Oh? Who was this? 

Tai Sui’s disorderly consciousness concentrated slightly and passed through the mist on the river. He “saw" that the little boat had no propeller and there was no one rowing it, but it could still travel in a straight line in spite of the rapid flow of water in the Xia River. 

A tall, slender “man” was standing at the prow, holding a small pot. 

“He” was raggedly dressed, with a thin layer of skin and flesh stretched over the bones of the face and a nose bridge so high it was nearly projecting. On the left side of her face, there was a scar in the shape of an arc from the corner of the eye down to the jaw—it was completely uncovered, but exposure to the elements had made it less obvious. There were several rounds of bandages tied around her neck. Perhaps because she was so thin, there really did seem to be a slight protuberance on her neck when she raised her head. 

Had Tai Sui not “heard” her speak before, at first glance, he practically would have mistaken her for a man. 

Her appearance wasn’t especially attractive, the direct opposite of “bright and lively” or “round as pearl and smooth as jade.” From top to toe, she looked like a homeless drifter, with an air of bitterness. 

But somehow, at first glance, Tai Sui had a friendly feeling towards her. 

This woman convincingly dressed as a man drank a mouthful of wine, took out a reincarnation wood amulet, and rubbed it a few times—this was different from the amulets popular in Wild Fox Country; it was a protection amulet with nothing carved on it. 

She herself was messy, but the wooden amulet was very clean. Even the cord it hung from was new. 

Tai Sui “heard” her say, “The immortal mountains have boundaries. Chu isn’t a place without a master, like the Land of Turmoil. Once I cross the Xia River, I’ll be in Sanyue territory. Your consciousness won’t be able to cross. Is there anything you want me to do for you?” 

Tai Sui couldn’t hear whatever the person in the reincarnation wood answered. He saw the woman wait for a moment, raise her eyebrows, then put the amulet away. “All right, I’ve got it.” 

Tai Sui looked at her in some surprise. There was wine in her mouth. She hadn’t opened her mouth to speak just now. 

Was she going straight through her spirit to communicate with someone’s consciousness? 

Communication devices usually didn’t have geographical restrictions, but a consciousness couldn’t casually cross a national border. 

The present national borders hadn’t been determined by humans; they had been determined by the immortal mountains. The five great spiritual mountain ranges coordinated with each other and repelled each other, acting in concert with the great sects’s major arrays, making clear divisions in the mortal world. If someone ignored the boundaries and casually sent their consciousness into another country’s territory, they would have to be prepared for a backlash from the local great array. Otherwise, all of the ascended spirit and shed skin masters would be able to send their consciousnesses out to pierce through mountain and river. If they could spy on the secrets of other nations at will, wouldn’t it be a mess? 

From what she said, it sounded as if the person communicating with her through the reincarnation wood wasn’t in Chu—judging by her accent, they were likely from Wan. 

“Strange,” Tai Sui thought. “Why would I hear this young woman on the border between the two countries speaking to someone in Wan? Because they’re using reincarnation wood as a contact medium?” 

This was a very peculiar feeling, as if he had accidentally opened someone else’s private letter. 

Tai Sui didn’t rashly start up a conversation. He only watched this woman dressed as a man in secret. 

She unhurriedly crossed the river and made landfall mixed in with the people coming and going between the two countries on business. Her forged documents were a little slapdash. But this close to Wild Fox Country’s Great Market, Tao County frequently had all kinds of evil cultivators coming and going. The border guards didn’t dare to be too strict; they all turned a blind eye. 

Perhaps thinking it would be too expensive, she didn’t find lodgings in Seventeen Li Town. Instead, she stayed in a rather remote part of Tao County. In fact, this place was beyond the limits Tai Sui’s consciousness could reach, but for some reason, Tai Sui could still easily locate her. 

She could make a boat move without wind and had what was likely an eye-opening wound on her face; she was definitely a cultivator. But she didn’t act like a cultivator. Tai Sui watched her for a few days without seeing her draw a single talisman. 

Every day, she walked through the streets of Tao County with a little carrying pole over her shoulder, selling Silver Tray Lottery tickets. The prizes were candy bars, cheap candied fruit, little things like purses…whatever it was, there were no lottery tickets that didn’t win anything; all of them came with a bit of a prize. There were also a few exquisite little wooden carvings pinned to her racks. The carvings were of various spiritual beasts, extremely lifelike, and they seemed to be able to run around when you put them on the ground. It was said that only one in a thousand tickets would win one. In a few days, she had a gang of ragged little kids running after her, calling her “Wei-laoban¹.” Business was pretty good. 

