As the Law Breaker inscriptions spread through the channel of the toilet bulletins, the hidden bones seemed to notice something. The reincarnation wood, which had only been spreading in all directions, started “hunting.”

The cultivators near the Law Breaker’s spiritual energy prohibition line immediately became nervous, facing off against the out-of-control reincarnation wood outside the line.

Southern Shu had luxuriant vegetation. Reincarnation wood saplings were hidden in cracks in rocks and mountain streams, shunting back and forth like mobile tripwires, silently invading the spiritual beast farm standing wide open because its inscriptions had been damaged. The Lingyun cultivators returning from capturing escaped spiritual beasts were sniped head-on!

The reincarnation wood trees even hid in snow and ice and snuck into the Kunlun Mountains.

The fan under Wen Fei’s feet pulled up over ten zhang, evading an attacking beam of spiritual energy. The waters of the Xia River were rising sharply now. He saw at a glance the densely packed reincarnation wood trees under the water; just the sight of it was horrifying.

Wen Fei gave a cry of surprise and tossed poison from his sleeve. The ascended spirit miasma that would have had even wildfire fleeing in defeat met the teeth-baring, claw-brandishing reincarnation wood vines in midair; the vines were burned black and exhausted, but the miasma was also broken!

Wen Fei’s eyelids twitched. He had a bad feeling. As expected, the next moment, the blackened vines rapidly grew new twigs and buds and went in relentless pursuit.

When this thing had been taking Xi Shiyong’s orders, it had plainly been a rotten tree that would bend wherever you pushed it! If its amulets weren’t appropriately taken care of, they would get damp and sprout mushrooms. Why had it become so powerful as soon as it mutinied? It was completely absurd!

In Tao County, reincarnation wood was like a town gate, a symbol of safety. For the past eight years, for unnumbered Luwu finding themselves in desperate straits abroad, seeing reincarnation wood had been like seeing a glimmer of hope in their darkest hour.

They instinctively relied on this unprepossessing willow tree. Even though they had suddenly learned that reincarnation wood had gone out of control and intellectually knew that they ought to be on their guard against it, emotionally they hadn’t caught up yet.

The Luwu’s blood splashed on the brown tree bark. The reincarnation wood amulet that had been carried as a tool and as a protective talisman fell from the body, its owner having forgotten to remove it.

The vast majority of people now knew that reincarnation wood had mutinied and no longer spoke to their amulets. The noise coming through the wood had quieted, so Xi Ping heard that Luwu’s cry of Tai Sui on the point of death.

Xi Ping was himself inside a tree, but his soul had already gone up in flames. His vital qin made a sound like tearing silk under its master’s hands: There are so many munitions hidden under the Northern Xia garrison. Are they planning to keep them there until they have kids? If we don’t blow the reincarnation wood to firewood now, I’m afraid nothing will ever take it out. Have the mortals withdraw, get further from the spiritual energy prohibition line!

Before he could finish playing this string of qin sweet notes, Zhao Qindan received the latest information: “But it seems that everyone it’s attacking are our people… Strictly speaking, they’re all cultivators.”

Xi Ping froze.

Killing cultivators?

In his rage, his reason laboriously pushed aside the obfuscations and noticed the peculiarity in this.

It didn’t make sense. If the hidden bones had been capable of killing everyone off, they would have done it by now. What need would there have been to lust after the ancient inscriptions outside the Beijue Mountains?

Because Xi Ping had carried off a portion of the ancient inscriptions, the hidden bones had gotten stuck halfway along their road to godhood. They hadn’t yet overturned the old rules and formulated new rules like “spiritual energy gathers in reincarnation wood trees” or “reincarnation wood becomes the new spiritual mountains.” Though the growth of the trees could be hastened with spiritual energy, they still couldn’t store spiritual energy like a cultivator’s essence.

Right now, the reincarnation wood controlled by the hidden bones could only use spiritual energy out in the world, operate near the spiritual mountains or in places where cultivators were plentiful and spiritual energy diffused everywhere.

The hidden bones’ fighting capacity was currently about that of a late stage ascended spirit, limited by Xi Ping’s own cultivation level—and somewhat reduced from that, too, since after all the bones were only a “natural disaster” left behind by a demonic god. Unlike a human, they couldn’t use a wide variety of talismans and arrays. In Southern Wan, they were being neutralized by the snow shuffler, unable to make mischief in Jinping, so for the moment they couldn’t steal spiritual energy from Xuanyin’s Territory Map and veins of the earth, either.

When Xi Ping himself ran up against a formidable opponent, even he would have to find a place to replenish his spiritual stones somewhere. So what about the hidden bones?

Even if it was a matter of perfect indifference to the hidden bones whether mortals lived or died, directly pilfering heaven’s order and draining every last drop of spiritual energy in the mortal world would still have extremely limited results. Spiritual energy consumed by attacking cultivators would necessarily involve a sacrifice of a large portion of reincarnation wood trees.

