To everyone watching, Pei Yuan Jin had just split the sea with a single sword strike, his fighting spirit soaring. But only he knew the truth. Ever since his true essence underwent the “core transformation,” he could open it only through his state of mind. The Taoshan brothers’ ambush had come too suddenly, and his true essence had not opened in time. He had forcibly broken through it. The result looked magnificent from the outside, but inside, it had caused severe damage.
Leaning against his chest, Fu Xi Yan felt the hand at his waist alternate between burning hot and warm. He immediately knew something was wrong and thought, If only the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror could split in two so we could each have one.
The Taoshan brothers had been startled by Pei Yuan Jin, but anyone who could cultivate all the way to the peak Martial King Stage naturally possessed extraordinary qualities.
The younger Taoshan brother’s so-called “heart transparent as broad daylight” amounted, for an ordinary person, to being born without a brain. That kind of natural gift was something others could only envy.
To take care of his younger brother, the elder Taoshan brother had been forced to develop the ability to think in two directions at once. Every matter had to be considered forwards and backwards. This acquired opportunity could perhaps be called a family benefit.
This was not their first time seeing Pei Yuan Jin draw his sword. They could clearly sense that compared with their previous encounter, he had improved again. But their advantage in numbers made them advance rather than retreat.
The younger Taoshan brother shouted excitedly, “Interesting!” His palm-leaf fan stirred up layer after layer of surging force, one wave linked to the next, each pushing the one before it higher, making the attack extremely difficult to handle.
The elder Taoshan brother leapt into those waves. He looked as though he were simply being carried along, but in reality his body moved with their rhythm. Whenever the wave rose, he attacked. Whenever it fell, he defended. Hidden inside the surging force, he seemed to be wearing an invisible tortoiseshell.
Fu Xi Yan refused to be outdone. Three Nameless Little Arrows quietly slipped from his robe and disappeared into the ground. With his current martial arts, joining a battle between Martial Kings was barely possible. But if he was being used as a shield, he would not lose to anyone!
He darted around trying to become the meat shield, only for the fragile swordsman behind him to refuse to cooperate and keep retreating. Fu Xi Yan finally became annoyed. “Go, go! I can tank. You burst one of them down first! We can team-fight this!”
Pei Yuan Jin tightened the arm around his waist slightly. “Quiet.”
On the other side of the drill ground, the Southern Ridge Sect had already been beaten into complete disarray by He Si Yu.
He Si Yu stood in the center of the drill ground holding the Moon-Soul Spear, his gaze cold as he looked at the Southern Ridge Sect Leader, who was vomiting blood while being supported by his second disciple. He You You stood behind her father.
The people attending the martial arts assembly shifted restlessly because of the upheaval, stepping back and making room, but nobody left. Everyone liked watching excitement, especially jianghu people, who were famously delighted when the spectacle became even bigger.
The second disciple looked at his master, eyes red. “Master, why don’t we… let it go?”
Calling it “letting it go” was really surrender.
The Southern Ridge Sect Leader’s face had gone pale as gold paper and his breathing was weak, as though one careless moment might end his life. Yet he still forced himself to speak. “No… no. Even if I die today, none of you are permitted… to wag your tails and beg mercy from a traitor!”
After speaking, he coughed up more blood, his lips trembling.
Only the second disciple standing right beside him heard the whisper: “The Spirit Sect… the court… will not stand by. Hold… hold on…”
Since he had agreed to preside over this assembly, he could not possibly know nothing about what lay behind it. The Spirit Sect and the court had joined hands to lay this trap. Naturally, it could not have been aimed only at Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin.
As the saying went, why use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken? Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan might not be ordinary weak little chicks, but from beginning to end there were still only two of them. If Southern Yu’s young emperor and the Spirit Sect Leader mobilized such massive forces merely to deal with those two, others would look down on them.
