Jiang Hanchuan’s tone was perfectly flat. Eight hundred thousand wronged souls rested on his shoulders. He had walked alone for nearly a century, until revenge had become simply something that had to be done. There was no longer any fiery resolve or grief-stricken fury left, only calm.
Xia Yunzhao slowly recovered from the shock and looked toward Du Yan, only to hear him say blandly, “As expected.” Clearly, he had recognized Jiang Hanchuan long ago.
Xia Yunzhao took a deep breath. “So you came here this time for revenge? You want to use this Spirit-Severing Formation to destroy all of Qianyuan Sect?”
Jiang Hanchuan looked regretful. “I would very much like to, but I can’t anymore.” He raised his head toward the sky beyond the formation. Earthy yellow cast a haze across Duxu City’s normally clear heavens. “My constitution is fake, and so is my spirit root. My natural aptitude is nowhere near this good. Golden Core is already my limit. I wanted everyone in Qianyuan Sect to experience the Spirit-Severing Formation, but even after exhausting everything I have, I can only spread the formation across the entire Earth-Vein Office. I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”
Xia Yunzhao’s expression grew complicated. This was Jiang Hanchuan’s own version of even through nine deaths, I would have no regrets. Once the formation appeared, whether anyone in the Earth-Vein Office would survive was uncertain, but Qianyuan Sect certainly would not let Jiang Hanchuan go.
Then Du Yan laughed. “Not necessarily. Haven’t I come in?”
Xia Yunzhao whipped around. “Brother Du! What are you talking about?!”
Du Yan gave him an apologetic smile, raised a hand, and swallowed a pill.
Everyone around Xia Yunzhao normally used pills he had refined himself. He recognized at once that this pill was not his.
“Brother Du, you…”
The chaotic spiritual energy surged again. Du Yan’s cultivation climbed without pause: late Foundation Establishment… Golden Core… Great Completion of Golden Core… Nascent Soul!
What he had taken was precisely that Mystic-Origin Mirror-Breaking Pill.
The wildly rising cultivation tore at his meridians. Before long, he too was soaked in blood like Jiang Hanchuan. His expression did not change, neither sorrowful nor joyful. He raised a hand, and a magical robe appeared over his body while two magical treasures materialized and circled beside him.
The Heaven-Measuring Ruler, the Earth-Vein Book, the Patrol Robe… The former chief disciple of the Earth-Vein Office stood there with unquestionable authority, the man before whom earth qi once submitted and spirit veins settled wherever he went.
“The Qianyuan Spirit-Severing Formation was originally the Qianyuan Meridian-Stabilizing Formation, a formation used to regulate the earth-qi meridians beneath heaven and oversee the veins and contours of mountains and rivers.” Du Yan dropped to one knee, pressed a hand to the ground, and clawed downward. Earth-vein qi gushed up like river water and poured into the formation. The formation expanded with astonishing speed.
The Qianyuan Sect disciples outside had no chance to react. In the blink of an eye, six of the Nine Great Offices had been swallowed by the formation.
Inside the formation, violent winds roared and yellow sand filled the sky. Xia Yunzhao was knocked flat before he could react. By the time he stood again, both men beside him were gone.
“Brother Du? Jiang Hanchuan? Where are you?” There was no response. Xia Yunzhao was furious. Those two had definitely abandoned him on purpose. They were the formation setters. Everything inside this formation was under their control. How could they possibly fail to notice one very large, very living person?
He trudged through the formation with difficulty. No matter where he went, the wind blew him staggering from side to side. His stubborn temper flared, and he muttered through gritted teeth, “Just wait until I find you two… ptooey, ptooey!”
He had no idea how long he walked before he finally spotted a figure. His eyes lit up. “Brother Du!”
Du Yan sat cross-legged. Countless fine threads emerged from underground and bound his legs, fastening him firmly to the earth. Hearing Xia Yunzhao’s voice, he opened his eyes helplessly. “Why haven’t you gone out yet? This formation won’t stop you.”
