But this scandal that could shock a cultivation sect didn’t shake Xiang Rong’s face. He didn’t lose his head one bit, only said in a nostalgic tone, “Yes, I also thought that inappropriate. Before the spiritual mountains formed, my Xiang family produced talented individuals in great numbers, many stars shining bright. Even if I couldn’t become shizun’s disciple, I might still have found some other opportunity to move forward in cultivation. I had no need to resort to a method for instant success like that. But, shidi, if I recall correctly, it was you who insisted on it. Back then, I refused over and over, sent many messengers to speak to you. It was you who simply went around me and asked the clan elders to let you ‘save’ me…”

Xuanwu interrupted him. With a cold laugh, he said, “Yes, when a sage encounters a business like this, how could he fail to decline politely at first?”

“Declining politely is a Wan tradition. We in Chu aren’t so fastidious,” Xiang Rong picked up, his expression unchanging. “I agreed in the end because I found that you had been stealing the clan’s spiritual stones to pour into your spiritual eyes.”

Xuanwu’s laughter came to an abrupt halt.

The eavesdropping Xi Ping also suddenly understood. “Oh, I see.”

The first time he had heard about Xuanwu’s background, he had thought it was strange. How could the Xiang family not only have raised a product of adultery like this but also have placed him under the Black Emperor’s tutelage, letting him become one of the great masters of the present age?

What kind of broadmindedness did that take? The mind would have to be more vast than the South Sea.

It turned out that Xuanwu had taken this opportunity to enter the Way.

The reason that spiritual image dolls were all doomed to die was that the evil cultivators who sold them cared only for profit; they wouldn’t waste a single grain of green ore nourishing those children who had never eaten a square meal in their lives. Once the owner they were bound to opened their spiritual eyes, a great quantity of spiritual energy would surge into those small bodies whose flesh and bones had yet to finish growing, like a tidal wave crashing against the shore crushing a little gully in its path—the gully was sure to collapse.

But the “spiritual image doll” Xuanwu was different. For one thing, he had been born before the Great War of Gods and Demons, when spiritual energy was everywhere, and to hear Xiang Rong talk, he had also pilfered the Xiang family’s resources to pour into his spiritual eyes. When he went to take part in the Spirit Splitting Technique, while naturally it would have been dangerous, and more dangerous with a possessor of innate spiritual bones than with an ordinary person, it wouldn’t have been a matter of almost certain death. Moreover, if he survived, he would be a half-immortal and could afterwards legitimately step into the cultivation sect.

“What’s your position in Western Chu? Are the family affairs of a shed skin and a full moon sage for you to settle?” Having listened to his “rational and comprehensive” analysis, Zhou Ying simply wanted to dig Xi Ping’s brain out and give it a rub with the insecticide powder that had recently come out in Great Wan—this unreliable wretch had told Xu Rucheng to leave the Central Peak, but he himself had not only kept listening, he was listening with relish!

Even Bai Ling was perplexed. He couldn’t understand what attraction elopements, adultery, and fights over family property could have. How could people since time immemorial have been so wildly interested in these petty affairs?

“I’m just listening as long as I’m here. My Chu is too good, what else am I supposed to do…? Hss, I’m stuck. It’s all right, san-ge, it’s not a big problem, I’ll think of something!”

In fact, Xi Ping wasn’t devoting his whole heart and soul to eavesdropping. Right now, his main concern was dealing with his own awkward predicament: when the Replica was put on, it could turn you into a convincing imitation of the original. In other words, right now, he was a broken tile. A tile couldn’t get up and walk on its own. He would have had to take off the Replica. But he was currently split in two, the part connected only by the Replica. Even with Xi Ping’s guts, he still didn’t quite dare to imagine what would happen if he removed the spiritual image mask under these circumstances.

In view of the fact that he was currently a stone, Xi Ping couldn’t even really determine where he had broken—if it was below the ass, that was all right; he had those special hidden bones and could regrow his legs if they were broken. Even if he had to be paralyzed for a year or so, he could take that. But if he had broken at the torso, then that was a big problem. Wouldn’t he get his guts wrapped around his neck and be sent scrambling to pick up his own liver, spleen, and kidneys in front of Sanyue’s two big shots?

Xi Ping had already consulted with Lin Chi on this subject, scaring Master Lin ashen pale with his questions. Xi Ping felt that there was no hope of anything from him, so he had to strive to save himself.

The lucky thing was, the reincarnation wood branch Lin Chi’s consciousness had occupied earlier had only broken; it hadn’t been crushed to bits. While the two big shots sent the spiritual energy on the Central Peak’s summit surging wildly in the wind, Xi Ping took the opportunity to carefully send a bit of his consciousness into that piece of reincarnation wood, moving the twig over next to the stuck lower half of his stone body and using that short twig to gently tap on the stone.

Among the little eddies of spiritual energy swirling around it, the reincarnation wood cautiously pried the stuck stone out bit by bit. Like a carpenter doing delicate work, Xi Ping would do a bit of tinkering, then stop and observe the surroundings, ensuring that he hadn’t disturbed anyone who oughtn’t to be disturbed.

