Snowflakes followed on the heels of the sleet, continuing to lay silver bricks and white tiles across the aging palace.
Qin Xiao Xun dozed against the back of his chair.
Xiao Jin Zi noticed the temperature in the palace dropping and was about to order more charcoal when a heavy crash suddenly sounded from the direction of Kunning Palace’s main hall.
A palace servant soon hurried over to report that one of the phoenix beams had collapsed during the renovations.
Xiao Jin Zi’s brows jumped. As he asked, “Was it new or old?” he was already thinking through how he would explain the matter to the emperor.
The servant said it was new.
Qin Xiao Xun was already awake. His sleep had been extremely light lately. Forget a heavy object crashing down. Sometimes even a palace servant walking a little too loudly was enough to make him uneasy.
The instant he opened his eyes, obvious alarm showed in them. Once he recognized where he was, however, he quickly restrained it. In a calm voice he summoned Xiao Jin Zi, calmly asked what had happened, and then calmly ordered everyone responsible to be punished.
Everything happened lightly, almost casually, and ended just as lightly.
But Xiao Jin Zi had been at the young emperor’s side for so long that he naturally knew Qin Xiao Xun’s state of mind was nowhere near as calm as his surface suggested. He could do nothing about it.
Perhaps only when the Sect Leader returned would the young emperor finally be able to settle completely.
As though their thoughts were connected, Qin Xiao Xun asked, “Can Xuan Yin enter the palace today?”
Xiao Jin Zi knew it was against the rules, but he still hesitated. “This… shall I go ask?”
“Go ask.”
Xiao Jin Zi thought the instruction was finished and was about to leave when Qin Xiao Xun added, “Pei Yuan Jin already has the Taoshan brothers and Zhu Shou Xin dealing with him. Tell her not to worry about that. She should focus on becoming empress.”
After Xiao Jin Zi left, the palace suddenly felt extremely empty.
Qin Xiao Xun sat expressionlessly for a while before a thought abruptly surfaced: What if the Taoshan brothers failed to stop Pei Yuan Jin? What if Fu Xi Yan came here again?
If the thought had never appeared, perhaps it would have been fine. Once it arose, however, he could no longer suppress it.
The more he thought, the more uneasy he became. He stood for a while, then finally could not resist walking outside. Xiao Jin Zi happened to be returning after passing along his orders. Seeing that the emperor had come out without even putting on an outer robe, he hurriedly shut the door. “Your Majesty, if you need anything, just call for someone. Why did you come out yourself?”
Qin Xiao Xun asked him, “If Xuan Yin lends a hand, will the Taoshan brothers have a better chance?”
That answer was obvious. Three was greater than two. Xiao Jin Zi understood that elementary principle perfectly well. But Qin Xiao Xun was wavering, and Xiao Jin Zi did not dare push him in either direction. Matters between the emperor and the Sect Leader were hardly something a small underling like him could interfere with.
He could only say, “Everything is for Your Majesty to decide.”
Qin Xiao Xun sighed softly.
Very soon, however, the question stopped being a question. A palace servant returned with word that Wu Xuan Yin had already gone to the drill ground.
* * *
Above the drill ground, from the direction of Lin’an’s imperial palace, great sheets of snow slanted down through the air until the colors of the world blurred together.
Inside Fu Xi Yan’s head, however, something seemed to explode.
Watching Pei Yuan Jin get hurt was a hundred, a thousand times more painful than being hurt himself. Heat surged through Fu Xi Yan in wave after wave. The colorful world before his eyes, already being swallowed by white snow, was suddenly stained blood-red. Only one thought remained in his mind: if this was already a storm of blood, then let the storm come even harder.
Zhu Shou Xin and the others closed in. Fu Xi Yan did not even look at them. A purple sigil appeared on his forehead, and the weapons in their hands reacted as though they had encountered their natural enemy, wrenching violently backward. Their owners were dragged several zhang away with them, leaving a temporary empty space around Fu Xi Yan.
Fu Xi Yan stared fixedly at the younger Taoshan brother. Inside his body, it felt as though something were cracking apart, collapsing, and then rebuilding.
The sigil on his forehead suddenly detached from his body and hovered two cun in front of him.
The purple Roman numeral II split in two. A red “⊥” and a blue “T” slowly revolved around him.
And then…
Every spiritual weapon below Earth grade, whether saber, spear, staff, or leather armor and helmet, tore free from its owner and hung suspended in midair like enormous particles of dust, like a sky smothered by storm clouds before a downpour.
