In the Carefree Palace atop Jiucai Ridge, Li Xiaoke faced his mirror. He trimmed his brows and beard with scissors, straightened his robes, and slowly fell into contemplation.
The man in the mirror was young, unchanged from three thousand years ago. Back then he had been ambitious, talented, working alongside other cultivators to reconstruct ancient cultivation methods.
During the Great Zhou era, cultivators had discovered the Other Shore. Powerful beings crossed the void seeking eternal life, and cultivation declined. Advanced methods still circulated, but without elder guidance, interpretation became nearly impossible.
Even before the Great Zhou, cultivation had been fading. No one had transcended tribulation and ascended for tens of thousands of years. Elderly cultivators still attempted the heavenly tribulation as their lifespans expired, but they only died.
"From Great Zhou to Great Han — four thousand years. The immortal script recording celestial methods became unreadable. I worked with my peers to recover残缺 techniques and uncover ancient secrets. We deciphered one method after another."
Li Xiaoke spoke to his reflection. "I grew closer to the legendary cultivators of old. No one could match my contribution."
He smiled brilliantly and nodded at himself. "We deserve that honor."
"We also discovered the nuo arts." His reflection sighed. "Ancient cultivators had turned sacred master-disciple inheritance into filthy exploitation. We were outraged. We tried to find the true path. But we discovered that at our level, the Six Secrets could no longer be opened."
"Our path was wrong," Li Xiaoke said. "If we had cultivated both paths from the Qi-Gathering stage, we would have become the strongest cultivators, with hope of transcending tribulation. But we learned too late."
"We were still chosen by heaven. We had time to find remedies." Li Xiaoke's face showed fear. "Until one day I found a white hair at my temple."
His reflection remained calm. "That white hair taught us we were not immortal. Not invincible. Time could defeat us."
Li Xiaoke continued, "Time would defeat my talent, my comprehension, everything. One day I would become like those old fools, summoning the super tribulation to gamble my life."
"But we cannot survive the tribulation!" The reflection's voice rose, almost shrill. "We would die like them, turn to ash! We don't want to die!"
Li Xiaoke plucked an extra eyebrow hair. "Correct. We don't want to die. We can do what we despised — select excellent chives, plant them, harvest them."
The reflection's eyes glowed. "They are our immortality medicine. When they ripen, their fragrance is irresistible."
"The first time I ate medicine, I felt sick." Li Xiaoke counted the hairs at his temples. "My Dao heart was damaged. It took time to recover."
"But we adapted." The reflection smiled. "We found it delicious."
"We transplanted their secrets and blessed lands, refined these tasty medicines."
The reflection trimmed an imaginary mustache. "Each harvest was art. Different techniques produced different flavors — joy, sorrow, anger, fear."
Li Xiaoke sighed with pleasure. "We even grew to love the hunt. The thrill was exquisite."
He turned and walked toward the door.
"It made us feel young again."
"Yes." Li Xiaoke waved his sleeve, sealing the palace doors. He lifted the bronze bell from its hook above the eaves. "Today you hunt with me. It will be amusing."
The bronze bell thrashed but could not break free.
"You are my creation," Li Xiaoke said softly. "Your spirit was born from me. Your patterns, your breathing art — all mine. Yet you serve another." He smiled. "Making him die by your hand will be very amusing."
He flew from Jiucai Ridge down into the desolate Land of Heavenly Punishment. "Let the hunt begin!"
* * *
After Li Xiaoke left, the palace doors creaked open. Footsteps echoed — light, precise, unmistakable.
No one dared enter the Carefree Palace except Li Xiaoke himself.
The reflection in the mirror looked up and smiled. "Back so soon? Was the hunt too easy? You..."
The smile froze. The face twisted in fear. "You — how did you find this place? You shouldn't be able to!"
Chain links rattled. A young woman's figure appeared in the mirror's surface, a black coffin trailing behind her on long chains.
Qingbi.
She stood before the mirror. The reflection's face recovered, laughing nervously. "Even if you found me, you can't harm me. I'm in the mirror world, separate from yours..."
Qingbi reached out with a pale hand and plunged it into the mirror. The next moment she gripped the reflection's throat and dragged him out.
He struggled, terrified. "You can't kill me! Your reputation is ruined — everyone knows you're a whore, nothing can change that! But my reputation is still good! We should reconcile! No one in this era knows the rumors I spread!"
Qingbi studied him with strange eyes. "Why did Li Xiaoke separate you from himself?"
