The steamship gave a muffled sigh, and Pang Jian came back to himself. He suppressed his chaotic emotions and waved a hand at Xi Ping. “I will explain this matter to the sect. You leave it alone. Your shifu sent you to investigate the remaining evil cultivators.” 

Xi Ping immediately said, “Shixiong, do you mean that the people colluding with the Shu aren’t evil cultivators?” 

Pang Jian: “…” 

No good. He’d let his attention wander and said too much. 

Taking a child along wasn’t scary. He rather liked young people, and in fact didn’t mind if they were a little mischievous; after all, he wasn’t very solemn himself. 

But this type of brat—the kind who could snatch at a flaw in anything you said without careful consideration—was truly too annoying! It was appropriate for this Xi Shiyong to be traveling with a mute. 

“You…” Pang Jian was speechless for a long time, then said in exasperation, “There’s no need to catch on so quick when you don’t have to be clever.” 

Arranging this matter according to normal lines of thought, the most suitable explanation for it would be this: the evil cultivator Liang Chen, who styled himself Tai Sui, had been a mine supervisor on the surface and a traitor to the nation in reality. For many years, he had not only committed evil acts, he had also caused man-made mine collapses and colluded in secret with a foreign nation. Eight years ago, Liang Chen had for some reason left the southern mines to enter seclusion, leaving a trusted associate—the unidentified Wuchang One—back in the mines. This person had continued to act as a traitor, secretly conveying spiritual stones to the underground palace in the Shu encampment. 

The karma beast could serve as evidence for all of the above. 

This way, if they only captured Wuchang One, the head of the remaining evil cultivators, this horrifying case of spiritual stone theft that had spanned hundreds of years would be revealed. It would be clear at a glance which evildoers ought to be punished and what evil ought to be expelled. There would be justice for the souls of the victims of hundreds of years of mine collapses floating over the southern mines. 

But evidently, Pang Jian wasn’t prepared to accept this “suitable explanation.” 

“I understand. Embezzling spiritual stones on such a large scale and creating man-made mine collapses longterm without anyone getting to the bottom of it—that couldn’t have been done by a small handful of evil cultivators. If that really were the case, the rulership in Jinping would have changed by now,” Xi Ping said quickly. “Also, as I see it, the vast majority of those evil cultivators are paupers. When they attract new followers, they only give them some green ore dust to eat, so all their subordinate cultivators look hardly human. If the evil cultivator Liang had the ability to get his hands on so many spiritual stones, would he have had any need to mess around with those thugs?” 

Pang Jian’s expression hardened. He called him to a stop. “You understand nothing. Don’t talk blindly.” 

Xi Ping continued: “The strangest thing is that, last night, the Mining Office people impersonated evil cultivators and went to scout out the Southern Shu encampment. It’s simply unbelievable. If you said it, even the evil cultivators themselves wouldn’t dare to believe it. If the theft of spiritual stones really had been done by a few evil cultivator traitors, the Mining Office could easily get them under control. First investigate the thieves in their own house, then go to the foreign nation for an explanation. Why would they need to expend so much effort, ignore what was right in front of them and go far afield?” 

Pang Jian said, “Shut your mouth!” 

Xi Ping said, “So the ones colluding with Southern Shu must be people they don’t dare to investigate openly.” 

The two of them said these final sentences almost simultaneously. Pang Jian’s expression looked as if he had been dealt a staggering blow right after getting over a hangover. Pointing at Xi Ping, he couldn’t get any words out for ages. “…Have a heart, spare me some trouble.” 

Xi Ping cradled his crushed hand to his chest and once again became selectively “impervious to reason,” eyes lighting up like the stars that Jinping was unworthy of, full of the aura of fearless youth. 

It made Pang Jian remember that he had only just come of age. 

Pang Jian looked at him, and his tone involuntarily became somewhat warmer and steadier. He said, patiently, “Shiyong, there are some things in the world that aren’t as straightforward as catching evil cultivators. If anyone commits atrocities against heaven and reason, you catch them, and everyone has a simple and straightforward battle… It’s not that easy to be a walker in the mortal world.” 

