“I am only a junior who recently became an ascended spirit, and I am an unremarkable medicine cultivator.” The Queen Mother of the West used a slight verbal dodge. “With Guang’an gravely injured, I have no decent fighting force at my disposal. When my poisoning succeeded by a fluke last time, it still only held her up briefly, just enough for me to escape. Please instruct me, Fellow Cultivator Wangge, how ought I to handle the Sword Slave?”

Wangge Luobao had his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Queen Mother of the West. His odd-colored irises seemed admiring and also enticing. He seemed to be looking at a waking dragon with magnificent scales. “Having inherited Wanshuang, the Sword Slave’s cultivation level is on a par with a shed skin’s, but there is an object of full moon grade.”

The Queen Mother of the West didn’t respond. Her shoulders and back were even more tense than usual.

Then a smile slowly emerged on Wangge Luobao’s face. “The Lancang Mountains’ former divine tool, the Lovebird Sword Array¹.”

“The Lovebird Sword Array disappeared, I saw it with my own eyes,” the Queen Mother of the West said gravely. “Even if it still existed, it is common knowledge that you must have shed skin cultivation at the very least in order to control a divine tool of the mountains. The Sanyue Mountains’ Xiang Ning wasn’t able to control the Silver Moon. So you think that I am superior to him? Fellow cultivator, what are these fanciful notions of yours?”

“As long as the spiritual mountains exist, their divine tool exists.” Wangge Luobao leaned forward slightly, his protruding brow ridge and deep eye sockets forming a shadow. That shadow was dark, seeming to stain half his face. With a trace of temptation, he said, “When your Sect Leader went mad, the divine tool of the mountains went out of control. The four nations invaded together when it was at its weakest. That was why the Lovebird Sword Array vanished. Now Your Highness has received the heavenly edict and become the chosen one of the Lancang Mountains. The miracle has already taken place. The divine tool will appear.”

The Queen Mother of the West’s eyes wandered for a moment as she remembered something and became distracted. Wangge Luobao’s hand, hidden in his wide sleeve, flicked gently. On the ground, the Queen Mother of the West’s shadow moved slightly.

In the communication device, Yu Chang’s red eyes flickered.

Wangge Luobao and Yu Chang, two villainous evil cultivators working hand in glove, quickly exchanged a look. Then the Southern Shu man went on painting beautiful fantasies in broad strokes, as if the three of them were already the masters of the spiritual mountains, dominating Southern He, ready to take affairs of state into their hands.

Wangge Luobao’s buttocks were unusually heavy; once he showed up, he could sit for half the day.

Everyone understood that this Southern Shu man’s face ought of have been drawn in the dictionary as an illustration for the term “conniving,” but the way of beast-taming had its own mysterious properties: if you just spent some time with him, you would form a favorable impression of him, involuntarily set aside your mental defenses. Intellectually, the Queen Mother of the West knew that he was no good, but she couldn’t help but have a feeling of friendliness when she saw him. All she could do was match wits with him while inwardly reminding herself over and over of the dirty things this southern barbarian had done. After half a day of this, she was starting to get a headache.

But she was alone and helpless. She couldn’t leave the wretches in this rubbish heap.

Having managed to hold out until Wangge Luobao took his leave, the Queen Mother of the West—Yang Wan—breathed a sigh of relief; she was emotionally exhausted.

When she had seen the two great evil cultivators off, she began to meditate and circulate her energy.

As her spirit quieted, her consciousness spread. It wasn’t long before the susurrating “heavenly edict” once again came to her ears. This wasn’t a human voice—it sounded something like poor quality factory-made stiff brocade rubbing against itself—but Yang Wan understood it. This voice wasn’t communicating with her ears or her mind. It was tapping on the Way of the Heart on her spirit, instructing her in cultivation.

Since the day she had escaped the Sword Slave, whenever she meditated, she could immediately hear the heavenly edict clearly. Many difficulties that she had previously been stuck on were cut apart as though meeting a knife edge. The enlightenment that she had previously sought through strenuous effort was like water that had washed away the top of her skull, almost too much pouring in for her to attend to. During this time, her cultivation had been taking great strides forward on an almost daily basis. It was only that…

As she focused, a path once again appeared before Yang Wan’s eyes, too long to see its end at a glance.

