The Flying Peak had buried itself at an angle in ancient forest, steam rising from its fractured base. Nearby, a waterfall poured sideways, slowly straightening as the wind from their landing died down.
Veyon stared at the water. She didn't speak.
Su Yan watched her, saying nothing. In a single day she had lost her grandmother, her mother, and the grandfather she thought she knew. He wasn't sure any fourteen-year-old—no matter how brilliant—could carry that weight.
Zhu Chanchan worked in silence, dismantling the peak into component treasures, arranging them in a concealment array. Yuan Qi kept glancing at the sky, waiting for Yuan Wuji—or whatever was wearing his skin—to descend on them.
Finally, Veyon turned. Her voice was steady, but Su Yan heard the cracks beneath it.
"I'm returning to the Divine Capital. The Yuan family still has disciples there. If I don't go back, we'll end up like the Zhou clan—devoured down to the bone."
Su Yan met her eyes. "When you return, will you be Young Master Veyon, or Yuan Rusi?"
Veyon looked at him for a long moment. Then she reached up and undid her hair-tie.
Black silk cascaded past her shoulders. She stepped close, rose on her toes, and pressed her lips to his—a feather's weight of warmth and grief and something unspoken. Then she gathered her hair back, bound it tight, and fastened the tie.
"I'll be the head of the Yuan family," she said. "Duty first. The rest can wait."
She walked away without looking back.
"Elder Xiao. We're going home."
Elder Xiao hesitated, bowed slightly to Su Yan, and followed.
"How much dowry does it take to marry the Yuan family head?" Su Yan called after her.
Veyon froze. Then she raised one hand in farewell and vanished into the trees.
Su Yan stood there, feeling an unfamiliar hollowness in his chest. In all his remembered years, he'd never felt quite like this.
"Even the Undying Immortal gets troubled by feelings?" Zhu Chanchan teased.
"I'm a fourteen-year-old boy," Su Yan muttered. "Am I not allowed to be human?"
Not long ago he'd been a snake catcher who worried about his next meal and whether he'd die with fangs in his throat. Now he was the Undying Immortal, and the world had become a stranger place than any dream.
* * *
"We need to lay low," Zhu Chanchan said. "I saw Zhou-dynasty cultivators in the tomb. I think the Zhou King might have returned from the other shore."
She looked genuinely worried. "If he finds out I cut corners on the Other Shore Divine Ark... well, the accounting won't be pleasant."
Su Yan leaned toward Yuan Qi. "Seventh Master, never let her forge anything for you."
Yuan Qi nodded vigorously. "A-Yan, check me for hidden seals. I keep finding strange marks where I can't see them."
"I never touched you!" Zhu Chanchan protested. "The prison warden tortured me and I didn't confess to anything!"
Big Bell chimed in. "A-Yan, check me too."
Su Yan inspected both of them and found nothing. Neither seemed fully convinced.
Suddenly, Zhu Chanchan's face paled. "Quiet."
A vast shadow passed overhead. The pressure of its presence crushed the air from their lungs.
Then a voice spoke inside their minds—soft, maternal, achingly familiar.
"Undying Immortal, the danger has passed. Please release my daughter."
Lady Yuan's voice.
Su Yan, Zhu Chanchan, and Yuan Qi locked eyes. No one moved.
The voice continued, tender, pleading. "Veyon, Mother's here. You don't have to pretend anymore. I was wrong to make you play the young master. You were always meant to be yourself."
A moment later, another voice—the Old Matriarch's, weak but warm. "Elder Xiao, why aren't you answering?"
Then Veyon's voice: "Demon King Su, we're safe. You can come out."
Then Su Yan's own voice, calling from somewhere distant: "Seventh Master! I've been separated from you! Where are you?"
Silence.
Su Yan mouthed one word: *Trap.*
* * *
A thousand miles away, a figure stood on a mountain peak, spirit sense spread across the horizon like an invisible net.
He waited. No response came.
"Careful little things," he murmured. "I underestimated you." He paused. "Wait—the persistent ones followed my bait."
He vanished.
Beichenzi, Yutang, and Elder Chou arrived moments later, dragging a short, irritable earth god who clearly wanted to be anywhere else.
"We lost him," Elder Chou groaned. "Beichenzi, you were supposed to watch him!"
"We went to Mount Li to ambush Xu Fu," Beichenzi said, bruises still fading on his face. Yutang's robes were torn. "Xu Fu was already wounded by the First Emperor. We almost had him. Almost."
The earth god snorted. "You three couldn't guard a latrine. Now I'm supposed to clean up your mess?"
Beichenzi offered a stick of incense. The earth god sniffed it, grudgingly accepted, and prepared to locate Su Yan.
Then the sky turned to bronze.
"Earth God of the Divine Land?" a voice thundered. "I stand upon the Divine Land. I hold the rivers and mountains. And you dare call yourself a god before me?"
The Nine Tripod Cauldrons fell like continents.
Beichenzi, Yutang, and Elder Chou fled, carrying the paralyzed earth god, while behind them the First Emperor walked through golden light, his cape streaming behind him like a banner of war.
* * *
Three days later, Su Yan's group emerged from hiding, wounds healed.
"I'm going to find that Zhou-dynasty cultivator," Zhu Chanchan said. She fed half the Flying Peak's remains into Yuan Qi's mouth—bronze towers, swords, pillars—then took the other half and soared away.
Big Bell, now mostly repaired, floated beside Su Yan. "Where to, A-Yan?"
"I have two disciples on Mount Wuwang. I'll collect them first. Then we'll find nuo immortal hermitages." Su Yan's eyes gleamed. "Zhou Qiyun spent eighty years doing this. I'll do it faster. Every hermitage will have someone who opened the Bubbling Spring or Jade Pool. Easier than storming the palace."
They set out for Mount Wuwang.
The mountain had changed. Now it teemed with yao—tens of thousands of them, led by three kings: Niu Zhen, Niu Gan, and Xiong Qianli. They taught cultivation arts and nuo techniques, helped followers locate and open their secret realms. The mountain itself held grotto-heavens with ascension light, spawning powerhouse after powerhouse.
Su Yan arrived quietly, found his three disciples, and passed on the Eight Yuan Tones.
"Master is leaving again," Niu Zhen said, bowing deeply. When they looked up, Su Yan was already gone.
"Seventh Master," Su Yan said, riding atop the serpent's head. "We're going nuo-immortal hunting."
"How do you find hidden hermitages?"
Su Yan smiled. "Heaven-Man Resonance. After my trip into the abyss, my sensing rivals anything from the Martial Emperor's era. If there's a hidden hermitage nearby, it can't escape me."
Big Bell vibrated with excitement. "Should we strip them bare like Zhou Qiyun did?"
"Zhou Qiyun was a grave robber. We're tomb generals—we only take what we need."
Far away, on Mount Fangzhang, Xu Fu stood on his floating immortal mountain and watched them go.
"The First Emperor has revived," he whispered. "He'll go to the Divine Capital soon. And you, young Su, will walk the path I laid out for you... until you become another me."