Guangyun Palace was in chaos. Several blue-clothed half-immortals from Heaven’s Design Pavilion appeared out of thin air, went through the main hall, which had been turned into a chimney by the fire, and charged right into the emperor’s living quarters. 

Before Zhao Yu’s feet had even touched down, he saw a eunuch fall onto the ground. He broke his front tooth when he fell. The eunuch, his face all bloody, scrambled out. “His Majesty…His Majesty, he…” 

Zhao Yu pushed open the door to the heated room. The wind carrying the scent of burning surged in half a step ahead of him, scattering the withered petals of the unseasonable peonies all over the ground. 

Emperor Taiming Zhou Kun was sitting upright inside the room. On the top half of his face there was a mixture of surprise and fury, his eyes popping; but the bottom half of his face was fixed in a contorted yet relieved smile. His exposed face, neck, and hands were covered in sinister inscriptions, like tattoos that had come up from the cracks in his bones, publicly exposing this final sinner of the Zhou family to offer his own family as sacrificial offerings to demons. 

A chill went through Zhao Yu’s spine. He stared blankly for a long moment and found to his surprise that the person inside the heated room was no longer breathing. He quickly took out a pair of protective gloves and put them on, then stepped forward to investigate. 

Before he could touch Zhou Kun, Zhou Kun’s skin began to crumble bit by bit. The tyrant who had spent half his life playing politics fell with a crash. 

At the same time, the demon seal under the Resurrection Vortex also crumbled altogether. 

With one hand, Zhi Xiu carried his disciple with his exposed bones, and with the other he held up his sword, firmly holding back thousands upon millions of demons under the East Sea. In the midst of his many pressing concerns, he also quickly checked Xi Ping’s wound… Then the master of Flying Jade Peak nearly breathed in a lungful of seawater. 

An established foundation?! 

An established foundation, just like that? Had he accidentally lost track of time in seclusion and opened his eyes a hundred years later? 

Where on earth had this brat found a Way of the Heart? 

Never mind that, even if he had a Way of the Heart and spiritual bones, with Xi Ping’s attitude, he couldn’t memorize Detailed Account of Meridians in a whole sixty year cycle; did he even know how he was supposed to direct spiritual energy to establish a foundation? 

The immortal sects had a long history, and now and then they would turn up an idiot. As a precaution against these people, who could get any kind of thought into their heads, taking something by mistake, the seals on all bottles of ungentle medicines had prohibitions on them, especially established foundation pills. Reasonably speaking, only those at the peak of the open-eyed period, who could control spiritual energy flawlessly, whose meridians and spiritual bones were already completely ready, would have the ability to break the prohibition on a bottle of established foundation elixir. 

Which tooth had his rebellious disciple used to gnaw the bottle open?! 

General Zhi had lived for over two hundred years, and this was his first time finding himself at a complete loss. 

But this situation left him no time to think carefully. All the demons in the Impassable Sea had gone mad. Faced with the biting cold light of Zhaoting, they were boldly charging out with no fear of death. 

All prohibitions had disappeared. The sword cultivator’s consciousness poured through the demon host and went straight in, sweeping through the Impassable Abyss that hadn’t seen the light of day in thousands of years. He saw the altar that had already collapsed. 

Zhi Xiu’s pupils contracted sharply. 

With an ascended spirit spiritual sense, he had no need to look things up and make blind guesses like Xi Ping had done. With just a glance, Zhi Xiu could see all the long-buried lives of these nameless skeletons. 

He saw the unsightly stains behind their age of prosperity and, one after another, met each of those children of royalty who had been pressed to death in the Impassable Sea; he saw a series of successive lunatics and sacrificial offerings who had no way to escape, and under the strangely beautiful skeletal remains that were like statues carved of white spirits, he saw the ground littered with fragments of the resentful ghosts of miners and the consciences of slaves…and he also saw a little half-immortal who couldn’t even draw a talisman properly recklessly taking on the heart demon single-handed, for the sake of defending him. 

As if the master of Xuanyin’s one and only snow-capped mountain could be injured, could die. 

For a time, Zhi Xiu clearly felt his heart and mind waver. 

He thought, If the heart demon were still here, I might really be doomed now. 

Zhi Xiu closed his eyes and called, Zhaoting! 

At his thought, Zhaoting pierced through the broken demon seal, the sword energy making its way right into that reincarnation wood forest. The ancient demonic god had after all been dead for over a thousand years; his remnants vanished at one sweep from Zhaoting. 

