The waters of the Xia River were drawn by the moonlight like the tide, quietly rising, then falling like a sigh. 

The fish underwater were suspended blankly in place. The substitute papermen planted ahead of time by the half-demon floated out of the fishes’s mouth. Before they could float up to the surface, they had disappeared one by one. 

Not only Tao County, but everything within a hundred li radius of Tao County was swept by the “moonlight.” The papermen that had quietly infiltrated Chu riding on the bodies of mortals were also destroyed one after another. 

On the opposite shore, Bai Ling seemed to be burning. If the national border hadn’t stood in the way, this filthy half-demon might have been carried off by a moonbeam from the Silver Moon. 

He bore the burning pain without making a sound, grabbing Zhou Ying around the waist and holding him back. “My lord, if it had only been a shed skin who had come, we could still have a chance. But the Silver Moon is the Way of Heaven. Sanyue has brought down a heavenly tribulation—everything that is outside the Way will be killed! No matter what thing you want to get, there will be ample time for it later. My lord!” 

What thing could he still want…

Zhou Ying whipped his head around. “He’s in Tao County.” 

Bai Ling stared blankly. “Who? Who’s in Tao County?” 

“Shiyong…Shiyong… Let go of me!”

“Huh? But…” In a moment of desperation, Bai Ling’s pupils suddenly turned white. The substitute paperman stuck to Zhou Ying to ward off disaster expanded. Taking advantage of Zhou Ying’s shaken mental state, it quickly plastered itself to his chest. 

Zhou Ying was frozen in place, as if cold water had been poured into his bones. 

“I deserve to die a thousand deaths.” Bai Ling pulled him back and quickly said, “If the Viscount were still living, how could he fail to return to the Marquis Manor for five years? And how could you fail to sense him? Even if his remain…remaining possessions of some kind are out there, they still wouldn’t be in a backwater like Tao County. What association can this place have with him? Never mind Chu’s border, he probably wouldn’t know where Great Wan’s Yuzhou was!” 

Zhou Ying turned a deaf ear on this. He stared unwaveringly at the opposite bank. 

He couldn’t move, couldn’t reach him. In that moment, he seemed to return to the bottom of the Impassable Sea—a plaything in the hands of fate, his heart full of rage enough to smash mountains, but utterly powerless. 

Utterly powerless. 

Bai Ling instantly understood the profound murderous rage in his eyes. He shut his mouth and knelt wordlessly. 

And the desolate “moonlight” swept by. 

Sanyue’s Silver Moon was a great divine tool of the same grade as Xuanyin’s Bell of Tribulation; they were both embodiments of the immortal mountains. 

Xi Ping had had the “good fortune” to see the Bell of Tribulation twice, but he hadn’t had a close look at it either time: the first time, he had overplayed his hand and only avoided being crushed to dust thanks to Princess Duanrui; the second time, he had been unconscious, and when he had opened his eyes, only aftershocks had remained of the Bell of Tribulation, and the demon that dozens of generations of the Zhou clan had raised had already been pounded into the earth by the big bell. 

Only now, after hastily drawing his consciousness out of the reincarnation wood, when he brushed shoulders with the “moonlight,” did Xi Ping at last understand why, for a hundred generations, from antiquity to the present, no desperate criminal had ever dared to openly challenge the Way of Heaven. 

Why the Zhou clan had produced generation after generation of geniuses and lunatics but had only been able to come up with the lousy, unbecoming idea of raising demons at the bottom of the sea. 

The Way of Heaven was unassailable, uncounterable, unfathomable, like a thunderstorm falling upon the earth, irreversible. 

It was both omnipresent and unknown. 

Those who lived within it were used to all this and thought that the sun, moon, and stars were all a matter of course; in their frivolity, they did not know to revere it. But it turned out that when a true heavenly tribulation fell, even the proudest and most unruly souls could find not the least thought of resistance. 

After Qiu Sha had been wiped away by the moonlight like a shadow, everyone present was dazed. It was as if the last twenty frightening days in Tao County had been a dream. 