“I know. If you find out that someone like Liang Chen, who has no background and no connections, has done something wicked, it’s to everyone’s satisfaction. You can just arrest him, and neither the sect nor the court will have anything to say about it. But other people…” Xi Ping’s eyelashes lowered to screen his gaze. “…for example, those Zhaos and Lins, that won’t do for them. Everyone has to get involved, there have to be a hundred or more immortal meetings and conferences, and then you have to go ask the Sea of Stars. When the stars, the moon, the gods, the immortals, and the mortals have all given the nod, you can finally put a lid on it.” 

Pang Jian said, “…Why can’t your shifu control you?” 

Xi Ping asked, “Shixiong, what are you planning to do?” 

Pang Jian wasn’t a talkative person who liked explaining himself. He hadn’t been planning on telling Xi Ping anything in detail. But what General Zhi had entrusted to him was a stray dog without a leash that could get up to anything at all if you took your eyes off him for a moment. He had to explain himself plainly: “I’m going to investigate this to the end and keep it a secret.” 

Investigating it to the end was in service of his barrier dispelling Way of the Heart; keeping it secret was in service of the bigger picture. 

He was the commander of Heaven’s Design Pavilion, not the little victim who had survived a mine collapse a hundred years ago. 

“Then I will explain matters to Xuanyin Mountain and leave it to the sect to make a ruling.” 

Xi Ping asked, “And if the sect’s ruling is improper?” 

“Be sensible. I know you can.” Pang Jian’s temper was nearly worn away. He paused, then said almost in perfect sincerity, “Shiyong, when I was your age, I also thought that I was the most public-spirited, the most reasonable. But actually, Xuanyin’s thirty-six peak masters, the cultivators of the established foundation level and above, all have Ways of the Heart. The Way of the Heart is innocent, and those that go against it receive punishment from heaven and earth. Immortal sects…naturally have their own reasons.” 

“I see,” Xi Ping said perfunctorily. “I’ve got it, Grandpa Pang.” 

“If a day comes when the justice in your heart goes against your nation and your sect, goes against your parents and your teacher, what will you do?” Pang Jian sighed.  “Behave yourself, don’t go making trouble. If there’s something you really can’t resolve, write to ask your shifu… I’ve practically become your mom. It looks to me like your flesh and bones will grow back in a day. Rest up, don’t drink wine.” 

Then he stood up and was about to return to his room. When he reached the door, he remembered something else. “Right…that miserable little wretch from the southern outskirts factory who’s been plagued with evil cultivators—that girl named Wei Chengxiang—do you recall her?” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

Of course he recalled her. She had just set out for the evil cultivators’ main headquarters as a holy woman. 

Pang Jian didn’t notice his suddenly stiff expression, only said, “General Zhi entrusted me with getting her settled. Because of her youth, I wanted to find a family to adopt her in Jinghua Village—oh, you may not know about Jinghua Village. It’s the territory of the walkers in the mortal world, a little village created with a mustard seed. Cultivation is lonely, and the burden of a family is heavy. Some walkers in the mortal world pretend to be mortal and get married, and their spouses and children all live there. It’s easy to defend. You could call it…a place for the walkers in the mortal world to catch their breaths. But then, just that day, there was the explosion at the southern outskirts factories, and Heaven’s Design Pavilion was running around everywhere. My subordinate was inattentive to his duty and lost her. I’ve sent people to look for her.” 

Without displaying anything unusual in his expression, Xi Ping said, “It’s all right. If you can’t find her, forget about it. Maybe she went back home to find her relatives.” 

If Wei Chengxiang had had a single decent relative, whether they were old or sickly or crippled, she wouldn’t have ended up making her way alone in the southern outskirts, going to reeking Rat Alley every day in search of warmth. 

Pang Jian was sharp as a whip. Reasonably speaking, he should have immediately noticed that something was off. But when he heard this, he only nodded and said feelingly, “She still has relatives? That’s pretty good.” 

Xi Ping watched him leave and thought, Pang-shixiong’s runaway soul hasn’t come back yet. 

A half-immortal… Accommodating the Way of the Heart of the immortal half alongside the big picture ultimately made the heart unsettled. 

