the Three Heroes of Turmoil, and the Emperor of the East can’t be colluding with only Yu Chang. He must also be in contact with Wangge Luobao.”

Wei Chengxiang said, “…So they’re all secretly grouped in pairs, fine, I got it. The Emperor of the East must be thinking of a way to cut the Queen Mother of the West off in the southern mines—listen, is it really a good idea to make Yang Wan be the first to be eliminated from this game? The rest are even worse.”

“Yang Wan won’t be eliminated,” Xi Ping said slowly in a strange tone. “There’s something I want to verify—”