The ascended spirits retained their wits. The established foundations’s eyes blurred. And nearly all the half-immortals’s expressions went blank. 

The mortals who had burned the evil vines closed their eyes as night fell. 

The Law Breaker had been an absurd dream. In the dream, they had grasped their own destinies, been wildly joyful for a span. When they woke, they would have forgotten it all and would once again be as docile as oxen and sheep. 

The only exception was Xu Rucheng. The human likeness he had just grasped turned into a thread of smoke and seeped into his palm. It was as if an icicle had been jabbed into his palm. As soon as the “moonlight” swept past, he awoke and looked uncomprehendingly at the blank faces of his companions. As he was about to stand up and call to them, Tai Sui’s low bellow sounded in his ear: “Don’t move!” 

At the same time, a piece of gauze fell over Wei Chengxiang. 

Lin Chi’s voice came through the reincarnation wood to her eardrums: “Hide yourself, don’t look, don’t be curious!” 

Wei Chengxiang gave a start. Her wits and memories were abruptly restored. Only then did her wound began to ache unbearably. 

But “evil cultivators” who lived every day with their heads hanging from their belts all had a sense of proportion. Wei Chengxiang held back and didn’t cry out. She huddled under the “gauze” Master Lin had given her, not moving a muscle. 

The extra full moon in the sky seemed to be getting eclipsed. It faded bit by bit, turning bronze. It still hung in the sky above Tao County. 

Finally, a ray of moonlight fell like smoke and dust, then turned into a human form. 

Next, rustling footsteps stepped over the ground covered in withered grass. This person slowly walked out of the forest, reaching out to touch each one of the dead reincarnation wood trees as though searching for something. 

This person was tall of stature, with a build that suggested a man. There seemed to be no color anywhere on him. His head of unadulterated white hair hung loose over his back. There was no distinction between the deathly white of his robes and the hands that extended from his sleeves. On his face was a mask with the texture of paper. 

This mask was very peculiar. There were no holes for breathing or looking out in it. It was plastered firmly to this person’s face, as if he were a living ghost who had died from waterboarding. Features had been drawn on the paper mask with an exaggerated technique, and the drawn on features could actually move. They showed now displeasure, now happiness; the expression was constantly changing. 

“He’s looking for me.” Xi Ping was terrified. He instantly had a kind of instinctive impulse to withdraw all his consciousness to the divine image in the Immortal Palace’s underground secret room, to hide rather than face this frightening shed skin cultivator. 

But his consciousness had “died” too many times attached to the bodies of mortals. Then, he had been unable to escape; he could only stay where he was and wait to endure it. The desire to flee and the action had been separated in him. The habit had become natural. Xi Ping simply didn’t remember than he could move his consciousness now. 

A Sanyue cultivator with only half a breath left called in a trembling voice: “Xuanwu-shishu…” 

When the ascended spirits heard this name, they collectively sucked in a breath, their expressions not flickering—this was Elder Xuanwu¹ of Dongheng’s Sanyue, the shidi of Sanyue’s sect leader. 

Elder Xuanwu coming with the Silver Moon practically amounted to the spiritual mountains personally strolling over from Dongheng. Tao County’s landforms and climate were going to change drastically. Many people would be impacted by it in the coming year.

And this muster of force had come for the sake of a “two-year-old” ascended spirit!

Elder Xuanwu waved a hand. Faintly discernible spiritual energy swirled out of his sleeves, which floated as though in the wind. The ascended spirits felt their chests ease. Their essences, which had nearly been pushed to the point of drying up, began to flow once more. 

Only then did Xuanwu say flatly: “You have all come to Chu to aid me in expelling evil. Sanyue has treated its guests inconsiderately. I hope you will forgive us.” 

After his single speech, the ascended spirits apart from those of Sanyue could no longer raise their heads. 

It was an absolute taboo for foreign ascended spirits to scout within another country’s borders, never mind coming in person and being caught red-handed by a shed skin elder of Sanyue. 