“I’m not leaving!” Xia Yunzhao ran over and crouched beside him. “Brother Du, once we tear down this Earth-Vein Office, you’re coming out with me.”
A trace of apology crossed Du Yan’s face. “Xiao Xia, I’m sorry. I can’t leave with you.” His low voice was almost a murmur. “I set up the Spirit-Severing Formation at Fushui River with my own hands. Eight hundred thousand people died at my hands. The blood debt is beyond counting… Qianyuan Sect deserves to die, but I am not innocent either.”
He looked at the young man before him. Thinking carefully, not even two years had passed since their first meeting. It was such a tiny fraction of his long, rotting life, yet every scene remained vivid before his eyes.
He had watched this brat grow from a complete novice who understood nothing into a gifted pill cultivator, become a city lord, and even find a Dao companion… Time truly passed quickly.
Buying those more than twenty Lingwei Pills back then was probably the only good thing he had ever done in his life.
Du Yan smiled. “Go on. Xiao Shang is still outside waiting for you.”
“I’m not going.” Xia Yunzhao’s stubborn streak flared too. He plopped down on the ground. “You promised you’d return to Qingxi City with me. You’re breaking your word!”
Du Yan sighed and formed a hand seal. Brown spiritual energy appeared from nowhere, wrapped around Xia Yunzhao, and began dragging him toward the outside.
“Brother Du!” Xia Yunzhao panicked and grabbed his shoulder. He spoke rapidly. “Jiang Hanchuan is still here! More than eight hundred thousand people at Fushui River died and he was the only one who lived. Are you going to make him die here too? Is he supposed to die inside a Spirit-Severing Formation so the whole family can be neatly reunited?”
Du Yan froze. Xia Yunzhao did not dare pause. “And I still haven’t found my cultivation method! Aren’t you going to help me? Without it, Golden Core will be the end of the road for me too! When I turn a hundred, I’ll come to Qianyuan Sect and set up a Spirit-Severing Formation myself! Shang Shuangze is still outside guarding the formation for you. We don’t even know if he’s hurt. Are you just going to ignore us? You said you’d protect us while we were in Duxu City!”
Du Yan rubbed his forehead. “I don’t think I ever said that…”
“Anyway, you have to protect us!” Xia Yunzhao glared at him. “There are so many things waiting for you to do, and you still want to hide inside this formation and be done with everything? You’re irresponsible!”
In his life, Du Yan had been cursed as a murderous devil, someone destined for heavenly punishment, an evil ghost, a fiend… But he truly had never been called irresponsible before.
There was simply nothing he could do with Xiao Xia. He finally said, “All right. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The threads binding him loosened one after another and disappeared back into the ground. Du Yan stood.
The violent wind stopped targeting Xia Yunzhao as well. It weakened and curved gently around him. Xia Yunzhao secretly let out a breath. “Come on. We’ll find Jiang Hanchuan and leave. There are plenty of ways to get revenge on Qianyuan Sect. Why die together with them? Are they worth it?”
Du Yan sighed again. He had the vague feeling that he had been maneuvered into something, but he could not work out where the trick had happened. And what Xiao Xia said really was true.
They did find Jiang Hanchuan inside the formation. His spiritual power was completely exhausted and he had already lost consciousness. Had they arrived even half a day later, he would have been beyond saving. Xia Yunzhao shoved a pill into his mouth to keep him alive. “Quick, let’s go!”
The three reached the outside of the formation just as a streak of cold light flashed across the sky. Sword light filled the heavens, and Xia Yunzhao’s heart jumped. “Shang Shuangze!”
“Here.” A voice came from behind them. Xia Yunzhao and Du Yan turned at the same time. Shang Shuangze was actually standing right behind them. Then who was fighting in the sky…?
Du Yan looked up. The one battling Qianyuan Sect cultivators overhead was Shang Shuangze’s Jade-Shell Puppet. And beside it… wasn’t that dark-red figure his junior brother?
