In the Latent Cultivation Temple, the direction of the wind suddenly changed. 

The south wind blowing through the valley turned around before it hit the cliffs and formed a vortex with the Qiu courtyard as its center. Where the circling wind passed, it touched the new buds and brought out the cries of the blue luan. White fawns looked in at the door as if coming to report good tidings. Ripples emerged on the pond and the little creek in the courtyard, spreading endlessly. 

Xi Ping had been soaking in spiritual energy among the immortal mountains for months. On the brink of death, the fierce desire for survival opened his spiritual eyes. Here was the threshold to the shortcut between mortal and immortal, right in front of him! 

Two figures landed one after the other in the Latent Cultivation Temple’s Qiu courtyard. 

Su Zhun waved his sleeve and moved the dumbfounded disciples away. “Duanrui-shishu!” 

The other person turned out to be Princess Duanrui, who had “left the Latent Cultivation Temple.” She seemed to come up from underfoot out of nowhere. An invisible talisman hit Xi Ping’s back—in the place where the inscription character had seeped in. 

Xi Ping was like a vase about to explode, frozen solid by extreme cold, narrowly remaining “intact” on the point of shattering. 

The princess formed a complex hand seal in her palm. A transparent cocoon congealed around Xi Ping. She ordered: “Get back!” 

Su Zhun didn’t even think. He rolled up the three young men and one half-puppet, then ran. 

Next, all the spiritual energy in the Latent Cultivation Temple came rushing in like a flood, hitting the “cocoon” wrapped around Xi Ping. The sound was so thunderous that everyone thought they had gone deaf. The buildings and rockery of the Qiu courtyard were instantly turned into a pile of ruins. 

Only the princess’s hand seal didn’t move a hair, keeping the will of the whole valley out by force. 

Zhi Xiu had once asked her what she would do if Xi Ping really had been possessed by a primordial being. Duanrui’s response had been “expel the evil.” 

What if the man and the demon weren’t so easy to separate? 

Duanrui’s answer then had been: “I don’t know. This isn’t where my strength lies. You ought to avoid alerting the enemy and return to the inner sect to consult other masters.” 

Zhi Xiu said, “But right now, as soon as the disciple opens his spiritual eyes, his body will be snatched at once. There’s something unusual about this evil cultivator. Before, ‘wearing’ a corpse, he was already half a step from shedding his skin. If his body snatching succeeds, I’m afraid you and I won’t be able to take responsibility for the outcome.” 

The princess said matter-of-factly: “It’s all right. If it really comes to that, I can temporarily block the spiritual energy in the Latent Cultivation Temple and wait for the inner sect to act. If there is truly nothing the inner sect can do, it won’t be too late then to discuss how to proceed.” 

“But, shijie, rivers flow naturally into the sea, and a waterfall flowing upwards is against nature. When a person crosses the border between mortal and immortal, the universe will pull him towards cultivation. You’re planning to block all the spiritual energy in the valley with your own strength alone? How long can you hold out?” 

“It will be eight centuries soon.” No matter what Princess Duanrui said, her tone always sounded as if she were ordering food. “This won’t be long.” 

With these words, Zhi Xiu had handed the Latent Cultivation Temple over to her and returned to the inner sect to request orders.

For one zhang around Xi Ping, the rain went backwards. The accumulated water already fallen on the ground turned back into drizzle and flew up to the sky.

The mountains rumbled as though ready to collapse. The auspicious animals who had just gathered all ran as far away as they could. Xi Ping was frozen. Amid the furious lightning and thunder, his shadow was now man-shaped, now dragon-shaped. The black dragon and the human shadow were tightly wound together, like a desperately uneven fight to the death. 

To protect the disciples, Su Zhun allowed himself to be swept by the brutal spiritual energy. His headdress let his hair loose. He looked back in horror. 

Before leaving, General Zhi had said to him that this Xi brat understood the situation perfectly. He was cautious in action and frequently exceeded people’s expectations. He had told him to keep an eye on him and not interfere too much. That was why Elder Su, seeing that half-puppet sneaking around the Yanhai Building, had turned a blind eye and let him go. 

Good heavens, this truly did exceed expectations! 

Was Zhi Jingzhai going senile? Was this kind of suicidal behavior what he called “perfect understanding”? 