His injured hand suddenly twitched. Xi Ping drew in his breath with a hiss. Then he saw Xi Yue run over carrying an old book without a cover. He opened it to the middle and pointed out a monster to him. This monster had high, broad shoulders and a pair of blades where its hands ought to have been. Its face and scalp were covered in arrays, crowding out the features and leaving no room for them. There was an explanatory note next to it: Sword-bearing half-puppet, can travel a thousand li in one day, knows no weariness, will go until the last gasp and fight the enemy without end. 

Xi Yue said, I want to become like this. I’ve memorized all the arrays. You only need to follow along with my thoughts in the dragon-taming chain, young master. 

Xi Ping waved a hand. “Piss off.” 

Xi Yue entreated him, I want to become a little useful. 

Xi Ping sniffed in contempt at the half-puppet’s aspirations. He himself was a person who was interesting but useless, and he didn’t understand at all why anyone would insist on becoming “useful.” 

“Steam engines are extremely useful. I can send you to a factory to blow hot air. Ah, I told you to look up how we can get you to be able to talk, to grow a little taller, to look a little more human. Instead you went and looked up how to become a monster!” 

Xi Yue didn’t respond. He didn’t want to talk at all. There was no need to talk to others, and he could “talk” to Xi Ping through the dragon-taming chain… He kept suspecting that as soon as he could talk, Xi Ping would take the dragon-taming chain away and destroy it. 

Xi Ping said, “If you dare to turn into that, I’m abandoning you.” 

Xi Yue slammed the book shut and fearfully put it behind his back. 

Xi Ping wanted to smile, but halfway through the smile changed shape from pain. The crushed bones of his fingers were starting to put themselves together. 

The fingers connect to the heart. His trembling fingertips seemed to have extended to link to his whole body’s sense of pain. Even his back began to go numb. But he still did his best to hold out and not make a sound, because Xi Yue was there. 

As he saw it, Xi Yue was a little thing whose intellect hadn’t fully developed. Apart from when he was lazing around in bed to the point of unconsciousness, the young master wanted to save face. 

He clenched his teeth and made his breathing gentle and slow, leaning against the bed and dozing. Sometimes he remembered last night’s quick tour of hell, and sometimes he thought of his shifu. 

Mao hour had passed long ago, and shifu hadn’t sent him an assignment. He must have known he had been in the underground palace at the Shu encampment then. Xi Ping thought, Shifu’s consciousness can reach to this…crisis-ridden, demon-spawning, awful place. 

This person who had spent so many years alone in the ice and snow practicing the sword was now occasionally sending his gaze to the Land of Turmoil, watching everyone fight and scheme for the spiritual stones that were made of the Turmoilers’ flesh and blood… How did he feel when he saw it? 

Xi Ping suddenly felt a bit of regret. He shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to leave the mountain. He should at least have stayed on Flying Jade Peak to celebrate the New Year with shifu. 

Just then, Xi Ping’s spiritual sense moved. He sensed Pang-shixiong next door sending off a Heavenly Question, which went in the direction of the Xuanyin Mountains. 

If a day comes when the justice in your heart goes against your nation and your sect, goes against your parents and your teacher, what will you do?

Xi Ping thought over Pang-shixiong’s words. He thought that Pang-shixiong looked like a bandit, but in reality he was unbendingly upright; it made a person admire him. 

But admiration was one thing; he still wasn’t convinced—if he went against heaven and earth, against his sovereign, his family, and his teacher, wouldn’t that mean becoming an evil cultivator?  

In that case, he might as well get up to evil cultivator business. 

For example, he had come here to take care of that Zhao person. A little thing like this, was there any need to publicize it so the whole world knew? As he saw it, there was no need to bring this matter to the sect to ask for justice, and certainly no need to ask for redress from the court… Anyway, never mind survivors, Miss Chen’s family’s ashes couldn’t even make up a double handful. Who would benefit if he went through every possible trouble looking for justice? 

He only had to determine that this Zhao Zhenwei was the source of the injustice, the primary debtor, then quietly get rid of him and put the blame on the evil cultivators when he was done. 

