That day, before Xi Ping’s boiling brains had chilled in the breeze, Zhou Ying had simply vanished before his eyes—just like that. His spiritual sense couldn’t catch up to him at all. 

Xi Ping had just had it with everyone from Prince Zhuang Manor. If they weren’t turning into the wind, they were turning into paper; why did every last one of them belong to this furtive, creeping type? 

Putting a gate on that manor was just for decoration! 

In that ignored knotted bag, Xi Ping frantically went around in circles. Had he not been restricted by the demon seal, he probably would have twisted Miss A-Hua’s unfinished knotted bag into a round brocade knot¹: on one hand, he was worried about the old lady; on the other hand, it was clear that san-ge wanted to go to the Impassable Sea to steal his body. 

Wasn’t that total nonsense?! The Riverward could open the door to ferry a person, but it wasn’t designed to haul goods…bah, to haul people, that was. 

The demon seal at the bottom of the Impassable Sea was so big, and in total it was suppressing only two things: one demon seed and one him. If san-ge reached out and took one… Xi Ping even suspected he might want to take both. 

Was it possible for the three great Buddhas at Xuanyin Mountain not to notice? 

As a half-immortal, was he really planning to simply commit treason and be pursued by the Bell of Tribulation to the ends of the earth? 

The whole Zhou family was like this. Normally they were happy and well-fed on whatever they ate, not even taking an extra mouthful of soup, regular as clockwork, comprehensive and reliable in everything they did—and then they would lose their minds just like that, without a single omen preceding the explosion. 

Xi Ping’s scalp went numb. Zhou Ying vanishing into thin air had looked very much like Qiu Sha being erased by the Silver Moon. In exasperated frustration, he abandoned Xu Rucheng and went chasing after the reincarnation wood amulet holding his consciousness that Lin Chi was carrying—he had to go to the Xuanyin Mountains. 

He had no Riverward. He couldn’t go down into the Impassable Sea. He couldn’t even speak freely. All he could do was think of some way to observe Xuanyin Mountain’s reaction and conjecture based on that what san-ge had done. 

He hoped Peak Master Lin hadn’t thrown the reincarnation wood away. 

Lin Chi may have forgotten; he hadn’t thrown that piece of wood away. He was sitting on the “wounded” blue luan immortal tool, using a leaf to whistle an unknown tune. But when Xi Ping’s consciousness had just landed in the reincarnation wood in his sleeve, the tune suddenly stopped. 

Without warning, Lin Chi said, “This is already less than a hundred li from the Xuanyin Spiritual Mountains. You’re very bold.” 

Xi Ping had meant to secretly sneak in with him. He hadn’t thought that the most worthless of ascended spirits was still an ascended spirit. As soon as his consciousness arrived, without him saying a word, he had been perceived by Lin Chi’s spiritual sense. All he could do was brace himself and say something. “Peak Master Lin, thank you for what you did in Wild Fox Country.” 

“No need,” said Lin Chi. “If not for you, we would have vanished from the human world along with Tao County. We’re even.” 

Xi Ping thought that this accounting was truly simple, so he babbled, “Aren’t you afraid that you’ve saved an evil cultivator like Qiu Sha, and in the future I’ll carve some other place out of the map?” 

Lin Chi was silent a moment. “The Dignitary of Fate’s lineage is prudent in action. While I’m not very well acquainted with General Zhi, I’ve heard that he’s a pretty good person. In two hundred years, he’s taken only one direct disciple. I don’t think he could have made a mistake.” 

His words nearly sent Xi Ping out of the reincarnation wood. 

A-Xiang didn’t know Xi Ping’s real name, and Xu Rucheng was even more clueless, not even knowing where his consciousness was hidden…how come when it came to Lin Chi, he even knew his lineage?! 

Was Lin really naïve, or was he pretending to be naïve?

Xi Ping’s wariness rose at once. 

But Lin Chi continued, “I remembered afterwards where I’d seen your handwriting before.” 

Xi Ping said, “…oh?” 

