Sanyue’s Xiang Jing had been trapped in the unpeopled silence from the sixteenth day of the sixth month until the seventh day of the seventh month. If not for the staunch will of an ascended spirit master, he would certainly have gone mad. Now that he had landed all of a sudden among the late-autumn red, from which the reek of blood rose to the skies, Xiang Jing had no time to react in any way before familiar sword energy approached him. 

Da-ge? 

No, that was wrong! 

Xiang Jing flew up and dodged. An obscure human figure wielding the Xiuluo sword slashed at him three times. 

As he dodged in haste, he tried at all costs to see who this was. When the three lightning-fast blows fell, the Xiuluo sword shattered without warning. Xiang Zhao’s essence had been consumed and completely destroyed. 

The inside of Xiang Jing’s head roared. His mind was shaken. He was unguarded when a crash sounded in his ear as a pair of huge cymbals from Southern Shu nearly knocked the soul from his body. Xiang Jing was suddenly frozen in place. The next moment, several late-autumn red vines pierced his torso and brow, snatching his essence away. 

Then he heard a soft, low female voice in his ear: “For my late-autumn red to have taken a liking to you, you must have accumulated several lifetimes’s worth of blessings. And you dare to be insolent before me? To be brutally honest, you are a mere collateral relative of the Xiang clan, who may have profited off anyone’s resources to reach success, who may have entered the Way based on anyone’s precedent—if karma were truly to investigate you, would your background be clean?” 

This was…

Xiang Jing’s eyes nearly burst from their sockets. All his facial features were open to their full extent. 

These were the wild utterances he himself had pronounced, very long ago: “For a member of my Xiang family to have taken a liking to her, she must have accumulated several lifetimes’s worth of blessings. And she dares to be insolent before me? To be brutally honest, she is a mere common cultivator, who may have walked any evil path to enter the Way—if the sect were truly to investigate her, would her background be clean?

“Dongheng’s Sanyue is named Xiang, and Great Chu is named Xiang. This land belongs to my family, and so do the spiritual mountains.” 

“Tao County is named Qiu, and the seventh day of the seventh month is also named Qiu.” Bright red lips drew close to his ear. Qiu Sha had to bend down to reach him. Her hair, knocked loose, fell on Xiang Jing like snakes. “Your essence is mine now, and so is your life…hahaha.” 

As soon as Qiu Sha showed her face, the ascended spirit cultivators’s attacks came whistling towards her like an avalanche. 

Not caring at all, she pulled Xiang Jing’s corpse down to the ground and hit the raging spiritual energy with all the essence she had accumulated in the late-autumn red. 

In the Immortal Palace and in the sky, the ascended spirit cultivators fell like snowflakes. Underground, the corpses wrapped in late-autumn red disintegrated one after another. She took no notice of whether the surrounding reincarnation wood forest could absorb so much spiritual energy, and she took no notice of whether the heavenly tribulation inside the Law Breaker would burn her to a crisp. 

Let the heavens and the earth cleave. Let all the gods perish. All living creatures could look after themselves. She didn’t give a damn! 

Unfortunately, that miserable coward Lin Chi was curled up like a tortoise in its shell, hiding in the reincarnation wood forest. 

Cheng Yu was tossed into the sky by the late-autumn red and watched helplessly as a Southern Shu cultivator was half-eaten by one of Shu’s own spiritual beasts. His meridians burned with pain, and his essence was nearly exhausted. 

Just then, he suddenly heard Lin Chi’s voice from behind: “Move aside.” 

Cheng Yu moved aside without even thinking. Spiritual energy like a tidal wave brushed past him. The sword cultivator from Kunlun raised his head in astonishment and saw a figure in convict's clothes flash. Lin Chi formed a double-handed seal, and a talisman slipped from his fingers. 

All the spiritual energy the reincarnation wood forest had absorbed from the ascended spirit battlefield surged through that talisman to blanket the late-autumn red. 

The ground of Seventeen Li Town suddenly sank. The late-autumn red occupying the whole town had been forced underground by Lin Chi’s talisman! 

Cheng Yu was astonished—the Golden Hand was controlling this weird reincarnation wood forest! 

