Although the day had dragged on painfully, once night fell and everyone lay down, their eyes had barely closed before snores began rising one after another. Each slept more soundly than the next.
When Fu Xi Yan woke, he could still hear Zhang Wei, who was sleeping near the cave entrance, snoring like dry-season thunder.
He rubbed his eyes and was about to get up when he turned and found Pei Yuan Jin, sleeping beside him, already awake. Pei Yuan Jin lay on his side without moving, quietly staring at him.
Truthfully, the last time Fu Xi Yan had seen that look was on the way to kidnap the young emperor. Afterward…
That completely out-of-nowhere kiss had been far too memorable. Even during brief pauses in their escape these past two days, Fu Xi Yan had found himself thinking about it. Yet Pei Yuan Jin had seemed to put the whole thing behind him.
Had he simply not taken it to heart? Or had it not felt particularly good?
…
Then again, with nothing more than that light touch, how much of an impression could it possibly have left?
So now… did he want another try?
Fu Xi Yan’s thoughts began running wild. He even prepared himself. If Pei Yuan Jin really leaned closer this time, Fu Xi Yan would gather his courage and move a little himself.
And then Pei Yuan Jin got up. He had only been lying there because he did not want the movement of getting up to disturb the person beside him. After all, Fu Xi Yan’s foot was resting on top of his.
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
It was admittedly a terrible comparison, but for one brief instant he felt like Lin Daiyu who had somehow mistakenly married Lu Zhishen. He wanted to bury every flower and blade of grass outside in the hole left behind after the willow tree had been uprooted!
Elio’s Notes: Lin Daiyu, the famously delicate heroine of Dream of the Red Chamber, is associated with mournfully burying fallen flowers. Lu Zhishen, a mighty warrior from Water Margin, famously uproots a willow tree by brute force. Fu Xi Yan has mashed the two scenes together into one catastrophic marriage.
Seeing him still lying there, Pei Yuan Jin reached over and squeezed his arm.
Fu Xi Yan felt absolutely nothing. At first, when Pei Yuan Jin kept squeezing and pinching him, he had thought it was intimacy and tenderness. After enough time passed, however, he could not help wondering whether he had simply been mistaken for a bolster pillow.
Sure enough, when Pei Yuan Jin squeezed something, he was genuinely just squeezing it. There was not a drop of hidden meaning mixed in!
Once they resumed traveling, everyone’s mentality had calmed considerably. Whatever was going to happen must already have happened. Since it had already happened, being anxious or not anxious changed nothing. They could only wait for news.
Tan Bu Ju woke after catching another nap on Xiao Shan’s back and immediately decided this was another exciting new day. His eyes darted left and right in search of someone to chat with. Fu Xi Yan happened to be nearby. The moment he noticed Tan Bu Ju was awake, he changed direction and tried to avoid him without making it obvious.
“Young Madam.”
“…”
“Young Madam!” The volume instantly doubled.
“…Yes?” Fu Xi Yan had no choice but to turn around.
Tan Bu Ju smiled. “Where did we leave off yesterday? Mm, never mind. We can just say it again today. Do you think Ban Qing Yu succeeded in ascending? If she did, she’d become the number-one person in the martial world, surpassing both the Palace Lord and the master of the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror.”
Fu Xi Yan, who absolutely did not want to say it all over again, took another route. “Did you hear thunder yesterday?”
Tan Bu Ju blinked curiously. “No. Mm, did Young Madam hear thunder yesterday?”
Fu Xi Yan shrugged. “If there wasn’t any thunder, then she probably didn’t succeed.”
“Why?”
Walking was boring, so quite a few people had secretly pricked up their ears. Fu Xi Yan turned and discovered that besides the young emperor who had asked the question, Pei Yuan Jin, Shou Nan Shan, and several others were all looking at him curiously.
Fu Xi Yan spouted nonsense with complete confidence. “That’s how it works in storybooks. Ascension usually comes with a lightning tribulation.”
Xiao Sang, whose fever had only just broken, forced himself to stay alert enough to join the conversation. “Isn’t it demons transforming into human form that have to undergo lightning tribulations?”
Thinking of that woman whose bearing seemed elegant and refined while her belly was actually full of schemes, Fu Xi Yan shook his head. “Is Ban Qing Yu not enough of a demon already?”
