The Spirit Sect’s new headquarters was still under construction. In the distance, an iron tower could be seen rising straight into the sky from its center. If the shape of its pointed top had not differed so dramatically from the Eiffel Tower in Fu Xi Yan’s memory, he might genuinely have suspected that the Spirit Sect was hiding another person from his previous life.
Besides the Immortal Treasury Palace, several other sects had already relocated nearby. Having heard the news, they all came to pay their respects to the Young Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace.
Pei Yuan Jin handed the social obligations over to Shou Nan Shan.
For small sects tucked away in one corner of the world, failing to meet the Young Master of the Immortal Treasury Palace was certainly regrettable, but meeting one of its four great chief managers was already an honor. They exhausted every trick they knew in flattering Shou Nan Shan.
Shou Nan Shan had joined the Immortal Treasury Palace partly because he disliked mundane affairs and preferred the carefree air of an immortal. After too much socializing, impatience inevitably appeared on his face. The small-sect representatives were skilled at reading expressions and soon withdrew awkwardly.
Returning to the Wind Division residence, Shou Nan Shan complained, “Matters like this should really be left to Ma Qing in the future.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “He has dealt with these people for many days. Anything worth learning should already have been learned.”
True. Shou Nan Shan also began worrying about the quality of his subordinates. “I asked around. Nearly every sect in Jinling with even a little reputation received an invitation to relocate to the new city. Not only Jinling—apparently sects around Jinling were invited too. Some agreed, some refused. At present, nearly a hundred sects large and small have agreed to move here. The ones who came today were only a small portion.”
Many cities in Fu Xi Yan’s previous life deliberately created a defining identity for themselves: tourist cities, port cities, cultural capitals, and so forth. He asked curiously, “Is the Spirit Sect planning to make the new city the martial-arts center of Southern Yu?”
Shou Nan Shan disagreed. “Putting so many sects together in one place will easily lead to conflict.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Maybe that’s exactly what they’re waiting for. Once everyone starts fighting, the Spirit Sect can arrest them for gathering to brawl and fine them by forcing them to join the Spirit Sect.”
Shou Nan Shan said, “I asked about that too. The Spirit Sect expanded too quickly in earlier years. Now they’ve reached the stage where they would rather lack numbers than accept poor quality. Ordinary people can’t even get in anymore. Apparently, many of these small sects formed precisely because their members couldn’t join the Spirit Sect. If the Spirit Sect wanted to swallow them, they’ve had plenty of opportunities. There would be no need for such an enormous undertaking.”
Pei Yuan Jin could not help looking at Ma Qing, who sat in a corner doing his best to reduce his own sense of existence. He finally asked, “They would rather establish their own sects than join the Immortal Treasury Palace?”
In the jianghu, the Immortal Treasury Palace clearly possessed greater fame and higher status!
Shou Nan Shan gave an awkward “Uh.” He did not dare say that after the old Palace Lord stopped managing affairs, branches of the Immortal Treasury Palace had begun obeying openly while defying orders in private. The organization no longer possessed the dominance over the martial world it had once enjoyed. As one of the four great chief managers, Shou Nan Shan could hardly absolve himself of responsibility for its decline.
Pei Yuan Jin apparently did not expect an answer. He simply closed his eyes and withdrew completely into himself.
Fu Xi Yan encouraged him, “Why don’t we walk around the streets? Maybe we’ll happen to encounter some peerless genius whose talent has gone unrecognized!”
Shou Nan Shan asked a sincere question. “If their talent has gone unrecognized, how are we supposed to recognize them by chance?”
Fu Xi Yan gave another nonsense explanation. “A person of great talent has eight dou of ability, right? We’ll just look for whoever has eight dou balanced on top of their head!”
…
In the end, Fu Xi Yan still dragged Pei Yuan Jin out to stroll through the streets.
Aside from the Spirit Sect headquarters, the new city’s districts were all named after the directions of the Eight Trigrams. The district containing the Wind Division was called Li Ward, located due west, though the streets and shop names themselves remained perfectly ordinary Chinese-style names.