Xuanyin Mountain’s Golden Hand rarely appeared in public. His fame spanned eight centuries. As expected, he was unfathomable!

The “unfathomable” Golden Hand shook all over, and his face became even paler. The “Tai Sui” in the reincarnation wood roared towards his spirit: “A killing stroke! Master Lin! Wasn’t that a suppression talisman? Why would you want to suppress her? So you could stick her in a pen and feed her until she gets big? Pardon me for being frank, but if she gets any bigger, she’ll be twice your height!” 

Lin Chi’s meridians had nearly been snapped by the aftereffects of the talisman. He weakly said, “That’s the only ascended spirit grade attack talisman I could remember…” 

“How could Luo Qingshi have let you graduate from the Latent Cultivation Temple?!” 

They’d have been better off using the unorthodox talismans he’d picked up from those evil cultivators! 

“Who?” said Lin Chi. 

Xi Ping: “…” 

He’d forgotten Lin the Bashful’s age. Luo the Giant hadn’t even been thought of eight hundred years ago. 

Just then, Xi Ping heard a snort. He was alarmed. The spiritual energy coursing through the forest suddenly stagnated. 

The blanketing reincarnation wood forest was withering without warning, parasitic flame-red vines multiplying on the withered trees. Xi Ping had no body, but for a moment he still had the feeling that his marrow was being sucked out… When had the great evildoer buried late-autumn red seeds around the reincarnation wood?! 

“Isn’t it enough to be a true god in Tao County? You want to get out, too? What did Lin promise you?” The parasitic vines were constantly boring into the root systems of the reincarnation wood trees. Qiu Sha’s sorrowful voice sounded in his ear: “What bottomless greed, Yuan Hui’s successor. But…did you really think I took no precautions against you?” 

Meanwhile, in a little town near the border in Yuzhou, the big clock tolled loudly, reporting the hour. Rolling steam rose from the top of the clock tower. 

Bai Ling stood abruptly. 

“Don’t be in a rush.” Zhou Ying didn’t so much as raise his head from looking at his pocket watch—the installations in this little place by the border had fallen out of repair. The town’s worn out clock ran fast when it had just been wound. It would only be the hour when it had struck five times. 

In Seventeen Li Town, Wei Chengxiang had already reached the edge of the reincarnation wood forest, but for a moment she couldn’t take another step forward—the towering trees in the forest all had late-autumn red vines twined around them. If she flew over, she would be brought down by the vines. 

Oh no. How was she going to get through? 

“This damn place is about to disappear,” Qiu Sha thought. “Then all these great personages will leave the land blessed by the five sages forever and have to eke out a living under the rule of this supposed evil god.” 

How fun. Anyway, Tao County was only so big and had only a little drop of spiritual energy, and yet it still seemed to be raising venomous insects. After some years, who would eat, and who would be eaten? 

She felt the Riverward she carried in her clothes burn slightly, branding a place slightly to the left on her chest, as if her heart were also burning. 

Just then, she suddenly hissed and sent her consciousness to Seventeen Li Town. 

A thread of smoke rose. Then, she felt a sharp, stabbing pain—a Chu resident had lit the late-autumn red on fire! 

Wait, how could a mortal light her vines on fire? 

Why were the flames only burning her and not the reincarnation wood? 

The despairing mortals quickly found that the vines wrapped around their sacred trees were afraid of fire. Ignoring the Luwu trying to stop them, they crowded around one after another. 

“Burn it! Burn it!” 

After staring blankly, Xi Ping began to laugh. “That’s because we’re inside the Law Breaker.” 

Inside the Law Breaker, time and space could be turned upside down, substance could be turned into nothingness, ascended spirits and shed skins could become worthless, and the rage of mortals could set white spirits and blue jades alight. 

As if to validate what he had said, a wind rose among the reincarnation wood forest, where hot and cold were unevenly distributed. Xi Ping promptly added a talisman, and the obedient wind raised the flames a zhang or more high, curling around the evil vines wrapped around the trees. 

