When Xi Ping came clamoring to him, Zhou Ying was being taken to task by Pang Jian.

“In one month, Guzhou, Yuzhou, and Hongyin have caught over a dozen foreign spies, and then there are ones who have slipped through the net…”

Called up in the middle of the night, Zhou Ying had a cloak loosely draped over his shoulders. Remaining calm under pressure, he adjusted his cuffs and said, “General Commander Pang has had plenty of dealings with desperate criminals. Have you forgotten how to perform soul-searchings?”

“Is there any need for me to search? Western Chu’s Qilin Guard, Southern Shu’s Dragon Subduing Knights, Northern Li’s Night Revenants—Your Highness Prince Zhuang, tell me, how will this end?”

Zhou Ying said, “If Mr. Pang can criticize me, he can also send messages to the headquarters of the three nations’ walkers in the mortal world.”

Pang Jian said, “Your Luwu started it!”

“That’s right.” Zhou Ying smiled. “But what proof do they have?”

Pang Jian: “…”

The circumstances of each nation’s walkers in the mortal world were different. For example, Heaven’s Design Pavilion had always felt ashamed of being mentioned in the same breath as those layabouts in the Qilin Guard. But on one point they were all about the same—as members of the immortal mountains’ outer sects, the walkers in the mortal world for the most part came from the upper class. Each one was very noble, and they all cherished themselves greatly. In order to avoid having their souls searched, there were people who were willing to voluntarily confess, and even those willing to buy their lives at a high price.

The Luwu were different. When the Luwu died abroad, they had to leave behind honor and compensation for their families. Their lives were as insubstantial as their possessions, and as insubstantial as the merits and demerits that needed to be taken out and weighed. Often they could be as ruthless as evil cultivators, self-destructing their spirits before their souls could be searched. To this day, none of the other nations had managed to get anything on Zhou Ying.

Pang Jian said angrily, “Aren’t you afraid they’ll also grab a bunch of common evil cultivators? The door to your Kaiming Department is open wider than the East Sea. Aren’t you afraid other countries will send spies to infiltrate it?”

“The threshold for the Luwu is sufficiently high, and that’s enough. The Kaiming Cultivators do nothing but attend to some village duties. There’s nothing serious. Some people open their spiritual eyes without opening their minds. That’s not something I can teach them. Won’t it be for the better if foreign spies can give them some training?” Zhou Ying said carelessly. “Anyway, who would trust common evil cultivators? These people can’t come out into the light of day anywhere. If they really come into the Kaiming Department with spiritual image brands, there’s no saying whose people they’ll be in the end—unless they follow the example of the Kaiming and the Luwu’s system, and wouldn’t that be even more interesting?”
Frowning, Pang Jian said, “So the rumors are true? Western Chu’s Luwu really are in contact with that Yu Chang? You have a method for removing spiritual image brands?”

Zhou Ying smiled without answering.

Pang Jian hesitated a moment. “That’s just as well… In fact, there were voices in Heaven’s Design Pavilion before that thought the Luwu were dangerous and wanted you to put spiritual image brands on them.”

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t do. The ‘method for removing spiritual image brands’ would be angry with me.” At this point, Zhou Ying heard something. All of a sudden, his gaze slanted down almost imperceptibly. Then, as though nothing were the matter, he picked up his tea, hinting that Pang Jian could piss off. “When we truly reach the point where every nation is imitating the Kaiming and the Luwu’s system, perhaps you walkers in the mortal world will be able to legitimately establish foundations… That day isn’t far off, Mr. Pang. When you come to see me then, at least bring an osmanthus duck. Don’t come empty-handed again.”

Pang Jian thought, I’ll bring a hundred to stuff into your mouth. I hope you choke on them, you cryptic demon.

He had come seething with rage and left in a sulk. At the door, he suddenly paused, remembering Zhou Ying’s expression when he’d said “The ‘method for removing spiritual image brands’ would be angry with me.”

“Wait.” Pang Jian narrowed his eyes. “That’s not something the paperman can do. Who was he talking about?”

He stopped in his tracks and turned towards the Azure Dragon Heart Tower. Xi Yue happened to be on duty tonight. The general commander patrolled routinely, so Xi Yue took no notice, acting as usual, silently cupping his hand towards Pang Jian, who was inside the wall surrounded by frolicking karma beasts.

