Su Yan shook his head. "I don't want to be that different. I'd rather get along with everyone."
The great bell tested him: "When you say 'get along,' do you mean it literally, or figuratively?"
It felt that this boy's idea of getting along was not quite the same as other people's.
Su Yan said, "The Mud Pill Secret has to be opened. I think, since qi cultivators and nuo masters are completely different cultivation systems, cultivating both shouldn't conflict. If that's so, I want both."
The great bell went still.
Qi cultivators and nuo masters—weren't they supposed to be ranked, one superior to the other? How could anyone want both?
And wouldn't cultivating both cause conflict?
Su Yan walked into Qinyan Cave, puzzled. "Strange. The netherworld invaded, the landscape changed completely. How did Magistrate Zhou find this place?"
Not long after he left, rustling sounds came from the forest. Countless tiny green-clad figures, barely a foot tall, swarmed across the mountainside.
These little figures were thin, dressed in green garments, pointed hats, and straw sandals. They were sharp and efficient, peering around and searching everywhere.
This was the Zhou Clan's nuo technique: the Verdant Puppet Art.
The green puppets were vegetation given life through nuo magic, used for assassination or reconnaissance. A great nuo of the Zhou Clan could even raise an entire army with this technique, overwhelming enemies with sheer numbers.
Suddenly, one puppet looked up and saw Zhou Yang pinned to the cliff. It let out a shriek. The others swarmed over, chattering in an unintelligible language, climbing atop one another to scale the cliff.
Working together, they pulled out the swords and carried Zhou Yang's corpse into the forest.
By evening, the puppets had carried the body over mountains and ridges to Yilin Temple. The temple had once been close to Mount Wuwang, but after the Nai River's invasion, the collision between netherworld and living world had raised new mountains and rivers. Mount Wuwang had become Wuwang Mountain, and Yilin Temple had been cast forty li away.
The path between them lay mostly through netherworld territory, treacherous and dangerous.
The puppets carried the corpse into Yilin Temple. Zhou Yihang's old eyes filled with tears. Trembling, he reached out and closed Zhou Yang's eyes.
"No drafts. Don't disturb my son's ghost," he ordered the clerks, commanding them to seal the doors and windows.
When night fell and the Nai River invaded, Zhou Yang's ghost drifted up, standing before his own corpse, the ghost's feet connected to the body's feet.
Normally ghosts were invisible, but after the Nai River's invasion, the boundary between worlds had frayed. At night, ghosts could be seen.
Zhou Yang's ghost cried: "Su Yan killed me. Father, avenge me!"
Zhou Yihang wept, choking out: "Rest easy, my son. This old man will cut down that beast no matter what, and offer his head upon your grave!"
Zhou Yang's resentment softened slightly. "The cold wind hurts me."
Zhou Yihang wiped his tears. "I've already ordered a divine idol made. Once it's finished, we'll gild it and forge you a golden body. After your seven days of mourning, I'll have the people of Lingling City worship you. In a few years, you can become a god! Father and son, we will meet again!"
Zhou Yang wept and bowed.
Zhou Yihang closed the door. His face darkened as he gazed toward Wuwang Mountain and murmured: "Wuwang means disaster. The name itself means calamity and chaos. Su Yan, even if you have heaven-shaking talent, this old man will take your life to avenge my son! That name, Wuwang, means disaster is coming for you!"
* * *
At the foot of Wuwang Mountain, Su Yan saw that Yuan Qi was still in transformation, so he slipped out of Qinyan Cave to watch the Nai River.
When the sun set, the Nai River appeared again, surging with boundless current. Ghostly energy filled the air, and countless things emerged from the mountain, flying everywhere. Some crawled from old graves, calling friends to drink and revel.
Su Yan noticed a village at the mountain's foot, brightly lit, with a wealthy household hosting a banquet. He was surprised: "How did I not see this village during the day?"
There was no food in Qinyan Cave. His meals came from catching fish in the water and picking fruit from trees. While it filled his stomach, the lack of grain left him hollow.
He approached. The villagers had no ghostly aura, and they were warm, inviting him to join. The village had many handsome men and beautiful women. An elder acted as matchmaker, offering him marriage to a stunning girl, alluring and lovely.