Seventeen Li Town seemed to be in the eye of a storm. The atmosphere around it became more and more tense. Only this foreigner was perfectly at ease, going to different places every day to cry out “Open the tray and see the prize!” 

Tai Sui had never seen a trade like this. Having finally managed to temporarily struggle free of the endless amulets, he could relax for the first time in five years. At first, he had only casually glanced her way because his consciousness had been disturbed. The upshot was that after watching kids win prizes for a few days, it started to go to his head a little. He didn’t sleep; he would have loved to buy a handful of tickets himself. 

After several days of selling Silver Tray Lottery tickets, no one had yet won one of the limited number of carvings. 

This evening, Wei-laoban packed up her stall and picked a tea house to rest in. At the table next to her sat three very firmly wrapped up people; it was clear at a glance that they were covering up eye-opening wounds. They glanced at the shabby peddler and lost interest, continuing their conversation. “There’s never been an ascended spirit before, no one even thought about doing it. The most they could do in their lifetime was pour all their efforts into finding a Way of the Heart and establishing a foundation. Then you could become a solid backer for others. All you could do afterwards was try to think of a way to live some years longer, put off losing your mind. Who would have expected there to be… At first when she showed up and seemed to be doing all right, the common cultivators in all four nations went crazy. Just that I know of, several powerful established foundation masters have gone into seclusion in the last few years… I can’t say whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Aren’t we going to have ascended spirits running around everywhere?” 

Another person said, “That’s absurd. Can the spiritual energy and resources in the mortal world support several ascended spirits?” 

“That’s just it,” his companion said anxiously. “Before, established foundation masters didn’t come forward easily, precisely because they were worried they would have to fight over resources to take the next step. Won’t people like us have even less of a means of survival now? Hey, have you guys heard that she sent word saying that at the Wild Fox Country Great Market she’s going to sell Xiang…that sword god’s spiritual bones?” 

“She’s too arrogant. Will Sanyue stand for that?” 

“I’m afraid the Wild Fox Country Great Market will be eventful this year…” 

Wei-laoban slowly drank her tea as she listened to these people discussing the unprecedented and unrivaled evildoer. Before she had finished drinking one bowl of tea, a kid with his hair in childhood knots skipped up in front of her, chewing on a piece of straw. “Laoban, I want a Silver Tray Lottery ticket.” 

Then his eyes moved. His gaze went around Wei-laoban and glanced up. By coincidence, it just happened to meet the gaze Tai Sui was sending out. 

Tai Sui froze. This child’s face had a pair of long, narrow, upturned eyes, like the crafty eyes of an adult stuck onto a child. It looked very strange… Most importantly, he seemed to have seen these eyes somewhere before. 

Wei-laoban took his coin and offered the Silver Tray. The child picked and chose for a long time before finally taking a ticket. “Open it and see what you’ve won.” 

He opened the ticket, but it was empty inside. 

Tai Sui had watched Wei-laoban sell over a hundred tickets. This was his first time seeing an empty ticket. 

“Ooh, an empty ticket, an empty ticket-wicket.” The strange child began to dance and gesture in joy. “Get whatever’s written, get whatever you want.” 

Wei-laoban drank the remaining half bowl of tea in one gulp, packed up the Silver Tray, and sighed. “Very well, creditor. Let’s go.” 

The child, skipping and hopping, took her by the hand, jumped two steps ahead, then looked back. He pulled his eyelid down with his finger and made a face at the three ignorant common cultivators who were talking on and on. “Bleh.” 

Tai Sui suddenly remembered—it had also been at Wild Fox County’s Great Market. His consciousness had been trapped in the body of a half-puppet about to be sold, blearily baking under the scorching sun so people could examine his quality. While Tai Sui had been in a bit of a daze, he had suddenly met a pair of crafty eyes. 

Just one glance, and Tai Sui’s consciousness, which had nearly fused with the half-puppet, had awoken. 

This had been a pale-faced and beardless middle-aged man, forgettable in the crowd, except that his eyes were like monsters that had crawled out of some abyss. One glance could make a person feel chilled all over. Through the crowd, the middle-aged man had pulled down his eyelid and made exactly the same face towards him across the distance. 

