Bang—Xi Yue had dropped a basin. 

The half-puppet stared blankly at Xi Ping for a long moment, opened his mouth, then turned and started to run outside. 

“Wait, come back!” The thought flashed through Xi Ping’s mind, and Xi Yue’s footsteps halted. He was pulled back by the dragon-taming chain. 

Xi Ping was stunned: after so long, hadn’t the blood in the dragon-taming chain worn off yet? 

He was confused and disoriented. He wanted to prop himself up in bed, but as soon as he exerted a bit of strength with his hand, he sucked in a breath. 

His arm had cramped! 

Xi Ping seemed at once to have returned to when he was growing taller at thirteen and fourteen. There had been some months when his height had spurted up too fast and his flesh couldn’t keep up with his bones. Every day he was woken in the middle of the night by his muscles cramping—but at that time, it had been only his legs cramping. Now it was his whole body. 

At the same time, the pain also seemed to sharpen his senses. Xi Ping’s eyes and ears had become unprecedentedly acute. 

When he closed his eyes, he could hear the sound of accumulated snow breaking tree branches in the mountain forest a thousand zhang away. 

Wait…accumulated snow? 

As Xi Ping grimaced from the cramps, he turned his head to look out the window. 

Outside was a vast expanse of white, big snowflakes swirling in the north wind and gathering together to come falling down. The number of snowfalls a person who had grown up in Jinping had seen in his life could be counted on one hand. Xi Ping stared at it, gaping, and thought, Who am I? Where am I? Am I still alive? How did I survive? 

Just then, his ears caught the sound of a particular “snowflake” flying extremely fast, and going in a somewhat different direction from the other snowflakes—in an instant, it was in front of the house he was in. 

The center of his brow itched slightly, and a thought flashed through his mind: Someone is here. 

Indeed, the next moment, the door opened with a creak. 

Zhi Xiu walked in holding Zhaoting. His cape was piled with fragments of ice. He pulled down his hood and, entirely unsurprised, said, smiling, “Awake?

“Finally I can stop feeding him spiritual energy. Stop crying already, go get him something to eat.” Zhi Xiu patted the half-puppet on the head, shut the cold air outside, then instructed Xi Ping, “If you want to go out and play, dress warm. Flying Jade Peak doesn’t have much, but it has cold.” 

Xi Ping nodded as if sleepwalking. Halfway through nodding, his head stopped. 

What peak? Where’d you say this is?! 

“Flying Jade Peak. It snows most of the year here.” Perhaps because he was in his own territory, Zhi Xiu was much more at ease than he had been outside. He undid his cape, sat down on a little couch spread with a snow-white blanket, crossed one leg over the other inelegantly, and got out a bag of pine nuts. “Do you want some?” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

Zhi Xiu had hardly ever seen him looking so utterly lost. He thought it was pretty funny. Ever since he had first seen this brat Xi Ping in the Blissful Village, he had thought he was full of ideas, and not very reliable in giving them play—sometimes they were good ideas, sometimes they were lousy ideas, but whether an idea was good or bad, you couldn’t get a clue from his face; you had to wait for him to reveal it himself at the final juncture; it was even more stimulating than removing the lid of a dice cup in a gambling house—so he had a mind to tease him. 

“Listen,” said Zhi Xiu without warning, snapping his fingers towards Xi Ping, “how about you enter the inner sect and become my disciple?” 

Xi Ping had finally managed to ease his muscle cramps. His mind hadn’t cleared yet. He blurted out, “No.” 

Zhi Xiu: “…” 

Though General Zhi was the legend of an era, he still only barely kept his expression intact. 

The little house wrapped in heavy snow suddenly became quiet; for a time, it was very awkward. 

“No, wait, that’s not what I meant…” Xi Ping finally took this time to review his memories and quickly asked, “Let’s not talk about that right now—shishu, that, that who’s-it, he’s gone, right?” 

Zhi Xiu uncrossed his legs and solemnly sat a little more upright. “If he hadn’t died by the Bell of Tribulation, we could have been living under a new regime by now. Don’t worry.” 

Hearing his confirmation, Xi Ping relaxed all over. His spine became three cun shorter on the spot. 