Su Yan's face turned red. He stammered, "I don't have a dowry..."
"What need for a dowry?"
The elder stroked his black beard and smiled. "If I demanded a dowry, wouldn't I be selling my daughter? That would be morally lacking. Our Hu Clan has always given the groom a dowry. If you're willing, I can give you two shops and a residence on a busy street in Yongzhou City, plus five hundred taels of silver."
Su Yan's heart raced. He looked at the Hu girl—she seemed even more radiant. He was about to agree when a woman's voice came from outside the village: "A pack of fox spirits, daring to deceive a clueless human boy! Do you think no one can stop you? Scram!"
At these words, the villagers' faces changed. Yellow fur sprouted on their faces, and they transformed into fox yao, scrambling everywhere, hiding in houses.
Su Yan sighed inwardly. If I could get two shops, a residence, and marry a beautiful fox girl, what harm in being a clueless boy?
He had at least gotten a full meal. He bowed to the hiding fox yao and said, "Thank you for the feast. I am Su Yan, the demon king of Wuwang Mountain. We're all neighbors. No need to be nervous."
One fox yao emerged from a house, stood like a human, and bowed. "So it was Demon King Xu. Forgive us, forgive us. We are wild mountain foxes. We saw you cut down your enemies with such valor and wished to form a marriage alliance."
"No harm in not knowing. If the elder still wishes to marry his daughter, I'm available." The boy's eyes shone.
The old fox yao nodded nervously and dared not bring it up again.
Su Yan sighed again and walked out of the village, following the woman's voice. Before long, he saw a black coffin standing by the Nai River, long chains hanging down to the water's edge.
A girl sat before the black coffin, knees drawn up, gazing at the moon.
Su Yan looked up. A moon hung over the far bank of the Nai River, huge as a bucket, its light unlike anything in the human world.
Beneath that moonlight, the girl was even more beautiful.
Su Yan's heart pounded. He quietly called out to the great bell twice, but it made no sound, as if dead. Yet that bell had always been chatty before, urging Su Yan to cultivate so it could steal his qi and blood, treating him like a donkey pulling a mill.
"Uncle Bell's being generous again."
Su Yan steadied himself, walked forward, and bowed. "Thank you for speaking up, miss. Otherwise I wouldn't have realized they were fox yao."
The girl's gaze was warm, resting on his face, her voice gentle. "You didn't see them because you haven't cultivated the Heavenly Eye yet. Store divine light in your eyes, gaze inward upon sun and moon. Focus your intent like polishing a mirror, gather three lights at your brow. That's the secret of the Heavenly Eye."
Su Yan heard this and said, "Store divine light—meaning spirit sense. Gaze inward upon sun and moon—meaning the eyes. Focus like polishing a mirror means polishing spirit sense like a mirror. Three lights are the sun and moon's light. What is the third light?"
The girl was surprised. "Your comprehension is excellent. The third light is at the hollow of your brow, called heavenly light. Concentrate your spirit sense between sun and moon, remember this: focus like polishing a mirror, and you can open the Heavenly Eye, seeing through demon transformations."
She spoke, and Su Yan did.
He concentrated, sending his spirit sense into the Realm of the Subtle, floating between sun and moon. He circulated his spirit sense, and in moments it was polished smooth as a mirror.
Suddenly, light shone from beyond the heavens—the third light, heavenly light!
At the same time, his eyes opened. Left and right reflected the outer world back into the Realm of the Subtle. The light from both eyes landed on the mirror of his spirit sense, touching the heavenly light, and transformation occurred.
Su Yan looked toward the light, and the world changed.
On the right bank of the Nai River, a boundary line appeared between netherworld and living world, like the twilight line between night and day.
Where the two worlds collided and overlapped, there was a massive fissure. Space and earth from both realms crashed and compressed against each other, the force staggering.
Su Yan and the coffin girl stood at the edge of that great crack.
The fissure was still expanding.
From within came massive sounds, like cattle and dragons, like the roar of monsters. Su Yan looked down and saw enormous, slick bodies moving within the crack, half-visible, as if some living colossus were trapped underground, struggling to break free.