The clock in Great Wan’s Yuzhou tolled for a third time: Dong—

Wei Chengxiang put a hand over the Law Breaker Bracelet she couldn’t remove from her wrist. She couldn’t sense the time, but as the master of the Law Breaker, she sensed that the Law Breaker’s “point of realization” was approaching. The troublemaking bracelet was excited… She couldn’t think too closely about this; how could a bracelet be “excited”?! 

Wei Chengxiang paid no more attention to anything else. She threw herself in among the fire and the thick smoke. “Senior, there’s no time!” 

Hardly had she spoken than a reincarnation wood tree with flames running along it suddenly blocked her path. Wei Chengxiang handed herself over to him without hesitation. She ran towards the tree, speeding up. 

An array appeared on the reincarnation wood tree, absorbing her entirely! 

Xu Rucheng, following her, was dumbfounded. “You can do that?!” 

Then, disregarding the facts of the matter, he also threw himself right in…not noticing when a branch beside him took his mustard seed off him. 

The clock in Great Wan’s Yuzhou tolled for a fourth time: Dong—

Qiu Sha’s expression first chilled, then relaxed. Whatever. It was already time anyway. 

A thread of thin smoke poured from her chest. 

The thin smoke quickly sketched the outlines of a person—thin, with sloping shoulders and a long neck, with five or six faintly visible exquisite bracelets stacked on her wrists; she was dressed in the old traditional costume of Chu women… It had been eight hundred years. The clothes had fallen out of fashion long ago. 

Qiu Sha looked up and stared at the smoke, unblinking. 

Just then, something flew towards her, leaving a bloody trail in the air. 

As soon as Xu Rucheng charged out of the transport array, he saw the brother who said his surname was Wei, without so much as blinking, simply chop his hand off at the wrist; then a reincarnation wood tree next to him used a talisman to toss the dismembered hand! 

Xu Rucheng only had time to say the word “You” before the spurting blood, flying downwind, hit him in the face. 

You must be crazy!

What kind of magical “defeating the enemy at your own expense” move was this?! 

Wei Chengxiang’s dismembered hand was caught up by the talisman and hurtled straight towards Qiu Sha. Qiu Sha’s senses were all blocked by the fierce fire and dense smoke; she didn’t have time to react. 

In that moment, Qiu Sha watched helplessly as the hand pierced through the thin smoke in the air. 

“Qiu Sha only seems crazy. A person who is skilled in arrays can’t really be deranged. Thinking about it carefully, her arrangements are actually very thorough.” Earlier, when Wei Chengxiang had been hiding in the yard, Xi Ping had spoken to her and to Lin Chi, who had just dripped his blood on the reincarnation wood. “Don’t listen to how she brags. If she didn’t have a surefire guarantee, she wouldn’t be gambling with her life. It won’t be easy to kill her. Let’s do this—Peak Master Lin, you go over there first, tell them what the Law Breaker is, and let those orthodox…let those people who charged in here try joining forces against her. But remember not to mention the Riverward, or anything about the axiom being realized. There’s no need for them to know about those things. If they can’t kill the monster, we’ll think of a way to snatch the Riverward from Qiu Sha.” 

Lin Chi, not afraid of humiliating himself, said candidly, “I don’t think that would work. In recent years, I’ve gone increasingly astray along the toolmaking way. My cultivation hasn’t progressed. If my fellow cultivators can’t defeat her, I’ll be even more useless. As for the Riverward, she takes different forms in the hands of different people. For Xiangjun, she was an eternal spring brocade flower. Now, I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t recognize her even if you put her right in front of me.” 

Wei Chengxiang added, “We can try killing her, but it would be too hard to try taking something from her. Never mind us, shed skin elders wouldn’t necessarily be able to do it.” 

Xi Ping then said to Lin Chi, “Peak Master Lin, immortal tools all have their own properties. When incompatible immortal tools are put together, they’ll impede each other, right? I remember that there are some immortal tools such that when you bring them out, all the items of the same grade in the vicinity will beat a retreat…” 

Hearing this, Lin Chi frowned. “There are those who say that, but ‘impeding each other’ only means that they will be a little less effective than anticipated. It’s not as severe as you say. Making all the tools of the same grade beat a retreat… Such obnoxious immortal tools are quite rare.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

So there had only been a few universally loathed open-eyed immortal tools in the Xuanyin Mountains back then, and he had picked out all of them. 