In the underworld, the whole Ning’an Chen family had waited respectfully for a long time. If there were any unsettled accounts in this world, let them go settle them themselves. 

“Ugh…” As crooked thoughts went through his mind, another finger came together without warning. Xi Ping felt as if he had been whipped from shoulder to hand with an iron whip. He curled up from pain. “Xi Yue…Xi Yue…” 

Xi Yue heard that his voice sounded wrong and stood there helplessly, wanting to touch him but not daring to. 

Xi Ping said almost inaudibly, “Get me some wine.” 

Xi Yue hesitated. I think that Commander Pang said just now…

Xi Ping pounded on the bed with his good hand. Is he right, or am I right? Are you on his side or on mine? 

Xi Yue was afraid he would move too much and disturb his injury. He quickly took the hand Xi Ping was pounding the bed with and hurriedly nodded. You’re right, you’re always right, I’ll get it for you. 

He rushed off to get a small pot of wine. Only when he had handed it over to Xi Ping did he dimly realize that there was something wrong—who was right and whose side you were on…were those the same thing? 

Xi Ping finished off half the pot of wine in one gulp. His suddenly warming blood seemed to open his pain-numbed meridians. He let out a long breath, and confusion suddenly arose in his mind: why had Pang-shixiong suddenly remembered A-Xiang just now? 

After sending the Heavenly Question, Pang Jian emptied his head of all distracting thoughts and entered meditation. 

Of the eight hundred legendary hallucination arrays, not one could trap Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s Pang Jian. Because the way of dispelling barriers was to always seek the truth, never to be trapped by bewildering barriers. The barrier dispelling Way of the Heart was forged by throwing off illusions time after time while beset by perils. 

The sea of thought in which he forged his Way of the Heart was full of confusion, hallucinations growing wild…like the accumulated fragrant jade miasma that had been lingering in the southern mines when he had opened his spiritual eyes. 

When there was a mine collapse in the spiritual stone mines, the spiritual energy bouncing between the stones would often activate the rock snow and form a particular miasma, which was called fragrant jade miasma. Before the raw materials of that priceless snow wine had been processed, they had hallucinatory properties, stronger than any snow wine. 

Actually, Pang Jian didn’t count as a “survivor” of a mine collapse. When the caved-in spiritual stone mine had buried the mining station underneath it, he had just gone with a companion to the docks to meet the merchant ships. He hadn’t been inside. 

The unprecedented mine collapse had raised a small mountain of fragrant jade miasma. The miasma hung around for over a month, while the precious and fatal spiritual stones continued to slip down. Not even the mine’s half-immortals dared to approach. Only he, as if he had gone mad, charged inside while the supervisors weren’t looking. 

At first, he still knew to cover his mouth and nose with wet cloth as he searched hopefully for people in the miasma and the ruins. 

But when he found them he was exhausted, his fingers worn bloody. He only pulled out one twisted corpse after another, all people he had known when they were living. 

When the teenage Pang Jian dragged out his parents, who no longer looked like themselves, he finally couldn’t resist crying aloud. 

Just then, he heard a weak cry for help: “Da-ge…” 

Pang Jian gave a start. He had a little sister two years younger than him who was slower to grow tall than other girls. At thirteen, she still looked like a child. Because she was small and skinny, she had been trapped by a doorframe and a rock in a corner that an adult couldn’t reach and so had survived. 

The surviving girl gave him strength. Pang Jian turned at once from a despairing, bereaved boy into a big brother who could move heaven and earth. Beneath stones that could come crashing down at any time, he spent two full days calmly and patiently using his hands to dig her out. 

The fragrant jade miasma had by now turned into a bewildering barrier. People outside couldn’t get in, and people inside couldn’t get out. 

Pang Jian said, “It’s all right. However big the miasma is, it’ll break up one day, and I’ll take you out of here. Mom and dad are gone, so I’ll take care of you in the future. In two months, I’ll be of age, and I can work in the mines… All the supervisors know me, they’ll definitely take me.” 

Along with his little sister, he fought desperately to survive, desperately looked for food among the ruins. In hardly any time, there wasn’t even a single grain left. The boy went behind his sister’s back and quietly cut meat off the bodies of those who had died in the mine collapse and brought it back to eat, pretending it was animal meat… In the fragrant jade miasma, the bodies didn’t even rot. 