Most shops had only hung up their signs and had not yet opened for business. The occasional shop that was open had its owner busy cleaning and arranging things without expecting customers. Whenever Fu Xi Yan walked inside, they would stare at him in surprise.
“How much is this chair?” The shop he entered was a carpenter’s.
The carpenter had been binding hoops around a barrel. Hearing the question, he immediately put down his work and stood. “Twelve wen.”
Fu Xi Yan bought it and gave it to Ma Qing as a housewarming gift, grandly declaring that a man who acted upright should also sit upright.
He had done it casually and had not thought much about the words. But to the already terrified Ma Qing, the Young Madam was clearly warning him. Sweating heavily, he accepted the chair and promised to put it in the most conspicuous location so he could look at it every day and remind himself.
Fu Xi Yan wanted very much to tell him that this was completely unnecessary. But Pei Yuan Jin looked satisfied, so Fu Xi Yan could only look satisfied as well.
After buying the chair, Fu Xi Yan now felt entitled to make conversation and began chatting with the carpenter while the man returned to binding his barrel.
The carpenter was from Jinling and had only recently moved here.
Fu Xi Yan asked curiously, “Jinling is a great city. Why were you willing to move to the new city?”
The carpenter said, “I was an apprentice in Jinling. Here I can be the owner. They gave me this shop for free.”
“Your master didn’t come?”
“No. He owns a shop in Jinling. He has money.” A hint of envy entered the carpenter’s voice. “I’ll have that someday too.”
Fu Xi Yan nodded and sincerely wished him success.
They visited a few other establishments and found much the same story. Most residents were people who previously possessed a useful craft but no property. The Spirit Sect recruited them to start businesses in the new city. Most had received not only shops but houses, allowing them to bring their entire families.
Near the boundary between Li Ward and Dui Ward, they even saw an academy in the middle of relocating. Apparently, several □□, disgusted with their former academy’s filthy atmosphere of caring only about money, had taken the students they favored and moved here directly with the Spirit Sect’s support.
Elio’s Notes: The source contains □□ in the phrase identifying the people who brought the students here. The missing characters are not visible in the available raw, so they have been preserved rather than guessed.
After walking around for a while, Fu Xi Yan felt that whatever else might be said about the city, it at least possessed an energetic, hopeful atmosphere.
Shou Nan Shan said, “There aren’t many old people or children.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “They’re still in the entrepreneurial phase. Bringing old people and children now would be inconvenient.” The vegetable markets and proper marketplaces had not even opened yet. “I wonder how much houses cost here.”
Pei Yuan Jin frowned. “You want to stay?”
Fu Xi Yan shook his head. “I want to invest.”
Naturally, he was only joking. He was an official of Northern Zhou. If he ran to Southern Yu to invest real silver, the return on his investment might well be shackles and chains.
But there happened to be a property brokerage ahead, so he went in and asked about prices. They were astonishingly cheap, but under one condition: buyers had to remain in the new city and live there, and they needed employment capable of supporting themselves.
Fu Xi Yan: “…” Wasn’t this the legendary “immigration jail”?
After wandering through the new city, the novelty slowly faded and boredom began to set in. The city was simply too new. There were barely any people. Even with orderly houses standing everywhere, it lacked human warmth, and remaining there too long felt gloomy and oppressive. Worse, Heaven refused to cooperate. Halfway through their outing, rain suddenly came pouring down, making the already muted streets look even grayer and duller.
The rain came swiftly and fell hard. Black clouds rolled across the horizon like the gigantic maw of some mythical beast, advancing with such ambition that they appeared ready to swallow everything beneath Heaven.
Fu Xi Yan and the others took shelter in a restaurant whose owners were in the middle of a thorough cleaning. The proprietor served them a pot of rough tea, then, under the proprietress’s eye-roll, put down his rag and joined them in watching the torrential rain outside.
The downpour continued for an entire afternoon. By the time it stopped, a layer of standing water covered the road. At buildings with lower thresholds, water had already spilled inside.
Fu Xi Yan shook his head. “The drainage is terrible.”