Pang Jian nodded and passed through a different wall: Xi Yue wasn’t meditating, and he wasn’t studying arrays. He was doing some “light reading”—a book of Chu grammar.

The hound with the most sensitive nose in all of Jinping had sniffed something out.

Just now, Zhou Ying, on one hand dealing with Pang Jian and on the other hand not in the mood to pay attention to a certain person, hadn’t responded to the voice in the reincarnation wood. Luckily, Xi Ping could automatically translate san-ge’s silence into an attentive silence. Whether he got a response or not, it wouldn’t keep him from thinking aloud.

Indeed, before he could finish, Zhou Ying couldn’t keep not answering.

“Are you talking about…the Heartless Lotus?”

Xi Ping said, “Not exactly, it had a heart—I mean that at first that bowl lotus was normal, with a stamen, but then the stamen was pushed away by a bizarre bald head. The bald head told me to go to the rear courtyard, but the lotus pond in the rear courtyard also has ordinary lotuses growing in it…”

At this point, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. “Oh, all right, they’re not ordinary anymore.”

With a peak established foundation’s eyesight, Xi Ping could see the lotus pond in the rear courtyard clearly from a hundred zhang away in the night.

The originally bright pink lotuses first faded until they were half transparent, revealing the channels like blood vessels inside of them. Then, ghastly white seeped into the flowers and leaves. The colors of the flower and leaves seemed to have been forced into the stalks and roots, mixing together into a strange rusty red.

White flowers and white leaves, without pistil or stamen, and roots like fresh blood underwater.

As soon as he heard this description, Zhou Ying stood up and quickly said, “Wait, you’re saying the Heartless Lotus is in the Sanyue Mountains?”

“I can’t say for sure,” Xi Ping said carefully. “He can turn ordinary lotuses into his own white ones, I don’t know where his real body is… Damn it, why can’t I do that?”

“There’s a limited range to the Heartless Lotus’s ability to assimilate other lotuses. Even the shed skin master had a range no greater than the size of a small city. He’s not only in the Sanyue Mountains, he must be hidden among the three Principal Peaks… The Zhou family aren’t the only ones who have been raising demons.” Zhou Ying sighed softly. “This was strangest among the ancient demonic gods. It’s said that while the ungovernable way has no Way of the Heart, the Heartless Lotus has many Ways of the Heart.”

Hearing this description, Xi Ping for some reason broke out in gooseflesh. “Why would he want to collect those things?!”

“There is a rumor that the master of the heartless lotuses at first had two souls in one body. There are those who say he swallowed his own twin when he was born. Those two people conversed within a single body from childhood. When their spiritual eyes opened, it produced two consciousnesses. The two people had completely different dispositions, and their natural endowments were outstanding. Almost simultaneously, they cultivated two completely opposing Ways of the Heart.”

The average person’s Way of the Heart was an absolute secret. Apart from a teacher passing on a Way of the Heart to a disciple, no one could be permitted to know its precise contents, to avoid others injuring it—not everyone had the boldness of Pang Jian, who would magnanimously allow people to question his Way of the Heart…and, after all, Pang Jian had yet to establish a foundation. Even if his Way of the Heart was injured, the degree of danger would be limited.

But sharing a single spirit was problematic. No one could hide from “themself.” With two Ways of the Heart rubbing together and colliding day in and day out, a clash that left only one survivor would be getting off easy. It was possible for it to end with both sides suffering.

As Xi Ping cautiously observed the lotus pond from a distance, he asked, “Did they find a way to peacefully coexist?”

“No,” Zhou Ying said, “both of them knew that this spirit could contain one Way of the Heart at most. Not long after establishing a foundation, each got the idea of getting rid of the other at the same time. The outcome was that both of them were seriously injured, but neither died—a third consciousness appeared in their spirit.”

Xi Ping was appalled. “Wait, san-ge, you’re giving me the wrong idea here. Are you sure the two of them wanted to get rid of each other, and not…well, you know? It just sounds weird. A fierce struggle, and then a little one appears?”

Zhou Ying was used to this. He could automatically translate absurd statements into proper speech. No matter what flavor of bullshit Xi Shiyong was spouting, he would be unaffected. “The trouble was, the third consciousness didn’t just appear out of nowhere. It was the consciousness of a dead person. Things were different back then. There were very few worthless wretches like Zhao Yin. Practically all masters found their own Ways of the Heart. Many cultivators also knew that if they fought, they would shake the earth and harm the innocent, so the ‘debate method’ was a frequent method of battle—one of the current four great taboos of the cultivation sects. It involves taking your Way of the Heart and touching it to another person’s. Though it involves no clash of weapons, it’s still a matter of life and death. This third consciousness was an enemy who had lost in a debate to the Heartless Lotus and died at their hands.”