"When he ate the medicine, he felt guilty. It threatened his Dao heart. So he cut me out as his negative consciousness. That kept his heart pure." He giggled. "He cut out more and more over time, and I grew stronger. I'm the number two on Jiucai Ridge! When he's away, I impersonate him. No one can tell!"
Qingbi asked, "If you're identical to him, what use is cutting you out?"
"Psychological comfort, probably. He thinks the bad things are all my doing, not his."
Qingbi nodded. "That sounds like him. Where is he now?"
"He went to the Land of Heavenly Punishment to hunt the Undying Immortal. He wants to devour the primal Dao essence in his body to refine the Six Secret medicines."
Qingbi dropped him and turned toward the door.
"You're still beautiful." The reflection watched her back. "But you can't beat him. He's combined the Six Secrets, transplanted dozens of nuo immortal secret realms. His power is unimaginable. He's the strongest cultivator in history..."
Qingbi stopped. She flicked a finger.
The reflection flew backward, crashing into the mirror.
She raised her right hand and slowly clenched it into a fist. Behind her, the mirror twisted, crumpling like paper. The space inside shattered. The reflection screamed, body contorting, limbs breaking.
"Looking at you makes me sick."
Qingbi opened her hand. The mirror was a ball of scrap copper.
She walked out of the Carefree Palace. The golden bell floated above the ridge. It noticed her and panicked, about to sound an alarm — but space folded and layered around it, trapping every vibration.
"It was you who ambushed me and threw me into the well at Little Stone Mountain, sealing me with the celestial."
The Carefree Bell thrashed, trying to break her spatial seal.
Qingbi raised her right hand. Her fingers formed strange seals, one after another, and struck out lightly.
The seals seemed harmless. But the golden bell shuddered as if hammered. Deep palm prints appeared on its surface — then holes, straight through the metal. Its patterns scattered. Its power evaporated, seal by seal.
The Carefree Bell was terrified. "You've cultivated the Gourd Heaven Immortal Scripture! But if that cheap bell hadn't wounded me, you might not have..."
Qingbi's seals shifted endlessly. In moments the golden bell was twisted into a lump of scrap.
"Don't kill me! I can help you fight him! He's stronger than ever — the strongest cultivator in history. You can't face him alone!"
Qingbi's face was calm as an ancient well. "Did you think I came alone?"
The golden bell fell silent. Its power drained away completely, and it dropped.
To the disciples of Jiucai Ridge, the Carefree Bell simply floated there — then suddenly twisted into scrap metal on its own.
They rushed forward. The bell's spirit had been obliterated. It was dead.
Qingbi slipped through the chaos unseen. She tapped the ground, and the black coffin rose. A dark cloud rose with it from the mountainside.
Thunder rolled within the cloud. A massive shape moved through the lightning.
"Qingbi, after this revenge is settled, we settle our own debts!" The voice rumbled. "Hmm, this place is strange!"
* * *
In the Land of Heavenly Punishment, Su Yan flew like a shooting star across the wasteland.
The strange flesh was everywhere — clinging to mountains, licking the earth, draining all spiritual energy. Plants, creatures, even the remains of past cultivators and their treasures — nothing survived its hunger.
Suddenly, dust rose ahead. Dozens of gigantic ancient beasts were stampeding, fleeing the crawling flesh. Boulders tumbled from their backs, thundering against the ground.
Su Yan slowed and followed behind them. He guided his sword-qi between the peaks on one beast's back. Some peaks were stone; others exposed bone within.
Then he saw it — an ancient temple nestled between the peaks, unmoving despite the beasts' violent gait. A boulder fell toward it and was gently deflected by an invisible force.
"There's treasure here."
Su Yan landed outside the temple and set Xue Ying'an down. Yuan Qi poked his head out, studying the ancient structure.
The plaque above the door bore characters in bird-and-insect script. Yuan Qi squinted. "Nice calligraphy. A-Ying, you read it."
Su Yan studied the characters. "It says 'Seal' and 'Suppress' — almost identical to the characters I wrote on the bell."
Yuan Qi raged. "They're completely different! I copied the eight characters from the bell's backside. They don't match at all! Are you making this up because you can't read them?"
Su Yan examined the plaque again. "The person who wrote these understood the immortal Dao of 'seal' and 'suppress' imperfectly. That's why they seem similar but aren't exact."
The temple doors creaked open. A white skeleton stood in the doorway, one bony hand extended in invitation.