"I'm definitely human. Not a monster. I live in Sujiaping. My father's name is Xu An. My mother's name is Tian Ruijun, from Tianjiaping."
Su Yan muttered as they walked. "I still remember the way. I'm definitely human..."
Yuan Qi the snake yao listened, puzzled. "If he's really human, how did he master our yao arts? His yao side must be bigger."
Su Yan walked and activated the Grand Unity Daoyin Art, drawing in the essence of the sun. Since reaching the sixth level of the Titan-Ox Demon Fist, light particles flooded into his body with every breath.
He used Thunderclap Body Tempering and Great Sun Body Tempering to burn away the lingering true yang qi and blood.
But he hadn't opened the Mud Pill treasury. He couldn't heal as fast as nuo masters. The wound across his chest went down to the bone. Even healed, it would leave a brutal scar.
Su Yan sighed. "If only I had methods to find dragon meridians..."
"And my face would turn much whiter. Maybe I could make a living on my looks."
The boy's head filled with ridiculous daydreams. "My godfather says rich city women like pale-faced boys. Two years back when we couldn't eat, he tried to sell me to one. But my skin wasn't pale enough. Jiang Shouzheng's kid from next door sold for a good price."
Yuan Qi was quiet. "Don't you find that tragic?"
Su Yan smiled. "These days, staying alive is good enough."
At the foot of the mountain, the riverbed held massive bones. A single finger bone towered over Su Yan.
They passed through the giant skeleton's ribcage and looked up at the thick ribs, feeling like they had wandered into a strange dream.
"Is this what attacked the temple from the Nai River last night?" Su Yan murmured.
As they passed, they heard a strange sound, like thousands whispering.
Yuan Qi said, "Gods receive offerings. A hundred years to forge magical power, three hundred years to cultivate a zhang-six golden body. This was definitely a god. The whispering is lingering incense energy."
Su Yan studied the skeleton, awestruck. "A god this massive, how many years old?"
Yuan Qi shook his head. "Three hundred years for a zhang-six golden body. This skeleton is thirty or forty zhang tall. It would take ten thousand years of worship. But recorded history only goes back three thousand years. Where did a ten-thousand-year-old god come from?"
They pressed on through Anzi Ridge and found another corpse in the riverbed.
This one was even larger, blocking the river. No lower half. Some flesh still clung to the massive bones. From a distance, the meat squirmed slowly.
They were about to pass when wild birds flew overhead. Suddenly the flesh shot out like a frog's tongue, sticking to every bird, dragging them down.
The birds shrieked. Then silence. Only bones and feathers remained. The corpse's flesh surged and swelled.
Su Yan and Yuan Qi went rigid with horror. They held their breath and circled wide.
Suddenly the corpse jerked its head up. Empty eye sockets "stared" at them. Its head was a mountain of meat, tendrils squirming.
"Run!" Su Yan shouted.
They sprinted. The half-corpse crawled on two arms, shockingly fast.
It chased for a while, lost their trail, and gave up.
They reached Jianshan and finally breathed.
"Look at Jianshan!" Yuan Qi cried.
A huge chunk was missing from the mountain peak.
"The world's getting stranger by the day."
Ahead lay a wide mountain stream, about three or four zhang across. Yuan Qi went to hunt. Su Yan stripped naked, jumped in, scrubbed away the blood, and washed his clothes. Then he circulated his qi and blood, steam rose, and the clothes dried.
Then Yuan Qi's scream cut through the air. Su Yan ran and found ruined forest, trees snapped, heat rising from the ground.
Ahead, trees lay completely flattened, all bent in one direction.
In the middle, a giant bronze bell hovered two feet off the ground. Strange patterns on its surface flickered on and off.
With each pulse, the bell rose and fell. When it rose, it slowly swelled. When it fell, it shrank.
It was breathing.
On the bell's surface, a deep palm print sank more than three inches in, nearly punching through. From the hand's size, it was a woman's palm.
Su Yan remembered the female ghost from the coffin. "Probably the pretty ghost did this."
Around the print, patterns flared and collapsed, as if the print held terrifying power destroying the bell's structure.
Even stranger, the bell seemed to be using some odd breathing method to awaken its own potential, fighting back against the destructive force. It was healing itself.
Not far away, Yuan Qi held a black wild boar in his jaws, dead from venom. Another boar was pinned beneath him, still alive.
Snake, pig, and boy all stared at the bell with terrified eyes.
