Zixu Mountain.
The red silk from the grand wedding had not yet been taken down, but there was no joy on the foxes’ faces. Even as they walked, everyone hurried about with grave expressions. The usually bustling fox mountain had rarely felt so solemn.
Xiang Zhao came out of the kitchen carrying a food box and met a line of fox servants coming toward her. They were carrying plates of leftovers and cold dishes, probably just cleared from some banquet.
“Has the Young Master been found?” one fox servant asked quietly.
“Of course not. I never imagined he would actually dare run away from his own wedding,” another fox said.
“The Clan Chief really has had it hard. He compensated the bride’s family with so many magic treasures to apologize, and he even held this banquet to find the Young Master. He invited many prominent figures among demonkind, and they’ve all agreed to help search for him,” said the first fox servant.
“Xiao Chunhe really is an ungrateful white-eyed wolf. I still don’t understand why the Clan Chief insists on making him Young Master. Couldn’t he just have a little fox of his own?” another fox said sadly.
“Are you stupid? The Clan Chief has always been devoted to the Saintess. He would never look for another fox…”
Xiang Zhao walked past them, crossed several moon gates, and returned to the courtyard where Xue Lezhi was staying. She knocked at the door. “Young Master, it’s time for lunch.”
The door opened from inside, but the person standing there was not Xue Lezhi. It was Feng Qingying.
Xiang Zhao paused. “Senior Feng?”
Feng Qingying folded her arms. “All right. Give me the food.”
Xiang Zhao frowned. “Where is Young Master?”
Feng Qingying smiled ambiguously. “He’s indisposed right now.”
“I want to see Young Master.” Xiang Zhao stepped forward with the food box.
Feng Qingying raised an arm to block her. “What kind of servant are you? How can you have so little sense of propriety?”
Xiang Zhao met her gaze expressionlessly. In the next instant, she hurled the food box straight at Feng Qingying’s head without hesitation. Feng Qingying had not expected her to attack so suddenly and hastily dodged backward. The food box smashed against the doorframe and shattered into pieces.
Feng Qingying laughed. “You dare attack me?”
“Your demon core is shattered. You’re no different from a mortal now.” Xiang Zhao drew a flexible sword from her waist and thrust it straight at her throat.
Feng Qingying twisted aside and flung several shards of broken mirror. Charm incense instantly spread through the air. Xiang Zhao hurriedly held her breath, leapt up, and used the flexible sword to coil around Feng Qingying’s arm. Feng Qingying hissed in pain and rolled several times with the force. Xiang Zhao immediately abandoned the sword, turned her palm into a fist, and smashed it viciously toward Feng Qingying’s neck.
The crack of breaking bone rang out clearly. Feng Qingying’s neck bent into a grotesque angle. She pressed a hand to her head and straightened it again, then struck a palm toward Xiang Zhao’s lower abdomen.
Xiang Zhao was startled, but before the palm could strike, golden light suddenly burst from around Xiang Zhao and drove Feng Qingying back.
Feng Qingying’s face changed drastically. “Could you be the person of extraordinary fortune Xiao Wen mentioned?”
Xiang Zhao was completely bewildered. “What do you mean?”
Feng Qingying’s gaze fell on her abdomen. “Whose child are you carrying?”
Xiang Zhao sneered. “The child in my belly is naturally mine. It certainly can’t be yours!”
Feng Qingying: “…”
She was about to attack again when Xue Lezhi’s voice suddenly came from behind the screen. “Senior Feng, that is enough. You and I are both guests of Clan Chief Xiao. Brother Xiao is entertaining guests today. Making a scene will benefit no one.”
Feng Qingying looked toward the shadow behind the screen. “You were pretending to be bewitched by the charm incense?”
Xue Lezhi laughed. “If I hadn’t, how would I have learned what you intended to do? Someone carrying extraordinary fortune could hardly be as ordinary as the rest of us. Perhaps the treasures on our bodies were valuable enough to make Senior misunderstand.”
Feng Qingying heard the threat beneath his words and gave a cold laugh. “You two are lucky today.”