Despite the mess he was in, he was used to traveling through the reincarnation wood and was an expert at multitasking. He didn’t miss a word of the two Sanyue masters’ confrontation.

Xiang Rong tranquilly continued: “After I tacitly accepted this, I was always unhappy about it. I knew that you had high aspirations, so I went and asked shizun to take you from the clan to cultivate along with me. Even after shizun ascended to heaven, I accorded you the position of disciple of record without permission. My Way of the Heart watches over me, Xuanwu. Have I ever wronged you?”

The stuck half of Xi Ping’s stone body finally loosened. He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly made the tree branch change its angle and keep prying—there was a slope next to him; he was planning to work through the reincarnation wood and use spiritual energy to push that half of his body down the slope to meet up with the other half, bring the two together, use reincarnation wood and spiritual energy to plaster up the wound, make it out alive, then recover after getting away.

At the same time, amid all his other business, he mentally made an irrelevant judgment about these two brothers: there really was no fault to find with what Xiang Rong had done.

Except that…

Xi Ping thought: The better part of White Hair’s essence was drained by the Unbound Furnace, taking the sect leader over the full moon boundary. That looks like an “odd coincidence,” “reaping what you sow.”

Then he heard Xuanwu say with a cold laugh, “When you took me from the clan, wasn’t it because after the Spirit Splitting Technique, the spiritual eyes that came of the same origin meant that not only was my spiritual image similar to yours, my outward appearance also came to resemble yours more and more? In the early years, the Xiang clan was rife with power struggles. You were afraid someone would use me to humiliate you, and you were afraid that I, your ‘shadow,’ would slip from your control…”

Xiang Rong was utterly unmoved, only calmly repeated, “Have I ever wronged you?”

“Ha!” In a moment, all the indignation from Xuanwu’s youth that he’d had no way to vent suddenly surged up. Like the eternally unchanging youthful countenances of cultivators, this feeling was as fresh thousands of years later as it had been at first.

Living up to his name, Xiang Rong¹ was the glory of his generation of the Xiang family. His parents were both unusually talented cultivators. Even before opening his spiritual eyes, he had demonstrated transcendent comprehension, and he had a set of innate spiritual bones to rival those of the East Sea’s clan of demon subduers.

He was the favored son of heaven. The only blemish on him was that “brother” with his inglorious birth.

But when his mother killed herself and the prince wanted to preserve her remaining flesh and blood, who could criticize him? Who wouldn’t say that His Highness was benevolent?

As for the “blemish” himself, it was already all that could humanly be asked of the Xiang family to leave him alive. It was only natural to bring him back to live with the slaves and work like a beast of burden.

Thousands of years ago, the area around Dongheng had still had the old custom of keeping slaves. Slaves weren’t human—their master could kill and sell them off as they liked; their children and grandchildren could never be free of that low background. They had no way to resist; the fury nested in their hearts, fomenting into poison, all of it venting onto the half-grown child who was called “young master” but in reality was trapped in the same morass as them.

He had tasted of every kind of torment and humiliation imaginable.

He was the offspring of a demon; persecuting a demon was naturally just. What did it matter whether it was cruel?

To begin with, like his half-brother, he’d had the innate spiritual bones that appeared in one in a hundred million people. Even as an ordinary commoner—even if he had truly been born a slave—there would still have been a master who would have seen him. But as the Xiang family’s “hidden young master,” no one would go near that kind of bad luck.

Amid his lightless days, he didn’t even have any hope.

Had that benevolent brother of his been willing to extend a single foot towards him, he would have been willing to lick Xiang Rong’s foot.

But he spent fourteen years in the Xiang family, during which Xiang Rong saw with his own eyes as he washed stone steps in the freezing rain, barefoot, bearing festering sores; even happened upon a servant rushing him, yet he shut his eyes to it all, as if refusing to acknowledge him.

And each time the prince walked by without a sideways glance, all the cruelties inflicted on him would become even more excessive—it was like some tacit agreement.

“You have never wronged me.” As if he had suddenly gone mad, Xuanwu laughed loudly. “It was I who wronged you, shixiong…da-ge—a shadow like me actually dared to delude myself with the hope for affection from my own flesh and blood. It was I who overestimated my own worth…”

The stones trembled. The veins of the earth seemed about to boil over.

With Xi Ping’s cleverness, he could in fact roughly guess what the circumstances had been after hearing this much. As far as sentiment went, he was willing to feel sympathy for Elder Xuanwu. But he truly couldn’t endorse what Xuanwu had been getting up to.

When the earth shook like this, it sent the lower half of his stone body, which had nearly been prized free, flying away—he failed just within reach of success!

Dizzy and disoriented, Xi Ping was swallowed up by a big pile of rubble and fell from the platform. This time there was no more water dragon pearl to protect him. Half of his stone body broke into an unknown number of pieces.

Xi Ping lay facing upwards, mentally paying his respects to eighteen generations of Xuanwu’s ancestors.

Zhou Ying immediately turned to Bai Ling. “Who has Xuanyin’s inner sect sent to Western Chu? Then there are the Luwu on the West Peak. I need them to go…”

“A half-immortal would be going to their death here,” Xi Ping interrupted him from the reincarnation wood. “I won’t pass that message for you.”