Supposing that person hadn’t had a screw loose and just happened to like making faces at half-puppets…then he must have been the only outsider who had had contact with Tai Sui’s consciousness in all these years. 

Tai Sui was about to chase after them when his consciousness was suddenly held back by something. He couldn’t go another step forward. 

Just then, noises came from beside the reincarnation wood divine image, yanking his consciousness back at burning speed. 

Tai Sui’s consciousness was abruptly drawn back into the divine image. As soon as he opened his eyes, he smelled an acrid scent and instantly wanted to dig a hole and bury whoever was lighting the incense—Xu Rucheng had the heart demon oath hanging over him and indeed didn’t dare to neglect it. He really had “bathed in incense ash.” Who knew how many jin of scent he had used? While he hadn’t been eating cured meat, he had thoroughly cured himself. 

Wearing snakeskin, Xu Rucheng gravely placed incense before the reincarnation wood divine image, mentally reciting the name of the evil god. Before he had stuck the incense into the censer, he heard a dour voice say into his ear: “Cheng-bao’er, if you died right now, your body wouldn’t rot for five hundred years.” 

Xu Rucheng’s hands shook. He snapped the incense holder. 

“Move, move, move, move aside. Don’t light it. You’re enough to keep the insects away on your own,” Tai Sui said irritably. “Say whatever you have to say.” 

Xu Rucheng concentrated and said, “Senior, the Qilin Guard just came to see me.” 

The Qilin Guard was Sanyue’s outer sect, Chu’s equivalent to Heaven’s Design Pavilion. 

“So? You got a scare and want me to pet it better?” Tai Sui yawned indifferently. “What’s so exciting about the Qilin Guard? Wild Fox Country pays a considerable protection fee to the Qilin Guard every year. The Qilin Guard’s people come in disguise each time there’s a Great Market to look for a good deal. Their general commander is completely shameless. If he sees something he likes, he won’t even pay. He’ll just leave a note and have it sent over. All you need to do is give them a good bribe. The Qilin Guard don’t want to look at your ugly face any more than they have to. The relationship is built on trade in money and power, there’s no deep friendship. It won’t be easy for you to expose yourself.” 

Xu Rucheng said, “They brought an ascended spirit master from Sanyue. They want me to hand over a map of all the inscriptions and arrays in Wild Fox Country. Wild Fox Country is only a black market where common evil cultivators trade. An established foundation would be plenty. Why does an ascended spirit cultivator need to come in person? Unless the rumors are true, and Qiu…” 

“Shh,” Tai Sui suddenly interrupted him. “If you know she might already be looking this way, how can you still dare to mention an ascended spirit’s name?” 

Normally it was all right to mention an ascended spirit’s name, but supposing that Qiu Sha really did want to come to Wild Fox Country, her consciousness might very well already be scanning it—so even when going to see a creature like the Snake King, who couldn’t show himself in public, the Qilin Guard had still come under the protection of a master from their inner sect as a precaution against being “overheard” by Qiu Sha. 

Xu Rucheng automatically lowered his voice: “There are borders here. Sanyue certainly won’t let her leave Chu alive. There’s going to be a lot of chaos when the time comes… Senior, have you seen Qiu Sha? How should we deal with her?” 

Just then, Tai Sui suddenly fell strangely silent. Xu Rucheng waited for a long moment, then couldn’t resist saying, “Senior…” 

Tai Sui hesitated, then asked, “Are you carrying something you use to contact your lord?” 

Xu Rucheng froze. He pressed down on the place where his mustard seed was kept. 

Tai Sui sighed. “Stupid baby, why don’t you take it out and have a look?” 

Xu Rucheng, bewildered, took out the communication device and was instantly startled. “What…” 

The immortal tool that had been lying safely in the mustard seed had activated on its own. There seemed to be an invisible hand using his immortal tool to contact the Luwu headquarters right before his eyes. 

And if the evil god hadn’t warned him, he wouldn’t have noticed. 

This person didn’t take any trouble to imitate his handwriting. The Great Wan characters were broken and crooked, starting and stopping stiffly with each stroke, as though they were being chiseled with a hatchet. When Xu Rucheng discovered it, the writing only paused briefly. Then the aggressive handwriting continued to appear, all at once writing: 

Seventh month, seventh day. Help me out in Wild Fox Country, and afterwards I’ll lend you the Riverward² for one use—Qiu. 

Xu Rucheng’s hand shook. He nearly dropped the immortal tool. 