She remembered the shape of this path. Each new group of disciples to enter the Lancang Mountains had to go to the Principal Peak to pay their respects to the sect’s founders, the Gold and Jade Sages. In order to demonstrate sincerity, they had to walk up step by step. Even going quickly, it would still take two shichen.

As long as the spiritual mountains exist, their divine tool exists…

“The Lovebird Sword Array was suspended above the Principal Peak,” she said, tentatively questioning the heavenly edict, “so if I follow this path to the end, I’ll be able to find it, is that so?”

The heavenly edict did not respond, only faintly conveyed a sense of urgency, telling her to follow this path forward.

This was the decree of the Lancang Mountains, leading her to seek the divine tool that could contend against the world’s foremost masters. She ought to have followed without hesitation. But perhaps her cultivation was too meager or her natural endowments too poor; each time Yang Wan set foot on this path, an unreasoning fear would emerge from the cracks in her bones.

She clenched her teeth and calmed herself, struggling to dispel her preoccupations and walk forward following the heavenly edict.

But as soon as she set foot on that path, all the events of her life appeared before her eyes like a swarm of bees: her humiliation at marrying the Emperor of the East for the sake of establishing a foothold in the Land of Turmoil; her resentment at watching the sages’ spiritual mountains stuck full of vulgar street signs and boundary markers; her rage at her favorite maid being seized by evil cultivators on a rampage; then there was Guang’an… The nameless youth she had happened to save on a stormy night, the man who had desperately cultivated the sword, the shadow that had been with her for a century…

Lord Guang’an’s delicate, silent face was impossible to get rid of. It seemed to be putting her to some test. When Yang Wan thought of him, she couldn’t resist getting distracted. Her spiritual sense suddenly moved. That was when she found that her senses had been opened at some point. The sight and hearing of an ascended spirit were extremely acute. The sound of one guard saying to another a hundred meters away “It’s time to change Lord Guang’an’s dressings” instantly pricked her ears.

Yang Wan gave a start. The path of the spiritual mountains beneath her feet vanished once more, and her meditative state was interrupted. She fell into the mortal dust. She sat there blankly for a moment. She studied herself inwardly and found that her essence had once again concentrated considerably. There was quite a bit of progress. But in her heart she didn’t feel the smallest bit of pleasure at having “made a gain.” Cold sweat had nearly soaked through the outermost layer of her gauze robes.

Almost simultaneously, far away in Western Chu, Yu Chang also opened his eyes.

During their conversation, Wangge Luobao had used his beast-taming methods to distract the Queen Mother of the West without her noticing it and seized the opportunity to place one of Yu Chang’s grit worm projection talismans in her shadow—apart from the Queen Mother of the West herself, no one could hear the so-called “divine edict” of the Lancang Mountains. The existence of such a thing relied entirely on a single person’s story. Two great evil cultivators weren’t so easily fooled; they had to get to the bottom of her situation.

The Queen Mother of the West wasn’t a low-level cultivator that he could manipulate at will, so Yu Chang, residing in her shadow, hadn’t dared to do anything rash. He had only quietly entered meditation with her.

Yu Chang reached out to knock on a communication device beside him that looked like a mirror. Wangge Luobao’s face quickly emerged. “Already? Yu-xiong, what happened?”

“Her meditation period was in fact much shorter than average for an ascended spirit. I couldn’t see very clearly,” Yu Chang said seriously. “There was a mysterious external force guiding her consciousness, I didn’t dare to get close. I think that the Queen Mother of the West probably isn’t making up the ‘heavenly edict.’ But…it’s a strange thing. It looked to me like during the latter half, she herself was constantly struggling to get free.”

What was this princess’ problem? She was like a small child with her head held down by a teacher being forced to study; as soon as the adult wasn’t looking, she tried to make a run for it.

Wasn’t she in a hurry to restore her nation? Was she planning to meet the New Year in the fish’s mouth?

But when Wangge Luobao heard this, his eyes lit up, and he broke into peculiar laughter.

