Apart from the established foundation pill, there was no other method for establishing a foundation recorded in the ancient texts. The history of using silk dragon hearts to create established foundation pills was far more ancient than the sages who had ascended and left the mortal dust; naturally it was also more ancient than all the extant spiritual mountains.

Silk dragons were only valuable because they grew slowly and had been overhunted. This species of spiritual beast didn’t actually have strict requirements for its environment. While they liked dampness and warmth, as long as there wasn’t thick ice, an adult silk dragon could maintain its body temperature and survive using its heart, which was like a spiritual energy pump; it would only stop growing. They weren’t picky eaters, either. They could eat small marine animals as well as aquatic plants. They were much easier to rear than gluttonous and vicious beasts like gold-armored zhengs.

Li Manlong hefted a newly-arrived upgraded immortal tool and pressed a button on it. The surrounding spiritual energy was absorbed by the spirit-conducting gold. It let off a faint greenish light that could shine through the water’s surface and strike the heart of the lake.

At the bottom of this forest lake grew a dense layer of a strange aquatic plant. When touched by the light, the slim, graceful plants moved on their own, beginning to dance in large swaths. Filaments like hair reached out from their crowns, scrabbled around in a panic in the water, then retreated back among the plants.

“This is ‘three-day dream,’” Li Manlong said distinctly with his bothersome throat. “According to legend, one plant can extend the lifespan of a mortal on their deathbed for three days. Though it can’t save their life, for those three days, the dying person can be without pain or illness, even recover their youth, and die with dignity. Tai Sui, I’ve only read of this kind of plant in a scroll fragment in the spiritual beast farm. It’s said that in ancient times, the favorite food of wild silk dragons was the leaves of three-day dream. When they died and their corpses sank, the silk dragon hearts could cause a large number of three-day dream seeds to sprout. Wherever there was three-day dream, there would be silk dragons. Later, this symbiotic relationship was broken off by humans. Large quantities of three-day dream were eaten by silk dragons, but it couldn’t obtain silk dragon hearts, so it gradually went extinct.”

Xi Ping asked, “But without silk dragon hearts, won’t three-day dream not sprout?”

Li Manlong said, “We dug up some seeds and took them back to the village. We found that as long as you spread a layer of green ore powder at the roots of the plant, it will sprout—it seems to be different from the records. Though the scroll fragment I read was only the leisure reading of the low-level cultivators on the spiritual beast farm. We do not know its level of precision.”

Xi Ping shook his head. “It isn’t likely that the record was incorrect.”

It wasn’t that he had faith in the Shu’s academic standards, it was that “the dragons and plants lived in symbiosis,” “the symbiotic relationship was severed by humans,” “the delicate and precious aquatic plant went extinct” all hung together. Supposing that three-day dream could also be grown with spiritual stones outside the hidden realm, then it would be impossible for a good thing like this, which could prolong life as well as feed silk dragons, not to have been preserved. The wealthy might have planted their fish ponds full of the stuff.

Outside the hidden realm, silk dragons bred by humans had led to the extinction of three-day dream; inside the hidden realm, the silk dragons had disappeared, leaving only a large quantity of three-day dream… Neither of these conditions was natural.

In other words, it was likely that the South Sea Hidden Realm was like Tao County enveloped by the Law Breaker, with certain man-made rules—for example, you couldn’t be an established foundation.

Or rather…you couldn’t have a Way of the Heart.

The person who had formulated the rules had only rejected the silk dragons, and had even tampered with the attributes of other plants and animals that had “predation symbiosis” relationships with silk dragons!

Xi Ping was silent for a long while. “Let me ask you again, Queru, are you sure you don’t want to take temporary refuge in Tao County? Don’t you think that this place…that this place seems like a manmade glazed ball? Isn’t it frightening to live inside it?”

There seemed to be goosebumps even in his voice, but Li Manlong laughed—he had heard recently that this mysterious Tai Sui of the Luwu was actually a young man, not even as old as an ordinary mortal senior.