“The immortal tools I’ve brought with me have no temper at all,” Lin Chi said with another sigh. “Alas, even if they did, they still wouldn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Riverward.” 

Xi Ping hadn’t been depending on him, anyway. Master Lin’s heart-protecting lotus hadn’t had any problem being on friendly terms with the hither seal and the spirit-winding silk, those two unprincipled tools. His things were as easily bullied as the man himself. 

Xi Ping said, “What about the Law Breaker?” 

Lin Chi and Wei Chengxiang simultaneously said, “The Law Breaker?” 

Lin Chi said hesitantly, “Well…I don’t know about that, she…she never said that the Riverward and the Law Breaker were incompatible.” 

“There’s something I don’t quite understand,” Xi Ping said. “Qiu Sha has been so thorough. Why would she put the master of the Law Breaker so far away? Wasn’t she afraid that she wouldn’t have attention to spare once the fighting started? This place is close to Tao County’s border. I don’t think she’s too poor to afford somewhere closer—also, Peak Master Lin, how did Hui Xiangjun die?” 

Lin Chi’s expression altered abruptly, as if someone had slapped him in the face. 

Xi Ping was afraid he would commit suicide on the spot and quickly added, “Wait, I wasn’t asking why she… What I meant was, the Law Breaker and the Riverward on top of each other completely defy the natural order. Qiu Sha can’t control the Law Breaker, but she can still use it to send off half the cultivation world. This…er, Senior Hui Xiangjun, she was the original master of the Law Breaker and the Riverward. Under pressure, she should have been able to send off all five spiritual mountain ranges. How could the sects capture her and put her to death?” 

Lin Chi was silent for a long time, then at last caught his breath. Weakly, he asked, “You mean that it’s likely the Law Breaker and the Riverward are too powerful to coexist?” 

Xi Ping said, “Have you ever seen the two of them in the same place?” 

Lin Chi stared blankly. 

Xi Ping said, “We’re best off taking a gamble and giving it a try.” 

The clock in Great Wan’s Yuzhou tolled for a fifth time: Dong—

On Wei Chengxiang’s dismembered hand, a plain and unadorned bracelet appeared. It completely dispersed the thin smoke, which hadn’t yet fully taken on human shape. 

The two tools were each only in too much of a hurry to avoid each other. The thin smoke flew away in desperation, instantly leaping to Wei Chengxiang’s side. Then it seemed to be startled by a whiff of the hateful aura of the Law Breaker’s master. It stopped abruptly in midair, avoided her, and threw itself at Xu Rucheng, standing nearby staring stupidly. 

Xu Rucheng: “…” 

What the hell? What just happened? 

He instinctively reached out to grab and found that what he had caught was a tiny likeness of a person, with the apparent texture of colored glaze. But inside the transparent stone, thin smoke seemed to be billowing. 

Seeing the likeness, Xu Rucheng trembled—the features were clearly identical to the great monster’s! 

But before Xu Rucheng could take a close look, he was picked up and tossed away by reincarnation wood vines. “Tai Sui”’s voice suddenly sounded in his ear: “This is the thing your lord wants. Take it and go!” 

In Tao County, the Law Breaker Bracelet hit the ground. Outside Tao County, the tolling of the clock faded. The pocket watch in Zhou Ying’s hand instantly jumped to you hour. 

Before the raised corners of his mouth could form a smile, his expression suddenly froze. He raised his head and looked at the communication device Bai Ling had set aside. 

Bai Ling had yet to figure out what was happening when he saw his lord, who rarely used spiritual energy, flicker in and out of sight and grab the immortal tool. 

In that moment, a line of handwriting so familiar it was unbelievable flashed on the immortal tool. But it was only a shadow; it couldn’t manifest entirely before it was erased. 

A fierce wind surged up on the opposite bank of the Xia River, nearly loosening Zhou Ying’s coiled hair. 

The gunners on the bank were in an uproar. The fog that had lingered for twenty days abruptly dispersed. Tao County had reappeared in the human world! 

What had that been just now? What had been written there?! 