And the success of the first attacks had been pure luck. These cultivators had all been honed amid blades of wind and ice. As soon as they became aware of what was happening and started taking precautions, the amount of spiritual energy killing one person would use up would have to be greater than the spiritual energy contained in that person’s essence.

Looking at it in the long-term… No, you didn’t even have to look at it in the long-term. This muddleheaded move on the part of the hidden bones was like taking down ten of the enemy in exchange for eight thousand of your own.

What were they playing at? Had the hidden bones gone mad from urgency?

Or perhaps it was just that they were merely a dead man’s bones, only capable of following their instincts to make trouble, incapable of counting?

With reincarnation wood going wild wherever cultivators congregated, the Sanyue Mountains naturally weren’t exempt.

Yu Chang had retreated, leading the recently frightened cultivators, and hadn’t yet had time to reach the location of the original great mountain array when his spiritual sense was suddenly touched by something. Yu Chang dodged, and a beam of murderous spiritual energy brushed past him, hitting another cultivator in the chest. Yu Chang casually tossed a lightning talisman in the direction the sneak attack had come from, breaking apart the attacking reincarnation wood tree. He was just about to come to the rescue—a wound to the chest wasn’t a fatal one for a cultivator—when he saw a line of inscriptions flash in that wounded cultivator’s wound.

His spiritual sense sent up another warning. Yu Chang stopped in his tracks. He saw the inscriptions burrow into the wounded cultivator’s spirit. The cultivator went rigid. His spirit was crushed, his Way of the Heart broke apart, and he died.

The victim was an established foundation. A sudden death like this would result in an explosion of essence.

Yu Chang’s reaction was extremely fast. He hollered, “Out of the way!” Protective spiritual energy spread out, guarding everyone like a shield.

But the anticipated essence explosion and spiritual energy dispersal didn’t happen.

An inscription emerged slowly from the cracked brow of the victim. It hung in midair along with the body, whose eyes Yu Chang met in bewilderment.

Chu’s cultivators, regardless of whether they were orthodox or evil, were all learned in talismans, arrays, and inscriptions, but Yu Chang had never seen an inscription like this. He knew in his heart that this might be one of those mystical ancient inscriptions.

He stared briefly at that inscription, and a faint feeling suddenly emerged in his mind… It was like when he had first become an ascended spirit and discovered for the first time that he no longer needed to consult documents and ancient texts. The laws and commandments of heaven and earth would be self-evident if he only focused and inquired.

Now, that vague intuition was urging him: Try copying an inscription.

Try…

An impulse spread from his spirit. While his protective spiritual energy had yet to disperse, Yu Chang extended a hand and copied that inscription in midair. Inscriptions without physical forms had limited effectiveness. If there was danger, he would be able to get out of the way in time.

It seemed that a cultivator’s intuition never led them astray. That inscription didn’t harm him.

The instant it was completed, a portion of the dead established foundation’s essence rushed into Yu Chang along with the inscription. Spiritual energy like cool spring water swept over all his bones in a flash and converged in his essence!

Yu Chang slowly drew in a breath.

He wasn’t the only one to have noticed something unusual. What this world was least lacking in were “smart people.” Soon, cultivators elsewhere also noticed that by reproducing those inscriptions, you could take the essence of a cultivator killed by reincarnation wood for yourself.

And the spiritual energy obtained from an essence wasn’t like the spiritual energy they normally drained from spiritual stones, which they could only take in until their own essence was full. This spiritual energy instead became a part of their essence!

For over a thousand years, if a cultivator beyond the established foundation boundary wanted to take a step forward, they would have to refine their Way of the Heart countless times, make an unending stream of spiritual energy flow through their essence, and in this way they could still only inch forward over the years. Now, however, by using a few inscriptions, they could easily snatch…

No wonder masters had been as plentiful as clouds in ancient times, ascended spirits filling the streets, and cultivators, instead of diligently cultivating, were everywhere risking their lives looking for people to debate and battle.

Unavoidably, people remembered the legends about that “Tai Sui” who had the misty willow for his accompanying plant. He had opened his spiritual eyes only a few months after beginning to cultivate, established a foundation in less than a year, become an ascended spirit within ten years… This explained it!

So this was Tai Sui’s secret, they thought.

In that moment, on the northern and southern continents, countless hands reached out for those ancient inscriptions.

With a tremendous enticement, even brothers could fall out, never mind that everywhere the flames of war had only been suppressed with difficulty.

The cultivators had been of one heart; now, that “public-spirited heart” broke easily.

An inscription drawn by an established foundation cultivator might be able to offset an entire prefecture’s worth of mortals. After all, it would take effect as soon as it formed.

The reincarnation wood’s inscriptions propagated among cultivators far faster than the Law Breaker’s inscriptions were spreading between mortals.

In hardly longer than the blink of an eye, Tai County’s spiritual energy prohibition line, which had just slowed in its contraction, shrank two or three li. The Luwu near the spiritual energy prohibition line didn’t even have time to react before they ended up in the outside world.

Soon after, like fine sand picked up by a wild wind, the spiritual energy prohibition line began to crumble all at once.