For some reason, Li Manlong hadn’t had any sense of disillusionment as at the collapse of a divine figure. Instead, he had felt somewhat more affectionate: lately, he was always remembering how Tai Sui’s voice in the reincarnation wood had sounded, mixed in among the inarticulate Turmoilers, learning Southern He songs along with them.

“Tai Sui,” Li Manlong said slowly, “isn’t Tao County’s spiritual energy prohibition illusion also manmade?”

Xi Ping froze, then heard this old man who had tasted all the sludge in the world say, “So when you leave Tao County, leave the hidden realm, does that mean you are no longer inside an illusion woven by some person or another?”

“Humans live by creating illusions and rules.” Wangge Luobao had noticed Yu Chang’s hesitation. He smiled. “If you don’t fuse with the spiritual mountains, you still fuse with something else—aren’t people’s perceptions of what is right and proper, of correct order and tradition, all the same thing? Otherwise, why can a civil servant without the strength to truss a chicken kill a person just by writing out a verdict? Spiritual stones at least have some use, but you can’t eat or drink gold, silver, or copper coins, so why can having them make you want for nothing?”

Yu Chang smiled and didn’t argue back verbally. He thought, You can live eating shit just as well as eating food, so why don’t you eat shit?

He detested all things that made him think of spiritual image brands.

Wangge Luobao was like a well-trained dog. When he tilted his head, he could sniff out what another person was thinking. He nodded amiably and said, “My mistake. In fact, there’s some wishful thinking on our parts in this. How about this, we’ll come at it indirectly, ask the Queen Mother of the West her views—see whether she chooses to yield to her instincts, or whether she wants to step forward in spite of heaven.”

“How are you planning to ask?” Yu Chang asked coolly. “Say, ‘We planted grit projections in your shadow and spied on you while you were meditating, and we have a tiny piece of advice from a clear-headed outside observer’s point of view to give you’? Listen, Wangge-xiong, do you want to eat poison miasma buns for breakfast tomorrow?”

Wangge Luobao said, smiling, “Why would we need to say it ourselves?”

Yao Qi was quite fortunate. The guard he was impersonating with the Luwu mask was quite similar to him, the timid and taciturn type that wanted nothing better than to go unseen. And it turned out that the Queen Mother of the West liked quiet, and this type of person, who was like a shadow, suited her tastes, so Yao Qi stood guard outside the Queen Mother of the West’s courtyard every day, closer than Chang Jun.

Though the great evil cultivators wouldn’t let a guard overhear their secret conferences, being around them day and night, you could still pick up many things.

But Ziming-xiong had really never had much luck in his whole life. Today, for example, his horoscope probably said, “It is inadvisable to arrive early.”

Yao Qi relieved a colleague at his post one ke early. As soon as he had taken up his position, he ran up against Wangge Luobao, who had been paying his customary visit, on his way out. This Shu master was ardent and courteous, never haughty in the way other ascended spirits were. All of the Queen Mother of the West’s guards liked saying a few words to him. Only Yao Qi felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he saw this Xiuyi-Miah mixed blood man. With his spine as upright as a flagpole in his back, he stiffly joined his colleague in respectfully seeing the guest out. Perhaps because Yao Qi’s posture as he moved the arm and leg on each side in unison was too distinctive, Wangge Luobao gave him an extra look.

His affable smile raised gooseflesh on Yao Qi’s back. His chin jabbed against his chest. He didn’t notice that after Wangge Luobao left, his shadow and the shadow of the other guard standing at the gate both began to ripple slightly at the edges, like water.

As soon as Wangge Luobao left, the Queen Mother of the West’s gates and doors all closed automatically. Dealing with a great evil cultivator was undoubtedly emotionally exhausting. Every time she had seen him, she would meditate to cycle her energy; in this respect, Yao Qi was profoundly sympathetic.