His junior brother was named Mao Sixian. He had entered the sect two years after Du Yan, was proud and narrow-minded, and had always compared himself with Du Yan in secret. But whether in talent, temperament, or cultivation, he had never matched him. Du Yan had been gone for a hundred years, and no one had been happier about that than this junior brother.
Still, although Mao Sixian was narrow-minded, his head worked perfectly well. He was especially skilled at currying favor with those above him and trampling those below, and he never cared about right or wrong. So why was he helping Shang Shuangze fight now?
Shang Shuangze explained concisely, “I lied and told him I planted sword qi in him. If he didn’t help me, he would die.”
Xia Yunzhao nearly burst out laughing. “Beautifully done!”
Even Du Yan did not know whether to laugh or cry. Shang Shuangze had chosen exactly the right lie. Mao Sixian himself had done similar things often enough that he would never dare gamble on whether Shang Shuangze was telling the truth.
Xia Yunzhao added, “Before those old monsters come out, let’s get down the mountain first!”
It looked as though many things had happened since the formation appeared, but in reality only fifteen minutes had passed. So far, the people handling the situation were merely Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation cultivators. Xia Yunzhao’s group certainly could not beat them head-on, but sneaking away was still possible. If they delayed even a little longer and the true old monsters emerged, that would be dangerous.
At that moment, a disciple shouted, “By order of the Office Master! Close the mountain gates and activate the mountain-protection formation. Do not let a single person escape!”
“Yes!”
Du Yan frowned. “Move! Once the mountain-protection formation activates, none of us will get out!”
The three supported the unconscious Jiang Hanchuan and flew rapidly down the mountain. The mountain-protection formation was already extending downward from Qianyuan Sect’s highest point. It was spreading quickly and was about to cover the entire sect.
They were only a few li from the mountain gate when the formation suddenly stopped. Not only that, the wind stopped, the chaotic shouting stopped, and even a bird flying overhead froze in place.
Xia Yunzhao tried to pull Jiang Hanchuan forward, but he did not move. Xia Yunzhao turned around and found that Shang Shuangze and Brother Du had stopped too.
The entire world had frozen. He was the only person still able to move.
A bell rang, distant and empty.
Xia Yunzhao turned toward the sound and saw a tower. It looked remarkably like the Scripture Pavilion, with a white body, nine floors, and eight sides. The difference was that a bronze bell hung from every corner, and a flashing gemstone was embedded at the very top. There was no wind, yet the bells trembled endlessly, their ringing never stopping.
Xia Yunzhao came back to himself and suddenly understood. “…The Moment Tower!”
No wonder everything had stopped. The Moment Tower was an Immortal-grade magical treasure possessing the power of time.
Thinking deeper, no wonder Qianyuan Sect disciples always said the Moment Tower appeared for only an instant and no one could enter it. Whenever the tower appeared, time itself stopped. To everyone else, wouldn’t it naturally seem to vanish in a flash?
But this time was different. Xia Yunzhao suddenly realized that he could move.
If the Moment Tower truly was Qianyuan Sect’s second Scripture Pavilion, then wasn’t the Qian-Kun Qi-Control Treatise inside? The thought struck him, and he lowered Jiang Hanchuan before flying toward the tower.
The tower remained perfectly still. The gemstone at its peak flashed faster and faster, almost as though it were excited too. The instant Xia Yunzhao reached out and touched the tower, there came a soft pop. The gemstone cracked and crumbled into dust.
Noise crashed back into the world. Wind rose, clouds moved, and time began flowing again.
“What was that…?”
“That’s the Moment Tower!”
“Ancestors above, the Moment Tower appeared!”
“Who is that person? How can he touch the Moment Tower?”
“No! The Moment Tower is disappearing…”
The Moment Tower did not disappear. Right in front of Xia Yunzhao, beginning with the gemstone at its peak, it rustled apart into powder.
Xia Yunzhao’s heart jolted. No! This Moment Tower was only a projection left inside time. It was an image of the past. The real Moment Tower no longer existed!
Had he been scammed? The thought flashed through his mind, but the instant the phantom tower vanished, time itself split open along a narrow crack. A cultivation method flew out and landed directly in Xia Yunzhao’s arms: the Qian-Kun Qi-Control Treatise!