Zhi Xiu put his palm on the center of Xi Ping’s brow. In the name of the Dignitary of Fate’s lineage, he set down a prohibition against prying—from now on, unless someone overcame the Sea of Stars, no one would be able to catch a glimpse of Xi Ping’s history and background. 

Opening your spiritual eyes with the help of a half-skeleton of hidden bones was one thing; as for the question of a half-immortal not having a Way of the Heart, at most others would say that the young fellow’s fate was unusual.  

But establishing a foundation in a den of demons, carrying off the hidden bones of the demonic god of the way of death—now that was too much. 

In fact, Zhi Xiu didn’t think there would be anything wrong with a demonic god’s Way of the Heart… A so-called “ancient demonic god” was only a great master who had failed in the struggle for the full moon positions. Since they had reached the peak of the shed skin stage, their ways would be no more evil than the vast majority of “orthodox Ways of the Heart” that existed today. 

But he couldn’t control what other people thought. Establishing a foundation less than a year after entering the Way—this was unprecedented among the four great sects. All miracles were alien; they might not necessarily be accepted by the world. 

When the prohibition fell, faint sword aura flitted over Xi Ping’s horrifying bones, covering up the slightly odd air about him. The impression Xi Ping gave immediately became that of an orthodox sword cultivator. 

Just then, Zhaoting let out a buzzing sound like a warning. Zhi Xiu abruptly sensed something and sent a Heavenly Question back to the immortal mountains. 

Then he quickly took a leaf from his sleeve, which he curled towards Xi Ping. “Take him back to Flying Jade Peak.” 

The immortal tool in the shape of a willow leaf expanded to a zhang square. On the tail end of its flowing light, a small “Lin” character appeared—it was an ascended spirit grade immortal tool. It wrapped tightly around Xi Ping like a cocoon. White light floated over the tool. Both the demonic energy and the sword energy nearby gave way to it. Holding Xi Ping, it surged at full speed towards the surface of the sea. 

As soon as Zhi Xiu had sent his disciple away, the demon host in the Impassable Sea began to boil over, throwing themselves against Zhaoting’s light as if fighting with their lives. 

The sword energy spilled out. The water dragons that had already withdrawn outside the Resurrection Vortex were so startled they rose into the air, colliding with their own convoy. 

Lin Zhaoli was the first to sense it. The established foundation sword cultivator’s spiritual sense sent frantic warnings. Using tremendous strength, he managed to pry apart his trembling teeth; then, with a wave of his sleeve, he pulled back and knocked out Xi Yue, who was trying to jump into the water. “Suicidal little thing… Flee south at full speed!” 

As he shouted the final words, his voice broke off. 

Lin Zhaoli, who had always valued saving face over heaven, no longer cared about concealing his terror in front of his colleagues. “Hurry!” 

Wei Chengxiang and the ice boat were thrown up high together by the enormous waves. The new half-immortal who had just thought that she “had hold of her destiny and no longer deserved to make a wish before a celestial being” was instantly knocked back to her original form. She once again became a little ant at the whim of the elements. 

Wei Chengxiang couldn’t open her eyes. She could only clutch tightly to the ice boat with all her limbs, tossed up and rolled wildly by the huge waves. 

An invisible beam of sword energy spilled out of the water, splitting the sea in two. Wei Chengxiang’s vision went black. She fell towards the sword energy along with the ice boat. 

Fortunately, the ice boat and the sword energy had the same origin. The sword energy didn’t harm her. There was a loud and clear clang, and the ice boat was bounced back intact, landing on the surface of the sea. The sword energy seemed intent on escorting her for a certain distance. It gathered up a gale and suddenly pushed the boat away. 

Wei Chengxiang’s legs went weak, and she went to her knees. Panicked, she turned back to look. Only now did she realize how ignorant and fearless she had been. 

Had she seen that sword aura before, she might not have dared to look that grey-clothed immortal in the eye! 

Just then, the tumultuous surface of the sea suddenly congealed. Then it was as if a hand forcefully smoothed out the gullies and huge waves made by the sword energy.

Time and space held still for a moment. The East Sea became unnaturally calm. 

The ice boat slid at full speed along the mirror-like surface of the sea and overturned, tossing Wei Chengxiang into the sea. Luckily, she hadn’t let go. 

But while she was climbing with difficulty back onto the ice boat, her chest suddenly ached. 