Everyone knew he was joking, yet the remark still stirred their curiosity about what came after ascension.
In Pei Yuan Jin and the others’ understanding, the Ascension Stage was simply one level above Martial God and would therefore possess even vaster and more overwhelming power. Controlling clouds and rain was about the limit of what they could imagine.
Fu Xi Yan, who had watched far too many television dramas in his previous life, had a much broader imagination.
Thinking carefully, even the name “Ascension Stage” was strange. It obviously did not belong to the same naming system as Martial King and Martial God. It was like comparing xianxia with wuxia. They were completely different systems.
Who had first proposed this concept? And what had they based it on?
Fu Xi Yan could not resist sharing his thoughts with Pei Yuan Jin.
Pei Yuan Jin gave him a strange look, as though doubting the level of his education. “The word ‘ascension’ comes from Legend of Heaven and Earth. According to legend, when heaven and earth were first formed, countless deities existed in the world. They rode clouds and mist and flew freely. The Ascension Stage is named for martial artists’ desire to possess power like those gods.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Has nobody ever thought there might be another world in the sky?”
Pei Yuan Jin’s expression changed. His gaze became sharp and examining. “Yes. The No-Return Sect once recruited believers and harmed innocents by claiming they could ascend to an immortal realm in heaven. In the end, the righteous martial factions united to destroy them. An immortal realm in the heavens was a doctrine unique to the No-Return Sect. Where did you hear it?”
Fu Xi Yan had not expected an idle remark to wander straight into the doctrine of an evil cult. Speechless, he could only lower his head and admit fault. An ignorant person like him had never even heard of Legend of Heaven and Earth, much less the No-Return Sect. He had simply been thinking nonsense.
Pei Yuan Jin squeezed his cheek, accepted the explanation, and then, just like an ordinary child from any ordinary family, displayed limitless admiration and confidence in his own father. “If Ban Qing Yu enters the Ascension Stage, then my father will certainly not be far behind.”
Once someone opened a path, those following it would naturally have an easier journey.
He trusted his father’s talent.
Zhang Wei suddenly hurried over anxiously. “Young Master, the men this subordinate left behind to cover our retreat spotted pursuers.”
Pei Yuan Jin stopped walking. The Crimson Dragon King in his hair seemed to sense its master’s fighting spirit and flickered with light.
Zhang Wei glanced at Xiao Sang and Tan Bu Ju, both of whom were being carried by companions, then gritted his teeth. “They have too many people. We should divide into two groups. This subordinate will draw them away. I know the terrain of these mountains and forests well. They won’t catch me.”
Shou Nan Shan said, “If they caught up this quickly, they must have a tracking expert among them. You probably won’t fool them.”
Zhang Wei said, “This subordinate boldly asks Chief Steward Shou and Chief Manager Tan to come with me. Even with a tracking expert, that should make the false trail more convincing. If we’re pursued, Chief Steward Shou need only take Chief Manager Tan and leave. This subordinate will remain behind.”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “No need. Let them follow.”
With the young emperor in their hands, the pursuers would hesitate to strike for fear of harming him. They could not possibly launch a large-scale attack.
Pei Yuan Jin ordered everyone to continue.
Sure enough, after Chai Mi detected people ahead, he slowed his own advance instead of daring to press closer and ordered his men to spread out and infiltrate from different directions.
Zhu Shou Xin personally led Xiao Jin Zi and Elder Wei on a detour, intending to circle ahead and block the fugitives’ path.
But another group moved even faster than they did: mountain bandits.
With both a Martial God and Martial King present, the fact that they could somehow encounter mountain bandits on the road was absurd beyond belief. Yet this ridiculous plot development truly happened.
Pei Yuan Jin’s group heard rustling among the trees and assumed it was the pursuers, so at first they paid it little attention. A moment later, however, more than a hundred fierce bandits reeking of blood charged out from every direction. Their shouts shook the forest and startled an entire cloud of birds into flight.
Then, naturally, there was no “then.”
Fu Xi Yan took the Hidden Dragon Unit out for a little practice and subdued the entire group. The strongest among the bandits had only reached the Bone Forging Stage.
