Qin Shu had complicated feelings.
Because this man who looked like an emperor really was an emperor, and had even chosen to walk into the void himself.
He had stayed in the void for a very long time. Not only was he not dead, he actually looked to be in quite good physical condition.
“Are you sick in the head?” Qin Shu asked from the depths of his soul with complete sincerity.
“Old friends meet again. Why be so fierce?” The Emperor of Fengdu smiled faintly. “Knowing that your nature remains just as it was in the past puts my mind at ease. This world has always lacked people like you who refuse to follow the rules.”
Qin Shu grew furious listening to him. Without another word, he grabbed the Emperor of Fengdu and started dragging him toward the exit. “How long have you been stuck in here? What could you possibly know about what the outside world is like?”
“Has the sky collapsed again, or has the earth fallen in?” The man cooperatively followed Qin Shu out while asking with evident interest.
“…Neither.”
“Has the Blood Calamity erupted again, or have foreign peoples taken control of the Nine Provinces?”
“…Neither of those either.”
“In that case, the calamities of troubled times do not seem to have affected this land much, because you are here.” The man’s smile deepened. “If there is no use for me, why should I go out?”
“Mm, sure. There really hasn’t been any world-ending catastrophe, because Lord Zhaoyuan and I have been running around everywhere patching the whole world together…”
Qin Shu spoke darkly to this point, then turned and glared straight into the Emperor of Fengdu’s eyes. “The new underworld is almost gone.”
“Eh?”
“Lady Houtu is missing. Black and White Impermanence vanished off the face of the earth. Reincarnation has stopped completely. Dead souls have nowhere to go. Either they become candidates for world-ending Ghost Kings, turn into the culprits behind smaller fatal incidents, or get locked up in Jiangcheng Prison as reserve rations for Lord Zhaoyuan…”
“…Eh?”
Qin Shu ground his teeth and continued toward the exit as he spoke. “And you still dare say there’s no use for you?! Get out there and work! Can’t you let me enjoy my high-school life in peace and happily date my boyfriend?!”
The man scratched his head, then rubbed his nose and quietly quickened his steps to follow Qin Shu, lowering his voice. “A small miscalculation. How embarrassing. My thanks to both of you for all the effort you have put into protecting the Nine Provinces…”
Qin Shu could not be bothered talking to him anymore. The more they spoke, the angrier he got, and he was afraid he might lose control and kick the man straight into a chaos hurricane.
He hurriedly led this strange-tempered fellow out of the void first, then sat down with a stiff expression and regulated his breathing on his own, leaving Pei Zhao to deal with him.
When Pei Zhao revealed himself, the Emperor of Fengdu was clearly surprised. Sitting cross-legged, he tilted his head and studied Pei Zhao carefully for a while, then said thoughtfully, “As expected. Even now, you have not lost the might of a shen dragon, yet at the same time you possess a divine power far stranger than that, and the two have fused so perfectly… Would you be willing to share your experience with me?”
“He doesn’t like you, so forget it.” Pei Zhao refused blandly, giving a reason that sounded absurd and yet happened to be the most truthful one possible.
The man choked. After a moment of silence, he slowly enunciated each word. “What if I repair the underworld, reopen the Six Paths of Reincarnation, clear away the wandering dead throughout the Nine Provinces, recruit the capable, punish those who commit crimes, and restore order to the Nine Hells?”
Qin Shu opened his eyes and finally snapped. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?!”
“He was always this kind of hands-off boss. Unless something truly world-ending happened, he almost never lifted a finger.” Pei Zhao turned to explain to Qin Shu. “Simply put, he’s lazy.”
“Haha. Your Excellency is still as candid as ever…” The Emperor of Fengdu gave an uncomfortable laugh but did not deny it.
Qin Shu had never imagined that one of the most mysterious and legendary emperors of the Nine Hells would actually be like this. Supposedly, he had been quite close to the Supreme Lord, and his governing philosophy could basically be summed up as rule through non-action.
As long as overall order remained stable, it did not matter if the various palaces and departments skimmed a little money or padded their reports. It did not matter if subordinates committed a few petty offenses either. If someone filed a complaint, he would verify it and punish the guilty directly. If no one came forward to seek justice, he could also pretend he saw nothing.