At its gravest, a matter like this could set off a war among the four nations. 

Elder Xuanwu probably didn’t want to provoke chaos under the heavens, so he had set the tone as soon as he opened his mouth, saying that they had come to “help expel evil.” While this was said for the purpose of smoothing things over, it sounded extremely grating at the moment—had Sanyue not brought out its great divine tool, it was unclear who would have been expelling whom. 

“We shall not speak of it.” The expression on Elder Xuanwu’s mask landed on an angry look. He said coldly, “There is still some foreign matter here.” 

Xi Ping, the foreign matter in question: “…” 

While the ascended spirits didn’t know where the reincarnation wood trees had come from earlier, they had all seen Lin Chi using the spiritual energy the trees had absorbed to send out a talisman, so their gazes collectively fell on Lin Chi. 

Elder Xuanwu’s figure flashed. Almost at the same time as those obvious or concealed gazes, he landed in front of Lin Chi. 

A protective tool immediately flashed over Lin Chi, faintly revealing the aura of the Dignitary of Rule High Elder behind him. 

The two great shed skin elders met across the distance. Elder Xuanwu paused slightly, stopped some paces away from Lin Chi, then withdrew his hands, which were like a dead man’s. 

The features on the paper mask fluctuated for a moment. The look of anger changed to a slightly peculiar smile. Xuanwu nodded slowly. “You honor us with your presence, Golden Hand. We are fortunate.” 

Lin Chi gave the salute appropriate from a junior. “Elder Xuanwu.” 

“There is no need for such formality, Master Lin,” said Elder Xuanwu. “You seem to know what the foreign matter is. Will you instruct me?” 

Xi Ping calculated wildly: the three Xuanyin elders who had used the demon seal to seal him were shed skins, and Sanyue’s “unsightly” elder was also a shed skin. A demon seal set down by the three elders wouldn’t necessarily be able to stand up to someone of the same grade. Furthermore, Xu-da-bao was a half-immortal who had just opened his spiritual eyes. The disparity between a half-immortal and an ascended spirit… It was probably equivalent to the disparity between a hundred or so people and an ant—Xu Rucheng couldn’t speak of his existence, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for Lin Chi. 

What should he do? 

Xi Ping simply went numb. He had just finished dealing with the great evildoer and that pair of unnatural tools. Before he could catch his breath, a shed skin elder had come. He wondered whether he had burned and pillaged a city in his past life; if he didn’t have eight lifetimes worth of wickedness to make up for, why would the Way of Heaven be so determined to come after him and wipe him out? 

In a moment of desperation, Xi Ping finally remembered that his consciousness was comparatively more at liberty now. He instantly wanted to flee back to the Immortal Palace, but just then, Lin Chi’s fanlike eyelashes drooped, and he took something out and offered it to Elder Xuanwu. “Is this what you mean?” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

Huh? What? 

What Lin Chi had taken out was a brush. The shaft of the brush was made of a wood Xi Ping had never seen before. It was smooth as stone, lustrous as jasper. It must have been stroked many times; some places were so bright they reflected light. 

Elder Xuanwu reached out a hand. The brush landed in his palm. An astonished expression appeared on the features of his mask. He said, “Eternal spring brocade wood? This is an ancient thing.” 

Elder Xuanwu tapped lightly on the tip of the brush. A thread of spiritual energy swept out of the tip, and a dead reincarnation wood tree next to them came back to life, gently waving along with the tip of the brush as if it had developed a spirit. Spiritual energy curled through the wildly shaking branches. 

Xi Ping was startled. For a moment, he had the feeling that his consciousness was still in the tree. 

What kind of immortal tool was this? Even Sanyue’s white-haired old monster was marveling at it… Also, why would Lin Chi shield him? 

“Most ingenious,” said Elder Xuanwu with an admiring sigh. Meaningfully, he said, “Using eternal spring brocade to defeat late-autumn red. As expected, the Golden Hand is a rare genius, even capable of thinking of this. But I wonder whether this item can bring out the legendary Law Breaker and Riverward?” 