In that moment, all the living creatures throughout the East Sea heard a single thump, like the beat of a heart. 

The sound of that heartbeat was large and distinct. It seemed to come from the depths of the sea, and it also seemed to sound in each person’s chest. 

The cultivators, the mortals…even the half-puppet Xi Yue—all of them were so shaken that they nearly suffocated. 

The water dragon animal spirits instantly disappeared, shaken back into their array by the heartbeat. 

The dazed Xi Ping, as if hit in the chest by a nightmare, sat up with a start inside the immortal tool. 

At the bottom of the Impassable Sea, Zhi Xiu watched as the densely packed demons seemed to be collectively released from a freezing spell. 

Next, like light mist on a slab of stone gently wiped away by a silk cloth, they disappeared where they were in large swaths. Demonic energy, spiritual energy, sword energy…even the mysterious inscriptions in the Impassable Sea that stretched as far as the eye could see, and the unstoppable Resurrection Vortex, were all wiped away together.  

It was as if the Impassable Abyss had never existed. 

Some invisible force pressed Xuanyin Mountain’s most preeminent sword cultivator firmly to the bottom of the sea. For a moment, Zhi Xiu had the feeling that all of the vast East Sea was bearing down on his shoulders. The ascended spirit cultivator’s spine, as steadfast as a frozen mountain, let out an ominous groan, as if on the point of being crushed to pieces. 

Then he heard a sigh sweep through the East Sea. “I hadn’t thought that with the world’s spiritual energy so diminished, it could still produce a personage like you.” 

The thing inside the demon seal that had once left the full moon sages helpless…had awoken. 

The seawater began to vibrate faintly. The ripples in front of him arranged themselves into a human face hundreds of zhang high; the eyes of that face were lowered to gaze at the minute human. 

For some reason, this face looked very familiar to Zhi Xiu, but at first he couldn’t remember why. 

“A two-hundred-year-old ascended spirit sword cultivator. With this sword aura, had you been born some thousands of years earlier, there would have been a full moon position with your name.” 

“I don’t deserve such flattery.” Cracks formed in the seafloor at Zhi Xiu’s feet, but he remained courteous. “I just sent away an established foundation cultivator who began cultivating less than a year ago. I may only be an advance wave hitting the shore.” 

“That little devil,” the familiar face in the water said softly. “His destiny carries tribulation. It is right for him to take Yuan Hui’s way.” 

Zhi Xiu lowered his eyes. He knew that after the immortal sect received word, they would need time to come. So, intent on playing for time, he asked, “Is ‘Yuan Hui’ the senior who cultivated the way of death?” 

“Way of death?” As expected, the demon that had been sealed for thousands of years was drawn into conversation. His laughter raised ripples in the sea. “Who picked that name? It has no style.” 

This laughing face… A light suddenly went on in Zhi Xiu’s mind. He remembered where he had seen this visage—this was the Southern Sage’s face!  

Zhi Xiu had always treated all kinds of unnecessary formalities with perfect courtesy, carelessly muddling through. He had never given a single thought to any ritual or offering paying respects to the sage. If the image on the incense altar had one day been swapped out, he might not even have noticed. Had that big face’s posture, looking down and smiling, not been identical to the statue of the Southern Sage that received offerings on Xuanyin’s principal peak, he wouldn’t have recognized the founder of his own sect! 

Why would the head of the demon host use the face of the Southern Sage? The implied metaphor here was bone-chilling. 

Zhi Xiu focused. “Please instruct me, senior. If it isn’t called the way of death, then what should it be called?” 

“His way has no name.” In the water, the demon that coexisted with chaos, using the Southern Sage’s face, said, “I would rather call it the ungovernable way.” 

Zhi Xiu: “…” 

That sounded like it would be more suitable than the plain and unremarkable way of the sword for his rebellious disciple, who could bring down the sky and split open the earth. 

Longing appeared on the Southern Sage’s face, as if recalling an old friend. “Yuan Hui was a remarkable person. His cultivation was comparable to that of the true full moon gods. The reason he didn’t reach the full moon stage was that his way wasn’t among the three thousand paths of the Great Way. Heaven and earth couldn’t abide his way.” 

“Why is that?” 

“Because this way has no Way of the Heart.” 

Zhi Xiu said, “What?!” 

Xi Ping was boundlessly daring and lacked any general knowledge, because his shifu hadn’t gotten around to teaching it to him yet—no teacher would start a student on the Four Books¹ before he had even finished memorizing a thousand characters. 

