To Su Yan and Yuan Qi's surprise, Xue Ying'an crawled out of the sandstorm, battered but alive.
The boy had the resilience of a cockroach. Su Yan had to admire his persistence.
Ahead, rainbow Ascension lights shimmered in the desert air. Xue Ying'an brightened and hurried forward.
"His master must have told him secrets about this battlefield," Su Yan thought. "Following him is the safest path."
Xue Ying'an used his small bell to probe for hidden dangers. The bell rang once, and the desert erupted. A hundred-zhang skeleton rose from the sand, clad in broken seven-colored armor, wielding a massive broken blade.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" the skeleton roared, bringing the blade down on Xue Ying'an's bell, splitting it in two.
The blade chased Xue Ying'an, its technique flawless. It caught his waist, slicing through cloth.
Su Yan appeared before the skeleton's skull, hands forming Heart-Setting Seals, pressing them into the bone. The killing intent dissolved. The blade stopped at Xue Ying'an's skin.
But the sword qi had already passed through. Xue Ying'an folded at the waist, body separating into two halves.
"I don't want to die!" he wailed, crawling through the sand, blood pooling around him. "I just left the mountain! I can't feel my legs!"
"Seventh Master, heal him."
Yuan Qi jumped down, used his spirit sense to align the halves, and activated his Mud Pill secret to stimulate healing.
"Don't attach him backwards," Su Yan called, wrestling the broken blade from the skeleton's grip.
"I won't make that mistake. I'd make an advanced one."
Xue Ying'an sat up, then paled. "I still can't feel my legs!"
"Did you reconnect the nerve clusters?"
Yuan Qi smacked his own head. "No!"
"Pull him apart and try again."
Yuan Qi ripped the freshly joined body open. Xue Ying'an screamed until he passed out.
"A-Yan, I killed him!"
"Use the immortal medicine to restore his blood first."
Yuan Qi pumped life-force into the youth. Xue Ying'an woke, saw his wound gushing blood, and fainted again. Yuan Qi hastily reconnected nerves, bone, and flesh.
"He's not breathing!"
"Mouth to mouth."
Xue Ying'an woke before Yuan Qi could try. "I'm fine. I used turtle-breath technique to survive."
* * *
Su Yan handed the broken armor to Yuan Qi, who swallowed it. The broken blade Su Yan claimed for himself—strangely, it responded to his will immediately, shrinking to two feet in length.
"This blade has an owner," Yuan Qi said. "Why does it obey you?"
Su Yan examined the palm-print on the broken edge. It matched his hand exactly.
"This print fits my palm. The blade is meant for me."
* * *
They pressed on, Xue Ying'an walking behind Su Yan. The youth shared what his master had told him: the Ancient Battlefield was the Heavenly Road connecting all worlds. Ascension meant traveling this road first, consuming immortal roots along the way to shed mortal flesh. Only at the road's end did one become a true immortal and enter the immortal realm.
Su Yan detected tribulation aura. "One, ten, fifty... two hundred sixty-seven."
Two hundred sixty-seven heavenly tribulations overlapped in one place. That many Ascension-stage cultivators had triggered tribulation simultaneously—and succeeded.
Yuan Qi pointed. "A-Yan, I found Tian Qingzi!"
By a crescent-moon spring sat a white-haired old man, back to them, eyebrows trailing to the ground. Behind him stood a tall stele.
Yuan Qi read: "He is Tian Qingzi. He kept vigil for his comrades and suppressed the demon. He died here of old age."
The stele told of the final battle. The demon had advanced along the Heavenly Road, unstoppable. Three hundred warriors volunteered to trigger tribulation, using its power to destroy him. Thirty-three died before the tribulation began. Two hundred sixty-seven tribulations overlapped, shaking heaven and earth.
The demon shattered the tribulation, but the two hundred sixty-seven ascended warriors surrounded and wore him down. Finally he fell, crashing into the Yuan Shou world.
Taiyi Minor Xuantian was destroyed, becoming this desert.
The warriors died watching. Before death, they dug out their own eyes, forging them into the crescent spring—so that even in death, they could watch the demon.
Su Yan bowed to Tian Qingzi. "Elder, rest. We will carry your burden."
He leaned over the spring. The water was still as a mirror.
He saw the back of a head.
He scratched his own head. The reflection scratched too.
He looked up. The face in the water looked up as well, confused—his own face.
The demon in the spring was him.