Tai Sui, trapped in the cocoon along with Xi Ping, laughed quietly. “Princess Duanrui, ha, it seems I’ve fallen into your hands. Who else is here? What about General Zhi? Had he gone to the mountain to ask for some magic weapon? Your Highness… Your Highness Princess Duanrui, this is the flood of the universe—you dare to hold it back with a single hand seal, but you can’t deny the will of the immortal mountains. You’ve taken your vanishingly rare innate spiritual bones along the way of clarity, stayed trapped in prison for eight hundred years. The Zhou family is truly grateful to you… Hahaha!” 

It was as if the princess had heard a dog barking. Not even her eyelashes moved. 

With Xi Ping’s eyes, Tai Sui looked greedily at the spiritual energy assuming physical form outside the cocoon—if only a sliver leaked in, if only…

“Your Highness, don’t you think this situation is very delicate?” With no care for Xi Ping’s body, on the point of collapse, he forced Xi Ping’s hand to lift. 

At this movement, the shattering bones in that arm couldn’t hold out anymore. The joints pierced right through the skin. 

Tai Sui raised the limp arm and pressed the bloody hand to the reincarnation wood Xi Ping had tucked into his clothes. “I am conforming to heaven’s will, while you are waging a hopeless struggle. Do you think I can only get the spiritual energy I need from the mountains?” 

The princess’s eyes fell on the reincarnation wood in his hand. Finally, she frowned. 

“I was unwilling to sacrifice so many lives. It was you who forced me to it, Zhou Xueru, you forced me—”

In the bizarre residence of Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s general commander, all the faces on the reincarnation wood pedestal contorted. The ugly, disfigured faces began to leak blood from the seven orifices of their faces. It was clear to the naked eye that they were being drained by something, just like Jiangli at the Blissful Village! 

A-Xiang jumped up in fear, looking on as her “shifu” and her companions called fanatically for Tai Sui while blood ran from their faces as they held the reincarnation wood in both hands. Their skin dried, the color faded from their black hair…

Bai Ling turned his head swiftly. “Commander Pang, give me the reincarnation wood!” 

Pang Jian quickly tossed him the piece of reincarnation wood wrapped in talisman paper that he was carrying. He saw Bai Ling fish out yet another paper knife. The point of the knife quickly carved a particular character into the wood. 

Pang Jian’s pupils contracted—this was an inscription character that he had never seen before! 

But this Bai Ling was clearly only an open-eyed cultivator, with cultivation not even as high as his own. He couldn’t have seen wrong! 

An open-eyed cultivator didn’t even have a primordial being. What was he using to carve the inscription character? 

But the situation was critical. This was no time for asking questions. Pang Jian quickly dug up all the spiritual stones he was carrying and tossed them over along with his purse. “Catch!” 

Bai Ling caught them one-handed. As soon as the dozen liang of jade stamp stones touched his palm, their spiritual energy was immediately sucked dry. They shattered into powder through the purse, helping him carve the final stroke. The bones of his fingers had already twisted out of shape! 

Once the inscription on the reincarnation wood amulet was complete, Bai Ling tossed it away, throwing it onto the reincarnation wood pedestal. “Break!” 

The inscription character burst into blinding light. The connection between the master of the reincarnation wood and his frenzied believers was broken off. The bleeding faces on the wooden pedestal were frozen in place. 

The sounds suddenly vanished from Tai Sui’s ears. He realized at once what had happened and flew into a rage. “Scoundrels!” 

Pang Jian exhaled. “Bai-xiong, if you had this kind of magic power, why didn’t you use it before…” 

“It’s no good,” said Bai Ling. 

“What do you…” 

The faces frozen on the wooden pedestal slowly and with extremely difficulty began to move. The profound hatred and indignation on those faces was clear to see. The inscription character began to tremble. 

Pang Jian was appalled. 

In hardly any time, the inscription character was shaking harder and harder. Finally, like a thin and frail dike, it burst before the mighty current of myriad minds pushing on it. 

The wooden amulet that the inscription had been carved on shattered. Bai Ling’s strength failed at once. He turned into paper. If Pang Jian hadn’t quickly grabbed him, he would have landed right on the blood-colored wood. 

There was nothing left to obstruct the desperate believers who would hand over everything for the sake of a faint notion. 

Tai Sui laughed heartily. 

Just then, there was an enormous sound in the air above the Latent Cultivation Temple. Fierce light broke through the sky where night still lingered without any warning. 

The tremors from the sound made fine cracks in the “cocoon” the princess had wrapped around Xi Ping. Xi Ping’s consciousness, which had nearly sunk into an abyss, was instantly called back to wakefulness. 

The blinding light was a little bewildering to him. 

Why would it be light now? 

Was he really seeing tomorrow’s sun? 

The sun was so big… Why hadn’t the rain stopped? 