A violent gale suddenly swept across the sky. White clouds turned black in an instant, and a bolt of light struck down from above. With it came a roar even more terrifying than thunder. “What rat dares touch the Moment Tower of my Qianyuan Sect?!”
Xia Yunzhao’s mind shook violently and he coughed up blood. Only then did he realize that had not been lightning at all, but a blast of spiritual power.
What a joke. When the Spirit-Severing Formation was tearing through your Qianyuan Sect disciples, you didn’t bother coming out. The moment the Moment Tower disappears, suddenly you’re in a hurry!
Xia Yunzhao did not even stop to wipe his mouth. He retreated rapidly through the air and slammed into someone’s arms. Shang Shuangze. Time had resumed, so naturally he and Du Yan could move again.
Shang Shuangze held him and continued retreating. Mingyun swept out several times, finally dispersing the force of that spiritual-power strike.
An enormous hand reached from nowhere, giving them no time to recover. “Leave the cultivation method!”
The pressure from that hand forced even Qianyuan Sect’s own disciples flat against the ground. Not far away, Du Yan’s eyes went wide. “Xiao Xia!”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze both coughed up blood. They did not even need to exchange a glance before moving in perfect unison. Xia Yunzhao threw out the Heaven-and-Earth Secret Realm and swept Du Yan and Jiang Hanchuan inside. At the same moment, Shang Shuangze drew out a jade fang and slashed through empty space. Rolling clouds poured from the opening, accompanied by an equally overwhelming roar: “Which old bastard dares touch my disciple?!”
A streak of sword light shot from that tiny spatial crack with earth-shaking force. It collided with the giant palm, and heaven and earth trembled.
“Yue Shanfeng?” The other voice sounded puzzled. “Your disciple stole my sect’s magical treasure and cultivation method…”
“Bullshit! My disciple has never stolen a thing in his life! If you’ve got the guts, come to Baiyujing. I’ll confront you face-to-face!”
The spatial crack closed rapidly, and the two figures vanished. All that remained was a Qianyuan Sect in chaos, disciples sprawled across the ground unable to stand, and a Spirit-Severing Formation that had swallowed several Offices.
Many Qianyuan Sect disciples were deeply shaken. Since when had Qianyuan Sect become this pathetic? Someone had broken into their sect, caused an enormous disaster, and still escaped intact?
And that tower… had that not been their sect’s Immortal-grade magical treasure, the Moment Tower? It had just… crumbled?
A moment later, the voice sounded again. “Close the mountain gates. From today onward, Qianyuan Sect disciples may not descend the mountain without cause.”
Everyone looked at one another. “Yes, Sect Master.”
* * *
Xia Yunzhao lost consciousness the moment he saw the spatial crack. Before blacking out, he only heard someone shout something about a disciple…
When he woke, it was as though his memory resumed from the same point. That voice was still talking. Compared with its earlier fury, it now carried a teasing edge. “…That’s more like it. I told you long ago, if you can’t win, run home! What’s embarrassing about that? You wooden block, you never listen.”
Xia Yunzhao blinked. Aside from feeling weak, nothing else seemed wrong, so he sat up on his own.
The room was simple but full of quiet refinement. Beneath him was a bed carved from a single piece of thousand-year warm jade, pleasantly warm to the touch. Beside it stood a desk made of Sinking-Star Ironwood. Several old cuts marred the legs, as though a sharp weapon had struck them long ago. Brush, ink, paper, and inkstone sat neatly on the desk, all high-quality magical artifacts. A stack of sword arts was arranged with meticulous care, and each showed signs of having been read. In one corner rested a spirit-jade box. Barring surprises, it should contain jade slips engraved with sword arts.
Xia Yunzhao climbed down from the bed, walked over, opened the jade box, and smiled faintly. Just as expected. This had to be Shang Shuangze’s room, perhaps even the room he had lived in since childhood.