Yet whenever he looked closely, he saw only scaly rock formations.
He could also see the netherworld's invasion clearly now, see the ghosts drifting in the Nai River.
Su Yan's heart pounded. "Cultivating the Heavenly Eye lets you see ghosts and gods. That might not be a good thing."
Ghosts retained their appearance at death. Some were too horrifying, easily startling one's own soul.
Therefore, those who cultivated the Heavenly Eye couldn't keep it open constantly. Besides attracting ghosts, it easily disturbed the cultivator's own spirit.
More critically, using the Heavenly Eye consumed spirit sense too rapidly. Su Yan didn't yet know how to cultivate his spirit sense stronger. He couldn't maintain the eye indefinitely.
While his spirit sense still held, he looked at the coffin girl—and his heart shook.
The girl said, "You see it?"
Su Yan nodded. Behind the girl sat another girl—a divine being, mountain-sized, presiding in the air, impossibly vast.
The divine being resembled the girl in features, identical in brow and eye, but radiated brilliant divine light, dazzling to behold.
The light penetrating from her body was visible as individual threads, fine as hairs, barely a foot long.
Her body didn't touch the ground. Clouds supported her, floating in the air. She seemed boundlessly vast, yet occupied no space at all.
Behind her, streamers of divine light floated, unattached to her body, drifting in the air.
The coffin girl had a charming, alluring air. But the divine being behind her was majestic and sacred, awe-inspiring and untouchable.
Su Yan suppressed his shock and asked, "What is behind you?"
"Primordial Spirit. You will have one too, in time."
"I will?"
"You're in the Qi-Gathering stage now, absorbing solar essence to replenish body, soul, and vital energy. After that comes the Gate-Breaking stage, opening the tailbone gate, beginning the path of qi cultivation, connecting to the River of Heaven. Next is the Dual Refinement stage, where fire and water refine together to build the crucible. Then a second gate-breaking, opening the spine gate, adding oil to extend life."
The girl spoke unhurriedly, "After that comes the Tower-Scaling stage, flying past twelve towers. The Jade Pool stage, transforming body and bones, cultivating the Primordial Spirit. The Spirit-Bridge stage, crossing the spirit bridge, then a third gate-breaking, knocking on the jade-pillow heaven gate, receiving heaven's mandate."
Su Yan listened, entranced. "And then?"
"Then you ascend and become an immortal. But that path is broken."
Su Yan was still dreaming of it. He froze. "Broken? What do you mean?"
"A great villain blocked it, cutting off the path to immortality."
A trace of sadness crossed the girl's eyes. She composed herself and looked toward Wuwang Mountain in the night. "Do you know what Wuwang means?"
She didn't wait for an answer. "Wuwang means the unexpected. The name means an unlooked-for meeting. I thought I was the only qi cultivator left in the world. I didn't expect to find another. You and I are the same kind."
She smiled. "I never thought that three thousand years later, someone would still walk the path of the qi cultivator. My path is no longer lonely."
She stood before the black coffin, her clothes fluttering. "Three thousand years ago, I set sail on the Nai River. Three thousand years later, I board here. My ship... has arrived."
As she spoke, the Nai River's surface suddenly churned, waves rolling. A tower ship broke from the water, leaping onto the river!
On the ship's deck, hundreds of skeletons armed with blades, hooks, and spears were fighting each other. They hadn't expected the vessel that had sailed these waters for thousands of years to suddenly surface. They froze.
The girl swept her sleeve. "You ghost pirates, daring to occupy my treasure ship? Get out!"
Where her sleeve passed, the skeletons involuntarily flew up and tumbled into the Nai River.
The girl's form rose lightly and landed on the bow. Su Yan stood on the riverbank, watching the tower ship surge toward him, Nai River water still pouring from its decks like waterfalls, the pressure immense.
The ship stopped. The girl leaned from the bow and smiled. "I have a great task tonight, and I need a helper. Our meeting here is Wuwang—fated. Come with me for this task. Don't worry, I'll send you back by dawn."
Su Yan leaped up and landed on the ship. "What task?"
"Sending a god away."