The south received abundant rain. If a city’s drainage was poor, then no matter how beautiful the architecture, it was only an ornamental shell.
By the time they returned to the Wind Division residence, the sky was completely dark. The new city that had seemed at least somewhat picturesque and interesting during the day now looked extraordinarily sinister beneath the pitch-black night. The pointed iron tower rising in the distance resembled the demonic tower in a fairy tale where some witch imprisoned princes and princesses.
There was little entertainment here. Fu Xi Yan washed early and sat in the room cultivating.
By now he had reached a peculiar understanding with the true essence inside him. From time to time he would poke at it. If it refused to release any true qi, he would take on the attitude that they might as well perish together. Most of the time, the true essence would compromise and spit out slightly more than usual.
Fu Xi Yan was not picky. A little extra was still extra.
As time passed, he no longer even needed to threaten it much. When the usual time arrived, the true essence would obediently release a little on its own.
Relying on this steady accumulation, he had gradually cultivated his way to the middle Mortal-Shedding Stage.
Compared with his own past progress, it was slower than when he had charged all the way into the Vajra Stage in one breath and then into the Mortal-Shedding Stage in another. But compared with other people his age, even Pei Yuan Jin had not cultivated this quickly back then.
After finishing his cultivation, Fu Xi Yan voluntarily rolled to the inner side of the bed, wrapped himself in the quilt, and stared expectantly at Pei Yuan Jin, who was still sitting at the table reading through the intelligence gathered by Jinling’s Wind Division over the years.
Having discovered that his subordinates were of little use, Pei Yuan Jin had no choice but to personally read through years of reports, hoping to analyze the Spirit Sect’s intentions from a mountain of trivial information.
The results were minimal.
The reports were simply too trivial. They even recorded an occasion when a Spirit Sect disciple thought vegetables were too expensive and argued with a street vendor over the price.
Pei Yuan Jin put down the booklet, extinguished the lamp, and lay on the bed. Fu Xi Yan immediately leaned his head toward him. Pei Yuan Jin reached over, stroked Fu Xi Yan’s hair, pinched his plump, tender cheek once, and only then lay flat to sleep.
Fu Xi Yan likewise felt that every task on today’s schedule had now been completed, allowing him to enter dreamland with a clear conscience.
A moment later.
Pei Yuan Jin’s voice sounded beside his pillow. “The new city resembles Haojing.”
Fu Xi Yan opened his eyes groggily and followed his train of thought. “The Spirit Sect wants to rebel? But isn’t Wu Xuan Yin going to marry the emperor? Any child she has can legitimately inherit the throne.” He paused. “Unless she and the emperor aren’t truly in love.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Construction on the new city began during the late emperor’s reign.”
Fu Xi Yan sighed. “Ambitions really should be formed early. Does Wu Xuan Yin want to become empress regnant? And make Ban Qing Yu crown prince?”
Something still felt wrong.
The two fell silent again. They simply had too little information.
Just when Fu Xi Yan thought the discussion would end without a conclusion, Pei Yuan Jin said, “We’ll go to Lin’an.” Both the Spirit Sect Leader and the Southern Yu emperor were in Lin’an. If the Spirit Sect’s scheme truly concerned Southern Yu, perhaps there would be signs in the capital.
Fu Xi Yan mumbled, “West Lake vinegar fish… beggar’s chicken… Dongpo pork…” and fell asleep amid fragrant dreams.
＊
The farther south they traveled, the more frequently it rained. When they reached Lin’an, the rain had just cleared. A pale rainbow hung across the sky.
Such scenery attracted plenty of travelers from elsewhere, but Lin’an residents were long accustomed to it. The city guards urged the people lined up outside to hurry inside instead of wasting time staring.
As Southern Yu’s capital, Lin’an inspected those entering and leaving more strictly than Jinling did. But however incompetent the Jinling Wind Division might be, it would never allow its own Young Master to get stuck at the city gate, so the group passed through smoothly.
Once inside Lin’an, the roar of voices and bustle of everyday life swept over them from every direction.