But the time she spent meditating had been growing shorter and shorter, and when she finished, there would be a somewhat unstable overflow of spiritual energy—normally only young disciples just starting out meditating who accidentally fell asleep would produce this kind of spiritual energy fluctuation when they woke with a start.

At the Queen Mother of the West’s cultivation level, reasonably speaking, this shouldn’t happen. What kind of difficulty had she encountered?

Yao Qi thought, I suppose that the “heavenly edict” isn’t so easy to receive. She bears the heavy responsibility of restoring the nation, and her every step is met with obstacles. Cultivation is swimming against the current to begin with.

As soon as this thought flashed by, Yao Qi froze. He smacked himself on the forehead. “What am I thinking?”

Yu Chang had just tried implanting an idea in the heads of this pair of little guards, and one of them had nearly struggled free of the grit projection. In spite of himself, he was rather taken aback. His gaze fell on Yao Qi.

Was there anything unusual about this kid?

A person enveloped by the grit projection would, without knowing it, have thoughts that did not belong to them implanted by their shadows, and say all their thoughts aloud for the evil cultivator inside their shadow to hear.

Yu Chang immediately poured a thought into Yao Qi’s head: As an ascended spirit, she wants to obtain the authority of the spiritual mountains that only shed skins can approach elsewhere. It must be a torment to her. Without some of the bravery of being “without self,” she wouldn’t be able to take it.

Before this thought could settle, Yao Qi gave another start. What kind of nonsense am I thinking? he thought.

Yao Qi was certain to unconsciously think in the Wan language. Fortunately, neither he nor Chang Jun was proficient in the Southern He language; guessing and groping, they could manage to understand it, but it was asking too much of them to expect them to speak it fluently. This had forced Moon Plated Peak to make special improvements to the Luwu masks it had given them—while they wore them, no matter what language these two fakes spoke in, others would understand what they said and automatically hear it in their own language and accent.

There were only two issues: if Yao Qi was speaking the Wan language, then his listener had to coincidentally also understand the Wan language. Also, each language had different meanings attached to its words, and wording that couldn’t be perfectly matched would sound strangely out of sync. So while wearing this kind of Luwu mask, it was best to speak as little as possible.

Had the person using the grit projection now been from Southern He, they would have noticed something strange about Yao Qi’s unconscious speech within a few sentences. Fortunately, Yu Chang was from Chu and had lived at the Wan-Chu border. He was far more familiar with the Wan language than the Southern He language, which was close to being dead. Not only did he not hear a problem, he actually thought that this Southern He man spoke more clearly than the others.

Yu Chang was astonished. With a bit of probing, he learned that this was only a little half-immortal, the kind that hadn’t even finished rinsing his spiritual bones. He was just about to investigate more closely when he saw another Southern He person run over. Perhaps afraid of disturbing the Queen Mother of the West’s meditation, the newcomer didn’t speak, only gestured from a distance at the strange little guard, seeming to be telling him to go somewhere.

Yu Chang wasn’t in the South Sea himself. He had to rely on Wangge Luobao to place his grit projection talismans for him and couldn’t freely control them. Once this little guard left, today’s talisman would have been wasted. Yu Chang made a quick decision. He stopped inspecting this little half immortal whose name he didn’t know. Relying on his own higher cultivation, he forcibly snatched the minds of Yao Qi and the other guard on duty—they were only half-immortals; afterwards, they would have some memory loss at most. They wouldn’t necessarily be able to find the remnants of his talisman.

The gazes of the pair of guards standing at the Queen Mother of the West’s gate stagnated simultaneously. They turned into the grit projection’s marionettes.

Yao Qi stiffly waved his hand, sending off his colleague, then said, “I’ve heard that shed skins accord with the Way. According with the Way means that a part of you belongs to the universe and the spiritual mountains. You are no longer merely a commonplace person. Since Her Highness has been granted a heavenly edict, will she accord with the Way in advance?”

The other marionette’s consciousness was also being suppressed by Yu Chang. With his mouth, Yu Chang answered himself, “I don’t know. My cultivation is low, I can’t imagine it. But when I think about it carefully, it’s very frightening. Wouldn’t the spiritual mountains be controlling ‘me’?”