Lin Chi said, “In the twenty-eighth year of Taiming…or was it the twenty-ninth year? I’m too old. I can’t remember clearly—on New Year’s Eve that year, you were the one who set off the fireworks on Flying Jade Peak, right?” 

Xi Ping stared blankly for a moment. For him, New Year’s Eve of the twenty-ninth year of Taiming was truly “another lifetime.” With some difficulty, he spent ages recollecting before he remembered. Back then, when he had been an ignorant young master from Jinping going to the south for the first time, he had felt helpless seeing the extreme misery of the Turmoilers and had suddenly thought that shifu on his snow-capped mountain was very lonely, so he had dispatched a karma beast to deliver some small fireworks to the mountain as New Year’s greetings for shifu and to relieve his boredom. 

How had Lin Chi happened to see them? 

Xi Ping, neither admitting nor denying, only said, “Peak Master Lin, aren’t you always in seclusion? From what you say, how did you end up paying a visit to another mountaintop?” 

“That wasn’t the case,” Lin Chi said scrupulously. “It’s only that your fireworks were excessively showy. They flew up a hundred zhang high. All of Xuanyin’s thirty-six peaks saw them. I heard that the north slope of Flying Jade Peak even came down in an avalanche. A disciple on Moon Plated Peak got distracted watching the fireworks and ruined a furnace full of nearly completed immortal tools.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

A hundred…a hundred zhang high? 

He had spent five years mixed in among the evil cultivators in Wild Fox Country, picking up all kinds of talismans, arrays, and underhanded methods from evil paths. He’d learned both the things he should have learned and the things he shouldn’t have learned. He truly couldn’t remember what he’d drawn in that amateur array of his five years ago. 

But he’d known that Flying Jade Peak’s north slope couldn’t take too much noise. The fireworks were supposed to have quietly laid themselves out on the snow. How come they had flown up? 

And they’d taken his “great work” a hundred zhang high?! 

For a moment, Xi Ping rejoiced that he was “dead.” 

He didn’t want to go to Xuanyin Mountain alive ever again! 

Lin Chi continued, “I very rarely leave seclusion, and there are many things I don’t understand clearly…but I suppose that you’re like this now because of the reincarnation wood? Accompanying plants are inauspicious. They are taboo to the immortal sects.” 

Xi Ping quickly recovered from his inexpressible shame. “Please explain, Peak Master Lin.” 

Lin Chi said, “Before the spiritual mountains took form, shed skin masters frequently appeared. Normally, when they shed their skins, their Ways of the Heart ought to have merged with heaven and earth, becoming one of the three thousands paths of the Great Way, providing an example for posterity. But there was a tiny minority of people whose Ways of the Heart couldn’t be accepted by the Great Way. When each Way that the world couldn’t abide was born, a type of ‘accompanying tree’ would emerge.” 

Xi Ping was slightly surprised—only shed skins whose Ways of the Heart couldn’t be accepted by heaven and earth had accompanying plants. No wonder none of the great personages among the four great spiritual mountain ranges standing at the peak of the shed skin stage had one!

But while he listened, he didn’t completely believe this. He calmly said, “I suppose you aren’t all that old, Peak Master Lin. How do you know of these details?” 

Lin Chi didn’t respond for a long moment. “…She also had one.” 

Who?

“Xiangjun’s toolmaking way was different from all the rest of us. She established her foundation in the mortal world, and her Way of the Heart came from one the ancient demonic gods. That ancient demonic god’s accompanying plant was eternal spring brocade… You may not know this, but late-autumn red isn’t actually a parasitic vine. It once lived in symbiosis with eternal spring brocade. Late-autumn red is poisonous. It could draw nutrients from the eternal spring brocade, and it could also protect it from attack by birds, beasts, and insects.” 

Xi Ping said, “Where does eternal spring brocade usually grow? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it in Wan, Chu, or He…” 

“You’ve never heard of it because it ceased to exist long ago.” Lin Chi focused on the distant horizon. The first rays of daylight were already visible there. 