The younger Taoshan brother had never seen anything like it. He had been about to press his attack on Pei Yuan Jin, but curiosity made him let out a puzzled “Huh?” Then he saw Fu Xi Yan’s lips move.
What Fu Xi Yan said was, “Die, damn you.”
The “storm clouds” merged into a long river of weapons that spiraled toward the younger Taoshan brother’s face.
Zhu Shou Xin stubbornly tried to launch another sneak attack. The chain in his hand was an Earth-grade spiritual artifact bestowed by the emperor. Although Fu Xi Yan had not “requisitioned” it, the thing became useless at the critical moment. The instant Zhu Shou Xin flicked his wrist, the chain shamefully curled back and refused to go anywhere near Fu Xi Yan.
The red “⊥” hovering before Fu Xi Yan’s forehead flew toward the younger Taoshan brother under cover of the river of weapons.
The younger Taoshan brother swung his palm-leaf fan, but for the first time the weapon no longer obeyed him smoothly. The light fan seemed to weigh a hundred jin. Seeing the river of weapons bearing down with the force of a waterfall, he had no choice but to retreat.
But the river was far more agile than he had expected. No matter how he dodged left or right, the distance between them steadily narrowed.
With nowhere left to run, the younger Taoshan brother finally had no choice but to turn and face it head-on.
He simply threw aside the fan that was growing heavier by the moment. Using only his bare hands, he drew circles through the air and pushed out layer after layer of force toward the river pursuing him.
The blue “T” on Fu Xi Yan’s forehead flashed. His hands seemed to move almost casually, batting aside attack after attack, while his eyes remained fixed on the battlefield ahead.
The two forces rushed straight at one another, reminding Fu Xi Yan of the head-on crash tests he had seen in his previous life. As the distance shrank, neither side slowed. Instead, both accelerated, each trying to build up an even stronger impact.
At the instant they truly collided—
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
Or perhaps what froze was everyone’s breathing, their heartbeats, and the emotion that should have arisen when their eyes received the image.
Whatever the case, after that instant, an enormous burst of force exploded outward from the collision point. The thickly falling snow was blasted away without a trace. The shockwave swept in every direction, carrying the weapons Fu Xi Yan had commandeered with it. People standing too close were lifted bodily into the air and hurled away, only to be battered again by the scattered weapons.
Fu Xi Yan was not struck, but he too was driven several zhang backward. The blue “T” between his brows flashed, and the weapons falling near him abruptly froze in midair.
Only the younger Taoshan brother remained standing in the center of the impact like a solid pagoda, utterly unmoved. One foot pinned down his palm-leaf fan to keep it from flying away, while one hand rested behind his back in a lofty pose meant to inspire awe.
At that exact moment, however, a streak of red light, swift as lightning and violent as thunder, tore backward through every obstacle with the domineering force of something that would kill whatever stood in its path.
The younger Taoshan brother instinctively tried to kick up the fan beneath his foot to block it, but the fan seemed pinned beneath a mountain. In the blink of an eye, the Crimson Dragon King was already in front of him.
The younger Taoshan brother twisted aside on instinct. The Crimson Dragon King’s edge, sharp enough to sever a hair on contact, sliced through the front of his robe. The blazing blade skimmed forward against the skin of his chest.
Just as he thought he had avoided the vital point and escaped disaster, the Crimson Dragon King suddenly shrank to half a chi in length, fitting neatly into one hand. The hand holding the hairpin-like sword turned it lightly and accurately stabbed toward the beating heart beneath the nearby skin.
The younger Taoshan brother’s eyes widened in disbelief. He could not understand how he had clearly dodged the strike only for the situation to become this. True qi surged wildly through his body as he tried to preserve his life.
Pei Yuan Jin held the Crimson Dragon King and calmly sent a stream of true qi into him, driving it against the flow of his meridians and shattering the younger Taoshan brother’s true essence from within.
Pfft.
The younger Taoshan brother opened his mouth and spat out blood, unwilling even at the end. When Pei Yuan Jin pulled out the Crimson Dragon King, his body slowly and heavily toppled backward like a tree ripped up by the roots. Even in death, his eyes remained fixed on his fan, as though still asking, Old friend, what happened to you?
A single point of red light rested on the palm-leaf fan. At first glance it looked like an afterglow left by the Crimson Dragon King. Only on closer inspection could one see what looked like an impossibly tiny book inside the glow.
The book was half-open. One page stood vertically upright, forming the shape “⊥” when viewed from the side.
Was this the Earth Mirror?
Why had it left Fu Xi Yan’s body?