Blood nearly dripped from Zhou Ying’s eyes. 

Why would a letter from the Luwu in Tao County have his aura? 

Wasn’t he…

The hundreds upon thousands of lines of thought in Zhou Ying’s head broke off simultaneously—he suspected he was going mad. 

“My lord… Careful!” 

Bai Ling grabbed Zhou Ying, who seemed to have lost his soul. All the inscriptions along Great Wan’s border lit up brightly. The great array far off in the Xuanyin Mountains swept along Southern Wan’s buried veins and blocked the better part of the assault from the opposite bank of the Xia River. 

Out of nowhere, the waters of the Xia River rose to peaks dozens of zhang high, as if a huge dragon were crossing the river. The waves hit both banks and were blocked by the inscriptions of the national border. 

In the midst of his many concerns, Bai Ling glanced at the immortal tool and saw on it the slightly frantic report of the Luwu from after the abnormality in Tao County had started. Though it was frantic, the characters were still neatly written, and it was as regular as a formal document, with everything in its place. At a glance, it was clear it had been written by the reliable Lao Tian. 

What was the matter? 

Bai Ling was astonished. There was nothing here that exceeded His Highness’s expectations. 

The next instant, the half-demon’s spiritual sense was abruptly touched. 

Bai Ling quickly raised his head and saw that a pair of moons had risen in the sky. One was a half-moon, and one was a full moon. 

And on the full moon, a human figure had been branded. 

“Has Sanyue…brought out the Silver Moon?” 

Sanyue’s Silver Moon was just like Xuanyin’s Bell of Tribulation. Taking it out of the mountains would incur a heavenly tribulation. Without a shed skin forebear standing guard, it was certain that it couldn’t appear in the human world! 

A shed skin had truly descended to earth! 

Xi Ping had been ready. As he tossed Xu Rucheng away, without any hesitation, he dispersed what remained of the spiritual energy he had absorbed from the ascended spirit battlefield through the root systems into the earth. 

Tao County—whose land was well known for its barrenness—flourished. 

Even the weeds grew to over the height of a person. Not even Southern Shu’s ancient Miasma Forest had ever been so lush. The earth of farmland that had been abandoned for many years glistened; its texture had something of the appearance of green ore fields. 

And the reincarnation wood trees mixed in among the vegetation were no longer towering! 

No sooner had he dispersed the spiritual energy than the familiar oppressive sense of shackles came upon him again. Xi Ping knew at once that the Law Breaker’s axiom had been realized. Tao County had returned to the human world! 

His free and easy consciousness was once again restrained—but this time, apart from Xu Rucheng’s knotted bag and the divine image in the underground secret room of the Immortal Palace, he also had the reincarnation wood amulets on A-Xiang and Lin Chi to go to. 

In fact, Xi Ping felt that having gone through all this, his consciousness was considerably stronger than before, but he didn’t try to resist at all. He obediently returned to confinement—his spiritual sense was shouting itself hoarse telling him to run. A great personage had come. Freedom wouldn’t be a good thing now. 

Indeed, no sooner had his consciousness been pulled back from the reincarnation wood trees than a beam of “moonlight” fell from the sky. 

When this “moonlight” fell, all the cultivators who had managed to hold onto their lives closed their eyes under the gentle light. 

As the “moonlight” flowed over them like water, the unusually flourishing plants withered, and the glistening green ore fields became even duller than before. The sweep of that moonlight nearly turned all of Tao County into a desert! 

Finally, the “moonlight” came to the Snake King’s Immortal Palace. The menacing vines of the ubiquitous late-autumn red, as if they had been struck by frost, stiffened in midair. Bright and clear light fell on the nine-chi-tall woman. 

All around was dimness. Only her form was fixed in the light. It made one think of the lights that followed the famous actors around the stages of the most resplendent performance halls in Jinping. 

At this moment, the whole universe was her stage. This was her solo. 

Her hand was still outstretched, her head raised, her eyes open wide, as if reaching for something wished for but unattainable. All around her was silence. 

After a moment, a heavy sigh came from the skies. The woman’s form, as though it were a mound of sand, scattered. 

All of Tao County was deathly still. All that remained were the cries of the cicadas.