The sorrowful old man stood in line on the Bridge of the Dead, more wretched than ever.
When his turn came, Mengpo's hands shook. "Ten bowls, first brew, no refills."
Mengpo glared. "You came yesterday. Where's your umbrella?"
The old man sighed. "Your soup was watered down. It didn't work. This time, ten bowls of first brew. The seal must hold."
Mengpo laughed, furious. "No first or second brew! My tea is the Brew of Oblivion—it washes away all memory, returns you to infant ignorance. Impossible to remember anything after drinking!"
"He drank and grew more alert. Almost excited."
"Impossible! If my tea fails, my reputation dies with it!"
"Ten bowls. I'll make him drink them all."
Mengpo gritted her teeth. "Ten bowls? You'd feed an elephant? And where are my cups?"
The old man laid out ten cups in midair. "I have my methods."
Mengpo poured. "If the seal truly fails, what then?"
The old man was silent. "Then I report upward. Target escaped. Let them decide."
Mengpo shuddered and said no more.
* * *
Inside the Mud Pill Palace, the bell was annoyed. Its ring should have knocked Su Yan's soul from his body while the body stayed put. Instead, the body had flown outward and the soul remained.
Too many Myriad Souls Pills. Su Yan's soul had grown dense beyond measure.
Su Yan looked at his hands. They glowed with milky light, jade bones and ice-clear flesh—not blood and meat at all.
Three fires burned on his body. One on his left shoulder. One on his right. A third blazed above his head, fiercer than the others.
"Three Yang Fires," the bell said. "Refine them together and you get the Three True Fires—supreme yang, capable of burning anything."
"Then why do theirs look different?"
The Bull Demons cowered before Su Yan's soul, trembling.
Su Yan saw their souls within their bodies. Same size as their forms, but dim. Their Three Yang Fires flickered at the slightest breeze, ready to die. Nothing like Su Yan's stable, wind-resistant flames.
"Your soul is too strong," the bell said. "They hit you with the whip and it hurts *them*. You hit others, and the whip's power triples. Your soul-cultivation already surpasses the City God's judges. You're near Ghost King level. They think you're a Ghost King—that's why they serve you."
"Ghost King?" Su Yan blinked. *Su the Ghost King? I wanted to be Su the Demon King.*
"Your fires were refined by Pure Yang Fire, making them stable. But their intensity comes from all those pills. Your soul is nearly solid, made of indestructible spirit energy. Your Three Yang Fires burn both your vitality and your essence. You're a candle burning at both ends. Cultivate your body, or the fires will consume you."
Su Yan's heart sank. Ghost King-level soul without Ghost King-level cultivation was dangerous.
The bell rang again, knocking his soul back into his body. "I push you to cultivate so I can steal more qi from a stronger host. Now sleep. Morning training comes early."
Su Yan tossed Yuan Qi a Myriad Souls Pill. "Saved one for you."
Yuan Qi swallowed it and slept.
At midnight, the palace wall cracked. A white skeleton emerged.
The Bull Demons collapsed unconscious at the sight. The skeleton floated into Su Yan's chamber.
The bell detected something wrong and rang—then went silent, dropping from the air.
The skeleton reached toward Su Yan's forehead. A flame erupted from his brow. Fire swept the room.
"Qingbi, you oppose me too?" The skeleton turned to smoke and vanished.
The flame retreated. The bell clattered to the floor, waking confused. "Strange. I fell asleep?"
* * *
Before dawn, the bell rang nonstop, bouncing between rooms, waking everyone for morning practice.
Su Yan bathed in the cave pool, dressed, and began his Grand Unity Daoyin Art. Female yao peeked from the trees, blushing. Su Yan ignored them. Cultivation was more interesting.
Yuan Qi studied the Dragon-Serpent Awakening Art. "A-Yan, what does 'awakening' mean?"
Su Yan explained while practicing. "Awakening refers to spring thunder, rising yang, everything bursting to life. This art cultivates pure yang dragon-serpent energy and body transformation."
He demonstrated once. Yuan Qi understood most of it, impressed.
Su Yan moved to the True Cultivation of the Ba Serpent. "This covers size-changing transformation. Study both together."
He practiced both arts while explaining. The bell watched, breathing in rhythm.
*This boy isn't just a snake catcher,* the bell thought. *Ordinary catchers can't decipher Qi Cultivator methods at a glance. I've struck gold. Literally. Fortune favors the bell!*
Su Yan finished teaching and felt something shift. Complex scripture flooded his mind—the Grand Unity Daoyin Art's continuation, far more profound than the serpent arts. Yet he understood it naturally.
He guided his qi into the Realm of Subtle Silence. Clouds swirled, sun and moon raced. Outside, the Bull Demons and Yuan Qi looked up.
An acre of light-field blazed above them. Sunlight poured down like a storm, and sprouts within the field absorbed it, growing visibly.
The sprouts flowered, then bore heavy golden seeds.
"Bell, have you seen this?" Yuan Qi whispered.
"Never."
The seeds rained down like golden light. Yuan Qi caught one. It dissolved into rich, blazing yang qi.
"Rice seeds, but made of pure yang..."
"Not rice seeds," the bell whispered, then shouted. "Dao seeds! Light Field Dao-Planting! Fire planting lotus in flame—this is a direct path to the Great Dao! But..."
It trailed off, bewildered. Even its former master never obtained such a method. How did a village snake catcher learn it?
"With this speed, my injuries will heal faster!" The bell put aside its confusion, delighted.