Su Yan had worried that cultivating the Grand Unity Daoyin Art would make him too visible. Now he didn't care. The closer he flew to the floating temple, the denser the sun's essence became. His qi and blood recovered rapidly.
He studied the five peaks. They hung in the configuration of the Realm of the Subtle—heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys. Not an immortal realm. An inner world.
"Uncle Bell, I understand now. This isn't an immortal. It's a nuo master. We're not in a celestial paradise. We're inside his Inner Realm—his hidden sanctum!"
The bell fell silent.
Su Yan remembered the woman in the coffin. She had said nuo masters who refined their Inner Realm to the highest level could create a pocket immortal world within themselves—hidden, undying.
This ruined temple world was exactly that.
"No wonder the summoning inscriptions had errors," the bell muttered. "This nuo master found ancient texts and copied them poorly. An uneducated fraud."
Su Yan caught the *also* in that statement. Was the bell mocking Yuan Qi?
"This nuo master is ruthless," Su Yan said. "He treats people like insects. Getting to the temple won't be easy."
He had an idea. "We'll circle around to the back."
"Since you know it's dangerous, why go at all? Let's go home and build the serpent a memorial. Write 'hero' on it."
Su Yan refused. The bell sighed and flew toward the temple.
*He may be uneducated,* the bell thought, *but he's loyal. He'd die for a friend.*
"A-Yan, you ate a Myriad Souls Pill. Any effects?"
Su Yan had forgotten. The legendary pill for healing Primordial Spirit wounds had vanished into his belly like a stone into the sea. Nothing.
"Did this fraud mess up the pill recipe too?" the bell wondered.
They reached the temple. It blazed with golden light, majestic beyond measure. A waterfall cascaded from nowhere, falling from the sky itself.
"A Dao phenomenon?" Su Yan frowned. Then he saw the truth. "No—it's an Inner Realm constructed from countless Dao phenomena!"
Through his Heavenly Eye, every drop of the waterfall contained water-element phenomena—rivers, lakes, seas, ice. Each drop held martial techniques and transformations. Someone with the Heavenly Eye could study them and comprehend countless arts.
"But I saw world-splitting sword qi outside the Shuikou Temple. I thought the master here was a sword immortal."
Su Yan turned to the temple's plants and trees. All Inner Realm phenomena. Profound, but no trace of sword dao.
"You noticed too?" a voice called from beyond the waterfall.
Su Yan turned. Veyon and his green-robed retainer stood on the other side.
Su Yan approached. "I comprehended a technique outside called World-Splitting. I thought the master was a sword immortal. But this Inner Realm shows no sword intent. I suspect the one who wielded that sword technique and this nuo master are different people."
Veyon returned the greeting, surprised. "I felt something was wrong too. You named that technique World-Splitting? It fits the intent."
He paused. "You called these phenomena 'Dao phenomena.' That term is more apt than 'Inner Realm.'"
"I borrowed it from a senior. Veyon, I'm going behind the temple to see what this nuo master is hiding. Want to come?"
The green-robed retainer shook his head urgently.
Veyon hesitated. Su Yan smiled. "It'll be fun."
"I'll come."
The retainer glared at Su Yan. Su Yan ignored him, mounted the bell, and flew behind the temple.
* * *
The rear wall was vermillion. As the bell rose, the wall split open—a mouth of jagged teeth thirty yards wide. It vomited bones, licked one with a crimson tongue, then closed.
Su Yan's heart hammered. Veyon showed no reaction.
"Aren't you scared?"
"My family taught me to show no emotion. Even when terrified."
Su Yan laughed. "Where's the fun in that? Ever caught fish in a river?"
Veyon shook his head.
"I'll take you sometime. I run a yao kingdom on Mount Wuwang. Visit when—"
The retainer's glare could have killed.
They reached the temple roof. Su Yan crouched on the ridge tiles and peered down. Veyon tried to copy him. The retainer laid out a silk cloth first, then nodded permission.
Below, hundreds sat in meditation, practicing a strange method. Beneath the main hall, sword-like rays of immortal light swirled around a towering figure.
The nuo master looked like polished jade—refined, ethereal, otherworldly. He felt like clear water in a mountain pond, untainted by a single speck of dust. Looking at him, Su Yan felt his own mind was a weedy field after rain—filthy, chaotic. The contrast filled him with shame.
"This immortal's mind is so pure," Su Yan thought. "I was wrong to call him a fraud with Uncle Bell."
Below, the nuo master's gentle voice said: "You don't understand this? How did you cultivate... Idiot! I mean *this*, not *that*! You're trying to kill me... I told you to reverse the flow, rotate two and a half cycles. You went forward two cycles. Where's your half? Your *half*?... Is this what I taught you? Truly an idiot!"
Su Yan blinked. The immortal's temper seemed... volatile.
Then a horned serpent looked up from below—a head larger than a banquet table, rising three stories high. Yuan Qi met Su Yan's eyes.
Su Yan pressed a finger to his lips. Yuan Qi withdrew. "Master, my talent is poor, but I'm patient. I'll learn it!"
The white-robed figure's chest heaved. He calmed himself and continued teaching.
Su Yan activated his Heavenly Eye and looked down at the nuo master.
The immortal turned. Smiled.
Then blood gushed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
His jade-like face twisted into something monstrous—a corpse, skinned alive, dead in unspeakable agony. Malice rolled off him in waves, trying to twist Su Yan's mind into madness.
Cold seized Su Yan's body. The sky above turned to blood, rivers of gore pouring down.
The Pure Yang Fire the coffin woman had left in his body blazed. The bloody sky hissed and evaporated. The malice vanished.
"A dead man. He's a *dead man*."
Su Yan stared, heart screaming. *This nuo master is a corpse. A skin bag filled with endless hatred.*
The white-robed figure spoke: "Young friend hiding above, why hide? My lectures are open to all races and all cultivation levels."
Su Yan steadied himself. "Master, the view is better up here. I hear more clearly."
"Good. Good."
As the figure turned, Su Yan saw light leaking from the back of his skull, running down his neck. His robes hid more light beneath.
Su Yan looked through the gaps and felt the world spin.
The white-robed immortal was an empty skin. Someone had cut from the back of his skull to the base of his spine, hollowed out every organ, every bone, every drop of blood—and dressed the skin in immortal robes. The light leaking through was sword radiance from inside the hollow shell.
Su Yan forced a smile. "Xiao-Qi, stop studying. Come out. The sun's setting..."
"But I haven't learned the True Dao of the Jade Pivot yet."
Yuan Qi looked up. "Master said he'd teach me personally. A-Yan, you're smart—come down and learn too!"