Xiang Zhao stepped aside on her own. Feng Qingying snorted and swept out with a flick of her sleeves.
Once she was gone, Xiang Zhao went around the screen and saw Xue Lezhi sitting stiffly against the headboard, his clothes stripped halfway off.
Xiang Zhao: “…”
Xue Lezhi: “…”
“That old demon drugged me with charm incense. Hurry up and give me the antidote!” Xue Lezhi snapped.
“Yes.” The corner of Xiang Zhao’s eye twitched slightly. She stepped forward to pull his clothes back into place and, seeing how stiffly he moved, hurried to retrieve the antidote from the storage pouch.
Xue Lezhi stared at her unhappily. “What exactly is that thing in your belly? The golden light just now isn’t something an ordinary person would have.”
Xiang Zhao’s hand paused over the antidote. “This subordinate does not know either.”
“Do you truly not know, or are you deliberately refusing to tell me?” Xue Lezhi studied her. “If it really is something good…”
Xiang Zhao lowered her eyes obediently and took out the antidote. Xue Lezhi watched her while thinking. Suddenly a cold gleam flashed. The porcelain bottle in Xiang Zhao’s hand had become a sharp dagger, which plunged straight through his throat.
Xue Lezhi’s eyes widened in shock. “You… ngh…”
Xiang Zhao pulled out the dagger. Hot blood splashed across her face, but she still kept her eyes lowered submissively. “It was this subordinate’s failure to protect Young Master that allowed Feng Qingying to harm you. Once I return to the capital, I will certainly report this to His Majesty and ask him to avenge you.”
Xue Lezhi stared wide-eyed as his breath stopped.
Xiang Zhao took out a bottle of Maple Frostfall she had just stolen from Feng Qingying and poured half of it over him. In the next instant, the corpse before her dissolved directly into a pool of blood.
Xiang Zhao silently wiped the blood from her face and turned to look out the window.
She could no longer remain on Zixu Mountain. She could not return to the capital, and Cangyang Mountain probably had no place for her either… She grabbed Xue Lezhi’s bundle from the side and slipped away without a sound.
* * *
Yue Jingming sat meditating beneath a tree.
Countless tangled thoughts surged toward Yue Jingming like a tide, as though all the thoughts he had spent more than twenty years dissolving with the No-Thought One-Mind Art were now being returned to him at once. Good or evil, right or wrong, cause or consequence, those things clung to every inch of his body like a disease embedded in the bones, releasing turbid black qi as they tried to swallow the last point of clarity within him.
Endless resentment, rage, unwillingness, and hatred; unceasing lust, confusion, and greed. Every one of them landed upon him with painful clarity, until all of it condensed into suffering.
It was a pure suffering born from the countless mortal worlds, from the seven emotions and six desires of humankind.
It arose from the heart and took form from the formless. Agony tore through every limb and bone, making Yue Jingming’s eyes snap open. His damaged dantian and meridians ran in reverse, and filthy black blood slowly flowed from his eyes, nose, and ears, dripping onto his Daoist robes.
“You should never have descended the mountain.”
Yue Jingming looked up and saw someone identical to himself standing before him. The man’s bearing was transcendent, his expression stern and cold. His Daoist robes were spotless, and his gaze was pure and clear.
“You cannot even comprehend your own Dao, yet you still dream of answering the tribulation and saving all living beings.” The other “Yue Jingming” looked at him with pity. “You were far too conceited. You did not even realize that the No-Thought One-Mind Art you cultivated cannot withstand the seven emotions and six desires.”
Yue Jingming raised a hand to wipe the blood from his mouth and answered hoarsely, “Yes. Do you have a solution?”
“Yue Jingming” fell silent.
Yue Jingming said, “Things have come this far. The only path is forward.”
“Yue Jingming” shook his head. “You have already ruined your foundation. Even if you start over from the beginning, you can never return to what you were.”
“Then I will seek another path. Many things in this world have neither right nor wrong, nor any single answer. Cultivation is the same.” Yue Jingming felt the pain stretching seemingly without end and slowly closed his eyes.
Heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, flowing water without end; cycles turn and renew, eternal and evergreen. People struggle amid the seven emotions and six desires and suffer through birth, aging, sickness, and death. From the first cry they make upon leaving their mother’s womb, they are already trapped in the mire of the mortal world.
If one is born into this, why suffer because of it?
Among the three thousand Great Daos, there is always a trace of turbid within the clear and a trace of clear within the turbid. Clear and turbid alternate without end, returning in the end to yin and yang. The Taiji embraces its opposites and gives rise to all things; all things divide into the three thousand Great Daos, yet in the end none escape the truth that different paths can still lead to the same destination.
If he cultivated the No-Thought One-Mind Art for the sake of having no thoughts, then that desire itself was already a thought.
He had cultivated the No-Thought One-Mind Art incorrectly from the very beginning.
Follow the causes and consequences of Heaven and Earth. Hold fast to a sincere heart and the righteous path… Thoughts arise and thoughts are born, yet all are still me. Where Heaven and Earth open wide, the Dao arises of itself.
Yue Jingming opened his eyes once more. The “Yue Jingming” before him met his gaze, then slowly dissolved from view. Within his body, clear and gentle true qi gradually emerged from his damaged dantian. It accepted the mist formed from resentment, anger, and desire, along with the countless strands of black qi attached to his meridians. Ghost qi, demonic-path qi, and demonic qi alike were all gathered in, condensing into thick turbid qi.
One clear current and one turbid current arose and spiraled within his dantian. They generated and restrained each other, fed one another and were born from one another. At first glance they seemed perfectly still, but on closer inspection the two currents were constantly rotating and expanding, repairing his damaged meridians at astonishing speed.
Yue Jingming turned his perception inward again. In his sight there was no longer any separation between clear and turbid, only a Taiji diagram firmly settled above his inner core, without distinction between them.
Xiao Chunhe had been dozing in a tree when Ye Shijiu beneath it suddenly raised his head. Xiao Chunhe sensed the disturbance and opened his eyes. In the pitch-black night, a pillar of golden light shot into the sky in the shape of a lotus. A vast current of energy swept outward, but it did not resemble the true qi of an ordinary Daoist cultivator. It was gentler and richer, utterly without aggression, and even his demonic qi felt no instinctive resistance toward it.
If he had to describe it, it was probably like a passing breeze. No one would notice it, and even if they did, they would only find it pleasant.
“Is Master comprehending the Dao?” Ye Shijiu asked in confusion as he stared at the golden lotus.
Xiao Chunhe narrowed his eyes. His fingers rapidly formed seals, and a layer of demonic qi swept out to cover the light. He leapt toward Yue Jingming’s location. “Little Leaf, hurry!”
Ye Shijiu had no idea what was happening, but immediately followed. Liang Yun hurried after them as well.
“He formed a Golden Core!” Xiao Chunhe kept casting demonic qi over the dazzling golden lotus, trying to hide it. “This will definitely draw great demons here!”
Not only great demons. Cultivators nearby would probably sense it as well. In the present world, even great demons who had cultivated for a thousand years might never manage to form a Golden Core. Anyone who ate Yue Jingming could immediately obtain his Golden Core, and the moment just after core formation was precisely when he was weakest.
After hearing that, cold sweat broke out all over Ye Shijiu. He desperately spread his true qi around Yue Jingming.
“Eldest Senior Brother!” Fang Jingyi, only recently out of seclusion, hurried over as well. Seeing the situation, he immediately summoned a magic treasure and snapped at Xiao Chunhe, “Withdraw your demonic qi! Eldest Senior Brother’s true qi can’t merge with your demonic qi!”
Xiao Chunhe frowned and was about to pull his demonic qi back, but the golden lotus seemed to sense something. Its petals slowly wrapped around his demonic qi and gently accepted all of it.
Fang Jingyi froze. “How can that be?”
It was not only Xiao Chunhe’s demonic qi. Ye Shijiu’s and Fang Jingyi’s true qi were gently accepted as well. Yue Jingming absorbed all the energy between Heaven and Earth. With his eyes lowered and closed, he soon released his own spiritual qi back to them without the slightest reservation.