Mixed among the bandits were several sturdy peasant women who knew no martial arts whatsoever. After questioning them carefully, everyone learned that nearly half of these supposed bandits were actually refugees.
One of the peasant women sobbed until tears and snot covered her face. She explained that they had all fled from the Shuntai area. When Rongcheng declared independence, nearby officials, terrified of being implicated, had once organized local militias and staged several proper-looking battles. Her husband had been conscripted at the time and later died on the battlefield.
Rongcheng resented those people for resisting. After winning, it frequently sent cavalry to harass the region. Counties and villages that had once provided militia suffered first. When the villagers could no longer survive, the village chief led them away in flight.
Once one village left, nearby villages followed. Small streams merged into a river, eventually becoming an enormous mass of refugees.
Every city they passed shut its gates against them. Some officials feared punishment from above and even labeled them bandits, sending soldiers to suppress them. With nowhere else to go, they fled into the mountains.
Southern Yu had countless forests, and those forests held countless bandits. Although the authorities repeatedly dispatched troops to clear them out, they were like wild grass after a fire, always returning with the spring wind. Some, like Zhang Wei, eventually found they could no longer survive in the mountains and emerged to reform. Far more retreated deeper into the wilderness.
The peasant woman’s group had encountered the latter kind.
Since these were still his own subjects, Qin Xiao Xun could not simply ignore them. “How many of you are there?”
The peasant woman led the group to their temporary camp.
Qin Xiao Xun’s two personal guards and the Hidden Dragon Unit went in, killed the bandits left behind to watch the camp, and rescued everyone else.
Looking at the densely packed heads before him, Fu Xi Yan felt an overwhelming sense of absurdity.
Excuse him, but did anyone still remember that they were also fugitives currently being hunted by the government?
Just ahead lay the territory of Jiyang County. Chai Mi had already sent men ahead under the pretext of suppressing bandits and ordered the county magistrate to dispatch yamen runners to assist them. Privately, however, he knew perfectly well that against a group of jianghu experts like Pei Yuan Jin’s, adding a few more runners was little more than serving several additional dishes.
Unfortunately, the Spirit Sect was too powerful, while the Six Doors could not recruit genuine top-tier experts. Even the cleverest cook could not make a meal without rice. Chai Mi had no fine wine or delicacies to put on the table and could only hope the men he sent to Jinling would return with reinforcements soon.
Internally he had already accepted defeat, but outwardly he still had to put on a proper show. He grandly unfolded a map of Jiyang County and began pointing here and there while issuing instructions to his subordinates.
“Where is His Majesty?” An extraordinarily pleasant female voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
Chai Mi whirled around in alarm and found himself staring at an extremely pale yet extraordinarily beautiful face.
If more than two hundred refugees were simply abandoned, then given enough time, even without bandits coercing them, desperation for survival would eventually turn many of them into bandits themselves. History contained far too many examples.
So when Qin Xiao Xun proposed escorting them to nearby Jiyang County for resettlement, neither Pei Yuan Jin nor Fu Xi Yan objected.
One possessed an innate sense of justice, while the other revered human life. Even if doing this caused them some inconvenience, it could bring light and hope to people who had suffered for far too long.
There was a reason popcorn movies were popular. Most people carried some kind of heroic salvation fantasy within them. Watching the refugees weep with gratitude made it difficult not to be moved.
Qin Xiao Xun had already begun thinking about how to resettle them. Jiyang County could certainly accommodate a mere two hundred people. But across this endless sea of forests, how many other groups of two hundred were there?
Such enormous numbers of common people had fled their homes. Shuntai might have remained silent out of guilt and fear, but so many other prefectures and counties lay along the route, yet not a single one had reported anything upward. It revealed just how weak his control over the local governments had become. This journey had not been entirely without gain.
Marching toward Jiyang County with such a huge crowd of refugees could not possibly remain unnoticed. As they approached cultivated farmland and nearby villages, a hunter heard the commotion and hurried downhill to report it.
Looking down from the mountainside, they could see a hunter carrying a fork and running urgently toward the fields. Hundreds of qing of farmland stretched beneath the sunlight, so lush and green that it almost seemed to glow.