He threw himself at the quilt, remembered how he had been shocked at every step in the Latent Cultivation Temple, and felt that his pent-up frustrations were hard to express. Therefore he drew his voice out to a length worthy of Luo Qingshi and howled, “Ah! He’s gone at last! What sin did I commit?!” 

Zhi Xiu forced down the corners of his mouth, which were tilting up. 

Having recovered his freedom, Xi Ping would have loved to go out and run around. After acting out for ages, he finally remembered what he had just turned down. 

“Shishu, did you happen to believe in someone’s ‘slander’? Let me tell you the truth, I didn’t do any proper work in the Latent Cultivation Temple. I relied entirely on cheating for my spiritual sense and entirely on the demon for memorization. I’d meant to eat enough to gain ten jin, but it turned out that the dining hall only serves two meals a day, and with the demon tormenting me every day… Ah, what do you want me for? I already told my parents, if I couldn’t open my spiritual eyes, I’d go to the young masters’ training camp…uh.” 

As he spoke, he lifted the quilt and got out of bed. As soon as his foot touched the ground, he lost control and stamped a crack into the snow-white wood floor. 

Xi Ping put his foot on the crack, pretended that nothing had happened, and gave General Zhi a cute smile. 

Zhi Xiu waved his sleeve, and a cool breeze swept over. 

Xi Ping quickly pulled his foot back onto the bed and sat on it. He saw frost appear on the place he had cracked. The frost instantly turned to steam, and the crack in the floor was gone. 

“You forget,” Zhi Xiu said, pointing at him, “you’ve already opened your spiritual eyes.” 

Xi Ping froze. 

His loose hair slid as he moved, and Xi Ping suddenly found that he could distinguish the path of each strand of hair, could even determine in advance where they would fall. All over his body, he could fix on any part…including his organs. 

He looked down and examined his hands forwards and backwards. He found that the faint calluses on them had all disappeared. His fingers moved slightly, and there was a twang, like a qin string. 

Xi Ping was startled, not knowing what he had touched, looking around everywhere. 

“Stop looking,” Zhi Xiu said, “the sound is coming from your fingers.” 

He’d turned into a qin? 

Puzzled, Xi Ping recalled the introductory text he had just barely managed to read—the book hadn’t said that opening your spiritual eyes had after-effects. 

“An open-eyed cultivator’s physical condition is far superior to the average person’s, but those who practice trivial martial arts out in the world still have to rely on external objects like arrays and immortal tools. Only when their spiritual bones are complete can an open-eyed cultivator be said to have their first power,” Zhi Xiu said. “For example, that bow your Pang-shixiong pulls out of his femur.” 

Xi Ping didn’t dare to move at random. He spread his fingers out wide, as if he had just put on nail polish. “Where would I get spiritual bones?” 

“Picked them up.” Zhi Xiu briefly explained about the hidden bones that “Tai Sui” had left him with, then said in consolation, “It’s because your foundation is unstable that you start making noise at a touch. In the future, when you’ve learned to control spiritual energy, it’ll be fine.” 

Xi Ping suddenly saw the light: “No wonder! 

“No wonder that even though the great demon is gone, when that girl calls ‘Tai Sui,’ I can still see her!” 

Zhi Xiu’s brows knit, and he became serious. “What? You can see people calling on ‘Tai Sui’ through the reincarnation wood? You can see ‘Wei Chengxiang’ with your own eyes? When did that start? Can you still see her now?” 

“Since the great demon woke up until now, I’ve always been able to, but I can only watch. If I want to communicate with them, I have to rely on the reincarnation wood… Hey, shishu, where is that ‘big-eyed lamp’ made of reincarnation wood?” From the Latent Cultivation Temple to Flying Jade Peak, Xi Ping’s clothes had changed long ago, and Xi Yue had of course taken the bloody reincarnation wood carving to be washed. It wasn’t on him. Xi Ping searched all over without finding it, then muttered, “Strange, the reincarnation wood isn’t on me, so how did I talk to her?” 

“Tell it to me in detail,” said Zhi Xiu. 

So Xi Ping explained it from beginning to end, starting from the first day he had heard A-Xiang begging for help, up to how he and A-Xiang had mutually helped each other, and how they were even now. 