Everyone protecting him received a surge of abundant true qi, and in the blink of an eye their cultivation actually increased by a great deal.
At last, the dazzling golden light slowly faded.
Yue Jingming completed one heavenly circuit of breathing and opened his eyes. Heaven and Earth seemed vast, the landscape picturesque, and every sound around him clearer than before. A faint mist seemed to flow between Heaven and Earth. Although he had never seen it before, he had seen it within his dantian just now. It was spiritual qi, a level above true qi, visible only to immortal cultivators.
“What are you looking at?” Xiao Chunhe supported him nervously and waved a hand before his eyes.
Yue Jingming smiled at him.
That smile made Xiao Chunhe a little dizzy. He could not say exactly what had changed about Yue Jingming. He looked the same as before, yet somehow much more beautiful, more transparent and pure. If the old Yue Jingming had resembled a clear spring in the mountains, then now he was more like a cloud on a mountaintop or a breeze through the forest: visible, perceptible, yet impossible to grasp.
“I’m fine.” Yue Jingming patted his shoulder, then looked toward Fang Jingyi and Ye Shijiu. “Thank you for coming to protect me.”
Fang Jingyi asked with concern, “Eldest Senior Brother, has your cultivation recovered?”
“Not exactly. My dantian and meridians have merely been repaired. I still have to begin again from the start.” Yue Jingming considered it. “But I have changed the method I cultivate.”
“But Master, that golden light just now was incredible. Your cultivation was even stronger than before!” Ye Shijiu stared at him with shining eyes. “You’re even more golden now than you used to be.”
The matter could not be explained in a few words, so Yue Jingming could only give them a rough account. If it benefited their own cultivation, all the better.
Fang Jingyi and Ye Shijiu both fell into thought after listening. Ye Shijiu even immediately tried to distinguish spiritual qi for himself. Only Xiao Chunhe’s expression grew slightly grave.
Yue Jingming looked at him. “What is it?”
Xiao Chunhe asked, “Is the heart method you cultivate still the No-Thought One-Mind Art?”
“Yes, but also no.” Yue Jingming explained carefully, “If emotion and desire create obstruction, then that is not the true No-Thought One-Mind Art. The true No-Thought One-Mind means that ten thousand thoughts are not me, yet ten thousand thoughts are all me. I will no longer be burdened by the seven emotions and six desires.”
Xiao Chunhe was silent for a long time before forcing a smile. “Congratulations.”
No longer burdened by the seven emotions and six desires?
Because of the demon-gu, he could not freely experience the seven emotions and six desires. If he swallowed Yue Jingming’s Golden Core, then wouldn’t that mean… Xiao Chunhe frowned and viciously crushed the thought the moment it surfaced.
Compared with Fang Jingyi and Ye Shijiu, who were simply happy for Yue Jingming, he really had not changed his demon nature at all.
“I shared some extra spiritual qi with you just now. It should work better than those pills. Do you feel any better?” Yue Jingming asked.
“Thank you.” Xiao Chunhe nodded.
Yue Jingming instinctively caught his arm, then released it when Xiao Chunhe lowered his head to look. He said gently, “Chunhe, there is no need to be so polite between us.”
Xiao Chunhe patted his arm reassuringly and turned toward Liang Yun, who was running in their direction. “You caused far too much commotion. We need to leave quickly.”
Liang Yun finally reached them, panting as he glared. “I… I ran all the way here! Have some humanity, all of you!”
Whenever something serious happened, every one of them could fly through the sky while he alone had to run on two legs along the ground.
Yue Jingming patted his shoulder, caught him by the belt, and leapt into the treetops with him. Xiao Chunhe and the others immediately followed.
Wind roared past his ears. Liang Yun excitedly spread his arms and shouted, “Brother Yue, you’re even stronger than before! I really feel like I’m flying!”
A figure flashed past them. Yue Jingming looked over and saw Xiao Chunhe stop atop a treetop. “Demons are coming. You go first.”
He drew the fan from his waist, his fox eyes narrowing.
And there was more than one.