Elio’s Notes: A qing is a traditional Chinese unit of land area equal to 100 mu; its exact size varied historically.
Many of the refugees could no longer hold back their tears.
Once, they too had lived lives like this. Looking back now, those peaceful days felt impossibly distant, almost like beautiful memories from a previous lifetime. Instead, the memories carved deepest into them were of being driven away by the authorities and enslaved by mountain bandits, experiences impossible to shake.
Their muffled sobbing was even more heartbreaking than loud wailing.
Fu Xi Yan’s heart clenched again and again. He almost wished they could simply let themselves cry properly.
And at that exact moment…
Something suddenly changed!
Boulders came crashing down the mountain. There were not many of them, but they came with terrifying force, aimed directly at the place where the refugees had gathered.
Shou Nan Shan, Pei Yuan Jin, and Fu Xi Yan kicked off the ground at the same time and caught the enormous stones. Farmland lay immediately beside them, so they did not dare throw the boulders carelessly. They could only retreat several zhang until they found barren ground and dropped them there.
And in that brief span of time, Yi Jue made his move.
When a Martial God moved, wind and lightning followed, and the heavens themselves seemed to churn. The refugees only felt the soft, powerless summer breeze abruptly transform into blades and swords. It sliced coldly across their faces and exposed skin, leaving painful stings.
Two extraordinarily powerful streams of true qi collided violently, then spread outward and began circulating in a sphere, forming an invisible barrier.
By the time Pei Yuan Jin and the others tried to return, the barrier had already sealed them outside.
Fu Xi Yan sighed. “So she came after all.”
When they encountered the bandits and refugees, they had already suspected someone was manipulating events from behind the scenes. They simply could not determine which side. The falling boulders had finally confirmed it. This was the prelude to open conflict.
Given the forces currently accompanying Pei Yuan Jin’s group, anyone daring to provoke them head-on would at minimum need a Martial God holding the line.
They did not know many Martial Gods in Southern Yu, and one happened to have an unusually deep relationship with the young emperor.
The wind grew increasingly violent. Flying sand and stones swallowed the mountainside until east and west became impossible to distinguish. Even outside the battlefield, the residual force swept over them and pushed them backward step by step.
Shou Nan Shan’s expression changed. “They’re fighting seriously now!”
Two Martial Gods genuinely fighting in anger could have catastrophic consequences. Never mind that both Martial Gods themselves might die. Nearby households could easily be dragged into it as well.
The mountain peak was already beginning to tremble. As the strongest fighter present apart from the two Martial Gods, Shou Nan Shan had reached the point where he had no choice but to intervene by force.
He took a deep breath and was just about to break in when a crimson longsword came slashing straight into the hazy storm of sand and stone.
The introduction of a third stream of true qi caused the two forces already locked together to generate tremendous rejection.
The clothes around Pei Yuan Jin’s body vanished instantly, revealing the blazing Extreme Yang Sacred Body beneath. Yet the radiance that had once dared compete with sun and moon now looked strangely lonely. Like a moth flying into a true inferno, even its sacrifice seemed insignificant before that enormous force.
Wounds split continuously across his flesh. Blood seeped out only to vanish almost immediately within the flames, as though being absorbed. Yet the wounds kept multiplying until some nearly exposed bone.
Shou Nan Shan hurriedly thrust out a palm, adding his own strength behind the Crimson Dragon King. Yet the palm force capable of collapsing several zhang of city wall failed to create even a ripple here. The crimson sword remained suspended outside the storm, unable to advance even an inch.
For the first time, a Martial King personally experienced the gulf separating Martial King from Martial God. That realization altered Shou Nan Shan’s state of mind. Spiritual energy around him responded, while the true qi within his body rose relentlessly. The Martial God Stage suddenly seemed close enough to touch.
His expression changed several times. In the end, he withdrew his palm. The rebounding true qi blasted him aside.
Fu Xi Yan watched these successive changes in stunned silence. At this point he had no attention left for anything else. Every one of his little blood-primed swords shot forward, but before they could even draw close, the colliding true qi destroyed them without leaving a trace.
At that moment, the flames surrounding Pei Yuan Jin slowly began changing color, shifting from crimson toward gold-red. His wounds closed at terrifying speed only to split open again just as quickly, as though some invisible force were pulling his body apart while the light generated by the Extreme Yang Sacred Body burned hotter and hotter.