Yu Chang felt that this southern barbarian’s laugh sounded like an owl’s; this bird was no good. But on the surface, he said as urbanely as before, “Wangge-xiong, would you care to instruct me?”

“This is a good thing,” Wangge Luobao said. “Yu-xiong, you have always been a free agent, so presumably you are not aware that among the spiritual mountains, there has always been a saying that ‘An ascended spirit’s body enters the high heavens, while a shed skin’s soul enters the universe.’ The masters of all the great sects, once they become shed skins, have a part of their consciousness fuse with the spiritual mountains. The Lancang Mountains have only recognized Her Highness the Queen Mother of the West. They must want her to perform the duties of other spiritual mountains’ shed skins, but her cultivation is in the early ascended spirit stage, and her mental state is nowhere near the level of a shed skin’s. It is normal for her to instinctively fear and reject it.”

The person with an “orthodox” background believed that having a part of your consciousness fuse with the spiritual mountains was a good thing. This symbolized being “supreme” and “all-knowing.” Yu Chang, however, was a “feral cultivator” who had been stamped with a spiritual image brand as a child. Hearing this explanation, a thought quickly flashed through his mind: Why does that sound like a spiritual image brand?

But in order to avoid seeming ignorant and making a fool of himself, he didn’t show any unusual reaction. “I see, she must be getting stuck there, then. The ways of medicine and toolmaking have concentrated consciousnesses and meticulous thoughts. Their courage is always a little lacking.”

Wangge Luobao’s brows moved slightly. “At a time like this, her friends need to lend her a hand.”

Yu Chang said, “You mean…”

“When she is in conflict with the heavenly edict, she will be at her most confused, her consciousness at its weakest. She will have no attention to spare to take precautions against your grit worm projections. Think of a way to give her a push forward each day.” Like a teacher who had taken an idiot for a student, Wangge Luobao patiently encouraged, “It doesn’t have to be much, just one step. Over time, small steps will accumulate into a thousand li. Sometimes, with just a bit of external strength, a person can step over their own obstacle. Once she fuses with the spiritual mountains, the divine tool will certainly reappear. The Silver Moon and the Cauldron of Nine Dragons aren’t at leisure to attend to anything but themselves, and the Bell of Tribulation… Ha, I think the Wan allying with the Li is only a temporary measure. My informers say that Southern Wan’s border inscriptions have just undergone a major renovation, and each Kaiming Department’s numbers have been increased to double or more. Zhi Xiu is only taking this opportunity to catch his breath. He might turn on them at any time. If Wu Lingxiao really does get chopped into mincemeat by the Lovebird Sword Array, they won’t do anything about it. When the time comes, the Lancang Mountains will be ours for the taking.”

For some reason, Yu Chang felt a little uncomfortable listening to him, so, with a kindly expression, he splashed cold water on him. “Wangge-xiong, don’t be so optimistic. The Queen Mother of the West is right. In order to control a divine tool of the mountains, one’s cultivation must at least be at the shed skin level—and it must be a shed skin master acknowledged by the spiritual mountains. She is an ascended spirit, and in the early period. Isn’t asking her to control the Lovebird Sword Array like forcing an infant to heft a cauldron?”

Wangge Luobao was proficient in the languages of all the nations, but under the influence of his Miah mother tongue, when he spoke quickly, his speech was slightly indistinct and elided. When he spoke quietly, his voice sounded soft and slick. “Why would we want her to ‘control’ the Lovebird Sword Array?”

Yu Chang froze.

Wangge Luobao, in his voice as soft as silk, said, “As long as the Lovebird Sword Array is released, it will wipe out the ‘outsiders’ on the Southern He Peninsula by itself. When that happens, while the Lovebird Sword Array is locked in a life and death struggle with Wu Lingxiao, you and I will seize the opportunity to come in with tools and just take the resources we need… Are you really thinking of sharing the Lancang Mountains with the Yang family? One mustn’t be too greedy, Chief Offering Yu.”

Yu Chang and Wangge Luobao both had slightly stronger cultivation than Yang Wan, so she was totally unaware that plans were being made for her behind her back.