Pei Yuan Jin was just about to bend and pick it up when the ground beneath him suddenly sank. The elder Taoshan brother, having watched his younger brother die, lost all reason and unleashed a devastating punch that shattered nearly a third of the drill ground.
Fu Xi Yan charged toward them like a madman, but the elder Taoshan brother was even more reckless. He completely ignored the Moon-Soul Spear chasing him from behind and threw himself at Pei Yuan Jin like a great bird spreading its wings.
Pei Yuan Jin’s left arm was broken, throwing off the balance of his body. For an ordinary person, the effect might not have been especially obvious. But for a martial artist, especially one at his level, control over the body had long since reached the finest degree of precision. Once the left arm lost strength, the right side of the body had to be adjusted to compensate.
And that adjustment inevitably slowed his reactions.
“Earth Mirror!”
Seeing the elder Taoshan brother about to reach Pei Yuan Jin first, Fu Xi Yan felt that strange sensation of absolute control return. The Earth Mirror lying motionless on the palm-leaf fan trembled lightly, then shot into Pei Yuan Jin’s forehead.
Pei Yuan Jin felt a faint heat between his brows and the uncomfortable sensation of something foreign occupying the space there. Yet the persistent pain in his broken left shoulder vanished in an instant. Not only that, the true essence he had forcibly broken open to save Fu Xi Yan recovered as well, becoming even rounder, smoother, and somehow… more yellow?
Only the blink of an eye had passed. The elder Taoshan brother’s right palm struck Pei Yuan Jin’s shoulder, the left shoulder once again. This time he used all his strength, a truly thunderous blow.
Pei Yuan Jin’s left clavicle, shoulder blade, upper-arm bone, and even his ribs broke in the same instant.
The strike carried lingering force. The broken bones continued splintering inside him. If not for the Earth Mirror rapidly repairing his body, the bones on that side might have been ground to powder.
The elder Taoshan brother had been the mantis stalking the cicada, with He Si Yu as the oriole behind him. But He Si Yu still cared about his dignity as a sect leader and did not want to attack someone from behind, so the Moon-Soul Spear merely tore through the elder Taoshan brother’s clothing.
Fu Xi Yan had no such scruples. This was already a life-and-death fight. Anyone still worrying about gentlemanly conduct at a time like this had rocks for brains.
He tried to use the Object-Commanding Art to seize control of the Moon-Soul Spear and push it forward a few more cun. He Si Yu seemed to sense something and lightly shook the shaft. Fu Xi Yan immediately suffered something like backlash, an indescribable pain that did not seem to belong to the body at all.
The Heaven Mirror flashed twice, but it was powerless against that pain.
Moon-Soul, Moon-Soul. The weapon itself had been forged by He Si Yu’s people from the power of souls. If Fu Xi Yan wanted to control it, the Object-Commanding Art would not work. He needed the Spirit-Control Art instead.
At the same time, Pei Yuan Jin’s body had already returned to health under the Earth Mirror’s effect. He watched the elder Taoshan brother unleash a frenzy of punches from only three or four chi away and, without dodging or retreating, swung the Crimson Dragon King.
The two fought as though neither knew the meaning of defense. One threw punch after punch. The other answered with sword strike after sword strike. In only a few breaths, each had attacked more than a hundred times.
Their movements were so fast that the wounds across the elder Taoshan brother’s body did not erupt until Pei Yuan Jin finally stopped swinging his sword. Then every cut burst open at once, and in moments the man became a complete blood-soaked figure.
Yet a delighted smile spread across his face. “Our family’s debts never stay overnight. If there is a debt, we collect it at once.”
The breath sustaining him finally escaped. Even then, his eyes remained stubbornly open, waiting to see Pei Yuan Jin follow his younger brother into death. But Pei Yuan Jin did not fall. Instead, he walked toward him one step at a time.
The elder Taoshan brother asked venomously, “Why aren’t you dead yet?”
Pei Yuan Jin lifted his left hand and flicked the man’s forehead from a distance. As the elder Taoshan brother toppled backward with disbelief still in his eyes, Pei Yuan Jin said coolly, “Heaven doesn’t take good people.”
The Taoshan brothers had been two of Southern Yu’s greatest trump cards in this operation. And just like that, both were dead?
The martial artists who had been risking their lives for the emperor’s verbal decree felt a chill and unconsciously slowed their attacks. The people standing on Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin’s side, meanwhile, had been badly outnumbered and most had already prepared themselves to die. Seeing the situation reverse, their fighting spirit surged and they launched a counterattack.
Among everyone present, Elder Yun and Zhu Shou Xin had the most complicated feelings.
Elder Yun was still holding Fu Gui Gui.