Strictly speaking, Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin were the side dish, while the Southern Ridge Sect Leader himself barely qualified as the appetizer. But an appetizer was not necessarily unimportant. If Southern Ridge suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Lingnan, both the Spirit Sect and the court would lose face.
He knew the Spirit Sect must have another move prepared. He simply did not know when it would appear.
Just as He Si Yu raised the shaft of his spear, preparing to end the farce, the drill ground trembled like thunder. Imperial guards in armor, imposing and formidable, surged in like a tide under Zhu Shou Xin’s command.
Zhu Shou Xin swept his vivid red cloak aside. A silver helmet enclosed most of his head, leaving only his especially gaunt, long face exposed. His deeply sunken eye sockets lay beneath heavy shadow, making him look eerie and intimidating.
He looked at He Si Yu and called loudly, “His Majesty asks Sect Leader He this: Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan trespassed in the imperial palace and threatened His Majesty. Their crimes are unforgivable. As one of Southern Yu’s experts, are you willing to assist?”
He Si Yu said calmly, “People of the jianghu handle matters of the jianghu.” The meaning was refusal.
Zhu Shou Xin said, “His Majesty also asks: Sect Leader He once helped the Spirit Sect oppose Immortal Treasury Palace. Are you not afraid of being caught between two sides?”
He Si Yu said, “I, He, simply act according to my own heart.”
Zhu Shou Xin nodded, withdrew his gaze, and cupped his hands toward the sky. “By His Majesty’s verbal decree: the heroes of Southern Yu’s martial world are hereby summoned to assist the court in capturing the imperial criminals He Si Yu, He You You, Pei Yuan Jin, and Fu Xi Yan. Anyone who refuses will be treated as a traitor to the state!”
The commotion on their side had no effect on the high-level battle elsewhere.
Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin had been driven nearly into a corner. Their clothes had been torn in several places and the situation was extremely dangerous, yet Fu Xi Yan still spared enough attention to listen to the imperial decree and immediately protested, “Why are He Si Yu and He You You’s names listed before ours?”
The younger Taoshan brother slammed his palm-leaf fan against the ground. Yellow earth rolled forward like a tide and surged beneath Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin’s feet. The two stepped into the air. The elder Taoshan brother moved ahead of his younger brother and unleashed dozens of palms with the force of an overwhelming sea, forming an invisible wall that pushed toward the two men in midair.
The younger Taoshan brother poked his head out from behind his elder brother, not to follow up the attack but to ask curiously, “Does it really matter whether your name comes first or later?”
Driven back by the elder brother’s palm force until blood ran from all seven orifices, Fu Xi Yan still smiled. “Of course it matters. First comes honor!”
Seeing that Pei Yuan Jin had yet to unleash a second sword strike and was only dodging, the elder Taoshan brother guessed he was injured and shouted, “To hell with his nonsense! Killing them comes first!”
“No, no!” The younger Taoshan brother suddenly began stamping and shouting. “Explain this first. When the emperor writes an edict for us, why does your name always come before mine?”
His tantrum caused the rolling waves of earth to stop after one last surge. Pei Yuan Jin immediately used Thousand-Catty Drop to land. With a turn of his right hand, the Crimson Dragon King swept out a blade of sword qi that landed directly beside the brothers’ ankles.
The Taoshan brothers both leapt upward. The Nameless Little Arrows Fu Xi Yan had left buried underground for so long finally shot out from below, aiming straight at the younger brother’s soles.
That was exactly how he had killed Guo Ju Ying: by breaking through from the soles of the feet.
The brothers stepped on one another’s feet in midair, borrowing force to climb higher and higher. Soon they had risen more than ten zhang, yet the Nameless Little Arrows were still pursuing them from below. The younger Taoshan brother burst into frightened wails. “Big Brother, I can’t do this anymore! I’m scared!”
The elder Taoshan brother was so furious he struck him out of the air with one palm, using the rebound to turn himself upside down and plunge toward the ground headfirst. His arms spun rapidly, generating two currents of force that swept the Nameless Little Arrows inside them.