The Master of Moon Plated Peak in his convict’s garb said softly, “Eternal spring brocade…was a very fragile tree that only grew on high mountains over a hundred zhang high with abundant spiritual energy. It couldn’t be easily transplanted. If it were taken into the foul mortal world, it wouldn’t grow even if it were planted in a green ore field. Starting in the spring, its exquisite flowers would be like snow. They bloomed through spring and summer. When they fell during the autumn frosts, the late-autumn red would come to life and give the trees a ‘red dress’ to wear amid the frost and snow. In all four seasons, its colors were the finest around. Its timber was valuable. It was very conspicuous. The places where eternal spring brocade grew had to have auspicious animals and medicinal herbs. It was very easy to find…and very easy to destroy in its entirety.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

No wonder even Sanyue’s Xuanwu had said that eternal spring brocade wood was an ancient thing. He thought he ought to rejoice that reincarnation wood was so undiscriminating; it could grow in any nook or cranny. 

Xi Ping suddenly remembered something. “Then wasn’t that brush of yours…” 

The last of its kind? 

“It’s nothing. That brush was made of eternal spring brocade. I had wanted to call it ‘Hui Xiangjun,’ but I felt too embarrassed to, because it was useless.” 

Likely Lin Chi had lived too long. No matter what he said, it was always slow and plodding, like his blue luan after being torn to shreds by Qiu Sha. 

They flew east into the morning sun, which burned with the remnants of summer heat. 

“It could channel spiritual energy through plants and remove the remnants of consciousness in the plants. If your cultivation was strong enough, you could make all the plants within a hundred li radius move according to your will… I had to think for a long time before I made this. Had I had this back then, perhaps I could have concealed the fact that eternal spring brocade was her accompanying plant,” Lin Chi said. “But it was no use. By the time I made that brush, her immortal bones had already been removed. I don’t have your quick wits. I can only act in hindsight. I only brought the brush out to imagine that time had reversed itself… It’s just as well that I’ve used it now. I can say it didn’t come into this world for nothing.” 

Hui Xiangjun had also had the inheritance of an ancient demonic god, and her spiritual bones had been removed on that account? 

What had happened back then? 

Xi Ping waited for a long moment, but Lin Chi didn’t continue, and he didn’t feel like he could follow up—he still remembered Lin Chi’s expression when he had mentioned Hui Xiangjun in Tao County. 

The blue luan flew a while longer, and all the drifting mist and fog around them dispersed. They saw the outlines of the thirty-six peaks of Xuanyin. 

Then Lin Chi said, “Though I’ll do my best to avoid people, the Sea of Stars is in the Xuanyin Mountains, as well as the great mountain array, and I don’t know whether the three elders will notice you. Are you sure you won’t leave? Why would you run the risk of going to Xuanyin Mountain?” 

Xi Ping thought, To see how those three old geezers react. 

But what he said was, “I want to see my shifu.” 

I’m sorry, shifu, but you owe me a thrashing for the fireworks anyway; too many lice don’t itch, and too large a debt isn’t a concern. 

Lin Chi had no suspicion that he was lying. The master of Moon Plated Peak treated others with sincerity and believed whatever they said. Hearing this, he very gently said, with profound emotion, “Direct disciples truly are different. There’s no one on Moon Plated Peak who…alas. I’ll pass by Flying Jade Peak, but the snow-capped mountain is sealed. General Zhi has yet to leave seclusion. I’m afraid you won’t get to see him very soon.” 

Wasn’t that just perfect—Xi Ping was about to say something when someone suddenly caught his spirit. A-Xiang’s voice said, “Uncle, have you ever seen this?” 

Wei Chengxiang had remained in Tao County alone. 

For one thing, she couldn’t find the Law Breaker Bracelet—reasonably speaking, with a half-immortal’s spiritual sense, whether it was the immortal tool that had recognized her as its master or her own severed limb, it should have been easy for her to fix on them, but the Law Breaker’s temper was truly fierce. Perhaps the bracelet was enraged at being abandoned by its master at the last moment. It had run off and “eloped” with Wei Chengxiang’s severed limb; their whereabouts were unknown. 