The various Immortal Treasury Palace divisions in Lin’an had already heard that the Young Master was arriving and that he was extremely dissatisfied with Jinling. Naturally, none dared neglect him. They had prepared a residence beside West Lake in advance, directly across the water from the imperial palace.
The person who came to receive them was Ying He, chief manager of the Wind Division.
He did not know martial arts, but his background was unusual. During the reign of the late Southern Yu emperor, he had been the adopted son of the palace’s chief eunuch. Later, when his adoptive father was imprisoned for corruption and abuse of office, Ying He feared being implicated and fled to the Immortal Treasury Palace overnight. Relying on the connections his adoptive father left behind, he worked diligently for several years and gradually climbed to his present position.
Pei Yuan Jin had not realized the Immortal Treasury Palace had become so indiscriminate in its efforts to develop influence in Southern Yu. Expressionless, he asked, “Does my father know about this?”
Replacing a Wind Division chief manager required approval from headquarters. As the overall chief manager of the Wind Division, Shou Nan Shan naturally knew every procedure. “He knows.”
Seeing Pei Yuan Jin displeased, Fu Xi Yan leaned over and whispered, “Black cat or white cat, any cat that catches mice is a good cat.”
Ying He stood below while the people above whispered among themselves, his eyes lowered and expression composed as though he had no idea he was the subject of discussion. This steadiness alone made him far superior to Ma Qing.
Pei Yuan Jin asked, “You don’t know martial arts?”
Ying He replied, “Reporting to the Young Master, this subordinate wanted to learn, but I simply lack the talent. Fortunately, the Immortal Treasury Palace’s reputation is formidable. No one within Lin’an dares provoke us.”
At least he spoke more fluently than Ma Qing. Forced to choose the tallest dwarf, Pei Yuan Jin no longer dared demand too much.
He asked, “What movements have there been in Southern Yu recently?”
Ying He said, “Yesterday, Southern Yu’s officials submitted their fifth memorial urging the emperor to appoint an empress as soon as possible. The emperor appears to have begun considering candidates.”
Fu Xi Yan asked curiously, “Wouldn’t the empress be Wu Xuan Yin?”
Ying He said, “When Southern Yu’s officials first submitted a memorial asking the emperor to establish an empress, the emperor arranged for one official to suggest precisely that. But the other officials rejected the proposal in extremely strong terms, which is how this prolonged battle over the empress position began. Recently, after repeated persuasion from the Participating Councillor and the ministers of the Six Ministries, the emperor seems to have begun wavering. He may appoint Cui Yi Yao, daughter of a Grand Secretary, as empress.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “And Wu Xuan Yin hasn’t reacted at all?”
She was a Martial God. Was she seriously just going to sit there and watch her boyfriend cheat on her?
Ying He said, “Sect Leader Wu resides in Lingyun Palace. She hasn’t left for a very long time.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “In your opinion, are Wu Xuan Yin and the young emperor actually in love?”
Ying He froze, probably never expecting that, as the one bringing the gossip, he would suddenly be asked by one of the gossip-eaters to analyze somebody else’s love life. After thinking for quite some time, he said, “Sect Leader Wu contributed enormously to the Southern Yu emperor’s successful ascension. It is said that when the regent was killed, she personally acted. There should be some genuine feeling.”
Pei Yuan Jin abruptly asked, “You mean she personally made a move?”
Ying He said, “There are rumors inside the palace, but the witnesses all said it happened far too quickly for them to be certain.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “She’s a Martial God. Killing someone should be as easy as chopping vegetables. What’s strange about that?”
Pei Yuan Jin exchanged a glance with Shou Nan Shan. Shou Nan Shan said, “If she really acted personally, then she truly gave that young emperor everything she had.”
Ying He continued, “For her sake, the emperor not only rejected repeated proposals to hold a selection of imperial consorts, but even disregarded opposition from his imperial relatives and married off the maternal cousin who had grown up beside him to somewhere far away. Before rumors began spreading through the palace that the emperor was wavering, every story told about the two of them sounded like… true love.” Outside of flirtatious joking, Ying He was clearly uncomfortable seriously discussing “love,” making the final words sound rather unnatural.