Yang Wan meanwhile had hit her usual stumbling block during her daily lessons and was once again dragged back from the road to heaven by fear, and her senses, which had automatically opened at some point, had heard every word of the private conversation between the guards outside her gate.

“It’s called ‘according with the Way.’ What do you mean by being controlled by the spiritual mountains? I am a cultivator of the orthodox Way. What I want is to comprehend the inheritance of the spiritual mountains.”

“Comprehension is one thing…but if you accord with the Way, afterwards, everything you think and feel, will it come from your own heart, or from the spiritual mountains?”

Yang Wan’s heart jumped. What these two guards were saying struck precisely at her mood as she had meditated.

“If you ‘accord with the Way’ naturally, your cultivation level and boundary must be extremely high, so your own heart will be the heart of the spiritual mountains. What difference does it make where anything comes from? It’s only that Her Highness has just become an ascended spirit, and her boundary is still far from according with the Way. I’m afraid the spiritual mountains have given her a heavier burden than she can bear and spoiled things in their haste.”

“Won’t it be cutting the foot to fit the shoe, then? Alas, I’m afraid Her Highness will have a hard time making it through this. I’ve been watching her periods of meditation get shorter day by day.”

Yang Wan automatically glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and found that from when she had begun to meditate to when she had woken with a start, not even the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had passed.

Then she heard her usually reticent guard sigh. “I’ve heard that our Lancang Mountains used to have the Lovebird Sword Array left behind by the Two Sages. Our Sect Leader went astray in his cultivation, and the Lovebird Sword Array was forced to dissipate by the four other nations’ shed skin masters working together. If a new person who had accorded with the Way came along, I suppose that the Lovebird Sword Array could reappear in the human world… Alas, the anniversary of our national crisis is nearly here.”

Just then, there came the sound of urgent footsteps. Another one of their people came along and pulled away one of the guards, as if he needed his help with something. The Queen Mother of the West was very lenient in her rule. It was all right as long as her sentries weren’t so neglectful as to both run off. As a bereaved people in exile, rather than being like master and servant, they were more like family.

The dialogue had come to an abrupt halt. Yang Wan was dazed for a long moment, then suddenly understood what the barrier she couldn’t get past was. She walked to the window, the look in her eyes growing steadfast.

At the same time, the grit projection in Yao Qi’s shadow abruptly dispersed.

Yao Qi gave a cry. His temples ached fiercely. Holding his head, he squatted down—Chang Jun had been the one to drag him away.

Though they were all half-immortals, Wei Chengxiang was a seasoned adventurer who had cut a bloody streak through a heap of evil cultivators, while Yao Qi and Chang Jun were hothouse flowers.

If it hadn’t been impossible for Wei Chengxiang to be in two places at once, Xi Ping really wouldn’t have felt comfortable leaving the two of them to squat beside the great evil cultivators, so he had stipulated that they report their safety in the reincarnation wood every half shichen, in case they encountered any unexpected danger.

Chang Jun held up Yao Qi, letting Xi Ping pull Yao Qi’s consciousness into the Law Breaker’s space and send it back—inside the Law Breaker, all cultivation techniques attached to the consciousness could be rinsed off.

“It was as if your consciousness had been paralyzed. You just wouldn’t answer.” Chang Jun’s voice trembled slightly. “Was…was it the grit projection?”

Yao Qi panted for breath. His back was covered in cold sweat. The two of them found a deserted spot and took out a tiny upgraded immortal tool to block the scanning consciousnesses of any masters.

Then Yao Qi took a small trumpet from his clothes—this was a mortal recording device. He pressed the replay button.

His talking to himself, as well as his dialogue with his colleague, played back perfectly.

On Flying Jade Peak, Xi Ping abruptly sat up straight.

The Lancang Mountains’ divine tool? Why would Yu Chang mention that?