In a tone that didn’t waver, Zhou Ying said, “The Luwu have their own communications. If you’re afraid of getting your little friends killed, then please could I trouble you to learn to think before you act in the future?”

“San-ge!”

“My lord…” said Bai Ling.

When Zhou Ying was truly angry, his tone became softer and softer. “The lead Luwu is named Xu Rucheng, right? A good name, record it. The full names of the other Luwu, what family members they have, what unfulfilled desires and unresolved regrets they have, record it for the Viscount. Don’t leave anything out.”

“I…” Xi Ping got halfway through saying this when an enormous rumble came from the ground, sending his bits and pieces rolling all over. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of golden light out of the corner of his eye. The “biggest piece of Xi Ping” had coincidentally rolled near the Unbound Furnace!

Just then, Xuanwu gave a long cry, and a curved blade like a crescent moon appeared in his hand. He hacked at Xiang Rong.

But Xiang Rong seemed to have turned into an illusion. The curved blade slipped effortlessly through the illusion and landed on the enormous shadow, only splitting the illusion in half.

That blow nearly overturned the Central Peak’s summit. Only the area around the Unbound Furnace remained intact. But as the mountain toppled, it began to slip towards one side.

Xi Ping once again slid away from the Unbound Furnace.

And Xuanwu’s second blow had already connected.

This time, the tip of his blade provoked the light of the Silver Moon. The Silver Moon’s moonlight gathered itself into a bundle and cascaded down like magma, merging with Xuanwu’s crescent moon blade.

Xi Ping heard a stifled cry of pain from Zhuoming.

“What…”

“He wants…” Zhuoming’s voice was intermittent. “…to take back the half of his essence he left with me…”

Before he could finish saying this, Xi Ping was already another four or five chi further away from the Unbound Furnace.

“Do you know that they forced Mother to her death…” The blood from the seven apertures of Xuanwu’s face had yet to dry, becoming the only color on that face like white paper. “…sect leader shixiong?”

The giant-like Xiang Rong in the sky raised a hand. A curved blade that looked extremely similar to the one in Xuanwu’s hand appeared out of nowhere and met Xuanwu’s blade. Where the two curved blades joined, sparks spurted out with a crackle. Under the moonlight that was like the light of day, it was as if a series of bolts out of the blue had been set in midair.

“She only wanted to live as an ordinary person to raise me in an out of the way place. She didn’t want to come near your struggle between immortals and demons. And there was no need for you to confer so many self-flattering titles on her after her death… You did everything you could to protect my life. Sect leader shixiong…da-ge, I was a fisherman’s child poling for fish and picking water chestnuts by the river. What crime had I committed that called for you to condescend to spare my miserable life?!”

Furious spiritual energy exploded with a crash from the crossed blades. Xi Ping’s half of a stone body rolled, but it once again changed direction. This time, he was again sliding towards the Unbound Furnace.

“I have a way to escape. Luwu, stay hidden on the West Peak, don’t come meddling!” For the latter sentence, he simply went around Zhou Ying and used the reincarnation wood to knock on the consciousnesses of all the Luwu. When he had just finished speaking, he had already rolled his closest to the Unbound Furnace, less than a chi away!

Xi Ping concentrated his gaze and decisively tore off the Replica he was wearing.

At such a short distance, even if he coiled his guts up into a bun, he would still be able to fly over!

The Replica obediently turned back into black smoke, and Xi Ping’s half of a body was exposed beneath the light of the stars, moons, and blades. Only now did he find that he had broken in a very high place—his guts had no part in it; right now, he only had his head and most of his left upper body.

The left upper body had an arm connected to it. That was plenty.

Xi Ping didn’t dare to look closely at his body. The moment he freed himself of the Replica, he immediately felt himself on the point of death.

Fortunately, even if a person was cut in half, they still wouldn’t die instantly. With his remaining left hand, Xi Ping pushed off firmly against the ground and rose into the air, falling into the Unbound Furnace.

Only then did his blood spurt out, covering half the furnace!

Xi Ping abruptly lost awareness of his own body. He seemed to have returned to his time as a “tree spirit,” half his consciousness in the furnace, half outside the furnace, the two halves linked together. As if he had struck two pieces of flint together, the Unbound Furnace that had fallen still after Xiang Rong had left it was lit!

The flames seemed to be burning his blood. They were pure gold in color. Xi Ping couldn’t feel the burning. The segment of his body that had sunk into the furnace was wrapped up in golden flames.

Xiang Rong sensed something, his consciousness and his gaze simultaneously shooting towards the ruins of the immortal palace, but the Silver Moon controlled by Xuanwu gave him no chance to divide his attention. The moonlight that had turned Qiu Sha to dust disobeyed the will of heaven, surrounding the freshly-minted full moon sage.

Inside the Unbound Furnace, time and space were warped. The flames seemed to contain a whole world. Xi Ping’s consciousness outside the furnace knew very well that only the space of a breath had passed, but the part of him inside the furnace had experienced hundreds of generations in the blink of an eye!