When Fu Xi Yan first threw the bird to him, Elder Yun had been completely baffled. They were enemies rather than friends. Had Fu Xi Yan lost his mind, entrusting his pet to him? But that confusion quickly turned to delight.
He was not a fool who failed to recognize value. Red Peng birds were worth a fortune because of their terrifying killing power. Whether he sold it or raised it himself, he would profit enormously. He immediately decided to slip away with the bird.
He had not even reached the gate before the emperor’s so-called verbal decree arrived, and then the entire field erupted into chaos. Those imperial guards either had poor brains before joining the army or developed poor brains after joining it, because they insisted on treating Elder Yun as one of Fu Xi Yan’s allies no matter how much he tried to explain. After all that effort, he was still three or four zhang from the exit.
The situation had changed again and again, however. Pei Yuan Jin had killed two Martial Kings in succession without suffering so much as a scratch. That kind of strength was terrifying. Now, even if the guards carried the gate over and placed it right in front of Elder Yun, he would not dare run immediately. Better to watch a little longer.
Zhu Shou Xin’s hatred of Fu Xi Yan required no explanation. He had originally believed that with two Martial Kings taking the field, even if they could not win completely, they would at least be able to kill one of the pair. Who could have expected both Taoshan brothers to die while Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin remained unharmed?
In the midst of the stunned silence, Fu Xi Yan suddenly pitched forward headfirst and collapsed straight into Pei Yuan Jin’s arms.
The Earth Mirror left Pei Yuan Jin and returned to Fu Xi Yan’s forehead. Purple light shone once again. Looking closely, one could see the pages of the “two books” turning at astonishing speed.
Pei Yuan Jin checked his pulse and found it steady. He Si Yu walked over expressionlessly. “He tried to move the Moon-Soul Spear just now. I may have injured him with the recoil.”
He You You saw Pei Yuan Jin’s brows draw together and hurried over. “My father is apologizing.”
Pei Yuan Jin lowered his eyes. “How do we treat it?”
He Si Yu said, “I don’t know either. This spear was always kept by the Southern Ridge Sect Leader before.” His meaning was obvious: he had no intention of returning it now.
Pei Yuan Jin’s gaze moved toward the Southern Ridge Sect Leader.
The Southern Ridge Sect Leader had somehow clung to one last breath from earlier until now. Perhaps the Book of Life and Death had written that this exact day, month, and moment was his appointed time. He had still been breathing just a moment ago. The instant Pei Yuan Jin looked over, his legs kicked once and he died.
…
Even with all his martial prowess, Pei Yuan Jin could not bring the dead back to life.
What he did not know was that although Fu Xi Yan had lost consciousness, his soul seemed to have entered another world. Or rather, a world made entirely of books. The vast collection of the Heaven Mirror, which once took him most of a day just to turn to a single random book, now stretched openly before his eyes like an endless library.
Fu Xi Yan wandered here and there, looking at everything. Countless books made him reluctant to let go. But he could hold only one at a time. The instant he picked up a second, the first would automatically return to its original place.
The contents were extraordinarily varied. There were historical records, anecdotes, geography, and descriptions of landscapes. He flipped through some of the histories and found some familiar, some unfamiliar, and some both familiar and unfamiliar at once. There were so many conflicting versions that he could not tell whether this world was a parallel version of his previous life, a continuation reborn after Heaven and Earth had been destroyed, or whether all these “historical records” were merely absurd stories compiled by bored people.
But he had no intention of wasting time on that. Since he had managed to enter this place, there was only one obvious goal: level up.
You never knew how weak you were until you fought, and you never knew how badly you wanted to hit people until you got beaten.
His eyes swept rapidly over the shelves. He pulled out one incomprehensible title after another, only to shove each book back again. Far too many titles were misleading. Take The Great Scripture of Space. Who would not assume it had something to do with the stars or with cultivation? He opened it and discovered a Buddhist scripture.
After searching for a long time, his hands began to tremble. He suddenly stopped and said, “I’m done looking. Let me out.”
He closed his eyes, then opened them again almost immediately and discovered that he was still inside the library.
He simply sat cross-legged and tried to circulate true qi. Only then did he realize there were no meridians inside him at all, only a vaguely human-shaped mass of soul. In other words, right now he was the soul.
“Is this an out-of-body experience?”
He shook his head. The Heaven Mirror was inside his mind, so his soul should still be inside his body. Then what was happening now? Had his soul entered his brain? If that was the case, had his body outside become an empty walking shell?