In this infiltration of Chu, they had made their plans clear to Xuanyin Mountain. In consideration of the great disorder in Chu, all the immortal tools they had brought were “superior grade.” 

The skin Xu Rucheng was wearing didn’t look prepossessing, but in fact it was a genuine product of Moon Plated Peak—something he couldn’t buy even if he sold himself. There were sixty-four second-class inscriptions inlaid under the skin. As long as he kept his tail between his legs and didn’t use spiritual energy, and the master he was facing didn’t have any ill intentions towards him and didn’t choose to search his body and soul, not even an ascended spirit would notice that he was in disguise. 

Even that ascended spirit from Sanyue’s inner sect had been fooled face to face. But there was someone here who could see through all their tricks!

“Qiu Sha is preparing to appear at Wild Fox Country’s Great Market. Southern Wan’s Xuanyin won’t be the only ones to have sent people here. Does she want to start an ascended spirit war in the mortal world?” Tai Sui recalled the face that child had pulled and thoughtfully said, absent-minded, “I wonder who the fox in Wild Fox Country is this time. And also…what the hell is this ‘Riverward’?” 

Jinping’s outskirts, the Sage’s Road, at the horse-tying post. 

Zhou Ying was reclining inside a dull grey carriage. His eyes stopped on the word “Riverward” for a moment. Then he tossed the immortal tool aside and said with a cold smile, “What an investment she’s willing to make.” 

Bai Ling asked, frowning, “The Luwu’s disguises can even fool Sanyue’s inner sect. How could she see through them so easily? Who is she, anyway?” 

“Most of the immortal tools the Luwu carry come from Moon Plated Peak. The things Lin Chi’s disciples make can’t escape his influence,” Zhou Ying said slowly. “Rumor has it that this Qiu Sha is closely connected to Lancang’s Hui Xiangjun. It’s normal for her to see through the little toys that come out of Moon Plated Peak.” 

Bai Ling was startled. “Hui Xiangjun, who had her immortal bones removed eight hundred years ago because of Moon Plated Gold?” 

Zhou Ying didn’t answer. He suddenly sat slightly upright and pulled the carriage curtain aside a crack. 

There was a carriage team coming their way, planning to switch to sedan chairs at the horse-tying post. 

Leading the way on horseback was the Marquis of Yongning. The Marquis himself dismounted and took an old lady by the arm to help her out of the carriage. 

There were hardly any black hairs left on the old lady’s head. She seemed to be even shorter than in memory. She got out totteringly, barely coming up to the Marquis’s chest. She looked as though she were about to shrink to nothing. 

Just the few steps from the carriage to the sedan made her pant for breath. The sound of her cane hitting the ground was very urgent… One wondered what she had come to ask for in person at Southern Sage Temple when it was so hard for her to walk. 

Bai Ling tactfully shut his mouth. 

When Zhou Ying had watched the old lady get into the sedan and disappear on the unstained Sage’s Road, Bai Ling at last quietly said, “The old lady is quite energetic. She seems to be hale and hearty.” 

“Let’s go back.” Zhou Ying expressionlessly let down the carriage curtain and picked up the previous conversation naturally, as though he hadn’t been silent in the meantime. “Since she’s come to us, we might as well do our bit. With her acting in such good faith, I’ll help her out—send a Heavenly Question to Xuanyin’s inner sect. Tell all the immortals that Qiu Sha is preparing to appear at Wild Fox Country’s Great Market on the seventh day of the seventh month to sell Xiang Zhao’s remains. Also, contact the Luwu.” 

“Yes, my lord,” Bai Ling agreed. Then he asked, “What does her letter mean? Forgive my ignorance, but what is this ‘Riverward’?” 

Zhou Ying laughed softly. “One of the most mysterious works left behind by Hui Xiangjun. Tradition has it that it can ferry you across the Wangchuan River and let you infiltrate any forbidden place on earth.” 

For example, the Impassable Sea. 

The Luwu’s Heavenly Question soon reached the principal peak of Xuanyin’s inner sect. When the disciple who received it finished reading it and was about to report it up the chain, a hand suddenly reached over and took the Heavenly Question scroll. 

The disciple turned to look and was surprised. “Lin…Lin Chi-shishu?” 

The most reclusive peak master of Xuanyin’s inner sect waved a hand. “Relay a petition to the Dignitary of Rites on my behalf. I want to request a token to leave the mountain.”