The Luwu didn’t even need to calculate anymore!

Zhao Qindan said, “The spiritual energy prohibition line will have shrunk to where we are in a shichen or two at most…”

Stop dreaming, said Xi Ping, we don’t have anywhere near that much time!

In his hand, the Unbound Furnace’s furnace flame trembled violently. Xi Ping’s heart nearly stopped for a moment. He cupped that weak flame, only the size of a pea, in both hands, wishing he could turn himself into kindling for the furnace flame.

What should he do?

Suddenly, Xi Ping realized that perhaps the Blind Wolf King Xie Chu forcing the ancient inscriptions from outside the Beijue Mountains on him hadn’t been because he had been tricked by false information from the reincarnation wood… His san-ge had likely had a hand in this.

Those two gambling addicts might well have done it on purpose.

If it was a certainty that the hidden bones would go out of control, then once they crossed the shed skin boundary, perhaps they wouldn’t even need the ancient inscriptions. In the current circumstances, the hidden bones would only need to seize the reincarnation wood and escape Xi Ping’s control, and they would be able to take the Xuanyin Mountains—Southern Wan’s Territory Map and veins of the earth were sewn together with reincarnation wood. If the hidden bones reached the shed skin stage, Zhi Xiu’s finicky accompanying plant wouldn’t be numerous enough to suppress them.

Lancang had no master, and its great mountain array and divine tool of the mountains had been beaten half to death by the Sword Slave. If another attacker of shed skin grade came along, they’d have no choice but to kneel and surrender. Xuanwu was Sanyue’s only remaining shed skin, and he was facing enemies on both sides. There was only half of the Lingyun Mountains left, anyway, so they went without saying. Only Northern Li’s Kunlun was formidable, and its Sect Leader had lost his mind, and Wanshuang had revolted… The out-of-control hidden bones could have had the five great immortal mountains in the palm of their hand, even easier than now.

As for how overbearing shed skin hidden bones would be, Xi Ping had no way of imagining. Perhaps his consciousness wouldn’t even have had latitude to struggle before it was simply erased.

That being the case, san-ge must have thought that if the hidden bones could be lured out before they reached the shed skin boundary, the situation wouldn’t be completely hopeless.

Then where was the breaking point?

It obviously wouldn’t do now to rely on interpreting the Law Breaker’s inscriptions and transmitting them to people in imitation of the way Kunlun had been raised. This past millennium and more, if the mortal commoners had been able to overcome the greedy cultivators, the spiritual mountains would have fallen long ago. It wouldn’t have taken this long.

And the shed skin masters were obviously also unreliable.

At present, even if all the presentable shed skins assembled here, they couldn’t cut down all the reincarnation wood trees in the world in a short time. Once the hidden bones got hold of all the ancient inscriptions, then never mind the shed skins, even the full moon sages coming back from the dead wouldn’t be able to turn the situation around!

Holding the Unbound Furnace’s furnace flame, which was growing weaker and weaker, Xi Ping burned with anxiety. He lost confidence in himself, suspecting that he had been knocked dizzy by the ancient inscriptions coming at him without warning and hadn’t understood san-ge’s intentions; he had carried out some earlier step wrong, missed his one chance.

Zhi Xiu and a crowd of shed skins arrived hard upon each other’s heels. They hadn’t been slow, but the whole Xia River was filled with reincarnation wood trees. The ancient inscriptions flashing over the surface of the water one after another were like the lanterns on either side of the Lingyang River.

Before Zhi Xiu arrived, a beam of sword light from Zhaoting flew out, scooping up Lin Chi and Wen Fei.

Xuanwu scolded, “Bold monster.” The strength of a shed skin swept the whole Xia River. His curved blade, like a full moon, made a streak of ghastly pale light. The reincarnation wood trees outside the Law Breaker withered and died in swaths. But at the same time, the light of his blade also delineated the spiritual energy prohibition line, running faster than a Cloud Soaring Flood Dragon. The speed of the Law Breaker’s spiritual energy prohibition line’s retreat was completely unaffected by the reincarnation wood forest. It seemed to be mocking him.

Zhaoting held up Wen Fei’s fan, which had nearly been capsized by the shed skin spiritual energy. He landed beside his own people. “How is it? Where is Shiyong?”

“That…th-that fucking old—old boy toy Xuanwu, is he helping or messing around!” Wen Fei struggled to find his footing and spoke hastily: “O-over there! Y-you can even hear his q-qin!”

Zhi Xiu looked in the direction he was pointing. Across the distance of all of Tao County, with the senses of a shed skin, the tree Xi Ping was temporarily residing in was right before his eyes. Seen from above, the surging spiritual energy prohibition line was charging at that tree like the tide.

Even if the sky fell and the earth cracked, the East Sea overturned…or all the shed skin masters around him collectively lost their minds, Zhaoting could strive to bar the way—whether god or demon, he only needed to know where to strike.

But who could bar the way to all the greed in the world?

The millennia-old spiritual mountains had rotted like this.