Pei Yuan Jin led the way, with Jing Luo guarding the rear. The four of them sped along the road like shooting stars, almost leaving a trail of sparks behind them.
If Fu Xi Yan had not possessed the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror to cheat by repeatedly repairing damage to his true essence, he would have collapsed by now. Yan Xie, meanwhile, made him look at him in a new light. Not because his cultivation was especially profound, but because the man could take pills. One handful of medicinal pills later, his pale cheeks instantly regained a healthy flush.
Fu Xi Yan suddenly leaned closer. “Did the two of you ever hold a wedding?”
Yan Xie had been concentrating on the road. The abrupt question threw his footwork into chaos. He twisted awkwardly a couple of times before recovering, then stared at Fu Xi Yan with an extremely peculiar expression.
Fu Xi Yan saw nothing wrong with his question. If Yan Xie hadn’t insisted on being his father from their very first meeting, Fu Xi Yan would never have asked it. He had never met Jin Yuan Xiu, but he still felt vaguely responsible for her life.
After staring at him for a while, Yan Xie suddenly smiled happily. “All right!”
Fu Xi Yan’s head filled with question marks. He was asking whether they had, not whether Yan Xie would!
Yan Xie apparently couldn’t care less what he meant. “As soon as I find her, I’ll deliver the betrothal gifts,” he announced enthusiastically.
“Find her first,” Fu Xi Yan retorted.
Yan Xie’s expression grew strange again, halfway between laughter and tears. He even let out a long sigh. “Your mother never said it aloud, but she actually loves me very much.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…” If you hadn’t included the part where she never said it aloud, I might have believed you.
Yan Xie fell into his own thoughts and murmured, “So she was afraid I’d be in danger.”
Fu Xi Yan couldn’t hold back. “What? Even at your age she still holds your hand at crosswalks, or only lets you eat liquids when she feeds you?”
“I must go find her,” Yan Xie said.
Fu Xi Yan was speechless. “Wasn’t that why you came with us in the first place? Did you only just remember?”
Yan Xie ignored him, the corners of his lips upturned as if he were in an excellent mood.
Fu Xi Yan quickened his steps to catch up with Pei Yuan Jin. “I suddenly understand how an old father feels,” he said worriedly. Right now, Jin Yuan Xiu felt less like his mother than his daughter. Between the sinister, merciless Mo Xiao Ran and the completely outrageous Yan Xie, his heart felt heavy.
Pei Yuan Jin took his hand and passed true qi into him.
The Heaven-and-Earth Mirror could repair his body, but he still grew tired. The true qi really did relieve a little of the strain. Fu Xi Yan glanced awkwardly at the other two and, seeing neither was watching, was about to speak when Pei Yuan Jin asked, “Which old father of yours?”
“…” Fu Xi Yan said slowly, “Father Pei.” Having a son as single-minded as you can’t be easy!
Pei Yuan Jin’s grip tightened. Fu Xi Yan pretended to be in agony. “I’m telling you, that counts as domestic violence.”
Pei Yuan Jin naturally released his hand.
Fu Xi Yan felt vaguely aggrieved. As soulmates, shouldn’t Pei Yuan Jin play along and keep his little comedy performance going? But he soon noticed something wrong with Pei Yuan Jin’s complexion, and that his pace was gradually slowing.
Fu Xi Yan slowed to a stop as well.
Yan Xie abruptly appeared at his side. “Is it about to rain? Shall we find somewhere to shelter?”
“What good does hiding do when the world is full of storms?” Fu Xi Yan snapped.
Yan Xie froze and then looked genuinely convinced.
Jing Luo suddenly asked, “Are you about to advance?”
The Crimson Dragon King atop Pei Yuan Jin’s head flashed and flew out of his hair on its own, landing in his hand and transforming into a longsword.
Only then did Fu Xi Yan notice the thick clouds overhead. The sky looked ready to unleash a torrential downpour. But if he remembered correctly, Pei Yuan Jin had said he still lacked some intangible, indescribable thing needed to reach Golden Core. Because of that, his earlier lightning tribulation had ended without granting advancement and had instead served to execute justice by striking down Ban Qing Yu. An unexpected benefit, at least.
“This time, it feels as if everything has fallen into place,” Pei Yuan Jin said.
Jing Luo frowned faintly. “But here…”
They were on an official road, with neither village nor inn nearby. If they had to find somewhere in the area, the mountain was their only option. Yet Haojing was in grave danger, and every moment spent delaying rescue mattered.
“You go ahead,” Pei Yuan Jin said solemnly. “I’ll follow as soon as I can.”
“You need someone to protect you during the tribulation,” Jing Luo said.
Of the three people accompanying Pei Yuan Jin, Yan Xie was out of the question. That left Jing Luo and Fu Xi Yan. Fu Xi Yan’s first instinct was to ask Jing Luo to stay and protect Pei Yuan Jin while he rushed to help Haojing.
It was not that Pei Yuan Jin mattered any less. It was simply obvious which place was in greater danger, and Fu Xi Yan could not ask others to take that risk in his place. Yet when the words reached his lips, for some strange reason he could not say them. Something, whether fate or his subconscious, kept reminding him: Stay. Stay.
Seeing that he still did not speak, Jing Luo offered, “I’ll go to Haojing first. The two of you can follow later.”
He glanced at Yan Xie, apparently asking whose side he wanted to take.
Yan Xie did not bother answering. He simply raced off toward Haojing. Jing Luo nodded to Pei Yuan Jin and turned to leave, but Pei Yuan Jin abruptly said, as though something had occurred to him, “I can hold it back a little longer.”
