Inside the next life spiritual fish’s big mouth, the seawater sucked in by the big fish formed a small puddle, containing quite a few small fish and crustaceans that had been swept up.

When Wangge Luobao had spoken, he picked up a miniature fishing rod lying beside him. The fishing line on the rod was made of concentrated spiritual energy. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled a leaping and frisking fish from the small puddle. As soon as the little fish left the water, the puddle began to move as the next life spiritual fish slowly swallowed it up. The “shrewd” living creatures that had been unwilling to take the bait landed in its stomach, all unawares, about to share in the fate of this enormous body that had lived for over a thousand years.

“We can’t say right now whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate.” Wangge Luobao held the little fish in both hands, considering, then tossed it to his clansman. “Take it out and set it free. Gluttonous dumb fish have dumb luck.”

The Miah all had superstition in their bones; they believed firmly that all living things had souls. Cautiously taking the little fish that had survived the disaster, the Miah cultivator said, “Clan leader, there are gold edges to this fish’s scales, like the golden arrows of the sea god. It must be a lucky omen, a sign that the sea god will bless us and let everything go smoothly, right?”

Wangge Luobao gave him a profoundly meaningful smile. “Well, of course. We Miah have always been the favorites of the gods. Run along.”

Southern Shu’s Three Islands were far from the continent, and they were the origin of the vast majority of medicinal herbs and spiritual beasts. The people there could pick up some straw and throw together a shack to keep from freezing, head into the mountain forest and pluck anything at random to eat their fill.

From the pampering of this environment blessed by heaven had come the stupid Miah clan.

The majority of Miah didn’t consider progress, never took the long view, treated not considering progress as glory, even believed that their clansmen who had gone to make a living on the main peninsula were aliens who didn’t know their place.

But as generation after generation of Moon Plated Gold had upgraded, the narrow strait between the southern continent and Shu’s Three Islands seemed to have been blown ever wider by the steam. The Miah, unable to keep up with the times, were excluded everywhere on the outside; many people had been forced to return and had indignantly denounced the corruption and decadence of the “outside,” so the stagnant and isolationist trends of thought on the Three Islands had become increasingly intense. The Miah preferred to hole up on Southern Shu’s Three Islands, stick together keeping their eyes shut and their ears plugged, waiting for the gods they had created to reward them for their piety and purity.

And what had come to them were the misfortunes of being expelled and enslaved.

Wangge Luobao had heard the exhausted blubbering of many elderly Miah. They said, Clan Leader, can it be wrong to believe that “All living things have souls, and man ought to live in harmony with heaven and earth”? Are we really supposed to be like those greedy Wan and Chu barbarians, hustling all day, belching smoke and polluting the waters?

He generally didn’t answer, only gently listened to these old infants’ bawling, and when they had cried themselves out, said some nonsense along the lines of “This is a test,” stuffed a pacifier into their mouths and sent them on their way.

In fact, the ignorant masses could never grasp the critical point. It didn’t matter one bit what you believed in. Even if you believed that “Eating shit will give you immortality,” as long as you had the power to influence the five nations, extol these words repeatedly, thousands upon thousands of times, there would be scholars renowned for erudition conducting textual research, writing books, and establishing canons for the sake of this legendary wad of “divine shit,” and experts and masters of all factions falling over each other seeking it.

Hadn’t the spiritual mountains and the Great Way all developed like this?

In the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm, Yang Wan had been in seclusion for a day and a night.

Before, she had plainly woken with a start as soon as she began to meditate, but all of a sudden it was as if she had found the main thread. Yao Qi was closest; he could clearly sense that the spiritual energy in the large quantity of spiritual stones stored in the hidden realm was all flowing towards the Queen Mother of the West’s meditation chamber, growing increasingly urgent.

Ziming-xiong couldn’t resist silently expressing his doubts to his classmate through the reincarnation wood: “Why can she make such quick progress after just a bit of advice from someone else? Is this enlightenment?”

So when he had been at the Latent Cultivation Temple, having eight enlightenments a day in his determination to better himself and make Luo Qingshi see him in a new light, why had he still not succeeded?

Could this really be the difference between him and an ascended spirit master?

Xi Ping was traveling in stealth along the canal, personally overseeing the first group of Turmoilers safely boarding a Luwu ship. With the support of an upgraded immortal tool, while tens of thousands of people boarded the ship, its waterline didn’t move a sliver. The frothy surface of the water stilled where it had been quietly parted amid the disorder.

Hearing Yao Qi’s description, his thoughts worked.

“Enlightenment,” in fact, was something like a firework streaking through the night sky; while it glimmered, heaven and earth were crystal clear, but when it had ceased to glimmer, it was still quite dark. After all, it was hard for people to control themselves. If they wanted to soar up to the sky all at once, they couldn’t keep themselves from lazy dawdling, and if they wanted to become wholly absorbed in something, they couldn’t keep their thoughts from wandering; otherwise, there would be no mediocrities left on earth. Who didn’t want to be outstanding?