A folding screen painted with pine trees and snowy mountains stood before the bed. A figure moved beyond it, and Shang Shuangze came around the screen. Seeing Xia Yunzhao standing barefoot beside the bed, he quickened his steps. “Why didn’t you call someone after waking? You’re not even wearing shoes.”
Xia Yunzhao’s voice was still a little hoarse. “I couldn’t find them.”
Shang Shuangze tapped the Hundred-Compartment Pouch at his waist, took out a pair of shoes, and bent down to put them on Xia Yunzhao. They fit perfectly. Holding Xia Yunzhao’s ankle, he asked, “Does anything still hurt? Martial Uncle Kunwu came to look at you earlier. He said there was nothing serious and left some pills for your injuries. Do you want them?”
Only then did Xia Yunzhao notice the medicine bottle beside the bed. He opened it and found rare pills for internal injuries, so he swallowed two and shoved two into Shang Shuangze’s mouth as well.
When he lifted his head after taking them, he finally noticed someone leaning beside the folding screen. Embarrassed, he quickly pulled his foot away from Shang Shuangze’s leg, stood, and saluted. “Greetings, Senior. This junior has been rude.”
Yue Shanfeng looked Xia Yunzhao up and down, delighted beyond measure. “Good, good, good! I never imagined my disciple would actually manage to trick such a fresh, pretty Dao companion into coming home! Little one, how old are you this year? Where are you from? Who is left in your family? My idiot disciple says the two of you haven’t formed a bond yet. Why don’t we hold a Dao-Companion Bonding Ceremony for you today?”
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
He blinked blankly. Was it because he had only just woken up? Why could he not understand what this Senior was saying?
Shang Shuangze rubbed his forehead. “Master, Yunzhao and I still have important matters to handle.”
“Why are you so dull?” Yue Shanfeng glared. “A Dao companion has to be coaxed! With that stiff personality of yours, how are you supposed to be affectionate with your Dao companion? Hurry up and learn a couple of tricks from your master. Your Mistress praises me every day!”
“…Master.” Shang Shuangze said helplessly, “As far as I know, Mistress hasn’t wanted to see you for several years.”
Yue Shanfeng: “…She’s just been busy these past few days! Once she gets through this stretch, reunion after a long separation will be sweeter than newlywed bliss!”
Xia Yunzhao burst out laughing. He had never expected Shang Shuangze’s master to have this kind of personality.
Yue Shanfeng looked at him and smiled again. “You’re Xiao Xia, right? Relax. I’ve already driven that old fellow Guanwei back. You two can recuperate peacefully in Baiyujing. Even if you gave him eight hundred guts, he wouldn’t dare come here demanding people! Keep that cultivation method. Everyone knows Qianyuan Sect lost their Moment Tower ages ago. The rules of the jianghu are simple: if someone loses something, whoever finds it gets to keep it. Cultivate it without worry!”
Warmth rose in Xia Yunzhao’s chest. Being sheltered under an elder’s wing felt unbelievably good. He nodded hard. “Many thanks, Senior!”
The more Yue Shanfeng looked at him, the more he liked him. He shot Shang Shuangze a look that plainly said, Hurry up and bring him into the family already, then walked away with his hands behind his back, returning to the mountaintop to fish for flying fish.
Xia Yunzhao let out a tiny breath. Senior Yue was wonderful, but this was still the first time Xia Yunzhao had met one of Shang Shuangze’s elders, so he had been a little nervous. He took Shang Shuangze’s hand again and asked, “What about you? I saw you cough up blood earlier too. Are you injured?”
Shang Shuangze sat beside him. “I’m fine. My meridians were only shaken.”
Xia Yunzhao personally checked him over before asking, “Who is that Guanwei person?”
Shang Shuangze said, “Dao Venerable Guanwei, the current Sect Master of Qianyuan Sect. His real name is Li Jingyuan. He is one of the few Mahayana cultivators in the world today.”
“…”
Xia Yunzhao’s mouth fell open. “You’re telling me we took a palm strike from a Mahayana cultivator and survived?”