Finally, they were even running out of bodies, and the miasma still hadn’t broken up. Pang Jian was just at his wit’s end when he found a live deer that had somehow run inside. 

He took out a bow and arrow. He was dizzy from wild joy on top of hunger, so he didn’t carefully consider where the bow and arrow had come from. He drew the bow and shot the arrow smoothly, brought down the little deer in one shot, and happily shared one of the deer’s legs with his little sister. 

That night, for the first time, he saw a faint, blurry moon in the fragrant jade miasma and optimistically thought, If a living thing could get in, the miasma must be about to break up. 

Pang Jian’s premonition was right. The fragrant jade miasma that had continued for two months was at last about to be absorbed by the spiritual stone mine’s great array. 

Two days later, cultivators wearing miasma-repelling talismans and masks charged in. Someone soon found him and cried out, “Look, quick, there’s someone here! There’s a living person!” 

“No…” Pang Jian thought vaguely, “there are two.” 

They all babbled something about “fragrant jade miasma pouring his spiritual eyes open,” and someone had put an elixir in his mouth and was constantly asking him questions, what his name was, who his parents were, what other family he had, telling him not to be confused, to maintain his spiritual clarity.

Pang Jian didn’t understand what “spiritual clarity” was. He only knew that the elixir was so bitter it made the root of his tongue go numb. He swallowed it with difficulty, and the elixir began to expel the miasma that had accumulated in his body. The distinctive fruit fragrance of rock snow poured out of the seven orifices of his face. 

The fragrant Pang Jian grabbed the hem of the person questioning him. “My little sister…” 

“What?” 

“My little sister…she’s here, too…she’s little, Exalted, save her first, she’s over…” 

When the mine supervisor heard this, his expression altered. After a moment of peculiar silence, he stammered, “Don’t…don’t worry, my colleagues have already…” 

His words came to a sudden stop, because just then, two miners who didn’t understand the situation lifted out a tiny body, which came right to Pang Jian’s eyes—and by now, the cruel immortal pill had already blown away the sweet dream blinding his eyes. 

The little girl’s body had stiffened long ago. Her head had been crushed out of shape, and there was even a spiritual stone inlaid in her skull. But the rest of her was perfectly preserved. Her clothes could even be called tidy. Someone had been taking care of her as though she were a living person…except that the body was missing a leg. 

Next to an extinguished fire, there was a clean leg bone laid out. A human one. 

It turned out that his little sister, the little deer, and the bow that had hit in one shot…had all been a dream inside the fragrant jade miasma. 

Waking from the dream, his spiritual eyes linked to heaven and earth, and he swore from then on not to be confused by any illusion. 

But today he nearly failed. After entering meditation, he couldn’t get out of the miasma in his spirit no matter what. Just as Pang Jian was beginning to feel fretful, the sound of a qin suddenly pierced the fog before his eyes. 

It was a rather unlucky Soul Calling Melody. 

Following the sound of the qin, Pang Jian opened his eyes, but he didn’t move. He sat there quietly, listening to the music next door, which could penetrate a person’s spirit. 

Night fell, the hull trembled slightly, and the small window of the cabin was swept by a lighthouse beam. They had at last reached the Great Wan encampment. 

Meanwhile, Wei Chengxiang’s party, traveling by land, also reached the Great Wan encampment—Great Wan’s trade routes were well-developed, and it had the most merchants traveling to the Land of Turmoil. The encampment seemed more like the human world than any other place. Near the docks, a bustling little town had nearly come together, and many of the guesthouses had seasonally hung up Spring Festival couplets. 

Though it was nowhere near as good as in Great Wan itself, it was still pretty decent… At any rate, Wei Chengxiang had never stayed at such a good inn before. 

The mysterious person who came to meet her set her up in a single-person room. Tea and fruit were even set out in the guest room. 

She investigated for a long time before finally working out how to peel the fruit, but as soon as she bit into one, she spat it out. 

The taste of snow wine—she knew it; this was lychee.