The ascended spirit boundary wasn’t sufficient to “accord with the Way.” To force yourself to go on was to hover on the edge of becoming obsessed and losing your mind. It would become difficult to move forward. It wasn’t enough just to be firmly resolved.

Xi Ping considered, then contacted another person through the reincarnation wood. “Yu Chang-xiong?”

No answer.

Xi Ping grossly called across the distance, “Hey, Yu Chang, I’ve been busy with stuff at home, I haven’t had time for you. I’ve come to settle my debt. How about we meet tomorrow at noon in Tao County and I’ll remove some more brands for you?”

Still no answer.

Because Xi Ping had deliberately dragged his feet, a large number of evil cultivators within Chu waiting to have their spiritual image brands removed had nearly lost their minds. Every time Yu Chang saw him, all the curses he wanted to hurl at him were written in his bright red eyes.

The one who owed the debt called the shots; all along, it had been Xi Ping keeping him in suspense. Never before had Yu Chang not answered when he had voluntarily reached out.

Xi Ping sighed. “As I thought—Ziming-xiong, do you know where the difference between you and the Queen Mother of the West lies?”

“Oh?” said Yao Qi.

“A great teacher—what a pity that a genius like the chief offering was forced by the state of the world onto a wrong path and to this day remains mixed up among a heap of evil cultivators, acting as accomplice to the villains,” Xi Ping said. “If the Latent Cultivation Temple had him, it would have turned into a ‘Seven-Day Half-Immortal Crash Course’ by now. There would have been no need for Dissatisfied Luo and the provisional disciples to spend so many years in mutual torment. Gentlemen, who will help me out?”

Yao Qi and Chang Jun thought he had more important business. They quickly got worked up.

“What is it?”

“Tell us.”

Xi Ping said, “Tell Zhao…er, Zhao-shijie to reckon up what proportion of Western Chu’s common offerings have had their spiritual image brands removed. If the pan’s hot enough, it’s time to drop them in and start stir-frying.”

Yao Qi and Chang Jun: “…”

When Zhao Qindan received word from the two human-shaped mouthpieces, she gave a peculiar laugh. Tao County was separated from the Land of Turmoil by the sea, yet her laugh still struck terror into Chang Jun’s heart. He suspected that tomorrow the Tao World Record would publish an article—discussing muteness as the result of wickedness: the riddle of Tai Sui losing his voice.

Yu Chang had in fact sensed that there was a message coming through the reincarnation wood, but he wasn’t at leisure to divide his attention right now.

He was hidden in the Queen Mother of the West’s shadow, bearing witness as she was eaten alive.

The grit projections could only be used undetectably when bullying low-level cultivators, or when one spent several years influencing imperceptibly by degrees. In the short-term, they weren’t of any great use against a master of the same grade. At most they could distract the person; they had to be paired with other means for a stealth attack.

If he were discovered using this method against an ally, it would mean an immediate falling out. Therefore, Yu Chang didn’t dare to casually butt in, and he hadn’t hoped to hear her speak her innermost thoughts. At first, he had only used the grit projection talisman to curl up in the Queen Mother of the West’s shadow, observing the changes to her aura in echo of the spiritual mountains far away on the Southern He Peninsula, the connection intermittent.

As Yang Wan’s consciousness had sunk deeper and deeper, her state had become increasingly wavering, such that starting from the latter half of last night, without Yu Chang applying any pressure, Yang Wan, under the weak influence of the grit projection, had actually begun automatically speaking aloud the thoughts that passed through her consciousness.

Hearing it had brought Yu Chang’s heart up to his throat. Most of what she said was disconnected ravings, completely incomprehensible; he had been afraid she would wake up.

Just as he had been on the point of dispelling the grit projection talisman and running away, the Queen Mother of the West had suddenly pronounced, ice-cold and crystal-clear, the phrase “for the cause of righteousness.”

Across mountains and seas, through the grit projection, these words made Yu Chang shudder. They had absolutely no connection to the Queen Mother of the West’s previous empty ramblings. It was as if there was a trumpet in her brain that from time to time stole away her voice.

Was this the legendary “heavenly edict”?

This was nothing like what Yu Chang had imagined, an earnestly good and guiding heavenly edict that would lead a person to sudden enlightenment. This voice seemed to have absolutely no undulation, and there wasn’t a trace of emotion in it; it didn’t even seem to be a human voice…it was like an old jiangshi pounding on the casket in a folktale!

But it seemed that human nature was indelible. When the “heavenly edict” fell, it aroused the Queen Mother of the West’s struggles.