Compared with tyrants who monopolized all power, his mental state was much healthier, his physical condition was much better, and even his cultivation realm and the solidity of his divine power exceeded those of the various vicious gods by a huge margin.
Governing through non-action really could benefit ordinary life in a flourishing age full of talented people.
But all it took was one bad subordinate, one innately wicked demon like Zuo Zhe, quietly carrying out small acts of sabotage under his nose, prying loose a few bricks here and chopping through a beam there… and eventually the world would become chronically ill. One moment of carelessness could turn that illness into catastrophe.
Mm. The catastrophe had already happened. The progress and upheaval of the age itself had admittedly been one contributing factor back then, but Qin Shu still felt that Fengdu had been ruined largely because of this man.
More importantly, many of the schemes and disasters Qin Shu and Pei Zhao had suffered through could have been prevented. No matter how little the Emperor of Fengdu liked managing things, he at least knew what kind of person Lord Zhaoyuan was and what sort of character a Xiezhi possessed.
Back then, one glance at the case files would have shown that they were wrongful convictions, yet this man had stubbornly refused to look even once. He muddled along until now, when none of them remained as complete as they once had been.
Faced with the consequences of his refusal to manage anything, the Emperor of Fengdu said he had already taken two remedial measures, both connected to the void.
The first measure was self-exile. The second was studying abroad.
Expanded into proper terms, the Emperor of Fengdu had actually done only one thing. He handed the business of the newly rebuilt underworld over to his subordinates, then jumped into the void himself.
He treated that terrifying place of no return as both a lifelong prison for punishing his own failures and a resource-rich study-abroad program beyond the world.
…Honestly, it was pretty bizarre.
Jumping into the void was not something anyone could joke about. One careless mistake really could get you killed.
And without the spirit-guiding formation under Pei Zhao’s control, once someone entered, they could not get back out at all. There was no way to find the exit. It was like being dropped into a completely unfamiliar universe.
Ao Run had been severely injured but not contaminated because he had managed to cling stubbornly to life. He still counted as a proper Dragon King, and he had an unmarried partner waiting for him, which gave him enough resilience to hold on.
If someone else suffered that same horror of having flesh stripped away, however, such as the five God of Wealth brothers, their divine positions and cultivation would make self-preservation much harder. Their panic would accelerate faster, and contamination would become an almost unavoidable danger.
Any immortal or god could fall that way. No matter how strong the Emperor of Fengdu was, he could not fight alone against chaos hurricanes that transcended the rules.
His only advantage was probably that his mental state was so astonishingly healthy that even his inner demons would burst into tears upon meeting him.
“I know what happened to you after Fengdu fell, Lord Zhaoyuan, and I have always yearned for power that formidable.”
The Emperor of Fengdu said frankly, “There is no need for the two of you to look so astonished, haha… If my luck were poor and I were slowly exhausted to death in the void, then that would simply be the punishment I deserved. Heaven wanted me dead. But if my luck were good enough for me to learn something, gain a great harvest, and eventually be rescued safely, then that would mean I still had quite a few good days left to live.”
“Well, now you’ve been rescued and your luck was obviously good. So what did you learn? What did you gain?” Qin Shu folded his arms and asked irritably. “You’re not going to share any of the spoils with us?”
“As expected of you, haha. You saw through what I meant at once.” The man laughed again, then shook his head under Qin Shu’s slightly confused stare. “I have not yet learned anything. To truly understand the power of the void, resonate with it, and make it mine… the right time, place, and people are all indispensable. In that chaotic prison, I could waste another thousand years and still fail to die. If I wanted to gain enlightenment and resonance between life and death, there was simply no opportunity. However…”
“However?”
“I did gain something. My luck truly was excellent, and what I found happens to make amends for one of my old mistakes. As an object of atonement, it ought to be returned to you as soon as possible.”
Speaking cheerfully, the Emperor of Fengdu very improperly pulled open his robe. The white-jade tassels on his crown jingled lightly as he rummaged around inside his clothes for a long while… and finally pulled out a pitch-black ball.
