The young man turned. His eyes were clear — too clear, Jiang Qi thought. Human eyes carried the murk of feeling, of years, of loss. These held none of that.
"Grand Preceptor Jiang." Xu Fu smiled and closed his golden scroll. "To travel with you would be an honor."
Jiang Qi carried Su Yan onto the immortal mountain and laid him down with care. Xu Fu examined the boy at once, his fingers light against Su Yan's wrist. "His wounds are severe, but his true spirit runs deep. The foundation remains unbroken."
Jiang Qi's gaze settled on the golden scroll. "The Undying Immortal was sealed. Can those writings break it?"
Xu Fu laughed. "You think I control him?"
"I think you play with fire." Jiang Qi's voice was flat. "You unsealed part of him to kill Long Yuan. Then you sealed him again. One day you will lose control."
Xu Fu said nothing. He finished tending to Su Yan and sat back.
"The Nai River's course was changed. The underworld invaded. The sealed lands returned. The Ancestor Dragon was revived." Jiang Qi listed each calamity like a blade falling. "Yunmeng Marsh reappeared. Did you engineer all of it?"
"The Heavenly Path reopened because of you, Grand Preceptor." Xu Fu looked up, mild as still water. "You entered the Minor Xuantian at the Dual Refinement stage and emerged a great master on the verge of Ascension. You subdued the Heavenly Punishment Sword and restored the spiritual root of heaven and earth. Such wisdom — how could I, a humble seeker, have calculated any of it?"
Jiang Qi's hand tightened on his sword.
"Two years ago," he said slowly, "someone spread word of twelve golden men at Li Mountain. The nuo families rushed in like wolves. They cleared the dangers. They fed their own cultivation to the Ancestor Dragon. The architect sat back and watched."
Xu Fu smiled. "Was his wisdom greater than yours?"
"He made me his piece." Jiang Qi checked Su Yan's pulse, his other hand still on his sword. "But he struck when I was unaware. If I had known the board existed, the game might have ended differently."
"If you could do it again," Xu Fu asked, "would you still enter that battlefield?"
Jiang Qi gripped the sword until his knuckles went white. "Yes."
He did not want to admit it. But it was true. He needed the Primal Dao Essence. Without it, the Zhou emperor and his court would fall to the Heavenly Demons.
"Then why worry about being used?" Xu Fu spread his hands. "Those nuo families knew the tomb rumor came from me. Would they have stayed away?"
Jiang Qi laughed — a short, sharp sound. "No. They would have gone. Just as I did."
"That is the beauty of a good scheme."
The two men studied each other. Jiang Qi saw his own cunning reflected in Xu Fu's calm gaze, and he did not like the mirror.
"I look forward to facing you openly one day."
"I will never give you that chance." Xu Fu's smile did not waver. "For instance, right now you cannot touch me at all."
They both laughed. The sound rang across the starfield.
Mount Fangzhang drifted toward the Fusang tree. Jiang Qi gathered Su Yan in his arms and leaped back to the divine tree. When he looked back, the immortal mountain and its master had vanished.
"A worthy enemy," Jiang Qi murmured.
He wanted to test himself against that mind. But the battle with Long Yuan had cost him too much. He let the thought go.
Ahead, the world of Yuan Shou waited.
* * *
Su Yan woke to heat. The Fusang tree had taken root deep in Yunmeng Marsh, and the refugees from the fish-belly realm were already building their new homes.
The marsh teemed with beasts. Survival here demanded strength.
Su Yan sat up, head still fogged. Jiang Qi was surrounded by people, teaching them basic cultivation methods.
A shout went up. Su Yan looked toward the sky and saw a second sun blazing toward them — no, not a sun. A three-legged golden crow, wings spread across hundreds of meters, flames wreathing its body.
The crow landed on the Fusang tree. Golden fire raced through the branches, and the tree blazed with power. The refugees fell to their knees, weeping, praying.
The crow stretched its neck and lowered its head until its beak hung level with Su Yan's face. It turned its head one way, then the other, studying him with ancient, clouded eyes.
A voice like grinding stone spoke from its throat. "Strange. I feel as though I have seen you before."
Su Yan met its gaze. "I don't remember you."
"I should remember you. But I am too old. My memory fades." The crow straightened, every movement heavy with age. "You should not have lived so long."
Jiang Qi walked over. "The golden crow will guard this place. These people will survive."
Su Yan grinned. "How does it feel, Grand Preceptor? Saving lives instead of ending them?"
"This age does not need humanity." Jiang Qi adjusted his robes. "Humanity gets people killed. I carry the fate of the Other Shore Ark on my shoulders. Sentiment is a luxury I cannot afford." He bowed to Su Yan. "But I respect those who can afford it. If I ever need your help, Undying Immortal, I hope you will answer."
He rose into the sky and vanished.
Su Yan watched him go. "No humanity. Only divinity."
He thought of Xu Fu. That was exactly what Xu Fu wanted him to become.
Yuan Qi slithered over, delighted. "A-Ying! You're awake! Grandpa Bell, hurry! Show him the words on your backside!"
The bell floated forward, draped in cloth the refugees had sewn for it. It moved with uncharacteristic shyness.
"What's wrong with you?" Su Yan asked.
Yuan Qi yanked the cloth away. Carved into the bell's bronze surface were eight characters in bird-seal script — marks left by Su Yan's other self while he slept.
Su Yan studied them. He understood their meaning at once, yet when he tried to fix their shapes in his mind, a fog rose inside his skull and wiped the memory clean.
Again and again he tried. Again and again the fog swallowed his recollection.
Dizzy, he stopped. "Why do I need to memorize them whole? I can break them apart, derive different arts from each piece. Will the fog still erase that?"
The bell wriggled. "Are you done staring? I want my clothes back."
"Grandpa Bell, these characters hold immense power. They sealed even your other self. This could be your chance to rise above that Carefree Bell."
"I'm no fish!" The bell shook with fury and lunged at Yuan Qi.
A deep chime rang out. The character for "prison" blazed on the bell's surface. Space folded around Yuan Qi, trapping him in layers of binding runes — body, Inner Realm, golden core, furnace, soul, and finally his true spirit, compressed into a cage smaller than a grain of sand.
Yuan Qi could not move, hear, or feel. Terror swallowed him whole.
The bell rang with laughter. "I don't need clothes anymore! With this, I fear nothing! Not even Li Xiaoke will look down on me!"
"Grandpa Bell," Su Yan said patiently, "can you let him out?"
The bell had triggered the seal by accident. It had no idea how to undo it. After half a day of frantic effort, it only made things worse, layering a second sealing rune over the first.
Su Yan spent the following days studying the eight characters, writing down whatever insights he could before the fog took them. He made little progress.
In Little Stone City, Beichenzi stared at the altar, his face ashen. The incense burned as thick as an arm. The suppression runes still glowed in their shrine. But the characters flickered and shifted.
Someone was breaking the seal.
"Lawless," Beichenzi muttered. He turned to the Divine Land Earth God. "The criminal is forcing the seal. Surely your superiors should handle this?"
The little god slapped a crumpled paper onto the altar. "Handle nothing! Two and a half years ago I petitioned for a Heavenly Dao Artifact to suppress the Ancestor Dragon. The request is still in processing! This new petition won't be answered until the next age!"