At first, Zhi Xiu had been listening with an increasingly grave expression. At the end, his expression became strange. “You told her the whole truth?” 

“Not exactly,” Xi Ping said. “I didn’t tell her precisely who I am. We’re both Jinpingers. It’d be awkward if we ran into each other in the street.” 

Zhi Xiu looked him over for a moment. “There are those who wouldn’t willingly step down from the shrine even if all that remained to them was their bones. That young lady bowed and prayed day and night. She must have sincerely worshipped you as a god… Why did you want to expose yourself?” 

Xi Ping said, confused, “What benefit is there to me in being worshipped by a foolish little girl?” 

Zhi Xiu raised his eyebrows; he had no retort. After a moment, he shook his head and said, smiling, “No wonder your Duanrui-shishu said she wanted you as her disciple. Your temperament does indeed suit her way.” 

“What? Duanrui-shishu?” Xi Ping gave a start. “I think…I think I’d rather not. If she became my teacher, wouldn’t I have to cut something off first…ow!” 

Zhi Xiu had flicked him on the forehead across empty space. 

“Even the Southern Sage won’t work miracles, and you expect me to do it?” Xi Ping covered his forehead. “That’s all I need. I’m not doing it.” 

“This is Xuanyin Mountain. Please mind your mouth.” Zhi Xiu glared at him, then sternly instructed, “Don’t talk about this matter with anyone else.” 

“I’m not stupid.” Xi Ping waved a hand. “You just saved my rotten life, shishu, so I felt like I had better make a clean breast of it to you, to make sure there’s no more buried lurking danger that I don’t know about.” 

“The way of death isn’t Liang Chen’s path. While he obtained half a set of hidden bones, in the end, he couldn’t grow himself a body from those bones like that demonic god. From the Blissful Village to the Latent Cultivation Temple, his plan was always possession and body-snatching.” Zhi Xiu considered, then said, “My guess is that in order to communicate with his believers, he would have relied on his spirit. He couldn’t control your spirit, so that’s why he needed the reincarnation wood… No wonder you made such fast progress. Spying on his believers along with him, it was as if you were opening up your spirit to him. He used that opportunity to draw a considerable amount of energy to ‘help you’ fill your spiritual eyes.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

That fucking bastard! 

“Now you have the hidden bones, and your body and soul are united, so you don’t need to use the reincarnation wood anymore,” Zhi Xiu said. “Don’t look at those evil cultivators again, and don’t talk to them.” 

“So what will I do when they keep coming to bother me?” said Xi Ping. 

“It’s your own spirit. Of course you’ll learn to control it.” Looking at this young disciple who had entered the sect only some months ago and had yet to piece together his general knowledge, Zhi Xiu felt a little anxious, so he said, “My experience may not be as extensive as that of the other peak masters, and I may not necessarily be able to teach you anything. But those shixiongs and shijies with mountains full of pupils don’t take disciples. If you went there, you would only be allotted a residence, then cultivate along with your shixiongs from the same peak, say ‘peak master’ instead of ‘shifu.’ I’m alone here on Flying Jade Peak. I’ve never even opened the mountain seal. If you become my disciple, you’ll be the only one. All of Flying Jade Peak’s resources will be at your disposal. Won’t you consider it?” 

If the inner sect’s sword cultivators with no lineage to inherit had heard this, they would have burst into tears. But Xi Ping very indecorously really did start to “consider”! 

Actually, Zhi Xiu didn’t want a disciple. He thought it would be too messy having another person around. However easygoing, he was still a sword cultivator. How sociable could the disposition of a sword cultivator who had cultivated alone in the snow and ice for hundreds of years be? 

Anyway, if he took a disciple, he would have to “give moral and practical instruction, dispel doubts.” Especially that “dispel doubts”—if he said anything wrong and misled his disciple, he would have to take responsibility for it. Just thinking of it made his brain hurt. It was only because after Her Highness Princess Duanrui had spoken, it would have been unsuitable for him not to respond, and because that brat Xi Ping wasn’t disagreeable, that he had been reluctantly willing to make a “sacrifice” this once. 

Who would have thought he would encounter this oaf. 