It had no shine and cast no shadow. It was simply an ordinary-looking lump of black mud, only the size of a palm. If left by the roadside for a month, no one would probably bother picking it up. A conscientious sanitation worker would simply sweep it into a truck.
It was the literal embodiment of a treasure concealing its own radiance. Someone who did not know what they were looking at would never recognize anything special about it, even if they held it and kneaded it for half a day.
But Qin Shu recognized what it was at a glance. For a moment he forgot to breathe. Red quietly rose from the depths of his pupils, every muscle in his body tightening as a mad appetite born from instinct howled through his mind.
Because this was himself. This was the other half he had been missing.
Bang!
The ground shook. The disheveled Emperor of Fengdu was abruptly launched upward by Qin Shu’s beast horn and flattened spread-eagle against the high ceiling of the cavern.
Qin Shu stood where the Emperor had been sitting, clutching the black ball tightly. After a moment of silence, he forced himself to turn toward Pei Zhao.
The instant he met those amber-gold eyes, the beast instinct raging inside him abruptly stalled and his reason returned a little. Qin Shu used the opportunity to think seriously, then asked Pei Zhao, “If I eat it, could I get contaminated?”
A broken soul that had wandered through the void for thousands of years was absolutely not something he could casually absorb back into himself. Even if it was originally part of him, it had inevitably become mixed with many unfamiliar things.
Pei Zhao was actually even more nervous than Qin Shu, but at a moment like this, someone had to remain emotionally stable. So Pei Zhao hid his hands inside his sleeves and quietly clenched them, his tone still calm. “It’s possible.”
“If I do get contaminated, can you save me?”
“I can, but I can’t guarantee a complete cure.”
Qin Shu nodded slightly. He stared at the black ball in silence for a long time before speaking again.
“Pei Zhao, if I’m never complete… does that mean I’ll never be as strong as you, always need you to save me, never be able to understand your changes or the structure of your power, and always have that layer between us?” Qin Shu paused. “That barrier that keeps us from completely understanding each other.”
“If you have never personally used the power of the void, then yes, you can never truly understand it. That isn’t a question of whether you’re complete. It’s a cognitive barrier,” Pei Zhao answered cautiously. “That power does not belong to this world in the first place. For something born in this world to be unable to understand it is only natural.”
“But now I have a chance to understand it… to understand you. This one chance, and no other.”
“Qin Shu, I…” Pei Zhao was silent for a moment. “Even after all these years, I still wouldn’t dare claim I fully understand what I have become. A power that works for me will not necessarily benefit you.”
“Lord Zhaoyuan is still as cautious as ever, I see?” The man Qin Shu had knocked into the ceiling chose exactly the wrong moment to laugh softly and immediately began egging Qin Shu on. “What is yours by fate will always be yours. Too much hesitation never accomplishes anything. It only makes you miss a great opportunity for nothing.”
Qin Shu nearly rolled his eyes and worked hard to remind himself to have manners. “Do you think I care about accomplishing some great thing? Zhaozhao and I are communicating about our relationship. Dating requires long-term communication. If we can never understand each other fully, the gap in our cognition will only grow wider and wider until one day we can’t even talk to each other anymore… What would you know?”
“Eh?”
“I shouldn’t have bothered explaining. You wouldn’t understand anyway. Otherwise why are you single while I have a boyfriend?”
The Emperor of Fengdu froze for a moment and finally wore a genuinely speechless expression. Ignoring great opportunities and thinking only about romance… He had never imagined that the Xiezhi once renowned across the Nine Provinces would become this kind of person.
“Also, I don’t think you’re being honest.”
Qin Shu added the words while looking down at the ordinary black lump in his palm. He kneaded it thoughtfully for a moment, then took out his entirely black dagger and chopped at it several times.
His hands could squash it directly, but the sharp blade that could cut open Dragon Mother’s true body was completely useless against this seemingly soft little thing.
Interesting. It really did seem to be a fragment of his soul… but Qin Shu still did not believe the Emperor of Fengdu could possibly be this straightforward. He had definitely tampered with Qin Shu’s broken soul somehow.