When she recovered after her terrifying meditation, she briefly sat on her own, then stood up, changed clothes, and went to the courtyard where Lord Guang’an was resting.

The guards and attendants looking after Lord Guang’an had just changed his dressings. When they saw her, they saluted respectfully. Yang Wan nodded and dismissed a guard who was about to step forward to hold up a lantern for her.

For some reason, she seemed a little preoccupied. She accidentally left a strand of long hair hanging on a tree. Yang Wan was completely unaware of it. She only stood at the door of Lord Guang’an’s room for a while. In the end, she didn’t go in. She left in a hurry.

The “guard” holding the lantern kept himself to himself, like a mural on the wall. Only when she was far away did he squeeze a piece of reincarnation wood in his hand.

Xi Ping had the Luwu at his command. Toilet bulletins from all over were delivered to his desk at once.

The Tao World Record had begun the wanton dramatization of Northern Li’s assault on the Southern He peninsula. Though it was a Chu publication, it was printed in Tao County, and the writer was Zhao Qindan.

Even he hadn’t expected such a surge of publicity in the mortal world. That article had in fact mainly been written for Kunlun’s benefit.

The heart demon seed had been planted, but Zhi Xiu said that as long as a sword cultivator’s sword heart was steadfast enough, if he focused and introspected in time, he would actually be able to notice that there was something the matter with him. Xi Ping didn’t know whether this was shizun judging others against his own standard—even having his brains turned to paste by an abacus wasn’t enough to stop him making time to go to the north slope every day to practice the sword, regular as clockwork.

But Kunlun’s Sect Leader was after all a thousand-year-old shed skin. He wasn’t to be underestimated. So Xi Ping had decided to give the Sect Leader an occasional prod, so it wouldn’t be so easy for him to focus his sword heart.

The day he had seen the Blind Wolf King, Xi Ping had roughly grasped the awkwardness of the Sword Slave’s position in Kunlun, but there was still something he didn’t understand: why the Kunlun Sect Leader’s heart demon would settle on the Sword Slave.

Loathing her, fearing her, even suspecting her would all be normal, but reckoning it up, the Sword Slave was three centuries old at the outside, so for a thousand-year-old shed skin to develop a heart demon over her…such a shed skin would have to be rather too lacking in self-possession, something of Xiang Ning’s ilk. Kunlun’s Sect Leader surely wasn’t so badly off.

The Blind Wolf King had mentioned two very thought-provoking points: the first was his belief that the Second Elder’s “disappearance” was connected to the Ceaseless Mirror.

The flying goose messages sent by that crazy bastard Zhou Ying confirmed that this divine tool of the mountains that no one had ever seen had a hidden link to the no-man’s-land of Beiyuan, and evidently it could easily sever the connection between a disciple of the Xuanyin Mountains and his name token, make a person disappear without anyone the wiser. The Second Elder had been missing for two centuries, and his vital lantern in the Kunlun inner sect was still doing just fine, very like Zhou Ying’s current situation, with his body dead and his name token in perfect condition.

Second, the reason that the Second Elder, after repeatedly hesitating, had ultimately stood with the conservative party, had been Southern He’s dilemma—the Second Elder had been the one primarily responsible for handling this matter for Northern Li.

While the old version of Moon Plated Gold hadn’t been as earth-shaking as what Hui Xiangjun had made eight centuries ago, after all was said and done, it was sustained by spiritual stones. The Second Elder had said to his quick-witted head disciple, “While the innovations the progressive party describes are admittedly good, other nations are other nations, and Northern Li is Northern Li. One knows one’s own family affairs. If that spiritual-stone-burning Moon Plated Gold comes to the mortal world, in the end, I’m afraid it will only warm the hands of the nobles in Yanning. Won’t the common people turn into ashes beneath the fires of the gold smelting furnaces?”

And when later Southern He had turned on the other nations, when the four nations had gone to settle the accounts with Lancang, it had been the Second Elder who had originally gone south to take charge. It was only due to a sudden change in the condition of the Beijue Array that he had handed the Southern He business over to the Third Elder midway and temporarily gone back himself. He hadn’t returned.