Before he could make sense of it, Xi Ping heard Tai Sui use his own voice. Gentle as a sigh, he said, “How fortunate I am to have merited the Bell of Tribulation.” 

Su Zhun held back his colleagues, who had rushed over. “Stay away!” 

The sudden light in the sky had forced Yang Anli to close his eyes. In the middle of the night, he raised his hand to shield them. He asked, “Elder Su, what’s going on? What was that sound just now? Why is it light?” 

“It’s the Bell of Tribulation.” Luo Qingshi stood on the shoulders of two straw children, not worried that he would be forced to do the splits, finally succeeding in raising his head above everyone else’s. “One of the present four great divine tools, hanging for thousands of years on the Principal Peak under the charge of the Dignitary of Rites Elder. Without the unanimous consent of the three elders, no one can use it. A great demon must have emerged… It’s fortunate that this is the Latent Cultivation Temple.” 

“Oh?”

“Well, it’s Xuanyin Mountain’s ironclad rule that the Bell of Tribulation must not pass the border between mortal and immortal. Otherwise, if it rang, it could cause a three-year drought in the mortal world.” Luo Qingshi would have loved nothing better than to extend his neck. “Is that Xi Shiyong in the courtyard? Interesting!” 

“Enough with the ‘interesting’s, Luo-shixiong,” Su Zhun’s voice came from several zhang away. “Hurry—go—”

“Alas, you’re right.” Luo Qingshi’s “high perch” didn’t prevent him from turning nimbly. His pair of “high perches” ran away in his stead while he himself could still crane his neck and keep looking back, trying to see everything he could. 

Dong—

Xi Ping’s brain was nearly knocked out of his ears by that tolling. His mind cleared a little further. 

“The Bell of Tribulation needs the true name carved on your spiritual image,” he heard Tai Sui say in a peculiar tone. In a whisper, he asked, “General, have you remembered who I am?” 

“Liang Chen.” General Zhi’s voice came from the clouds. The aftereffects of the tolling added a chill to his previously warm voice. “Current general commander of Heaven’s Design Pavilion, member of a righteous sect who has engaged in evil practices. Do you know your crime?” 

“And what else?” the fearsome and violent great evil cultivator asked. There was some indescribable impatience in his voice. Anyone could have heard the eagerness in it. “What else?” 

Zhi Xiu frowned. He thought this was strange, but he didn’t have time to get to the bottom of it—even if the princess could withstand the weight of the whole valley, Xi Ping’s mortal body, only a thread away from collapse, wouldn’t necessarily hold out. 

“If you come out on your own, I can take responsibility for letting you live to await trial. Otherwise, at three tolls of the Bell of Tribulation, you will be destroyed, body and soul.” 

Hearing this, Tai Sui was silent a moment. Then he laughed. “Of course. You don’t remember. The nobility are so forgetful. General Zhi, there’s a criminal brand on my spiritual image. There’s no justification I can give for myself. Can’t you see that? Await trial, ha…” 

As he spoke, he suddenly struggled, seeming to be planning on breaking through the princess’s prohibition by force. How could the young man’s brittle ice body bear this torment? 

Zhi Xiu’s heart tightened. He had no choice. He had to sound the Bell of Tribulation again. 

Dong—

The air above the Latent Cultivation Temple was harsh. Xi Ping’s mind filled with screaming. 

The next moment, he realized these weren’t his screams. 

His body suddenly relaxed. A beam of bloody light shot out from the top of his head. The false evil god possessing him had been locked onto by the Bell of Tribulation and pulled out of his body! 

The great evil cultivator’s demented laughter mixed intermittently with the screams, sprinkled all over the sky. The sound dyed the rain blood red, so sad and shrill it chilled you to the bone. 

Dong—

The ruthless Bell of Tribulation tolled for a third time. The echoes of the laughter and screaming were both suppressed. The tolling carried through the valley for a long time, bearing witness to the cold will of heaven. 

In the head office of Heaven’s Design Pavilion, the densely packed faces on the reincarnation wood quietly vanished without a trace. The invincible skeleton suddenly split apart and rolled over the ground under Pang Jian and Bai Ling’s panicked gazes. 

The body that had still been drawing clear, shallow breaths a moment ago was like a spiritual stone with the spiritual energy sucked out. As soon as it hit the ground, it broke to pieces then and there. The dust that went up made the two men present back up several steps in dread. 

Warm lamplight slanted in through the window, following the dust…the ashes of the dead as they wafted around quietly for a while, then, with nothing to rest on, fell to the ground. 