Governing through non-action after reaching the top was one thing, but if the man had truly been this casual and kind by nature, he never would have climbed to a divine position in the first place, much less the highest imperial seat of the underworld.
And there were many ways to strip away the false and preserve the true.
“Zhaozhao, give me the dragon pearl for a second.”
“Okay.”
The spirit-guiding formation was completely withdrawn, and the cold dragon pearl wrapped in golden-red shen mist dropped into Qin Shu’s palm. Shen-dragon aura spread outward like mountain fog around Qin Shu, dampening the black ball as well.
Then Qin Shu took the phoenix-feather pendant from the pocket over his chest. Scalding vermilion-red aura flowed through the transparent container, spreading rapidly across Qin Shu’s palm and wrapping around the damp black ball too.
The highest-grade power of illusion and divine-bird fire capable of burning through every disguise resonated together in Qin Shu’s palm.
Then Qin Shu clasped both hands together into a ball, shook everything inside his palms until it was thoroughly mixed, and raised an eyebrow. “Schrödinger’s black ball. Until I open my hands, no one knows whether it’ll be soaked through by dragon aura, dried out by phoenix fire… or reach equilibrium.”
Pei Zhao watched the whole smooth sequence of actions. He only froze for an instant before understanding what Qin Shu was trying to do and could not help wanting to laugh. “Do you know what you’re doing? You’re refining a pill… with your hands.”
“Hey, now that you mention it…”
Qin Shu froze too, then burst out laughing. “Hahaha. No magical power to regulate it, no way to control the heat, not even a furnace. In that case, whatever comes out when I open the ‘furnace’ is completely up to fate.”
“No. Keep holding it like that. You don’t need to open the furnace at all.” Pei Zhao seemed to think of something and immediately stood, tossing Yuanbao, who had been eavesdropping with its head tilted, onto the ground.
The tiny centipede understood at once and transformed back into its enormous true body, built like a long, narrow ox.
The delicate bows and ribbons snapped apart instantly, but Yuanbao knew what mattered. Without hesitation, it hooked Qin Shu’s collar with its tail and hauled him onto its back.
“Go to Phoenix Village.”
“Okay.”
No further discussion was needed. Yuanbao immediately set off.
The flattened Emperor of Fengdu followed, his eyes shining as he admired Yuanbao soaring through the night sky. He murmured, “Son of the Cave God, you have great potential for work in the Nine Hells. You are naturally suited to it. Nine-Hells yin energy would benefit your cultivation too. Becoming a prince or lord would be effortless.”
“Poaching my people right in front of me?” Qin Shu asked helplessly. “What exactly are you trying to do?”
“I am poaching your people. Surely you don’t expect me to return beneath the Nine Provinces all alone and rebuild the underworld by myself?”
The man laughed softly, freely admitting it before adding, “I will also admit that I want you to work for me. The power of your old Fengdu underworld-official contract still remains on this soul fragment, witnessed by heaven and earth… When I found it in the void, I accidentally strengthened the contract a little.”
“…Are you sick in the head?” Qin Shu’s speechless voice cut through the wind.
“Do not look at me like that, fellow daoists. I merely reinforced contractual terms that had almost worn away. I did not alter the original appointment or requirements.” The Emperor of Fengdu toyed with the beads hanging from his crown and tilted his head. “It is an open scheme, plain as day. You were originally a warden of my Nine Hells. My claim is perfectly legitimate. Still, since the two of you are this cautious and your ambitions lie elsewhere… I won’t force the matter.”
“Then why are you still following us?”
“I want to see the little phoenix.” The man curved his lips. “The closer I get to Her, the more my whole body stings, as though ten thousand ants are devouring me. Delightful.”
Qin Shu: …
Pei Zhao: …
This man’s mental state was still far too beautiful. For the rest of the journey neither of them said another word to him, and instead they discussed what to do next.
Pei Zhao’s plan was simple.
Qin Shu could not control the collision of power inside his palms, but Pei Zhao could control the portion that belonged to the dragon pearl. As for the remaining phoenix fire, if the phoenix cooperated, She and Pei Zhao could maintain the two powers in perfect equilibrium.