Fu Xi Yan tried to recall the Nameless Little Arrows, but he could no longer manage it. The swirling force acted like a barrier, severing his connection with the arrows.
When the elder Taoshan brother was still three or four zhang above the ground, he suddenly said, “Here. Have them back!”
The Nameless Little Arrows shattered into dozens of silver streaks that shot toward Fu Xi Yan like driving rain.
Fu Xi Yan rapidly threw nine Soft-Gentle Fists into the air, attempting to overcome hardness with softness and dissolve the incoming momentum. The silver streaks slowed slightly, but only slightly, and quickly arrived before him.
Pei Yuan Jin crossed past him and blocked the attack with his own body.
“Get the hell out of the way!” Furious, Fu Xi Yan lunged and tackled him down. The silver streaks fell and buried themselves across Fu Xi Yan’s backside.
Fu Xi Yan rolled across the ground with Pei Yuan Jin and sprang back to his feet. A moment later, the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror on his forehead glowed faintly. The foreign “hidden weapons” were fired back out of his body while his wounds rapidly closed.
He had no time to mourn the Nameless Little Arrows that had accompanied him through life-and-death situations several times only to meet this sudden separation. He glared furiously at Pei Yuan Jin. “At a time like this, what heroic rescue are you still trying to pull? Do you understand maximizing resource utilization or not?!”
Pei Yuan Jin’s face was cold. “You are not a resource.” With that, he charged directly toward the elder Taoshan brother.
Fu Xi Yan’s face practically puffed round with anger. He hurried after him. “Get back here!”
On the other side, the crowd had been forced into an impossible position by the sudden imperial decree.
Pei Yuan Jin and Fu Xi Yan might storm Southern Yu’s imperial palace whenever they pleased and act as though the court did not exist, but that did not mean the entire jianghu behaved the same way. In reality, most martial artists still obeyed the court’s orders.
The two of them could act like this for two reasons. First, half the jianghu’s top fighting strength was concentrated in their household. If the two sides truly fell out, conquering cities and territory might be beyond them, but killing an emperor or two would not be. Second, Immortal Treasury Palace’s base was in Northern Zhou. Even if it completely broke with Southern Yu, it could simply turn around and support Prince Yue.
Others did not possess such favorable conditions. Once the court suspended a blade over their heads, their choices became extremely limited.
He Si Yu did not interrupt Zhu Shou Xin’s proclamation.
The moment he chose to have his daughter warn Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin about the real purpose behind the martial arts assembly, he had already made his decision. That decision would not change because of what anyone else chose. But he did not mind if others changed theirs.
In any case… the tip of the Moon-Soul Spear in his hand dipped slightly as he prepared to act.
Several banyan trees grew not far from the drill ground, each thick with branches and leaves, their dense shade blocking the sky. Hidden in one of them was an inconspicuous little treehouse. Long before the martial arts assembly began, Chai Mi had adjusted his breathing to a rhythm resembling a bird’s and sat cross-legged inside like an old monk in meditation, expressionlessly watching the drill ground.
By now, however, his mouth had begun to move.
“Yun Zhong Bei caught the Red Peng. Low!”
“Nine Immortals Ridge. Middle!”
“Baohua Temple monks secretly assisted He Si Yu. Low!”
“Lushan Sect. Middle!”
“Stone Ox Stronghold. Middle!”
“Yi Family Cave attacked He You You. High!”
…
More than a hundred sects had come to the martial arts assembly. Only some had been invited by the court. The rest had heard about the grand event and come on their own, bringing their own provisions. Yet every one of them was now being included in the list Chai Mi muttered under his breath.
This was an excellent opportunity for the court to see clearly which jianghu forces stood near and which stood far. Chai Mi had wanted to do this many years ago, but his superiors had always refused for one concern or another. Only after Ban Qing Yu’s death and the challenge to the Spirit Sect’s sole remaining Martial God had the plan finally been approved.