Pei Yuan Jin found the conversation awkward as well and quickly changed subjects. “Besides that, what other movements have there been among Southern Yu’s various powers?”
Ying He hurriedly answered, “The City of Ten Thousand Beasts is driving herds of animals toward the new city. The person leading them should be Tong Fang Yu’s eldest disciple, Xi Mo Ya. Judging from their pace, they should arrive within the next day or two. However, the City of Ten Thousand Beasts and the Spirit Sect have long had dealings. I heard Tong Fang Yu once intended to propose a marriage alliance, but Xi Mo Ya apparently had an unpleasant incident at the Spirit Sect, and nothing came of it in the end.”
Fu Xi Yan sighed mournfully. “When every demon and monster starts crawling out of the woodwork, it means something major really is about to happen.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Recall our people from Rongcheng. Put everything into watching the Spirit Sect and the Southern Yu court.”
Ying He hurriedly acknowledged the order.
After he left, Shou Nan Shan said, “Wu Xuan Yin is a Martial God. If she has already acted once, she certainly won’t dare act a second time. If the Spirit Sect makes any moves, I think Ban Qing Yu is still the one we need to guard against.”
Fu Xi Yan asked in confusion, “Why wouldn’t she dare act a second time just because she acted once?”
Shou Nan Shan looked toward Pei Yuan Jin. Pei Yuan Jin looked outside at the sky. There was still some time before evening. The freshness following the rain had yet to fade, and cool breezes blew continuously across West Lake.
“Drinking pre-rain Longjing after a rain should be excellent.”
＊
When Young Master Pei went out, his grandeur naturally had to be complete.
Two people carried a tea table. One carried cushions. Others carried the teapot, the little stove…
Only after seeing it for himself did Fu Xi Yan understand how difficult filming television dramas must have been in his previous life. They were not filming anything, yet this entourage was no less elaborate than that of any major celebrity.
Pei Yuan Jin seemed to find absolutely nothing wrong with causing so much work for everyone. He walked leisurely among the busy group, chose a place with an excellent view, ordered them to set everything down, and personally began preparing the tea.
Although Shou Nan Shan was qualified to claim a seat nearby, he had always possessed good judgment. When a young couple sat together drinking tea and appreciating the scenery, naturally he stayed far away. Not only did he withdraw himself, he unreasonably cleared everyone else away from the vicinity as well.
As Pei Yuan Jin prepared the tea, he gradually entered a calm, composed state. All the troublesome matters involving the Spirit Sect seemed to have been pushed entirely from his mind, leaving only the poetic landscape before him.
“Fewer than one in ten experts at the Dao-Entry Stage successfully advance to Martial King.”
Pei Yuan Jin began today’s lesson with those words. “For that reason, people in the jianghu who achieve Martial King are extremely rare. Many people therefore judge Martial God advancement according to the standard for reaching Martial King and assume that the path to Martial God must be even more difficult. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Once someone enters the Martial King Stage, even if they do absolutely nothing, the spiritual energy between Heaven and Earth will naturally begin moving for their use, eventually carrying them into the Martial God Stage.”
Fu Xi Yan stared. “There’s something that good?”
“It is not a good thing.” Pei Yuan Jin’s voice sank. “Once someone becomes a Martial God, the power of their soul becomes overwhelmingly strong. They can move all things for their own use, and shifting mountains or overturning seas lies within their power. Precisely because that strength is too great and exceeds what the physical body can bear, once a Martial God uses their power, their soul may dissolve into the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and become unable to return.”
Fu Xi Yan blinked, not understanding. “What does it mean for the soul to dissolve into the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and become unable to return?”
Pei Yuan Jin explained directly, “When a Martial God fights, the enemy may not even die before the Martial God himself vanishes into smoke. Even without fighting, spiritual energy continues entering the body day after day and gradually assimilating the soul. Given enough time, they will eventually disperse into Heaven and Earth.”