Shou Nan Shan covered his chest as he climbed back to his feet. “The Young Master… is about to advance to Martial King.”
Fu Xi Yan was shocked.
Hadn’t they said Pei Yuan Jin needed to dual-cultivate before advancing to Martial King?
Then now…
Now was the result of Pei Yuan Jin’s own careful decision.
Ever since he retreated without fighting Mo Xiao Ran in the imperial palace, a crack had appeared in his state of mind. As time passed, he had spent far too long fleeing, and that crack had only widened until it had nearly begun affecting the Crimson Dragon King whenever he drew his sword.
He knew he could no longer wait. He could not even wait to dual-cultivate with Fu Xi Yan. Dual cultivation was a safeguard, and the very desire for a safeguard was rooted in fear.
Fear was the one thing that had no place in his sword Dao.
The Sacred Flame Art was already one of the most supreme martial arts beneath heaven. After Martial God Pei Xiong Ji personally revised it, it had approached perfection. Its sole flaw was the tyrannical nature of its attribute. Without someone to harmonize it, the art would damage the practitioner’s body.
But that was a problem for later.
A flaw in one’s state of mind could, at best, destroy years of cultivation and, at worst, leave one completely crippled.
An opportunity to witness two Martial Gods clash was something that might not come again in a thousand years. If he missed this chance, perhaps darkness would eventually swallow him. Fear would deepen day after day, weakening him until his state of mind shattered completely.
His body might have been covered in wounds, but the battle intent born from daring to contend with Martial Gods was rapidly mending the crack in his state of mind, refining it until it became purer than before.
The instant he broke through to Martial King, the radiance of the Extreme Yang Sacred Body suddenly expanded hundreds, even thousands of times over, nearly engulfing the entire mountain peak!
He had only just entered the Martial King Stage, yet Pei Yuan Jin already carried the imposing air of someone who looked down upon everyone else in the same realm.
Yi Jue and Wu Xuan Yin, still locked in fierce combat, finally noticed a brilliant beam of scorching light piercing into their battlefield.
Wu Xuan Yin’s expression sharpened. She tossed aside another spent Dementor and shielded Qin Xiao Xun behind her with one hand. “Shall we stop here?”
Yi Jue softly uttered a single “Mm.”
Wu Xuan Yin cursed inwardly. This mute! If her hearing were not exceptionally sharp, wouldn’t she have assumed he was refusing outright?
Since both of them had reached Martial God, their basic character could at least be trusted. There was no need to count one, two, three. Both withdrew their true qi at once. As the suspended sand and stones fell from the sky, the trembling mountain finally stabilized, leaving only a few scattered rocks still tumbling down.
The Hidden Dragon Unit trapped inside the battlefield had been no different from the ordinary refugees while it lasted. Everyone had lain flat on the ground without daring to raise their heads, their hair and bodies covered in broken stone. Fortunately, Yi Jue and Wu Xuan Yin had raised the battlefield high enough that no one below had been caught directly in the clash.
The newly advanced Martial King slowly descended from the air. Fu Xi Yan hurriedly removed his outer robe and wrapped it around him.
Pei Yuan Jin turned his head toward Fu Xi Yan. The crimson in his eyes gradually faded.
Fu Xi Yan’s voice trembled slightly. “Are you all right?”
Pei Yuan Jin closed his eyes briefly. He had advanced too quickly this time and the true qi within him remained unstable. Consolidating the realm afterward would require far more time. But whatever came next, he had successfully crossed the hurdle created by the crack in his state of mind.
“I’m fine now.”
Even hearing this, Fu Xi Yan did not dare relax completely. He looked Pei Yuan Jin’s face over from every angle until he confirmed his complexion was healthy and flushed, then secretly pulled open his own robe and peeked inside.
Only after seeing that those terrifying split wounds had all closed and healed, without even leaving scars, did he finally exhale.
He was clearly checking Pei Yuan Jin’s injuries, but clutching open the robe and sneaking peeks inside still looked somewhat indecent. Shou Nan Shan coughed dryly and deliberately shifted his body in front of them as he walked toward Yi Jue and the others.