For another thing, she thought that she had played a part in the chaos in Tao County, so she ought to stay behind to help make arrangements for the Chu residents who had been impacted. This young woman was a blockheaded gentleman, raised by a foolish scholar who had never passed the local imperial exam. In her youth she had rebelled, but the older she got, the more she resembled her grandpa. She wouldn’t renege on a debt of a single copper coin. Xi Ping couldn’t dissuade her, so he’d had to go after her. 

Through the reincarnation wood, Xi Ping saw Wei Chengxiang holding a child’s little hand. There was a small stiff scar like a fish’s scale on the back of the child’s hand. At a glance, it looked like there was a full moon tattooed there. 

“This is the landlord’s son. He has lots of spending money and was always coming to buy Silver Tray Lottery Tickets, so I know him. He didn’t have this on his hand before the Great Market,” Wei Chengxiang said grimly. “This isn’t a mortal injury… I think it has the aura of Sanyue’s Silver Moon.” 

Xi Ping frowned. He had never seen this. Then, using his consciousness as a medium, he had her ask Lin Chi.

After listening carefully, Lin Chi sighed and said, “Little Brother Wei’s impression is right. This is the result of the Silver Moon.” 

Wei Chengxiang asked, “Peak Master Lin, can you tell me whether it will endanger his life?” 

“Hard to say. Xuanyin Mountain’s Bell of Tribulation can’t go beyond the Latent Cultivation Temple except in a matter of absolute necessity—five years ago, the three elders took the Bell of Tribulation to the Impassable Sea, and the elders are still resting in seclusion to this day. That is the impact it has on shed skin elders, never mind mortals,” Lin Chi said gravely. “The Silver Moon is the same. I’m afraid that this won’t be the only disaster that comes to pass as a result of Qiu Sha appearing in the mortal world…” 

Before he could finish speaking, he was suddenly interrupted by the tolling of a bell. 

At this point, the blue luan immortal tool had already entered the Xuanyin Mountain Range. Xi Ping instantly had an ominous premonition. “What’s happening?” 

“It’s coming from the principal peak,” Lin Chi whispered. “The Dignitary of Rites Elder Zhao has left seclusion… You’ve come at the worst possible time.” 

Xi Ping: “…” 

At the same time, his heart stopped for no reason. His spiritual sense had been touched, but he had no idea what direction the touch had come from. 

Xi Ping quickly looked towards the southeast: had san-ge already reached the Impassable Sea? What had he done?! 

Five years ago—

In the Impassable Sea, the three great shed skin elders of the Xuanyin Mountains had shattered the consciousness of an established foundation disciple who had trusted them and so had been willing to obediently enter the star stone and have his spiritual bones removed. All that remained was a dangerous body half a step from an ascended spirit. 

The demonic god’s inheritance had been cut off at this point, and the demon seed at the bottom of the Impassable Sea had also fallen silent. The calamity was done and dusted. 

After Zhao Yin broke the star stone, he went on to aim a blow at Xi Ping’s body. 

There was a clang, and a sword gust shot out from the brow of the body with its faint aura—an echo from the shard of Zhaoting, weak yet sharp. 

The Sword that Mended the Heavens had shattered because it had touched the shed skin boundary too early. The sword aura had merged with heaven and earth, and the sword gust remaining in the human world cut off Zhao Yin’s blow and opened the Dignitary of Fate’s eyes. 

Zhang Jue dodged aside and shielded Xi Ping. His snow white eyes were revealed. He knocked Zhao Yin away and said sternly, “Zhao-shixiong, which heavenly commandment has he violated? Don’t you think this is enough?” 

Zhao Yin came back to himself and abruptly drew back his hand. The shard of Zhaoting had cut a slit over a cun long in his sleeve, and there was blood on the back of his hand. 

He was instantly petrified, cold sweat pouring off him. 