"How did this bell get here? Did it smash that gap in Jianshan?"
Su Yan crept forward, stretching out his hand. "Is it hurt?"
Yuan Qi was frantic. "Don't mess with it! You'll die!"
Su Yan edged closer.
"Su Yan, come back! You haven't left an heir for the Jiang family. If you die, the Jiang line ends!"
Su Yan's hand drew closer. Suddenly the bell froze.
Yuan Qi gasped. Su Yan felt the bell staring at him.
The air temperature spiked. Fallen trees crackled.
Su Yan didn't move.
After a moment, the bell resumed. Apparently it judged him as no threat.
Su Yan quietly stepped forward again. The bell stopped. He froze.
The bell resumed breathing. Su Yan's palm gently touched the surface. He stroked it, smiling.
"You risked getting smashed just to pet it?"
"Last night we survived thanks to it. It's hurt, so we comfort it."
But the moment Su Yan turned away, a loud clang rang out. The giant bell dropped and slammed into the ground.
The bell's surface shook violently. Patterns ran wild, twitching. It looked like a dying man.
"Get back here! It's dying! If it explodes, it'll blast you full of blood!"
Su Yan hurried toward Yuan Qi.
A dragging clanging sound came from behind. The bell had moved closer, still jittering.
Su Yan stepped forward. The bell dragged itself closer.
He walked faster. The bell clanged and scraped, following at his heels.
"You've been scammed!" Yuan Qi hissed. "You touched it, so it's latched onto you! It's badly hurt, can't protect itself. I told you not to help old ladies cross the road!"
The little black boar nodded hard.
Su Yan broke into a run. The bronze bell clanged and crashed, smoking and kicking up dust, glued to his tail.
Su Yan darted between two trees. Both toppled.
He leaped over a boulder twice his height. It crumbled to dust. The bell clanged on, still following.
Su Yan stopped. His face went blank. Two lines of tears slid down.
"I killed people. I slew a god. Now I'm wanted by the City God and the authorities. With this bell hanging off me, ringing for everyone to hear, I won't last half a day."
Suddenly the bronze bell floated up silently. It rotated, shrinking smaller and smaller, then whooshed into the back of his skull.
Su Yan saw Yuan Qi and the little black boar staring in terror behind him. He spun around. The bell was gone. "Finally got rid of that dead weight."
Yuan Qi's tail tip pointed at his head. A bell sound rang inside his mind. He went rigid.
"Yuan Qi, you caught two boars. I think the live one is smart. Why not let it go?"
"The dead one is poisoned. My venom has no cure. The live one is clean. You're sure?"
Not long after, two small boars roasted over a campfire. Fat dripped into the flames. They ate their fill and set off toward Mount Wuwang.
"Little Seven, every time I shake my head, I hear a bell."
Su Yan shook his head, puzzled. "I think I'm hearing things."
Yuan Qi sat still, saying nothing.
Su Yan shook his head again. The bell sounded again.
"Stop shaking. Shake too hard and your head might fall off!"
Su Yan felt his qi and blood growing weaker. He hadn't walked far before panting.
Yuan Qi watched, nearly scared out of his mind. Su Yan had turned gaunt, his face sallow, dark circles under his eyes.
Suddenly a thunderous bell-voice rang inside Su Yan's mind: "Boy, do you know what Inner Observation and Visualization means?"
Su Yan froze. "Who? Who's speaking?"
Yuan Qi looked around. "Someone spoke? I didn't hear anything."
Inside Su Yan's mind, the voice drawled, "Your qi and blood cultivation has reached the peak of the Qi-Gathering stage, yet you don't understand Inner Observation and Visualization. You can't advance further."
"Senior, what is Inner Observation and Visualization? How does one observe? How does one visualize?"
"Inner Observation means looking inward. At the Qi-Gathering stage, you draw the essence of the sun from without. Inner Observation means looking within, opening the Realm of the Sublime, seeing your own internal organs and extraordinary visions. At that stage, the five qi converge at the origin, harmonizing into primal qi. Only then is the Qi-Gathering stage complete. After that, you can see the body's mysterious gate and advance to the next realm."
Su Yan didn't understand. "Senior, the next realm doesn't match the nuo master ranks. Are you talking about a yao cultivation method?"
Yuan Qi heard Su Yan muttering to empty air. "What's wrong with A-Yan?"
The voice sounded puzzled. "Nuo master? I'm talking about a Qi Refiner. Aren't you a Qi Refiner?"