Comparing this against the clues Zhi Xiu had found in General Zhi Yi’s relic, when the four nations had joined hands to sever Southern He’s veins of the earth for the sake of spiritual stones, it had just happened to be right after the Second Elder had left…

Xi Ping had a faint guess. If it were true, then the Sword Slave might only be a projection of the Sect Leader’s heart demon.

Wu Lingxiao’s current conduct, in the eyes of the Sect Leader, would look like she was preparing to openly seize the southern mines, enough to trouble him so much that he wouldn’t be able to meditate.

After setting the toilet bulletins aside, Xi Ping swiftly flipped through the secret reports submitted by the Kaiming Department—the first batch of spirit-conducting gold “upgraded immortal tools” had already been delivered to the borders. What had been sent out were improved versions of what Wei Chengxiang had used in the South Sea: they didn’t waste as much spiritual stones, the sword energy and talismans they shot were all established foundation grade, and they could be used repeatedly; they could make up for Southern Wan’s current shortage of established foundations…but they were costly.

Xi Ping was just musing on how to trick someone else out of some spiritual stones to bring back when he heard Chang Jun’s voice coming from the reincarnation wood: “Shiyong, Shiyong, guess what, the Queen Mother of the West and Lord Guang’an are on the outs!”

Wei Chengxiang had to look after the Turmoilers, who had nothing to eat or drink, so Yao Qi and Chang Jun had volunteered to remain in the Queen Mother of the West’s hidden realm wearing spiritual image masks.

While Xi Ping knew the ins and outs about the Queen Mother of the West, to guard against the evil cultivators making fresh difficulties, he had still wanted to keep an eye on her.

After squandering over a decade in the southern mines, Chang Jun had at last found his “true calling.” This person seemed to have come out of his mother’s womb as a “busybody.” When his initial confusion and fear had passed, he had taken to it like a fish to water, spending every day cautiously and conscientiously looking around with his little eyes fixed on all kinds of slight clues.

Xi Ping’s train of thought had been interrupted. He said in exasperation, “Didn’t I tell you two to just keep an eye out for trouble and avoid getting close to the ascended spirit evil cultivators? Especially that conjunctivitis sufferer with his ‘grit projections.’ Luwu masks aren’t that secure. Listen, Hongzheng-xiong, how can you still be so full of curiosity at your age?”

Chang Jun chuckled. “When all this is over, seeing as we’re classmates, can you use some pull to get me into the Luwu?”

Xi Ping perfunctorily said, “My word doesn’t carry weight. For that, you have to ask Lord Bai…”

Chang Jun said, “Oh, right, I hear Zhao-shijie is drafting a ‘Faithful Account of the Deceits of Evil Gods,’ recording cases from antiquity to the present of evil cultivators duping people by passing themselves off as authority figures and causing disaster throughout the lands. She says she wants it to stand as a warning to later generations. She promised to let me read the draft…”

Xi Ping didn’t hesitate. “The Luwu are an outer sect, too, no different from the southern mines. It doesn’t amount to much. Register with the Kaiming Department, train for half a year, and you’re all set! Get on with it, what’s going on with the Queen Mother of the West and Lord Guang’an? Who’s stepping out? I’m so eager to find out!”

“What are you thinking? Lord Guang’an was seriously injured by the Sword Slave. His meridians were all ruptured. Do you think he’s stepping anywhere? Right after the Queen Mother of the West returned, she was always clinging to his hand, so worried she forgot her deportment. But it’s been only a few days, and it looks to me like her manner has suddenly cooled. She just came around and didn’t even go inside.”

Another voice interrupted from the reincarnation wood. Yao Qi briefly said, “The two evil cultivators from Chu and Shu have just been here.”

“Oh?” said Xi Ping.

At first he couldn’t work out what the connection between these two things was. It couldn’t be, he thought, that those two shameless wretches Yu Chang and Wangge Luobao, for the sake of getting close to the Queen Mother of the West, were planning to sow discord by offering their own services as bedfellows?

They were both all-powerful great evil cultivators, surely they wouldn’t have to resort to that…

Suddenly, for some reason, Xi Ping’s spiritual sense moved slightly. He had a faint, rather ominous premonition.