“Sect Leader Wu.”
He had barely spoken three words when Wu Xuan Yin turned and slapped Qin Xiao Xun viciously across the face!
…
Shou Nan Shan immediately slowed his footsteps.
The refugees rose in twos and threes. What they had just experienced had been terrifying beyond description. Even though they had survived, they naturally kept a respectful distance from the two Martial Gods who had caused it. Seeing Wu Xuan Yin behave so fiercely only made them instinctively retreat toward Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan.
Fu Xi Yan, however, tugged Pei Yuan Jin forward. When there was juicy drama to watch, naturally one had to find a seat with an unobstructed view and excellent sound.
The scene therefore ended up looking rather like a group of aggrieved refugees had gathered behind Pei Yuan Jin and the others while they stepped forward to demand justice.
Neither the person doing the slapping nor the person being slapped paid the slightest attention to this shift. Qin Xiao Xun wore a bright red palm print across his face yet actually smiled with pleasure. “Xuan Yin, I succeeded, didn’t I?”
Wu Xuan Yin stared at him with a dark expression.
Qin Xiao Xun gently reached for her hand. “Believe me. Everything I did was for us. Ban Qing Yu only relied on Sect Leader Hu’s dying command to borrow the tiger’s might and suppress you. Now that her ascension has failed, the Spirit Sect will naturally return to your control.”
Wu Xuan Yin narrowed her eyes and gave him a seductive yet dangerous smile. “So that I can be used by you?”
Qin Xiao Xun gazed at her affectionately. “I am already the ruler of Southern Yu. From now on, I will protect you.”
Fu Xi Yan caught only fragments of their conversation, but his curiosity was nearly unbearable. From what the young emperor was saying, had he interfered during Ban Qing Yu’s ascension and caused it to fail?
So Ban Qing Yu really had failed?
Fu Xi Yan could no longer restrain himself. “Sect Leader Wu…”
Unfortunately, Wu Xuan Yin had eyes only for Qin Xiao Xun. “Do you think I will still believe you?”
A sweet smile appeared on Qin Xiao Xun’s lips. “The moment you heard I was missing, you came looking for me, didn’t you? You have me in your heart.”
Wu Xuan Yin abruptly seized him by the throat and lifted him toward her. Her voice remained soft, but killing intent hid beneath every word. “I came to kill you.”
…
Fu Xi Yan shot Pei Yuan Jin a look: Sect Leader Wu is about to commit regicide. What do we do?
Pei Yuan Jin raised a brow: She won’t kill him.
Sure enough, seeing Qin Xiao Xun remain completely unmoved, Wu Xuan Yin gave a cold snort and soon released him. Turning back toward the others, she asked, “The Immortal Treasury Palace has caused such a massive disturbance within Southern Yu. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?”
Wrapped in Fu Xi Yan’s outer robe, Pei Yuan Jin looked somewhat incongruous, yet none of his imposing presence diminished. “The Spirit Sect sacrifices common people for its own selfish desires. Do you intend to follow the Puppet Path’s old road?”
Wu Xuan Yin lowered her eyes and avoided the topic. “Our sect’s ascension attempt failed. News will spread soon enough, so I may as well do you a favor and tell you first. You may put your minds at ease.”
Fu Xi Yan asked curiously, “How did it fail?”
Wu Xuan Yin gave a derisive laugh. “You’ll have to ask your good father-in-law.”
She grabbed the back of Qin Xiao Xun’s collar with one hand, tilted her head, and smiled. The sheer sensual charm she displayed was enough to intoxicate the soul. The refugees staring at her, men and women alike, almost forgot the terrifying violence she had displayed earlier.
“Junior Sister Ban’s ascension failed, so the Immortal Treasury Palace remains the number-one faction beneath heaven. The Spirit Sect cannot afford to provoke you. Young Master may travel freely through Southern Yu. If anything happens to you, it will absolutely have nothing to do with our sect. Please ask Palace Lord Pei to discern the truth clearly.”
Her figure flashed, and both she and Qin Xiao Xun vanished.
Fu Xi Yan rubbed his aching head. “Do you think she’ll bother telling the pursuers anything?” If she did not, the emperor had disappeared yet again. Wouldn’t their situation become even worse than before?