There is no doubt that everyone judges others by their own standards—otherwise, they would have no basis for understanding others. But there are two circumstances in which you must carefully consider how you judge another by your own standards: one is when there is too great a difference between your positions and temperaments; the other is when there is too a great a difference between your knowledge and abilities. 

Qiu Sha undoubtedly fell under the latter heading. For example, when Xi Ping had been confused and muddleheaded before, he’d had absolutely no idea that such a thing as the Law Breaker existed. 

Now that Xi Ping’s consciousness had been restored, if not for the fact that trees had no such capability, he would have broken out in a cold sweat—he’d actually thought he was an evildoer of Qiu Sha’s sort and had been using his knowledge, which could just fill the bottom of a vase, to ponder the motives of an old monster several hundred years old! 

“No, A-Xiang, you and I won’t be able to work this out. We’re not likely to see through what she’s come up with. We don’t even know whether she has some magic power similar to the Law Breaker,” Xi Ping said seriously. “You have to look at her goals. The further in time, the more opponents she’ll have. All if would take is one master putting up a difficult fight, and the enemies coming in will become more and more numerous as time goes on. If the Law Breaker breaks under those circumstances and Tao County returns to the human world, anyone could be waiting out there to kill her. Won’t she be in for it? If Qiu Sha genuinely intended to return Tao County intact, she couldn’t have failed to consider her own plight, and she wouldn’t have agreed to an arrangement with you that was going to get her killed.” 

After hearing this, Wei Chengxiang stared blankly for a moment. Then she was terrified. “Yes, senior. I’ve been careless… I shouldn’t have come, should I?” 

“Indeed,” Xi Ping thought. 

It wasn’t that he was cold and indifferent, an advocate for not repaying kindness—it was that it sounded to him as though there was something very off about Qiu Sha letting Wei Chengxiang go. 

That A-Xiang hadn’t noticed anything wrong was because her temperament was like that to begin with: stiff quills and a soft belly. 

But Xi Ping considered it, putting himself in Qiu Sha’s position. If his shifu died and Zhaoting spent eight hundred years hiding from his sight, then ran off with a stranger right in front of his eyes, he might explode from anger; it would take pounding the two-timing sword and person into smithereens together to vent his resentment. 

Of course, Qiu Sha wasn’t him, but the murderous aura coming off her made your head hurt when you passed by her. Could she really be more magnanimous than him on this front? 

Xi Ping said, “You’re already here. It’s pointless to talk about whether you should have come or not.” 

All of a sudden, neither of them was in the mood to think of or lament the hardships of fate. They put their heads together and rapidly combed through the rules of the Law Breaker several times but came up empty—Wei Chengxiang was the master of the Law Breaker Bracelet; while she couldn’t completely control the Law Breaker, all ambiguities such as “How is the boundary of the Immortal Palace’s night feast to be delimited?” and “Does it count if Qiu Sha doesn’t go in person but her consciousness is there controlling late-autumn red?” were resolved according to Wei Chengxiang’s ideas. She hadn’t even told Qiu Sha what those ideas were, so she certainly couldn’t rule-lawyer her way out. 

Furthermore, it was sufficient for either of the two conditions, the axiom breaking or the axiom being realized, to be established; if they could both be established at the same time, then there would definitely be no problem. Wei Chengxiang had Qiu Sha neatly walled up. 

Just as Xi Ping was beginning to suspect he was being too mistrustful and paranoid, his spiritual sense was touched. 

A master was approaching! 

Xi Ping quickly split off half his consciousness and flew out of the small yard through the reincarnation wood. He saw a man in ocher convict’s garb standing several zhang away. He was so pretty he was a little feminine, gentle and scholarly. 

Oh? 

There was actually a person who had entered static, timeless Tao County and hadn’t followed his instinct to go find the Immortal Palace? 

Xi Ping had never seen this person, but he thought there was a familiar aura around him. Through his consciousness, he said to Wei Chengxiang, “One of Xuanyin’s.” 

Wei Chengxiang went blank: before, when the senior had talked about “Xuanyin,” he would say “Xuanyin Mountain” or “Xuanyin’s inner sect” to distinguish those from outer sects like Heaven’s Design Pavilion. Occasionally he would let slip a “the immortal sect.” To listen to him, it was clear he was an immortal from Xuanyin—only Xuanyin’s own people would distinguish between this and that part of the sect. 

But just now, when he’d spat out the word “Xuanyin,” it had carried an indescribable chill and distance. 

What had happened? 

Before she could think carefully about it, the man came to the yard’s gate. But he didn’t knock. First, he took out a pair of glasses and put them on his nose. 

There just happened to be a reincarnation wood tree behind him. Xi Ping silently bent a tree branch and looked out through the lenses from the gap between the man’s face and the glasses. To his surprise, he saw that the courtyard wall was covered in invisible inscriptions. 

These were prohibitions Qiu Sha had laid down. 

Xi Ping had spent five years hanging around Chu’s black market. He’d seen countless strange and rare instructions. But he couldn’t quite get a handle on these. He could only sense through the lenses that there was a cold murderous aura about these characters. 