Xi Ping: “…”

He didn’t particularly understand this, but he was very shaken—in other words, there were three people living on one spirit, and each pair hated each other!

“The Heartless Lotus’s spirit was very busy. There was constant fighting. At each fierce clash, there was a chance that a new consciousness would emerge, and practically every new consciousness was an enemy—a person couldn’t fight by the debate method with friends and relatives, so the Ways of the Heart they thoroughly understood would usually belong to people who had died by their hands. This actually formed a delicate equilibrium: during the struggles, the weaker Ways of the Heart would be annihilated. They…they had plenty left if one shattered, anyway. On the other hand, some consciousnesses were unusually sturdy. To prevent those from crowding out all the others, the consciousnesses with mutual enmity between them would form temporary alliances and act together. This way, the cultivation levels of the Ways of the Heart that could coexist in the long term basically all advanced side by side. After constant revisions and updates, they passed through the ascended spirit stage and finally crossed the shed skin boundary, giving birth to a special type of accompanying plant—the heartless lotus.”

No wonder he could assimilate other varieties of lotus.

Xi Ping suddenly thought that this accompanying plant seemed to be a kind of metaphor.

“In other words, the person I’m about to meet, even though he’ll have the same bald head, may in fact become ‘a different person’ at any time?”

“No.” Zhou Ying was for once silent a moment. “The ancient masters whose Ways of the Heart couldn’t merge with heaven and earth all died out when the spiritual mountains formed. The person you met must have inherited the Heartless Lotus’s Way of the Heart. He doesn’t necessarily have so many consciousnesses.”

Xi Ping said, “If he only has one consciousness, which one would he have inherited?”

“I don’t know, but to be able to inherit the Heartless Lotus’s Way of the Heart…” Suddenly, Zhou Ying softly said, “If possible, I’d like to meet him, too.”

Xi Ping was stunned. Those who were “interesting” in Zhou Ying’s eyes were usually extremely dangerous people; normally, at times like these, he would remember that he was an older brother and, like when he was younger and playing with fire or poisons, would temporarily suppress his own interest and shoo Xi Ping away.

He thought this was san-ge’s first time saying he wanted to see someone.

“If my guess is correct, this person may have a paramount spiritual sense,” Zhou Ying said slowly. “There is little recorded history concerning paramount spiritual senses. After all, the vast majority of people like that go mad and die before they’re old enough to cultivate. When one occasionally manages it, it’s still very hard to use language to describe… My guess is that this ancient demonic god had a paramount spiritual sense. Of the ancient inscriptions circulating in the world today, nearly forty percent were inherited from the Heartless Lotus.”

Inscriptions were connected to the universe and all living things, not something that could be created afresh. When today’s inscription experts made innovative inscriptions, they all used ancient inscriptions as a base and made a few slight alterations.

So where had the ancient inscriptions come from?

It was likely that it was those people with paramount spiritual senses, who could see the world’s other face, “translating” all that they saw and sensed.

A possessor of a paramount spiritual sense…trapped in the Sanyue Mountains, in a place where the light of day did not shine.

This description was so familiar it made you tremble.

“No,” Xi Ping said seriously. “If you used a paperman to come over, your consciousness would be injured if the paperman was damaged. That baldy has stronger cultivation than mine, most likely ascended spirit, and I don’t know whether he’s friend or foe. If he suddenly attacked, I wouldn’t be able to protect you.”

“Don’t use your ‘Tai Sui’ voice on me,” Zhou Ying scoffed. “I understand my limits. You look after yourself.”

Now that Xi Ping had some idea of the situation, his figure flashed, and he landed beside the lotus pond that had already become entirely “heartless.”

As soon as he approached, it was as if the pond began to boil, sending up countless bubbles. There was a different person in each bubble. The surrounding spiritual energy suddenly stagnated. This person had created a small space like a mustard seed around the lotus pond.

Xi Ping felt that he seemed to have caught a glimpse of Qiu Sha in a bubble. Before he could look closely, the bubble burst.