Human nature is contrary. General Zhi suddenly found that he couldn’t act contrary to common practice. With Xi Ping being reluctant, he instead ceased to be reluctant and really did rather want to have him for a disciple. So he added, “Your spiritual bones are no problem. When you’re used to them, you can make up what you lack in cultivation, then consider establishing a foundation. I can pass my Way of the Heart on to you.” 

Xi Ping asked for instruction: “And what is your Way of the Heart?” 

“I am a sword cultivator,” said Zhi Xiu. 

Xi Ping balked slightly. “Then wouldn’t I have to train with the sword every day?” 

Zhi Xiu said, smiling, “Don’t worry, I’m very lax myself, so of course I won’t be too strict with a junior. Three or four shichen of training a day is enough.” 

Xi Ping sucked in a breath and said in a panic, “Thank you very much, shishu, I can’t learn that!” 

Zhi Xiu said, curiously, “Don’t you want to become immortal and live forever?” 

Xi Ping became even more panicked. “Live forever, too? Train with the sword for three or four shichen a day, and do it for eight hundred or a thousand years? Shishu, if I’ve done something wrong, then just give me a beating. I feel that my crime can’t be that bad!” 

His genuine panic amused General Zhi. “I only train with the sword because I like it. If you don’t like it, then it’s not absolutely necessary for you to go by that path. What do you like?” 

Plenty of things…

Xi Ping thought over what he had said for ages and for a time actually couldn’t smooth out his thoughts. He liked good food, fine wine, lovely people, beautiful scenery—he was willing to try anything new; he liked roaming all over the place with a trade caravan, fooling around the whole way; he liked the snows of Northern Li, the mountains of Western Chu, the streets of Southern Shu full of exotic animals; he liked finding local specialities to bring back home, and then picking up a new box of rouge for his mom on the way back. 

So he summarized it in one phrase: “Eating, drinking, and making merry.” 

Zhi Xiu laughed. 

But Xi Ping didn’t laugh. With these recollections, his thoughts had cleared. 

When General Zhi said he wanted you for his disciple, it was impossible not to feel giddy. The reason Xi Ping hadn’t flown up into the sky on the spot was that he had been too surprised, so shocked he couldn’t quite catch up. 

But while he’d been secretly overjoyed, he had kept feeling that there was something faintly scratching at him, not letting him rashly agree. Only when he had talked it out did Xi Ping suddenly realize it: from the bottom of his heart, he wanted to go home. 

However tasty the snacks at the Latent Cultivation Temple, however funny the auspicious animals running all over the mountains, he still thought that this was only an interesting journey, the kind he could brag about when he returned…but, after all, he would have to return. 

So, for once serious, he said, “Shishu, actually, I don’t think I especially want to be immortal.” 

Zhi Xiu raised his eyes. “You can’t give up the mortal world?” 

“Of course I can’t give it up, but that’s not all it is.” Xi Ping looked out the window. There was snow as far as the eye could see on Flying Jade Peak, linking the mountains to the clouds. Houses and immortals, immortals and men, men and birds and beasts…all were as insignificant as a snowflake, without any difference between them. 

If a mortal went out to walk in it, he would probably get snow blindness. 

“Elder Su said that to establish a foundation and become immortal, you need a Way of the Heart. I don’t want a Way of the Heart. I think it’s just fine to burn incense at whatever temple you come to. Everyone takes their ‘Way’ and uses it to make inquiries to heaven and earth. If I were heaven and earth, I’d be sick of it.” 

Zhi Xiu was slightly stunned. In that moment, his Way of the Heart suddenly seemed to move. 

Xi Ping waited for ages without hearing a response from him, so he asked, “Shishu?”

“You’ve missed half a year of classes and obtained spiritual bones. You can’t even control your own spiritual energy. Letting you return to the mortal world would be asking for trouble,” said Zhi Xiu, recovering. “How about this? Make up the classwork you need to make up here with me, and then I’ll drop a word to your Pang-shixiong and have you go to Heaven’s Design Pavilion to learn some things from him.” 

Xi Ping’s eyes opened wide. 

“As my disciple, before establishing a foundation, you can walk freely through the mortal world,” Zhi Xiu said warmly. “You can find a Way of the Heart on your own, then come back to Flying Jade Peak when you’ve found it. If you can’t find it…your lifespan will come to its end. I won’t have anything more to do with you. How does that sound?” 