Fu Xi Yan grew increasingly anxious. With nothing better to try, he treated a dead horse as though it might still be cured and began muttering every incantation he could think of. “Heaven Mirror, Heaven Mirror, let me out. Hurry, as the law commands!”
“Amitabha. Infinite Heavenly Venerable. Let me out!”
…
“Sesame, open!”
The moment he said it, the library suddenly changed. Every bookshelf rose another level higher, making Fu Xi Yan standing below feel like a tiny person who had wandered into a land of giants.
But the newly added level gave him an immediate clue. The shelves in the original library had all been blue. The new upper level was red.
Blue represented the Heaven Mirror. Red naturally represented the Earth Mirror.
Fu Xi Yan lightly pushed off with one foot and his body floated upward. The Earth Mirror held far fewer books than the Heaven Mirror, and they were much drier. If he had to classify them, they looked almost like beginner textbooks for cultivation.
Besides the Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and other cultivation knowledge Fu Xi Yan already knew about, there were methods for bigu, introductions to cultivation sects, and similar material.
Introductions to cultivation sects?
Since he could not leave anyway, Fu Xi Yan forced himself to suppress his anxiety and opened the book. It was extremely thick. Each sect occupied a different amount of space according to how much there was to say about it. Some received an entire page. Others only two or three lines.
Fu Xi Yan flipped through a few pages and quickly lost interest. He casually muttered, “There isn’t even one I recognize.”
The moment he finished speaking, the book automatically flipped to the middle.
Fu Xi Yan glanced down and then let out a surprised “Huh?” He had just said he did not recognize any of the sects, and the book had immediately turned to one he did know: the No-Return Sect.
A newly risen demonic sect, notorious for treachery and cruelty. It had once destroyed Tianqing Mountain, the Myriad-Poison Sect, the Bloodthirst Hall… followed by a long list of sect names. During the Great Ascension Era, the righteous and demonic paths joined forces against it, and not a single member of the No-Return Sect ascended.
Fu Xi Yan was stunned.
If he had not misunderstood, this book was saying that the No-Return Sect had once been a cultivation sect. A cultivation sect that survived from the Great Ascension Era into an age when Foundation Establishment was already the highest known level should have been able to summon wind and rain and do nearly anything it pleased.
No. That could not be right. If so, the No-Return Sect would never have disappeared back then.
He continued reading.
At the end of the Great Ascension Era, an ascender destroyed the No-Return Sect and burned countless texts beneath Heaven. A worthy person mourned the loss, gathered the souls of the books, and stored them within Heaven and Earth.
Elio’s Notes: The raw contains the unusual phrase “飞升者略” at this point and does not clearly identify the ascender. The English preserves the clear event without inventing a missing or uncertain name.
Fu Xi Yan suddenly understood. So this was where the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror had come from.
And when that ascender supposedly wiped out the No-Return Sect, perhaps the extermination had not been absolute. Maybe someone survived, or perhaps some texts were left behind, allowing the sect to rise from the ashes later.
The next entry was already about another sect.
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Are there any other sects in here that I know?”
The book snapped shut.
Fu Xi Yan thought for a moment. “Any other information about the No-Return Sect?”
The book in his hands flew back onto the shelf. Fu Xi Yan waited, but no new book appeared, so apparently there was nothing else. He asked, “Do you have a cultivation method suitable for me? Something with immediate results.”
The moment he finished speaking, an entire swarm of books hurtled toward him. Their speed and force were no weaker than the “long river” of weapons he had created earlier.
Fu Xi Yan’s expression changed. “The strongest and fastest one!”
The books froze in midair as though competing invisibly among themselves. Fu Xi Yan hastily added, “And one that lets me get out of here immediately after I learn it!”
At last, after a fierce round of silent competition and recommendation, one book descended in front of him with almost dignified restraint.
* * *
The snow on the drill ground still had not accumulated, but the blood flowing across it was already growing thick.
Pei Yuan Jin remained seated cross-legged on the ground with Fu Xi Yan in his arms. The Crimson Dragon King lay beside his hand, looking perfectly harmless, yet no one dared ignore its existence.
The jianghu martial artists who had sided with Pei Yuan Jin gathered around them. Elder Yun was among them, still holding Fu Gui Gui. The court’s forces stood opposite. There was no river between them, yet the two sides had drawn a boundary as clear as the Chu River and Han frontier.
Zhu Shou Xin had already sent someone to the imperial palace for instructions. The messenger had only just left, which meant there would still be a long, agonizing wait. Zhu Shou Xin’s face was cold, and his heart felt colder.
At that moment—
A graceful figure holding an umbrella appeared at the entrance to the drill ground, bringing a black sedan chair with her.