The newcomer examined these inscriptions for a while. Presumably he also couldn’t find his way around them. So he sighed, took a step back, and loudly said, “I am Lin Chi of Xuanyin Mountain. I request an audience with the master of the Law Breaker.” 

What, the Golden Hand?! 

“Him?” said Xi Ping. 

“Who?” said Wei Chengxiang. 

Xi Ping: “… “

Hadn’t he just said? 

Then he realized something. “Wait, you can’t hear him?” 

Wei Chengxiang was perplexed. “Did he say something?” 

Woman and tree looked at each other in dismay. Wei Chengxiang’s expression became somewhat grim. 

Xi Ping wiped away his freshly provoked sense of good fortune—Qiu Sha wasn’t only protecting Wei Chengxiang, she was also cutting her off from outsiders. The only thing that hadn’t been restricted was him, the “tree spirit” in the reincarnation wood. Qiu Sha, who also had an accompanying plant, had known that he could speak to A-Xiang directly through her spirit, and that nothing external could prevent it. 

There was no doubt about it. Qiu Sha believed that, being like her, his interests would be the same as hers, and she had even been relying on him to help her from the shadows. 

Lin Chi waited patiently for a while, saw that there was no response, then said, “I heard on the South Sea about the abnormality in Tao County and thought then that it sounded like the Law Breaker, but I didn’t dare to believe it. Because the Law Breaker is the fussiest tool I’ve ever seen, capable of altering all surrounding rules, not to be found unwillingly even by a shed skin cultivator. Back then…” 

At this point, he paused delicately and changed what he was going to say. “There is no way she would choose a brutal and murderous person like Qiu Sha. Fellow cultivator, the Law Breaker has chosen you, so I trust that no matter what your position may be, you must hold yourself to upright and honorable standards and keep your conscience clear in all matters. I have no ill intent. Would it be possible for you to come out and see me?” 

Xi Ping conveyed this speech to Wei Chengxiang without missing a word. 

Goddamned late-autumn red. It had turned him into an aping myna bird. 

When he was finished aping, Xi Ping at first wanted to say something, but he suddenly noticed Wei Chengxiang’s appearance—her wrists lay on her knees. She was naturally long-limbed. The knuckles of her dangling fingers protruded slightly, and there were many calluses on them. 

He froze, suddenly realizing that she wasn’t a little girl anymore. He swallowed his words. 

Indeed, Wei Chengxiang didn’t seek his opinion in a panic like she had when she was a girl. She very composedly tapped her knee with her fingers, not answering, waiting to hear what Lin Chi would say. 

Not receiving a response after a long moment, Lin Chi pursed his lips, an expression of suffering appearing on his face, as if being forced to sing this ridiculous one-man comical act was torture to him. Watching him, even Xi Ping felt embarrassed on his behalf. 

After a moment, Lin Chi sighed, steeled himself, and said, “You have chosen to stand on Qiu Sha’s side. Naturally you are on your guard against me and likely do not trust me. In the days since I entered Tao County, I have searched everywhere and found that the Law Breaker’s axiom here seems to be connected to time. I do not know whether my conjecture is correct… I would only like to inform you that time is very dangerous. As soon as a divergence occurs, Tao County may disappear forever. Am I correct in assuming that Qiu Sha has not divulged that apart from the Law Breaker, she also possesses the Riverward?”

The Riverward! 

Xi Ping suddenly remembered that Qiu Sha had written san-ge a letter through Xu Rucheng, where she had also mentioned this thing. 

Wei Chengxiang shook her head gently. Her fingers stopped tapping her knee. When she spoke, it was in a practiced, deep masculine voice. “Please instruct me, Golden Hand. What is the Riverward?” 

Xi Ping had intended to pass these words on for her, but he saw that when she spoke, two inscription characters on the courtyard gate evaporated. Her voice passed without obstruction through the gap in the gate. 

True—there were no laws inside the Law Breaker. Anything could happen. It was very random. There was of course nothing surprising about a mere half-immortal like her puncturing with a single sentence inscriptions that could hold back the master of Moon Plated Peak. 

Xi Ping knew that immortal tools could repel each other due to conflicting properties, and that immortal tools of the ascended spirit grade and above could even repel people who were incompatible with their properties. But he had never seen a thing so…impossibly spirited as the Law Breaker. 

For a moment, Xi Ping even felt that it was alive and had its own will. 

At last getting a response, Lin Chi acted as though he had been granted a general pardon. He breathed a sigh of relief. “The Law Breaker destroys the natural laws and rules within a certain range. The Riverward, on the other hand, can convey a person to any place.” 

Wei Chengxiang sat up straight. “Including taking them into or out of the Law Breaker?” 

“No one has yet tried it,” Lin Chi said quietly. “The Riverward can only be used three times.” 

The Law Breaker also had limits on its use—at its utmost, the largest area it could cover was basically the size of Tao County, but at least it could be used repeatedly. The Riverward, however, could only be used three times. These two immortal tools were both things that scraped the lowest levels of natural law; they seemed to be divine or demonic products, not susceptible to being distinguished by grade. No doubt the more exacting the conditions of use were, the more high-grade they became. 