Zhao Yin’s expression altered several times. After a moment, he restrained his murderous aura and said in a low voice, “I am ashamed of myself. The Bell of Tribulation is truly treacherous when it leaves the spiritual mountains… I failed to notice that my heart and mind were unsteady, and I was apprehensive over the demonic god’s remnants. My temperament nearly altered. Thank you, Zhang-shixiong.” 

Zhang Jue coldly said, “You should go into seclusion when you return.” 

Lin Zongyi resealed his mouth. 

The three of them once again tightly sealed the demon seal. Before leaving, Elder Zhang Jue hesitated a moment. He had meant to pull the shard of Zhaoting from the corpse, but when he put his hand over Xi Ping’s forehead, his spiritual sense was suddenly touched. 

Before the Dignitary of Fate High Elder’s eyes, the chaotic star paths of the Sea of Stars suddenly appeared, with countless ties wound among them. For a time, he couldn’t see clearly, only felt that Zhaoting was denying him. Zhang Jue sighed involuntarily and at last withdrew his hand. 

The Great Way has three thousand paths; heaven always leaves a last gleam of hope. 

Perhaps the shard of Zhaoting was that gleam, though he didn’t know what it pointed to. The Dignitary of Fate could not see it clearly. 

Zhang Jue waved a hand, opening the ground, and interred Xi Ping’s corpse. Then the demon seal fell, and the Impassable Sea was utterly silent, once again becoming forbidden ground. All that remained were the half-dead reincarnation wood trees. 

Reincarnation wood was a “worthless” type of tree. You could scratch a mark in the soft wood with your fingernail. It wasn’t proof against insects, and it wasn’t especially proof against corrosion. Apart from the poor who had no choice, no one was willing to use it. It was generally used for making decorations of little value, and sacrificial offerings. But it wasn’t picky about where it grew, didn’t care whether the temperature was colder or hotter, whether it was by a river, on a mountain, in the wilderness, or even on the eaves of an abandoned house; it could always put down roots and sprout. Even brush fires and lightning couldn’t burn it all away. 

On the wide and barren bottom of the Impassable Sea, the felled and withered reincarnation wood trees quickly sprouted new shoots from rotten stumps, struggling unendingly, growing. After five years, they had once again formed a forest. 

The branches reaching out from underground had bit by bit raised the person Zhang Jue had buried in the earth. 

When Zhou Ying saw Xi Ping, the corpse’s limbs were tangled among branches soft as willow boughs, wrapped up. Likely because the body had crossed over a great boundary in the blink of an eye, his hair was over half a chi longer than in Zhou Ying's memories, falling like a heavy curtain along with the leaves.   

This reincarnation wood forest seemed to have dug deep to bring up all the remaining spiritual energy at the bottom of the Impassable Sea, offering it to this body half a step from an ascended spirit. The trees stubbornly refused to believe that they could die, and they wouldn’t believe that he could die, either. 

They followed the wind and the water, growing naturally, obeying no discipline, admitting only their own logic. 

Plants have roots; no wonder they are far more steadfast than the human heart, which can easily drift away.

When Zhou Ying touched the body, the reincarnation wood trees around him rustled without a breeze. Then, a beam of sword light suddenly flew from the center of Xi Ping’s brow. 

Likely because it sensed no malice, Zhaoting only slashed gently in warning, but after all, it was still Zhaoting. 

Blood at once began to cascade from Zhou Ying’s palm. He didn’t even blink, bent on “plucking” that body from among the branches. His hands kept shaking—it wasn’t from pain; it was because there was still lingering warmth in that body. 

Blood from Zhou Ying’s palm dripped along his wrist and fell onto the ground, where it was absorbed by the messily interwoven reincarnation wood trees. For an instant, the whole Impassable Sea hummed, all the demon seal inscriptions covering the ground startled awake by the blood of the demon subduers. Zhou Ying’s gaze became grim. 

A forebear of the Zhou clan had been able to find the demon seed and release it; he could do so as well. 

He had once been shut away beneath the demon seal for two decades; each and every inscription here was as familiar to him as his own hands and feet. 

He could…bring the demons into the world, destroy the demon seal from within, and use the ensuing chaos to take him away.