A lotus flower swam to shore like a snake and slowly raised its head, revealing the bald head with the disarranged features. “I just saw your leaves moving. Who were you talking to for so long? Were you saying bad things about me?”

“Not yet, honored sir. I’ll have time to curse you behind your back once I know whether you’re friend or foe,” Xi Ping said calmly. “Just now I was appealing to higher authority to ask about your history.”

Two mouths opened on Zhuoming’s face. One was chuckling, which didn’t keep the other one from talking—watching it, Xi Ping felt a little envious in spite of himself.

“You’re interesting. I like you. I’m called Zhuoming. I’m High Elder Xuanwu’s direct disciple. What do you want to know? I’ll tell you.”

“Well, I always said that opera singer was no good.” Xi Ping sighed and stared into those eyes that looked the same turned either way.

Zhuoming was laughing. His pupils reflected Xi Ping’s spiritual image mask.

For a moment, Xi Ping saw something familiar in those eyes—san-ge had often been like this when he was younger, his eyes sometimes focused on a strange place, making it seem as if his gaze was wandering… Later his subtlety had grown, and he had learned to pretend.

Xi Ping suddenly asked, “Do you have a paramount spiritual sense?”

Zhuoming’s laughter came to a sudden halt. His slightly wandering gaze suddenly became sharp, as if it was about to turn into a knife and pierce the spirit of the person in front of him. “You’re in contact with Zhou Ying.”

This freak had heard of his san-ge?

“I know him…I know him…” Zhuoming became excited, his eyes spinning uncontrollably. “The last sacrifice of Great Wan’s Zhou family… Like me… He’s like me…”

For some reason, Xi Ping felt that his thoughts on hearing this were hard to express. “Um…maybe not that much like you.”

There was a splash in the water. The lotus nearly flew up, stretching out to the height of a person and suddenly coming up in front of Xi Ping. The frightening eyes were firmly fixed on him. “What is Zhou Ying like? Does he have hair?”

Xi Ping said, “…quite a lot of it.”

Before he could finish, the lotus began to yell almost frantically. “He doesn’t pluck out his hair? He doesn’t pluck it out?”

Good heavens! Had this baldy plucked out his own hair one strand at a time?

Fortunately, this mustard seed contained sound, or else that shout might have woken the whole outbuilding…or the whole of the imperial grandson’s manor.

Xi Ping leaned back. “He wouldn’t do that!”

Before Xi Ping finished speaking, a hand reached out from somewhere in the lotus and grabbed Xi Ping by the collar—Xi Ping found that not only did he have no hair on his head, he also didn’t have a single nail on his hand!

“What does he eat? Does he eat mud? Does he cut off his own flesh and eat it?”

Xi Ping grabbed the talisman he’d drawn beforehand. He used it to send the lotus’s hand flying. “Behave yourself! Great Wan’s imperial family isn’t so poor that they need to sink to that level!”

The lotus stared at him in disbelief, as if he wanted to find evidence that Xi Ping was lying on his face. “Does he actually spend every day fighting over power with those people? How can he be so ordinary?”

Xi Ping: “…”

There was a word he hadn’t heard clearly. After all, he was a foreigner… What had that bald flower said his san-ge was?

“How can that be…how can that be…?” As soon as the flower became distraught, several mouths opened on it.

“How can he be so ordinary?”

“Is he insane…?”

“He’s abnormal, he must be insane!”

For a time, Xi Ping had nothing to say.

Through the reincarnation wood, Zhou Ying asked, “What is the Heartless Lotus saying?”

Xi Ping said, “He says since you’re not bald, don’t mutilate yourself, and don’t eat dirt, you must be insane.”

Zhou Ying: “…”

Just then, the veins stood up on the lotus’s hands. A damp-scented wind came towards Xi Ping.

Zhuoming was screaming as though having a breakdown, his voice making Xi Ping want to throw up.

He felt all the spiritual energy in his body stop. A breath caught in his chest. The next moment, those ghastly pale arms, as slender as a young girl’s, dragged him into the lotus pond, and he had absolutely no room to resist.

Xi Ping held his breath. As he’d thought, this baldy was an ascended spirit!

He spread his hand. A few qin strings appeared between his fingers. In a snap, Xi Ping sent out a beam of sword energy that hit the lotus, but it only left a white mark on its dark red stalk.

This was the difference between half a step from an ascended spirit and a true, undiluted ascended spirit!