Su Yan wasn't going down there. He blinked desperately at Yuan Qi, signaling him to leave.
"I don't want to learn," Su Yan said. "Are you coming? It's getting dark. Ghosts and spirits everywhere. You won't make it home."
But Yuan Qi was hooked. "I figured out some of the lecture. I want to stay a few more days."
Su Yan ground his teeth. Beside him, Veyon frowned. "Dark? Ghosts? Wait—there's a problem here."
"What problem?"
"You noticed the stone idols on the peaks?" Veyon said. "My retainer and I examined them before coming here. Massive statues of various gods."
Su Yan lowered his voice. "You found the summoning inscriptions?"
Veyon started. The green-robed retainer stared at Su Yan with new respect. *How does a village boy know about summoning inscriptions? Those are secrets held only by the great clans.*
"Yes," Veyon said. "Summoning inscriptions. I couldn't understand why an immortal realm needed them. But when you mentioned the underworld, I realized—these inscriptions aren't for summoning the living. They're for calling ghosts."
Su Yan's mind blazed. "I understand! When the sun sets, this pocket world falls within the underworld's boundaries! Ghosts everywhere!"
Veyon nodded. "The idols' inscriptions summon wandering ghosts from the underworld to refine Myriad Souls Pills. The idols are the nuo master's servants."
"He placed his Inner Realm in the underworld," Su Yan continued, "with its entrance in the living world at the Shuikou Temple. When the underworld invades, the collision shakes loose this hidden realm."
"Because this world has always been in the underworld," Veyon finished, "the idols don't need souls inside them. They're empty vessels. But when night falls and the underworld arrives, *all* the idols will awaken as powerful gods."
Su Yan's blood ran cold. "They'll massacre everyone."
The two boys looked at each other. Understanding passed between them. They were alike.
The great bell and the retainer listened in horror. Hundreds of idols across five peaks, all awakening at once?
Su Yan looked up. The sun touched the horizon.
Veyon rose. "Elder Xiao, we should leave."
The retainer nodded. Veyon looked at Su Yan. "You're not coming?"
"My friend is here. How could I leave?"
Su Yan dropped from the roof into the hall, laughing. "Master, your wisdom is profound. Do you know sword techniques? I'd like to study swordsmanship."
Veyon stared. *He jumps into death itself. A rational person wouldn't do this... I thought we were alike. I was wrong.*
He followed his retainer away, but Su Yan's action haunted him. He wanted to drag Su Yan out and ask why.
*The rational choice is to leave. Now.*
* * *
Su Yan landed beside Yuan Qi. "Does the master know sword techniques?"
Yuan Qi bristled. "Of course he does! That ten-mile sword scar outside the Shuikou Temple is his work. Right, Master?"
The white-robed figure smiled silently.
Su Yan smiled back. "The master doesn't know sword techniques. You're a nuo master, not a sword immortal. When your lifespan ran out, you hid in your Inner Realm and placed it in the underworld. You once had great power. These idols are your slaves, refining Myriad Souls Pills because your Primordial Spirit is wounded. But one day, sword light split your hidden realm open and killed you where you sat. Not only killed you—*skinned* you."
Yuan Qi roared. "Xu Ying, do you know what you're saying? You'll die for this! Master, don't listen to him. He's mentally ill. Doesn't even know his parents."
Prefect Zhou Heng's belly rippled with rage. "You insult an immortal? Even against clan law, I'll kill you!"
Su Yan kept his eyes on the white-robed figure. "You need bodies that match your needs. You can't just take anyone's flesh. So you designed a cultivation method. Make them practice your heretical art, transform themselves into suitable vessels. For what?"
He struggled for the word.
The bell supplied it: "Body-snatching. The body is a house; the soul is a tenant. Seizing another's body, driving out or devouring the original soul—that's body-snatching."
"You make these poor fools transform themselves into bodies you can steal. Correct?"
Many stopped cultivating. They looked at the white-robed figure.
Magistrate Ling frowned. "Xu Ying, do you know what you're saying? Insulting an immortal brings eternal suffering."
Su Yan raised a finger. Sword qi blazed toward the white-robed figure like a shooting star. "Was this the technique that killed you?"
The figure's face changed. His skin deflated like a punctured bladder. A scream tore from his throat—not human, the shriek of something being flayed alive.
The sword qi dissolved before reaching him. But the figure had cracked. The hall fell silent.
Then he laughed. A horrible, broken sound. His waist bent forward until his face touched the floor, then snapped backward until his skull touched his heels.
"Night has finally fallen."
He straightened. Immortal light blazed. "The hunt begins. My divine dynasty has awakened."
Outside, the River of the Dead appeared from nothing. Ghost fires burned along its banks.
Inside the temple world, the sun still hung in the sky—but cold seeped in. The pocket world had returned to the underworld.
On the five peaks, idols blazed brighter. Chanting grew louder.
Ghost fires swarmed through the sky like stars, drawn by the summoning inscriptions, pouring into idols and altars.
People fled the temple in panic. Those who had practiced the True Dao of the Jade Pivot too deeply found that as they crossed the threshold, their flesh separated from their bones. Only skeletons made it outside.
Yuan Qi shouted, "Reverse the technique! Rotate it forward!"
The white-robed figure roared. "Serpent! You'll die horribly for this!"
Yuan Qi's mind had cleared. "He fused himself with the temple. He can't leave!"
The figure's skin flapped, rushing for the door. But the temple *was* his Inner Realm. At the threshold, invisible force pulled him back.
He had died here. Unjustly. Refusing to pass on, he had fused his skin to his hidden sanctum, making the temple his flesh, bone, and organs. He designed the True Dao of the Jade Pivot to trap victims, making them part of himself.
It had worked—until a stupid serpent found the flaw.
"My family are scholars," Yuan Qi called back. "I've read every story. Did you think you could fool *me*?"
The figure shrieked. "This wretched serpent doesn't even know his own species—and I lost to *him*!"