But while Chai Mi’s eyes remained fixed on the drill ground and his mouth never stopped, inwardly he sighed. Southern Yu’s martial world had withered to this state, and He Si Yu, the only Martial King outside the Spirit Sect, had now moved to the opposing side. What meaning was left in making such classifications?
Farther still from the drill ground…
At the center of a crude tea shelter hastily erected beside the road stood a black sedan chair. A table had been placed on either side of it. Two elderly monks wearing prayer beads sat side by side at one table, while the other table remained empty.
A fat man was preparing tea snacks beside the shelter. He looked utterly unremarkable, but everyone in the imperial palace knew he was the emperor’s favorite cook, and that his Jiangnan tea pastries were unrivaled beneath Heaven.
A man of his profession naturally demanded the finest conditions when he cooked. Today, however, all he had was a small stove whose flame refused to burn properly, a maddeningly blunt kitchen knife, and a heap of tools that had never been intended as kitchen utensils.
It was the depths of winter, yet the fat imperial chef’s forehead was covered in sweat. Not because he was hot, but because he was panicking. After struggling for a long time, he finally lifted the steamer just as tiny pellets of ice began falling from the sky. The flame in his little stove seemed to shrink even lower.
At the far end of the deserted street, a figure finally appeared. Though it was the middle of winter, she wore light, flowing silk. When the wind rose, the fabric lifted with it, making her seem almost too ethereal to belong to the mortal world.
She carried an oiled-paper umbrella. She appeared to be walking at an unhurried pace, yet reached the tea shelter remarkably quickly. The two monks continued sitting without looking aside. She closed the umbrella, casually shook it out, turned, and sat at the empty table. Glancing disdainfully at the teapot, she rested her cheek on one hand. “In weather this cold, shouldn’t we be drinking wine?”
The monk seated on the left said, “Monks do not drink.”
She laughed softly. “Then do monks kill?”
The monk on the right said, “We do not kill. We deliver souls.”
“Deliver them where?”
“The Pure Land.”
“Why not deliver yourselves?”
“To deliver others is to deliver oneself.”
Her smile widened, though however one looked at it, the expression was mocking. “When are the monks planning to act?”
The monk said, “The guest follows the host.”
She raised a brow. “You’ll follow my lead?”
The monk shook his head. “When Benefactor Wu acts, we act.”
The Benefactor Wu who loved wine as though it were life was naturally Wu Xuan Yin, soon to become Southern Yu’s empress. Yet she showed not the slightest awareness of her future role. Supporting her cheek with one hand, she sprawled crookedly over the table. “What airs you two put on.”
The monk answered solemnly, “We are not putting on airs. We agreed to come as support. Since we are here to support, Benefactor Wu naturally throws the first punch, and we follow with ours.”
“Bargaining like this, aren’t you afraid I’ll dock your pay?” Wu Xuan Yin flipped her palm and produced a wide-mouthed bottle. Though she held it lightly, the moment she placed it on the table, a layer of frost formed beneath the base and froze it firmly to the wood.
From the sedan chair standing between the tables like an ordinary obstruction came a deep, powerful male voice. “So you obtained the Ice-Soul Yin Spring after all.”
The instant he spoke, even Wu Xuan Yin restrained some of her casual arrogance. “To invite a great personage like you, naturally we had to pay a steep price.”
The man inside the sedan said mildly, “There is no need to be so distant. I was the one who gave your honored master the map of the new city.”
Wu Xuan Yin’s manner was respectful, but her words yielded nothing. “It was the Spirit Sect’s honor to scout the road for Your Excellency.”
“Borrow the power of Heaven and Earth, use spiritual energy as the driver, command the rising and setting of sun and moon, and govern the rising and falling of mountains and seas. I was the one who wrote the Spirit Sect’s doctrine back then.”
Hu Luo Luo had not been the founder of the Spirit Sect, but its second-generation leader. With that single statement, Wu Xuan Yin became at best two generations below the man in the sedan. She did not even possess the seniority to sit as his equal, much less bargain with him.