And alchemy was not always as simple as opening a furnace and producing pills. Using heavenly treasures and wondrous flames to nourish one’s precious pill furnace was also essential knowledge for every alchemist.
Right now, Qin Shu was the precious thing that needed nourishing.
What Pei Zhao and the phoenix needed to do was refine Qin Shu’s broken soul and, by the safest and most controllable method possible, refine all of its “medicinal properties” back into Qin Shu’s body.
That way, what Qin Shu absorbed and what remained outside could, to a certain extent, be controlled and filtered… including the underworld-official appointment contract from a Fengdu that had ceased to exist thousands of years ago.
The Emperor of Fengdu was not stupid. The instant he saw Pei Zhao act decisively, he knew his open scheme was completely doomed.
He did not pester Qin Shu or show the slightest irritation, because the instant they reached Phoenix Village, he nearly fainted from happiness.
The entire village was packed with masters of shamanic arts and corpse herders, and almost all of them were corpses!
His eyes landed first on Liu Yang Yang and on Liu Yang Yang’s special ability to undergo corpse liberation into an underworld ruler. Once he temporarily shed his corpse, he could transform into an underworld military commander, call up underworld soldiers, and even provide a fairly effective enhancement to the troops… exactly the kind of fierce and capable general needed to rebuild the underworld.
The source of Liu Yang Yang’s ability might not be particularly proper, but the Emperor of Fengdu was hardly a particularly proper person himself.
Liu Yang Yang still had no idea what was going on and was already laughing and chatting with the handsome stranger. “Holy shit, bro, you look exactly like an emperor. That vibe is incredible! So cool. Can I get a picture with you?”
“Of course. It would be my honor.” He smiled faintly, making no effort to hide the light in his eyes.
Forget taking a photo with Liu Yang Yang. As long as it helped him recruit some people to work, the Emperor of Fengdu would happily take pictures with every living thing in Phoenix Village and help them tend their medicinal fields for several months.
And so, as the night deepened, Qin Shu’s black ball was completely refined away, the two of them helped the phoenix lay down a simple spirit-gathering formation and reinforce the underground space, and then the gentle-eyed divine bird forcibly stuffed several tail feathers into their hands…
When the two finally returned to the ground in Phoenix Village, they discovered that the Emperor of Fengdu had already used the shortest possible time to become friendly with everyone. He was eating fried ribs in Liu Bai Long’s house and had leapt straight into the ranks of Phoenix Village’s top VIP customers through enormous spending, far surpassing even Daoist Lord Sifang.
He did not have a single cent of cash, but he possessed mountains of spirit stones and jade treasures hidden in secret cave dwellings. No cultivator would ever complain about having too few spirit stones. As limited currency, they were even more desirable than cash.
“…What terrifying money powers.” Qin Shu sighed darkly. “Zhaozhao, if the people of Phoenix Village get bribed into working in the underworld, should we interfere? Seriously, this man is annoying, but becoming one of his direct subordinates would probably come with excellent benefits, especially for founding retainers who join when everything is still starting from nothing.”
Pei Zhao considered it. “Phoenix Village has plenty of clever people. They’ll weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully, and they have the divine bird protecting them now. He isn’t an evil god after all, so… we can simply watch for now. What path they choose in the future is their own decision.”
“Thank you both for understanding.”
Before they had even finished talking, the Emperor of Fengdu silently appeared behind them and gave that irritating chuckle again. “Fellow Daoist Qin, are you feeling any discomfort?”
“Not for now. Mm, my memories haven’t changed either.” Qin Shu turned to look at him and instinctively disliked him even more. “You’re annoying. Stop being cryptic.”
“All right, all right. My apologies. I have always been indolent by nature. I need someone to shove me forward and scold me without courtesy before I’m willing to move. To express my apology, and my sincerity in maintaining friendly relations with the two of you from now on…”
The Emperor of Fengdu lowered his voice. Every trace of humor suddenly vanished from his pale, handsome face.
“Xiezhi, whatever you do, do not sleep tonight. No matter what… you must not sleep.”