Fu Xi Yan stammered, “Is that… what you call sublimation?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “A martial artist refines true qi from spiritual energy, yet in the end the soul itself transforms back into spiritual energy and returns to Heaven and Earth. Such is the Dao: cycling endlessly, never exhausted.”
Martial arts refined true qi from spiritual energy, while the Spirit-Sight Art allowed one to see a person’s soul. Didn’t that suggest that spiritual energy, true qi, and the soul were fundamentally different manifestations of the same thing?
The Martial Path and Puppet Path took different roads, but their essence was the same. In that case, might their ultimate destination also be the same?
Fu Xi Yan remembered that Pei Xiong Ji was a Martial God as well. “Then the Palace Lord…”
“He entered seclusion to find a way to stop his spiritual power from continuing to increase.” Pei Yuan Jin said, “Throughout history, every Martial God and Weapon Venerable has searched for a path of ascension that would prevent Heaven and Earth from assimilating them. None have succeeded.”
That was why Pei Yuan Jin had always hesitated before taking the step into Martial King.
Once he crossed that threshold, his life would enter a countdown. From that moment onward, there would truly be no retreat, only forward movement. And his state of mind had never been tempered enough for him to take that step free of all attachments.
To Fu Xi Yan, however, this seemed almost like a good thing for the world itself.
In the novels he used to read, too many immortals eventually drained the world of spiritual energy. This world had apparently solved the energy crisis right at the source. Martial artists absorbed spiritual energy? No problem. They were all temporary borrowers. Once they died, their souls dispersed and the spiritual energy returned. If they refused to die, the world simply helped them cultivate all the way to the summit until they exceeded their physical bodies and returned to nature anyway.
No matter which route you took, it somehow ended in sustainable development.
From a human perspective, however, mankind’s future had effectively been confined beneath a ceiling everyone could see. Whoever touched that ceiling smashed their head bloody. But humanity developed precisely because humans possessed creativity and ambition. Even if there was a ceiling, someone would always try to punch through it!
Just like the phrase he had once told Shou Nan Shan: man could triumph over Heaven.
Fu Xi Yan finally found an opportunity to use another saying. “I once heard a phrase: My fate is mine, not Heaven’s. If we believe the limit of life lies at a certain point, then we may never even reach that point. If we refuse to impose limits on ourselves, we might instead unleash strength even we never imagined we possessed.”
He had no idea whether this bowl of motivational chicken soup smelled better than the pre-rain Longjing in Pei Yuan Jin’s hand. Judging from the way Pei Yuan Jin continued drinking his tea, however, the chicken soup did not appear particularly effective.
Pei Yuan Jin said calmly, “We have never admitted defeat.”
If they had admitted defeat, Pei Xiong Ji would never have entered seclusion with the elders.
If Pei Yuan Jin had admitted defeat, he would never have cultivated the Sacred Flame Art.
If they had admitted defeat, the Immortal Treasury Palace and the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror would never have existed.
Fu Xi Yan suddenly asked, “There are so many treasures and spiritual artifacts in the world. Isn’t there anything useful?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “No.” His Crimson Dragon King was already a Heaven-grade spiritual artifact, yet before a Martial God it was equally incapable of withstanding a blow.
Fu Xi Yan said, “I heard the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror is called the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror because they possess the strongest treasure beneath Heaven and Earth—the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror.” The sentence sounded like a tongue twister, but in reality the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror had first been a supreme treasure, acclaimed as the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Treasures. Later, Shi Yi Ming obtained it, and when he founded his organization, he named that organization after the treasure.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “If the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror were useful, Shi Yi Ming would not be constrained by Mo Xiao Ran and forced to shut his doors to outsiders.”
The two of them were in the middle of an animated conversation when a burst of commotion suddenly came from nearby. Immediately afterward, a kite dropped from the sky and landed directly in Fu Xi Yan’s arms.
Fu Xi Yan looked down at the mandarin-duck kite in his lap, then innocently spread his hands toward Pei Yuan Jin. “I didn’t order anything. Must’ve been delivered to the wrong address.”