The man inside the sedan seemed to realize the same thing and laughed softly. “Merely a thought stirred by the moment. As the years accumulate, there are fewer and fewer familiar faces. Loneliness is inevitable.”
Wu Xuan Yin said, “Each age brings forth new talent. Your Excellency will soon meet several new faces.”
“No.” The man sighed. “If I meet them only to say goodbye soon after, it merely adds to sorrow.” He sounded utterly certain that those he was about to meet would not live long.
Wu Xuan Yin raised her head and looked at the sky.
The ice pellets gradually stopped. Great flakes of snow began falling thickly over Heaven and Earth. Nothing had yet accumulated on the ground, but the snow filled the space between sky and earth so completely that wherever one looked, everything was white.
She slowly rose. “It’s almost time.”
The man inside the sedan suddenly asked, “Years ago, I had Hu Luo Luo ask whether you were willing to leave with me. You refused. Why?”
Wu Xuan Yin seemed not to expect him to bring up the past and froze briefly before answering, “I was only sixteen then. I didn’t know any better.”
The man inside the sedan asked, “And yet you agreed to the marriage proposal of a boy who didn’t know any better either?”
Wu Xuan Yin avoided the question and asked one of her own. “Did my master choose Ban Qing Yu instead of me because of that?” She had been the Sect Leader, yet had been reduced to a sacrifice forced forward before her time. That grievance had lain across her heart for more than a decade and still had not disappeared.
The man inside the sedan asked meaningfully, “Do you truly believe that was a good thing?”
Wu Xuan Yin’s brows drew together slightly.
The man said, “If it were a good thing, why would I need the bottle in your hand?”
Wu Xuan Yin shuddered from head to toe. A strange radiance bloomed in her eyes, like the first ray of dawn falling onto a frozen lake as the ice began to melt. When she looked at the sedan again, there was even a trace of gratitude in her expression. “Then you…”
“Let’s go.” The man inside did not allow her to finish.
The osmanthus cakes had finally finished steaming. The fat imperial chef was just about to plate them when the two monks rose to lift the sedan.
The imperial chef carefully asked, “What about the tea snacks?”
The monk seated on the right, who had not spoken a word from beginning to end, looked at him strangely. He suddenly reached out, patted the chef’s shoulder, then walked behind the sedan. Together with the monk at the front, he lifted it. Under his breath, he muttered, “Not very tasty.”
Elio’s Notes: The source describes this monk here as having “not spoken a word from beginning to end,” even though the right-hand monk spoke earlier in the same scene. This appears to be a source-side continuity slip, so the contradiction is preserved rather than silently rewritten.
Wu Xuan Yin led the way. The two monks carried the sedan behind her, step by step into the snow filling the world.
Behind them, the fat imperial chef stared blankly in the direction the sedan had disappeared, his body still bent in the humble posture of a bow. The snow slowly thickened, piling higher and heavier on the shelter roof. No one knew how long passed before a sharp crack sounded and the shelter collapsed, burying the chef together with his steamer of osmanthus cakes that had long since dried out.
* * *
The drill ground had already become a battlefield, and the situation had changed again.
Since the imperial decree had directly classified He Si Yu and He You You as wanted criminals, father and daughter no longer bothered hiding anything. They joined Pei Yuan Jin outright and took over the fight against the Taoshan brothers.
Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin also abandoned their conjoined-twin mode. Fu Xi Yan joined He You You in battling the Southern Yu martial world.
Even with the emperor’s verbal decree hanging over them, humans always produced contrarians, and the proportion among jianghu people was especially high. Aside from a small group who refused to help either side, everyone else had already been swept into the roaring battle.
In terms of sheer numbers, Southern Yu still held the advantage. Nobody was blind. The Spirit Sect Leader had yet to appear, while Pei Yuan Jin’s side seemed unlikely to have any more hidden cards.