Destroyed, body and soul. 

After a long time, Xi Ping finally recovered from the tolling, but he found that he still couldn’t move. 

“Xi Shiyong.” A slightly deep female voice sounded in his ear. “You have been injured by the inscription. Your tendons and bones ought to have broken to pieces. I have used a talisman to keep you together.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

In other words, he was a person made of sand now; even breathing was dangerous. 

Princess Duanrui continued: “But your spiritual eyes opened in the moment between life and death. Now that the evil cultivator has been expelled, I will release the prohibition and allow the spiritual energy to pour into your meridians. Prepare yourself.” 

What? Xi Ping thought. He couldn’t stand up to a wind blowing right now, and she wanted to pour spiritual energy into him? 

Why didn’t she just take a pot of boiling water and steep him in it?! Maybe if she planted him in the ground, a little one would grow next year. 

Zhi Xiu respectfully sent the Bell of Tribulation away and landed among the ruins along with the night. First he nodded to the princess. Then he said to Xi Ping, “Your Duanrui-shishu and I will keep your body from being destroyed, but when the spiritual energy passes through you, it will be hundreds of thousands of times more painful than for others. You must maintain spiritual clarity. If you can’t endure it…” 

Princess Duanrui interrupted him: “Enough. The longer we draw it out, the greater the danger becomes. I will let go now.” 

No! thought Xi Ping. Wait, can’t you think of another way to rescue me…? 

The princess had already uncompromisingly released the hand seal. 

At once, all traces of the “cocoon” wrapped around Xi Ping were blown away by the mountain wind. Duanrui backed up three steps as if collapsing from exhaustion. 

His ears hummed. 

In that instant, every bit of flesh and blood in his body was torn over and over; the pain was more tumultuous than the spiritual energy surging like the tide. It drowned his mind at once. 

He was only a somewhat bad-tempered young master, not some hero who had gone through a trial by fire. Apart from the suffering he’d experienced at Tai Sui’s hands, the most serious injury he’d had in his life had been breaking his leg falling off a horse… These two had overestimated him! 

If he’d really had that kind of strong will, he would have made something of himself by now. Could he still be put to sleep by a few pages of a book filled with unpronounceable words? 

The princess quietly said, “I’m afraid this child won’t make it.” 

Zhi Xiu’s expression altered slightly. “Shiyong!” 

But sounds from the outer world couldn’t reach Xi Ping’s ears. He seemed to be a small insect curled up on a leaf in the middle of a vast tidal wave; he couldn’t even struggle against a splash. 

Human strength has its limits. 

However bold a sparrow is, can it fly over the peak of Mount Kunlun? 

What if…what if he just dropped it?

Xi Ping thought that he had eaten well and played well, had lived in comfort for nearly twenty years, fully marinated in gold dust. He’d gotten his money’s worth. 

Racking his brain, he couldn’t come up with any regrets, so he abandoned his pitiful resistance. 

Let his spirit fade, his mind dissolve…

Suddenly, a weak voice passed through the storm: “Tai Sui! Grand Duke Tai Sui…” 

The reincarnation wood was still stuck to his hand with blood. 

To the south were innumerable pieces of reincarnation wood—trees growing in the ground, wood made into timber, memorial tablets placed in shrines… A-Xiang’s constant calls pulled Xi Ping’s drifting consciousness into the wood. As soon as he sank into it, he seemed to grow a vast body. The pain that had nearly killed him was considerably diluted. 

Xi Ping shook, automatically clutching that distant call. 

A-Xiang ran breathlessly through the alleys, darted into her house, and plopped down on the ground. She was frightened out of her wits when she remembered what had just happened. 

She had become confused somehow, as if her mind had gone wandering, and had nearly gone mad along with her shifu and the others. A-Xiang remembered she’d had only one thought at the time: worship. If only she was sincere enough, everything she had lost would come back to her, all her wishes would come true. 

If that “vision” hadn’t woken her…

A-Xiang clutched the reincarnation wood in front of her chest. Still recovering from her shock, she thought: I must have been the only one to hear the voice of the true god. 

So she earnestly thanked Grand Duke Tai Sui, who had saved her once again. 

The grand canal’s lighthouse indefatigably puffed out steam, striving to send its light far away through the pouring rain. 

The swift rain fell all night, cleansing the skies of Jinping. A rare blue sky appeared. 

Amid the girl’s prayers, there was a hum as a steamship raised waves and slowly put into port. A crowd of workers in straw sandals ran over, shouting as they scrambled for work. 

The wind in the Latent Cultivation Temple dropped.