In other words, it was very likely that the Riverward could pierce through the Law Breaker. 

Wei Chengxiang concentrated. Through her spirit, she quickly said to Xi Ping, “No, this must only be a means of escape she’s left for herself, so she can get out any time if it turns out the Law Breaker is working against her. The Riverward shouldn’t pose a danger to Tao County. When the Law Breaker reaches a certain point, it will have to conclude, because no matter where Qiu Sha is, if the axiom isn’t broken, it will be realized, and if it can’t be realized, the axiom will break, even if she uses the Riverward to leave at that point in time.” 

But Xi Ping slowly sucked in a breath. “A-Xiang, that’s not how it goes… Damn it, what kind of person was this Hui Xiangjun? No wonder the five great sects joined hands eight centuries ago to kill an ascended spirit.” 

“What?” 

“If the Riverward really can take her to any place, she can make it so the axiom doesn’t break but can’t be realized either—she only needs to activate the Riverward a moment before that point, so it will take her past that point in time. The Immortal Palace’s night feast won’t end in an instant; she’ll still be at the night feast, so the axiom won’t be broken, but at the instant of the join, there will be no Qiu Sha, so the axiom won’t be realized.” 

Hearing this, Wei Chengxiang’s forehead ached. Maintaining a taciturn and profound bearing in front of Lin Chi, she silently said to Xi Ping, “The Riverward can take her through time? No, wait, senior, I’m confused… That’s impossible. If the Riverward was so powerful, why wouldn’t she return to the past, when Hui Xiangjun was alive, and rescue her? Or simply return to before the five sages had established the spiritual mountains—wouldn’t she know all of history for centuries past and centuries to come, be able to satisfy her every desire?” 

“The Riverward certainly can’t. Time is a fixed law of cause and effect. But…” 

Xi Ping’s next sentence nearly coincided with Lin Chi’s. 

“This is inside the Law Breaker,” said Xi Ping. 

“Furthermore, this is inside the Law Breaker,” said Lin Chi.

Inside the Law Breaker, apart from the “axiom,” all fixed laws became ineffective. 

Layering the two tools on top of each, you really could reverse nature and time. 

Lin Chi said softly, “When this is over, she can use the Riverward to return to the human world. If my reckoning is correct, the Riverward must have been used once before. There will be two uses left.” 

And Tao County would disappear, taking half of the cultivation world…as well as the Law Breaker Bracelet that had betrayed her with it. 

A chill began to come up from the soles of Wei Chengxiang’s feet. She bit down on the tip of her tongue. With her mouth full of the taste of blood, she closed her eyes and calmed down as fast as possible. She said to Xi Ping, “This is my fault. If Tao County truly disappears, I won’t be able to atone for it with ten thousand deaths. But once the Law Breaker is activated, no one can stop it. Unless I die… Senior, on the border between the Land of Turmoil and Great Wan, there’s a little village sixteen li south of what used to be Bajing County in Southern He. I gave shelter to some intelligent Turmoilers there. Because of me, they worship reincarnation wood, and they’ve planted many trees, you…” 

Xi Ping interrupted her: “Drop the heroics. I can’t do anything about it.” 

Outside the Law Breaker, he couldn’t even leave the divine image, and here she was sending him all the way to the Land of Turmoil. She really knew how to hand out work. 

“Unless you die, you said?” Xi Ping asked grimly. “Have you tried that out for yourself?” 

Wei Chengxiang: “…” 

True, that was what Qiu Sha had always been subtly hinting at: as the master of the Law Breaker Bracelet, she had to preserve her life; if she died, the Law Breaker would conclude. 

“You can’t even control that lousy bracelet while you’re alive. You think it cares whether you live or die?” Xi Ping said. “Stop talking nonsense. You’re a bracelet rack who’s overthinking things. Hurry up and ask Lin what to do.” 

Wei Chengxiang accordingly turned to Lin Chi and explained the Law Breaker Bracelet’s axiom and conditions of concluding. “Master Lin, do you know what to do?” 

After listening to this, Lin Chi didn’t speak for a long time. Finally, he smiled bitterly up at the sky and, without a word, turned and left. 

Wei Chengxiang said, “Master Lin?” 

“I am no master,” Lin Chi’s voice came from nearby. “Compared to her, I am only a craftsman… I cannot comprehend her relics. There’s nothing to be done. On the list of those Qiu Sha wants to kill, I probably rank even ahead of Xiang Zhao. That being the case, I shouldn’t delay any longer.” 

Wei Chengxiang said, “Wait…” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

These two were really something. When they came to a problem, they didn’t solve the problem, but on the other hand they were both quite proactive when it came to committing suicide. 

In a moment of desperation, the roots of some reincarnation wood trees beside the road all came out of the ground and got under Lin Chi’s feet, tripping him. At the same time, a talisman flew out of a reincarnation wood tree and slapped Lin Chi right on the back. 

“Hold it right there!”