Those who had chosen to help Pei Yuan Jin knew perfectly well that the odds were grim. The main reason they stood here was the role Immortal Treasury Palace had played during the new-city disaster.
Those who gather firewood for everyone must not be allowed to freeze to death in the wind and snow.
Fu Xi Yan’s most familiar weapons, the Nameless Little Arrows, had shattered, but their loss opened an even wider world before him.
No weapon? No problem. The fork the Yi Family Cave leader was using to attack He You You looked excellent. It could rebel and strike its own master!
Where had the Southern Ridge Sect Leader’s second disciple gotten that saber? No, no. If it did not take at least one slash at the Southern Ridge Sect Leader, it would be wasting all that aggressive grandeur!
Zhu Shou Xin’s iron helmet looked pretty good too. Fu Xi Yan wondered whether it hurt when used to smash someone.
Zhu Shou Xin was helping others surround He You You when the top of his head suddenly felt cold. His own helmet flew straight into the face of one of his subordinates, leaving the man with a bleeding nose and exposing Zhu Shou Xin’s hair to everyone.
Ever since Fu Xi Yan drained away his true qi, Zhu Shou Xin had suffered severe damage to his foundation and his face had aged by twenty or thirty years. Although the Spirit Sect used secret methods to help restore his true essence, the hair that had turned gray in an instant never recovered. Even the beard that grew afterward came in mixed black and white. Only his eyebrows remained miraculously dark and glossy, which somehow made him look even stranger.
Given his age and the emperor’s efforts in cultivating him, Zhu Shou Xin might originally have had a genuine chance of advancing to Martial King. Now, however, even maintaining his former cultivation was difficult.
Cutting off a person’s future was like killing their parents. How could he possibly not hate Fu Xi Yan to the bone?
Only after seeing Zhu Shou Xin’s face did Fu Xi Yan remember that he had once used the Taotie Gu to devour this man’s true qi. Thinking back on the predecessors who had suffered the same fate, people like Chen Wen Ju and Guo Ju Ying already had grass growing over their graves. The fact that Zhu Shou Xin was still alive and kicking was almost irritating to look at.
Fu Xi Yan used Shattered Stars, Lingering Shadows to cut in front of Zhu Shou Xin. He beckoned the helmet into his hand and used it like a shield, blocking left and right while never forgetting to irritate his opponent. “Hello! Are you Zhu Shou Xin’s grandfather? I’m Zhu Shou Xin’s friend. Hello, Grandpa!”
“Courting death!” Zhu Shou Xin had become much gloomier after his earlier experience, yet even he was provoked now. He shouted furiously, “I’ll kill you!”
Fu Xi Yan swayed lightly and appeared in front of He You You again. One punch knocked aside a sword strike that had been certain to hit. Before Zhu Shou Xin could catch up, Fu Xi Yan had already returned to his original position and seized Zhu Shou Xin’s new chain with one hand.
A cold smile appeared at the corner of Zhu Shou Xin’s mouth.
Barbs suddenly sprouted along the chain and pierced Fu Xi Yan’s palm. Zhu Shou Xin pulled slightly, dragging the chain across Fu Xi Yan’s hand. The blood that flowed out was black.
Fu Xi Yan felt a wave of dizziness and hurriedly retreated. The Heaven-and-Earth Mirror glowed faintly on his forehead and slowly restored his clarity, but from behind Zhu Shou Xin a short halberd shot out, driving straight toward Fu Xi Yan’s throat.
Fu Xi Yan’s head was still spinning and his limbs were weak. He was clearly not going to evade the strike in time when a sharp clang sounded. The short halberd snapped in two, its front half scraping past his throat by the narrowest margin.
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly turned his head. Pei Yuan Jin was drawing back the Crimson Dragon King, trying to block the younger Taoshan brother’s palm-leaf fan, but he was one step too slow. The fan swept into his left shoulder. Even from this distance, Fu Xi Yan could hear the crack of bone.