The ghosts of the valley welcomed them with kindness. An elder explained that this was the underworld, accessible through cracks between worlds. "Go back the way you came," he advised. "The living don't belong here."
Xu Jin bowed and turned — but a voice rang out behind them.
"Xu Ying."
A horse-faced god strode forward, flames curling from his nostrils, incense-wrapped and terrible. "The snake-catcher of Lingling. Wanted by the Underworld Emperor himself." He laughed and grabbed a ghost, tossing it into his mouth like a snack. "Your portrait hangs in every underworld court."
Xu Jin stepped in front of his son, smiling desperately. "You've got the wrong boy, my lord. I pulled him from the river seven years ago. He's never left Wuling."
The god's grip closed around Xu Jin's throat. "Then I'll eat the wrong boy's father."
Xu Jin's face purpled. "Run... A-Ying..."
Something ignited in Xu Ying's chest. Not anger — something older. His blood surged, and behind him an elephant-headed god manifesting, two zhang high, trumpeting as his kick connected with the horse-face's ribs.
The god staggered. *What?*
Xu Ying didn't know either. His body moved without his mind's permission. When the god summoned incense-blades, Xu Ying's fingers flicked and sword-qi severed them mid-air. When the god charged on four arms, Xu Ying dropped low and moved like a serpent — Dragon-Serpent Awakening Art, his palms pushing out dragon-qi that wrapped the god and smashed him against a cliff.
The horse-face twitched once and died.
Xu Ying stared at his hands. "How did I..."
The mountain rumbled. The crack sealed shut, trapping them. From the darkness, a hundred gods emerged — city gods, temple gods, underworld magistrates. At their head stood a golden figure three zhang tall: the Wuling Tongpan, a thousand years of incense burning in his aura.
"Underworld fugitive Xu Ying," the Tongpan boomed. "You've saved us a journey."
Xu Ying grabbed his father's hand. "What did I do wrong?"
No one answered. The gods charged.
Xu Ying roared. His Five Qi converged. His Xiyi Domain opened. The Black Iron Gate shattered, heavenly water flooding through. He moved like a force of nature — Yuan Tones thundering from his bones, sword-qi piercing a horse-face's brow, tribulation lightning annihilating a city god. Blood fell like rain. Golden bodies broke against his fists.
The Tongpan met him palm to palm. Thousand-year incense versus a boy who didn't know his own strength. They strained, matched — then Xu Ying's brow blazed with lightning.
A third grotto-heaven opened. Then a fourth. His wounds healed before blood could fall. He raised the stone axe overhead and brought it down, splitting the Tongpan from crown to crotch.
Silence.
Xu Ying stood in a lake of divine blood, surrounded by dismembered immortals. Xu Jin knelt nearby, trembling, his face splattered with gold.
"A-Ying..." Xu Jin's voice cracked. "Are you... are you really A-Ying?"
Xu Ying looked at the axe in his hands. "I don't know."
He helped his father up. Together they walked toward the peach trees, toward the light beyond. The stone wall before them — Xu Ying raised the axe. It fell. The rock split like paper.
Sunlight blinded them. Water lapped at their ankles. Their boat was wreckage, the fish pulp.
"A-Ying?"
A familiar voice. Xu Ying turned.
A serpent's head rose from the peach trees, black-and-white horns catching the sun. On its crown sat a girl in oversized clothes, grinning like she'd invented mischief. A bronze bell hovered beside her, swaying gently.
Xu Ying's lips moved. A name surfaced from somewhere deeper than memory.
"Seventh Lord?"
The serpent's eyes went wide. Then wet.
"You remember," Yuan Qi whispered.
The bell tolled once — a sound like coming home.