Before Lin Chi could say anything, Elder Xuanwu’s ice cold spiritual energy flowed out through the tip of the brush, and the evidently already withered broken twigs of late-autumn red, like corpses “awakened” by that pen, stiffly churned in layer upon layer like ripples. 

But while those dead evil vines plowed all of Seventeen Li Town, there was no trace of the two great divine tools that could defy space and time. 

Only then did Lin Chi look down and say, more dead than alive, “This item was created by me. It is unworthy of being mentioned on equal terms with the Law Breaker.” 

Xuanwu clicked his tongue rather regretfully. “While this is a good thing, eternal spring brocade is inauspicious. With it here, the Silver Moon will not be tranquil. This thing should not remain in the mortal world. I suppose you have no objection, Master Lin?” 

Lin Chi didn’t respond. His fists, hidden in his sleeves, clenched. 

Xuanwu had only been being polite. He didn’t really care whether he objected. The mouth drawn on the mask turned up at the corners, and the brush was destroyed. 

Lin Chi didn’t move a muscle. Another part of his already scant soul seemed to disperse. 

“Two great demonic tools have appeared and disappeared. This may be this world’s fate, or it may be a tribulation—the Qilin Guard have been lax in their work. The good and the bad have mixed in Tao County. We have embarrassed ourselves in front of you all. Today’s drama has concluded, and Seventeen Li Town had been turned into ruins. I suppose there’s nothing left to buy? The Silver Moon cannot remain in the human world for long. I won’t see you off.” Having said this in a loud voice, Xuanwu turned into a ball of light and disappeared where he was. 

He was connected to the Silver Moon in the sky. It was as if that full moon had been spat back out by the eclipse; without warning, “moonlight” surged in all directions, for a moment so bright that no one could open their eyes. 

For a moment, nearly everyone’s outlines were pressed into sketches made by the sweep of that fierce light. 

Xi Ping tensed. Enduring the might of the shed skin elder, he split off his consciousness to Wei Chengxiang and Xu Rucheng. He saw that for some reason Xu Rucheng was very safe. Mixed in among the crowd of mortals, he was easily passed over by the snow bright moonlight. Presumably it was the work of the Riverward. But the fierce light seemed about to pierce the gauze covering A-Xiang. Wei Chengxiang didn’t move a muscle. Her pupils contracted sharply. 

It seemed that the gauze was about to be eroded by the light. It began to dissipate from above, becoming thinner and thinner… Just as the light was about to pierce through the gauze, Xuanwu must have noticed that this was only an open-eyed ant, and she was protected by Lin Chi. He lost interest in following up and let her go. 

Before Xi Ping could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw a familiar object fly out from under the ground—it was the Tai Sui divine image hidden underground in the Immortal Palace! 

Elder Xuanwu’s voice came through the moonlight: “An evil god worshipped by the ignorant masses of the borderlands.” 

Xi Ping went cold all over. The divine image broke into bits in the moonlight. Before he could feel frightened, the Silver Moon and Elder Xuanwu had vanished together, leaving Tao County devastated by the full moon. 

After a high elder of Sanyue had personally shown them the door, no one dared to object. Everyone collected the bodies of their disciples and companions as quickly as possible and all returned dejectedly to their respective homes, leaving Dongheng’s Sanyue’s people to clean up the aftermath. 

That night, Xu Rucheng mixed in with the evil cultivators who had survived the calamity of Seventeen Li Town’s Great Market and were leaving Tao County in a panic. When he wormed his way into the port, a paperman silently plastered itself to him. Xu Rucheng’s figure flashed. A moment later, the paperman substitute took his place in undergoing an interrogation, while Xu Rucheng himself had already silently passed through the half-demon’s paperman, crossed the Chu-Wan border, and returned to Great Wan’s Yuzhou. 

Then he and the knotted bag he carried both saw the person reputed to be behind the Kaiming Office and the Luwu.