The indistinct, incomprehensible ravings she had been speaking before abruptly came clear. Two hundred years of the struggles of this princess of a vanquished nation were all revealed before Yu Chang’s eyes.

The beloved daughter of heaven, her county and her sect had been overthrown overnight. From the high clouds, she had tumbled down to an abyss of misery. There was no way that the righteous cause of her country could be the only thing in her heart…and the Wan-He War hadn’t been her fault, but by some mysterious series of coincidences, the consequences had been hers to bear as the survivor. Yu Chang heard her clearly articulate, “Why must it be this way?” several times.

Aside from panic and helplessness, there was also Yang Wan’s hatred and resentment, aimed in part at the Lancang Sect.

Countless times she had wanted to abandon her people, change her name, leave the stifling Land of Turmoil.

But what chilled Yu Chang to the bone was that her struggles and complaints would now and then be followed by an ice-cold “for the cause of righteousness,” or “a hundred generations of Lancang depend on you alone.”

Pulled in two directions, the Queen Mother of the West several times nearly woke from meditation again.

The surrounding spiritual energy was in disorder. From the grit projection, Yu Chang sensed her willpower, on the point of collapse, and at last recalled what he had come here to do. Quickly, he carefully activated a slight “grit projection.”

Each time the Queen Mother of the West’s jumbled babble became vehement, Yu Chang promptly said something like “There’s no turning back,” or “You’re the only one the Lancang Mountains have left,” or “All your people are looking to you” into her ear through her shadow, pushing the wavering scales slightly onward.

The Queen Mother of the West’s thoughts of resistance were several times broken off promptly by the grit projection; after a difficult night of back-and-forth, they finally lost the high ground. The frequency with which that heavenly edict came out of her mouth became higher and higher… Yu Chang listened from the shadow as the Queen Mother of the West chanted “for the cause of righteousness” again and again, an expression clearly not her own appearing on her features, as if she had been possessed by a ghost.

All of a sudden, she suddenly twisted that face, high and stern as an ancient divinity’s, and sorrowfully cried out “Guang’an,” clutching in a panic at her very last trace of connection to the mundane world.

Not far, as if he had sensed it, the unconscious Lord Guang’an’s finger twitched.

The utterly unscrupulous red-eyed great evil cultivator abruptly shut his mouth. Yu Chang couldn’t quite bring himself to go on.

What is this heavenly edict? he thought. Do those who accord with the way actually become gods, or do they become ghosts who help the force that had devoured them do it to others?

“Fellow Cultivator Wangge!” Yu Chang decisively withdrew the grit projection. “Do you know…”

“Senior Yu, we have a problem! We’ve been exposed!”

Western Chu was the birthplace of the toilet bulletins. It had been the malicious Luwu who had once launched the first issue in Dongheng.

Various forces had soon discovered that this thing couldn’t be prohibited, so they had all followed suit. The Tao World Record had even appeared only at a rather late stage.

Apart from serious commentary on important news, the toilet bulletins also contained quite a lot of vulgar gossip…the sorts of things everyone loved to see and hear, used to attract eyeballs. These ornamental miscellanies also needed specialized reporters to write them. Ultimately, literate people formed the minority among common people, and not all educated people would lay aside their self-respect to engage in these unprincipled writings to eke out a living. Because of this, good “gossip scribes” were always in great demand. All the toilet bulletins tried to snatch them from each other.

Zhao Qindan took her money directly from the Luwu. Her financial resources were ample. She had many gossip scribes snatched from other toilet bulletins in her employ.

Among them was no lack of spies watching Tao County.

Zhao Qindan, alias “Sir Xu,” came out of the Tao World Record’s secret warehouse holding a stack of drafts that blocked her line of sight.

Over the last few days, everyone at the toilet bulletin had been working like crazy. In the bulletin’s general office, there were virtually no two-legged creatures with both feet on the ground at the same time. In a single moment of carelessness, she bumped into someone, and the odds and ends in her arms dropped all over the ground. A big crowd of people was jammed there, some muttering “sorry” and helping her pick them up, some standing on tiptoe and straining to squeeze out through the stack of papers while crying “excuse me.” In the chaos, a set of keys dropped by Sir Xu were picked up. In Tao County, where spiritual energy was prohibited, the half-immortal who had lost her spiritual sense seemed not to notice it at all.

So that same day, the secret warehouse of the Tao World Record, which only the Luwu and the editor-in-chief could enter, was quietly opened, and one “critical” thing was circulated—precisely the recordings of the secret talks Yu Chang had with Tai Sui every time he came to Tao County.

The interference and noise hadn’t even been cleaned up.

The tape immediately came to the hands of all the local forces mustering troops for an armed rebellion. It was simply a bolt from the blue.