Fu Xi Yan opened his mouth, but Pei Yuan Jin took his hand. They exchanged a look. Fu Xi Yan did not actually understand, but he had the good sense not to admit it.
The four resumed their journey. Yan Xie went ahead to lead them, though Jing Luo overtook him before long.
Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin followed behind. Fu Xi Yan whispered, “What did you mean back there?”
“It’s possible that the Haojing grand formation has… succeeded,” Pei Yuan Jin replied.
* * *
Zheng Jiao Jiao had long since lost consciousness. The Soul Seal, which had been quiet until now, suddenly emitted a piercing shriek. A black speck no larger than a fingernail radiated tremendous power, instantly devoured Zheng Jiao Jiao’s last remaining soul power, and plunged into the true essence sitting inside the formation eye.
A nearly inaudible sneer escaped Mo Xiao Ran’s lips. He moved a finger over the joint between two levels of the iron tower. With a series of clicks and rattles, the uppermost level rotated half a turn.
Ice-Soul Yin Spring water suddenly erupted from the formation eye and enveloped the true essence. The Soul Seal inside sensed danger and tried to escape, but the spring’s freezing yin energy numbed it before it could move. The tower’s mechanism immediately accelerated.
The black speck was slowly stretched into fine threads and absorbed into the pagoda. Just then, something struck the iron tower with tremendous force.
Mo Xiao Ran’s expression changed. He looked down.
Half of the Purple-Gold Battle Armor had sunk into the iron tower. Wang Yu’s skin was splitting beneath it, and blood gushed from his wounds, seeping between the armor’s plates. The armor glowed more brightly, as though covered in fluorescent light that was slowly flowing toward the tower.
The old man rushed over and grabbed Wang Yu’s shoulder, trying to wrench him free. Even after exhausting his strength, he managed to move him only a few inches.
Suddenly Wang Yu turned his head. His helmet concealed the right half of his face, and the left side was mostly hidden in shadow. Only a little of his nose and the corner of one eye were visible. Yet to the old man, that sliver of a face suddenly seemed alive, as if there was light in Wang Yu’s eye.
The old man’s heart stirred, and his grip loosened slightly. At that moment, a beautiful, slender, pale hand settled on Wang Yu’s helmet.
Looking up, the old man met Mo Xiao Ran’s furious gaze.
To be frank, even after looking at Mo Xiao Ran’s face for so many years, the old man could still be struck anew by its beauty from time to time. Only now did that face, surely one of Heaven and Earth’s most perfect creations, seem almost distorted to him.
Ignoring the backlash from the armor, Mo Xiao Ran forced Wang Yu’s head down inch by inch until he could no longer move.
The armor’s light went out completely, and Wang Yu’s head dangled at an unnatural angle. The old man could not help sighing. “Why go so far…”
Mo Xiao Ran’s cold glance froze the rest of his words in his throat. He returned to the top of the iron tower, only to find the black speck, previously frozen by the Ice-Soul Yin Spring, stealthily creeping out again.
His gaze hardened. Risking it, he used Object-Commanding Arts to manipulate the true essence. But the tower devoured every kind of true qi, spiritual energy, and soul power. The moment he extended his soul power inside, the formation began refining it.
He calculated how long the refining process took and how far his soul power could travel before it vanished. Then he released still more. Before the tower could consume it all, that power reached the formation eye and forced the black speck back inside.
He seemed to hear a rough voice roaring in the distance, “Unworthy…”
Before it could finish speaking, soul power erupted into the sky from the top of the tower. A thick black wisp flashed faintly past, only to be struck by a bolt of thunder and scattered before anyone could see it clearly.
Standing where he was, the old man felt the true essence within his own abdomen begin circulating true qi like an unbridled horse. Some invisible, intangible shackle that had confined him for years seemed to have broken.
It was not an insufficient state of mind or cultivation. The barrier that had prevented the cultivators of this world from advancing to Golden Core had finally been removed.
He lifted his head toward the heavens.
With the black energy scattered, the once gloomy clouds swirled apart as though a storm had exploded in their center. Their ridges undulated like waves, while the patches of cloud resembled overlapping fish scales. The morning sun cast orange-gold light upon them, as if blood-soaked gold dust had been scattered across the sky.
Then thunder boomed again. The golden clouds gathered once more, now hanging directly above Mo Xiao Ran.
The old man stared, openly envious, muttering repeatedly, “So that’s it. So that’s how it was!” By combining what he had once learned, what he had heard, and what he could now infer, he finally understood Mo Xiao Ran’s calculations.
Long ago, an immortal had known that a fragment of a No-Return Sect disciple’s soul still existed in the world in the form of a Soul Seal. So the immortal sealed the heavens and the earth, severing the path to Golden Core.
Only after that soul fragment was destroyed could the seal on advancement be lifted!
Thunder roared through the sky, promising torrential rain.
Mo Xiao Ran rushed around, rapidly adjusting the mechanisms inside the iron tower, turning the forward-lock setting back into reverse-lock.
If he had not damaged his own soul beyond a critical threshold while forcing the Soul Seal back into the formation eye, he could have used soul power to suppress the violent fluctuations in his true essence and postponed the lightning tribulation. But it was too late for regret. All he could do now was rely on the tower to withstand the trial.
With his adjustments complete, he stood atop the tower and looked down across Haojing. More than half the city’s people had already been evacuated. Those who remained were few, but perhaps they would be enough.
He thought rapidly. At this point, leaving Haojing would only cause more trouble.
Besides, sooner or later Pei Yuan Jin and the others would discover that the iron tower they had pursued was a fake. When they returned… The corner of his eye suddenly caught a figure moving against the flow of people.
Mei Xia Ying?