A cultivator needed to have a Way of the Heart when establishing a foundation, because in this step, a person would be completely remade. The spirit that had previously held the consciousness would certainly be shattered by the spiritual energy drawn into the body; the establishment could only be called complete once the spiritual energy had once more collected and formed a spiritual foundation. During this process, the cultivator had to remain clear-headed. 

The Way of the Heart was what gave the consciousness a temporary resting place after the spirit shattered. 

Without a sufficiently complete Way of the Heart standing guard, the consciousness would simply scatter, and the person would naturally go to see the sages. For this reason, a disciple whose Way of the Heart was patterned after their teacher's had to pass through the “three inquiries and three examinations” of their elder before establishing a foundation, to ensure that their Way of the Heart was steadfast enough—this was also the reason that nearly all inner sect disciples would follow the Way of the Heart of their teacher: a Way of the Heart they had felt out themselves, or a Way of the Heart from a predecessor that they had hunted down outside the sect, wouldn’t have this step; they would have to undertake the risk themselves. 

Without a Way of the Heart, how had Xi Shiyong established a foundation? 

Even if the demonic god’s hidden bones were particularly mysterious and had temporarily sheltered his consciousness, what about after the foundation was established? 

Without a Way of the Heart, what would he bring his inquiries to? What would he refine? What would be his next step? Which way would his spirit ascend? 

“In Yuan Hui’s way, with each step forward, he had to be completely destroyed and to cast aside the past. The opportune moment for being completely destroyed had to be precise. Otherwise, it was only a hair’s breadth from breaking through the cocoon and being reborn to dying and having his way extinguished. What the opportune moment was, apart from Yuan Hui himself, no one knew. I have kept company with his remains for all these years at the bottom of the Impassable Sea, and yet I’ve never been able to understand his way.

“The Zhous came and went. They all thought that reincarnation wood forest was only an ancient relic. Only when looking death in the face could you touch the hidden bones beneath the reincarnation wood forest. Nine years ago, there was a person who got by through coincidence. He encountered the heart demon, and his Way of the Heart shattered, letting him encounter and inherit the hidden bones in his hopeless position…but he didn’t take the opportunity.” 

Zhi Xiu knew at once that he was talking about Liang Chen. “But didn’t he take away half of the skeleton of hidden bones and get a new Way of the Heart, succeed in establishing a foundation?” 

“He was enticed by the false Way of the Heart within those hidden bones and thought that he had seized his last hope. He was in a hurry to throw himself in,” the demon said, smiling. “With a will like that, how could he be accepted by the ungovernable way? He didn’t take that half skeleton of hidden bones. It was the half skeleton of hidden bones that used him to leave the Impassable Sea.” 

Zhi Xiu had entered the Way on the cliffs above the Sea of Stars. He was extremely sensitive to the threads of karma. Hearing this, he was frightened: no wonder that in a moment of emergency, Xi Ping had coincidentally been able to pry open the prohibition on the established foundation pill bottle! 

No wonder that after swallowing the established foundation pill, he seemed to have instinctively known which way to draw in the spiritual energy! 

So…it hadn’t been Liang Chen misappropriating the ancient demonic god’s hidden bones; it had been the half skeleton of hidden bones becoming a parasite in his body, using him to find a successor. 

So Xi Ping accidentally falling into the Impassable Sea from the Resurrection Vortex—had that really been an “accident”? 

Or rather, was it that since he had obtained those hidden bones…no, since he had made an instant wrong decision and hadn’t handed that birthday jade over the Heaven’s Design Pavilion, he had been doomed to end up here and now? 

And what about the demon seal in the Impassable Sea, which had torn ahead of schedule because he had established a foundation by force? 

The Zhou family had made their arrangements for eight hundred years, completely hiding them from Xuanyin’s Sea of Stars. At the last moment, he had broken all the arrangements, making them fall through just before they came to completion. Could this also be someone’s secret plan?

In that instant, Zhi Xiu had the trembling feeling of sinking into the Sea of Stars for the first time, seeing all the interlinked cause and effect of heaven, in which he himself was as tiny as a game piece. 

“Just a little bit more. I only need one little bit more for my demonic soul to be complete.” The Southern Sage’s face in the sea sighed again. “It seems that this is the fate of the Zhou family, and my fate as well. But your Xuanyin has only gained a reprieve from death. A tiny ascended spirit like you shouldn’t overestimate your strength. There’s a familiar aura about you, quite dear to me. It would be a pity for you to die here. Why don’t you retreat?” 