Well, what could he say to that? 

Though Xi Ping had always been quite confident in his own charm, he was still overwhelmed by flattery in spite of himself. His fingers bumped into each other, clattering, nearly playing a melody of “Flute and Drums at Sunset.” He carefully asked, “Shishu, when you were in the mortal world, you didn’t happen to leave behind…some illegitimate child who changed his surname to Xi, did you?” 

General Zhi’s self-restraint was exceptional. His smile didn’t waver. “I see it’s no good letting you keep that mouth. Why not give it to Xi Yue instead?” 

And so, near the dead of winter, the Viscount of Yongning, who had still been picking out beauties with Jinping’s ghosts in spring, became the head disciple of Flying Jade Peak, like a dream. 

But half a month later, the dream of teacher and disciple getting along was broken. 

“Shifu.” Xi Ping, already accustomed to this form of address, dutifully warmed a pot of wine for Zhi Xiu while undutifully pulling a long face and saying, “I feel that your teaching isn’t even as understandable as All Clear Luo’s.” 

“…don’t make impertinent remarks about your shixiong behind his back,” said Zhi Xiu. 

General Zhi was also bewildered. He had seen other people’s disciples: there were exceptionally thoughtful and clever ones; there were particularly understanding ones; there were ones who were uncommunicative but did whatever their teacher told them…even when he had been a disciple, he had been very respectful towards his shizun, revered him. 

Where was there a disciple like this? 

“Shifu, you’re really amazing. You’ve burned the pine nuts again.” 

“Shifu, you’re so lazy. You stuck a mustard seed into a cottage and now you pretend you have a real house…  I think you’d be better off just putting the mustard seed outside and taking down the cottage. The snow on the roof is about to bring it crashing down!” 

“Shifu, this jar of wine tastes different from yesterday’s. Your brewing standard isn’t very steady.” 

“Shifu, why is the food in the inner sect not as good as in the Latent Cultivation Temple?!” 

“Shifu…” 

This brat was too much trouble. How could he make so much fuss?!

“What don’t you understand?” said Zhi Xiu. 

“I don’t understand anything,” said Xi Ping. 

Teacher and disciple looked at each other in dismay. There seemed to be a barrier like the border between two warring nations between them. Neither could tell what the hell the other one used for brains. 

That thing that had touched the peerless sword cultivator’s Way of the Heart like a brief glimpse of beauty on the day they had discussed immortality seemed to have been only a lovely illusion. 

General Zhi was exasperated. He tossed aside Detailed Account of Meridians. “Forget it—how are you doing with getting used to your spiritual bones?” 

“Oh, pretty well,” said Xi Ping. “I’ve found all the notes of the pentatonic scale.” 

Zhi Xiu said, “Let’s go outside. Let me see.” 

Xi Ping was confused, not knowing why they had to go outside so he could play the qin. But, after all, shizun had ordered it, so he wrapped himself up in a cloak and obeyed. 

Zhi Xiu led him to the place where he normally trained with the sword. All around were boulders covered in ice and snow. Matchlessly keen sword energy had left scar after scar on them. Their harshness was evident. 

“Don’t be nervous, shifu is here. Just try.” 

Xi Ping had played at the House of Overflowing Splendor’s Flower Viewing Festival. He didn’t have the least bit of stage fright. He rolled up his sleeves and spontaneously played one of “Mr. Yu Gan”’s works that he was pleased with. 

General Zhi, who had wanted to see what properties his spiritual bones had, was silent for a long moment after he finished listening. He asked, “What was that?” 

“A song,” answered his head disciple. “It tells the story of a young mistress escaping a marriage and eloping with a stableman.” 

Zhi Xiu didn’t say anything about it. He nodded rather patiently. “Quite well-practiced. Try another one.” 

So Jinping’s famed specialist in elopements Mr. Yu Gan performed “The Immortal Lady Elopes with a Mortal,” “The Enraged Widow Smashes the Paifang¹,” and other such masterpieces. 

Listening to this, Zhi Xiu for the first time felt chest pain and shortness of breath in his own sword array. For the first time, he had the thought of kicking this brat off his peak.