These were spiritual image brands, a stamp you weren’t born with but would take with you when you died!

The heads of these local forces were all half-immortals laden down with trifling affairs who didn’t cultivate at all and had only opened their spiritual eyes in order to prolong their lifespans and preserve their youth. All their fighting capacity and confidence came from the “offerings” their families had kept for generations.

It turned out that Yu Chang, who had broken free of his spiritual image brand, wasn’t a solitary exception. There really was such a thing as a technique for removing spiritual image brands!

You needed only to look at Yu Family Bend to know what would come of the evil spirits slipping their leashes. The heads of Western Chu’s various local forces were all so scared their souls left their bodies and only then remembered to check the conditions of the spiritual image brands of the offerings at their command. Checking in secret wasn’t a big deal, but they were astonished to find that nearly forty percent of the evil spirits they had domesticated had already freed themselves, and moreover, virtually all of these were chief offerings with high cultivation.

Even the expression “fit to burst their livers and galls” couldn’t describe the fear felt by the masters of the spiritual image brands. The cowardly ones might have lost control over their excretions on the spot.

Fear aroused the desire to kill. Right away, the masters of the spiritual image brands gave an absolute order to the offerings who had yet to remove their brands—kill.

There was no way to refuse a spiritual image brand. The offerings who hadn’t yet had time to remove their spiritual image brands locked the gates and were compelled to attack the brothers who had formerly shared in their misery…and perhaps some among them weren’t all that “compelled.” Ever since there had come to be an order of precedence and a division of rank for removing the spiritual image brands, the offerings who had been put at the back of the line by Yu Chang had felt the imbalance.

The offerings who had already recovered their freedom could no longer sense their masters’ condition through the spiritual image brands. They were taken unawares; they had no idea that they had been exposed. When they were suddenly attacked, they thought that it was their own people’s jealousy and hatred that had turned against them, that they had been sold out by traitors within their own organization. While irately striking back, they began to implicate each other.

The game board Yu Chang had spent eight years setting out in Western Chu was overturned by a single tape. Before the Sanyue Mountains could fall, his own people had started fighting…and the fight was evenly matched, likely to end in mutual destruction!

Yu Chang immediately had no more time for any Queen Mothers of the West or North. Wangge Luobao saw his face turn green, extraordinarily festive paired with his red eyes. He let out a long string of curses in the Chu language and hurriedly broke off communications.

Wangge Luobao wasn’t in the least surprised. Through the eyes of the next life spiritual fish, he looked up in the direction of the Southern He Peninsula.

Tai Sui…

This well-informed, preternaturally crafty holder of the “undying bones” was as agile as expected. As soon as he stepped in, he had lit Yu Chang’s backyard on fire.

Though this time he had burned the wrong person.

Meanwhile, the Emperor of the East, mixed in among the merchant ships carrying a large quantity of snow wine and withdrawing out to sea, kept cautiously sweeping the surroundings with his consciousness. His spiritual sense was suddenly touched by something. His gaze swept out to sea as fast as lightning. A beam of spiritual energy fell into the water and caught a little fish whose scales seemed inlaid with gold at the edges.

There was a hole in the fish’s mouth. It had been fished up and then set free again. There was a familiar aura about the wound in the fish’s mouth—

When the Emperor of the East had invaded the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm, he had naturally left a spiritual energy mark behind while fleeing in confusion so he could regroup and come back stronger in the future. The upshot was that when the mark had gone into the South Sea, something had blocked it. Right now, the critical thing was running for his life, and the Emperor of the East wasn’t in the mood to investigate. Who would have thought that, as though it were fate, he would run into the aura of the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm here.

The Emperor of the East was just about to extend his hand to summon the Emperor of the East Halberd when his eyes suddenly spun, and he thought to himself: That woman is very sly. What if it’s a trap?

But when it came to giving it up, there was no way he would be willing to do that, so the Emperor of the East raised a hand and placed a talisman on that fish. He ordered his subordinates to leave that area of sea with all haste.

Who didn’t know how to let someone else take a loss in their stead?

The little fish, released back into the water by him, stiffly bent backwards. Then, fast as a shark, it swam through the waves, strangely backtracking the way it had come.

The Miah cultivator on patrol held in his mouth a talisman that let him breathe in the water. Treading on the head of the invisible next life spiritual fish, he kept watch while hidden at the bottom of the sea. He saw at a glance the peculiar behavior of the little fish he had set free earlier and instinctively reached out to catch it.

The next moment, golden light flashed over the fish, just like the golden arrows of the sea god—it pierced through that established foundation Miah.

Established foundation grade essence exploded in the South Sea, impacting a number of innocent merchant ships. This commotion wasn’t a small one. From the Southern He Peninsula, Xi Ping and the Sword Slave’s consciousnesses swept over simultaneously!