Zhi Xiu raised his head and drew back all his lines of thought. For a long time, he didn’t speak. 

Then, holding Zhaoting’s hilt, he slowly stood upright. 

The demon that had been irrigated by bitter rancor for eight hundred years looked at him with the Southern Sage’s face and tranquilly said, “Sword cultivator, demons arise from the human heart. Even if you give all you have to keep me in the East Sea today, will that bring peace to the human world?” 

When you risked your life to protect Jinping’s Dragon Vein, thinking that you were fighting for the nation and the people, whose was the hand wielding you in the long run? What did you protect?  

Half of the spiritual stones that have gone to fill the Impassable Abyss can be set down under your name. Those who followed in your footsteps—what ends have they come to now? 

High General, your name passes from mouth to mouth, but have you heard the unending mourning songs of the Turmoilers as they devour the corpses of their loved ones? 

Have you heard their curses, night and day? 

Zhi Xiu threw back his head to look at the sage’s face, facing the interrogation of heaven and earth. 

Then he slowly smiled. “I am but a mere sword cultivator. My natural endowments are poor. I am no god, no sage. Why should I overreach myself by trying to attend to the big picture?” 

His gaze was distant and calm, as if responding to his own Way of the Heart. “For the time being, if I am able to have a clear conscience in the present, that is good enough. I have no time to regret the past, and no strength to reach a perfect conclusion.” 

“And now, what are you going to do?” 

Zhi Xiu softly said, “Now, I am in the East Sea, and my sword is in the East Sea. That is all.” 

With his sword in his hand, the master of Flying Jade Peak always had a precipice at his back. 

Since he had joined the lineage of the Dignitary of Fate two hundred years ago, the Sea of Stars had only taught him to consult celestial phenomena at the last moment when he had forgotten some detail, to spare him from humiliating himself in front of his juniors. 

In the end, it hadn’t taught him to look to the past or consider the future. 

Zhaoting was still Zhaoting. 

Laughing, the demon said, “The lineage of the Dignitary of Fate has actually produced a person like you, who doesn’t see the past and disregards cause and effect!” 

Xi Ping was now floating on the surface of the sea. The terror he had encountered once close-up at the bottom of the Impassable Sea passed through the immortal tool and pricked his back like a fine needle. His first reaction was to reach into his mustard seed to check on san-ge’s spiritual bones. Seeing that the spiritual bones were safe and sound, he let out a sigh of relief. 

But before he could report his own well-being to Prince Zhuang, Xi Ping’s breath caught again—he had just clearly sensed shifu. Where was he? 

There was something unknown surrounding him. Xi Ping looked all around without finding an exit, only heard the sound of water outside the immortal tool. “Shifu?” 

The echo of his voice vibrated in the immortal tool. 

Xi Ping punched the immortal tool. “How do I get out of…” 

Before he could finish, something happened beneath the East Sea. Xi Ping was tossed up by the waves without warning. His head collided with the immortal tool. 

But the immortal tool surrounding him gently cushioned his head. 

“Shiyong.” He heard Zhi Xiu’s voice in his ear. It seemed to be coming through the immortal tool. His shizun said in a very calm tone, “I haven’t taught you a single thing about striving for your way. After all these years, my own inquiries to heaven and earth have borne no fruit. Truly, I shouldn’t rashly lead young people astray.” 

Part of Xi Ping’s body was bone that hadn’t even grown flesh and blood. His center of gravity was a little unsteady. Flailing his limbs, he could keep his balance with difficulty, but his heart suddenly missed a few beats. 

Why did this speech sound like…

“When you became my disciple, you said, ‘Everyone takes their Way and uses it to make inquiries to heaven and earth. Heaven and earth must be sick of it.’” There seemed to be a slight smile in Zhi Xiu’s voice. “Children are innocent. You were right. It’s the rest of us who have gone too far. We often forget the way we have come.” 

“Don’t worry, shifu, we’ll talk about it when we get back.” Xi Ping’s throat went dry. “Now…now, can you let me out?” 

“I have nothing to pass on to you. I’ve only taken a bit of a detour, so you can learn from my mistakes,” Zhi Xiu continued, ignoring him. “Don’t ask heaven and earth, even if heaven and earth can’t abide your way—ask yourself. Also…” 

“Shifu!” 

“Don’t let others pry into your way.”