The jade slip bore eight characters: Grand Yin Origin-Nurturing Art. A line of smaller text beneath. Nothing more.
Su Yan walked toward it. Zhou Buyi blocked his path.
"Young Master Su, one must study the Tuo Scripture first to comprehend the jade slip. Only Zhou clan elders who've researched the scripture for decades may approach it. For a newcomer to demand the jade slip is... presumptuous."
Su Yan smiled. "Buyi, since when do you decide what I should or shouldn't see? If you're capable, Senior Zhou would have asked you to decipher it. If not, stand aside and don't lecture your betters."
Zhou Buyi retreated, fuming.
The great bell spoke. "A-Yan, this is a jade slip—a special jade bamboo. Ancient cultivators used them to record insights. Extremely rare. What's inside may be more precious than the Tuo Scripture."
Su Yan examined the eight characters. They were bird-seal script, but different from what he'd seen before. Each stroke contained layers of meaning.
When he grasped the first character—something like "Grand"—strange sounds filled his ears. His body moved on its own. Left palm out, right palm out, central fingers bent, torso twisting until his spine cracked and popped.
Qi and primal water surged along his spine, rising as steam, washing through his Inner Realm, cleansing organs and viscera.
The second character—something like "Yin"—brought a new sound. Cool air flowed through his marrow, gathering at the tailbone gate, settling there like black iron.
The third—"Origin"—sent water rising to heaven, fire rising to earth. Water and fire refined him, forging every acupuncture point, converging near his dantian.
Eight characters. Eight different Dao tones. Eight movements. When he finished, every part of his body—organs, tailbone, dantian, spine, throat, tongue, brow—hummed with transformation.
He felt washed from the inside out, more comfortable than any sun or thunder-body tempering.
"The Grand Yin Origin-Nurturing Art is just eight characters?" he wondered. "Too simple."
Compared to this, the Tuo Scripture was bloated—endless commentary on commentary, Tuo's personal interpretations of these eight words. In Su Yan's view, she'd grasped the first four characters but missed the last four. That explained why practitioners became female.
He practiced the eight forms again and again before the thirteen elders. The Zhou prodigies stared.
"Who's that?" asked a white-haired youth.
"Young Master Youyou," Zhou Buyi bowed. "That rural genius everyone's been talking about. Su Yan. The one who caused all those deaths catching him."
Zhou Youyou frowned. "Country bumpkins have no sense."
A booming voice echoed through the hall. "Which one is Su Yan?"
Several young people strode in. The leader wore white and red, face flushed with anger. "I heard the patriarch captured the criminal Su Yan and brought him here to decipher scripture. Which one? Step forward!"
Su Yan stepped up. "That would be me."
The man—Zhou Fan—looked him up and down. "You're the one who killed Second Brother Zhou Yang and Uncle Zhou Yihang?"
Zhou Buyi intervened. "Young Master Fan, the patriarch invited him. Please don't cause trouble."
Zhou Fan laughed harshly. "I'm not killing him, just teaching him a lesson! You won't allow even that?"
Zhou Buyi turned to Su Yan with a crocodile's smile. "Young Master Su, you see how it is. The people's anger is hard to contain. Take your lumps. With me here, you won't die—just get hurt. The Zhou family heals better than anyone. As long as you breathe, we can save you."
Zhou Fan strode forward, hand raised to slap. "For Second Brother Zhou Yang—one slap. Not too much to ask?"
Su Yan shrugged. His palm bloated to the size of a fan. Thunder cracked. He struck first.
*Crack.*
The sound wave exploded. Blood sprayed. Zhou Fan's head twisted nearly backward—he saw his own backside. His body spun through the air, slammed into a pillar four zhang away, and dropped.
He rose instantly, somehow still alive. But a sword-light pressed against his brow, pinning him to the pillar.
"Outrageous!" Zhou disciples surged forward.
Su Yan stood four zhang away, voice mild. "Is it too much? That depends on strength. Do you have the strength to demand anything of me?"
He swept his gaze across them. "I never understood. Magistrate Zhou Yang had everything—wives, land, gold. He rode in eight-man sedan chairs. We farmers had nothing. No wives, no houses, no food. Yet he still squeezed us for more. Why?"
Su Yan smiled. "Now I see. He was feeding you. You wear silk and ride fine horses, servants clustering like stars—because men like Magistrate Zhou worship you like gods, funded by our starvation!"
Yuan Qi thumped his tail. "Fat rats!"
The Zhou disciples went pale with rage.
Zhou Buyi trembled, pointing. "Slander! You'll regret this!"
"You're a servant," Yuan Qi said. "Why do you talk like a master?"
"I serve the Zhou family, who execute imperial decrees! Question us, and you question the Emperor!"
Yuan Qi snarled. "You play at being local emperors, but we can't rebel?"
Su Yan coughed, cutting in. He tapped Zhou Fan's cheek with his sword-light. "I'll let this pass once. Next time, we follow vendetta rules." He dismissed the sword. "But remember—my grudge with Zhou Yang is blood debt. If you want revenge, bring your lives."
Zhou Fan glared. Then his body erupted with popping sounds. His right arm swelled with muscle, extending into a four-to-five-zhang flesh-wing. Golden feathers sprouted, each blade-sharp, steel-hard.
A Nuo technique that had glimpsed the Dao.
The wing-blade fell toward Su Yan's head. "For Second Brother! This is the Zhou family stronghold!"
Su Yan's shoulder flashed. A sword-beam shot upward, meeting the wing's tip, shearing through it in a heartbeat. The light passed through Zhou Fan's brow, through his body, and struck the bronze pillar behind him with a *zing*.
A thin blood-line appeared on the pillar. The sword hadn't scratched the bronze.
"The Zhou family heals better than anyone," Su Yan asked Zhou Buyi. "Does he have a chance?"
Zhou Fan stood frozen, a red line dividing his face. The sword had split his brain and cleaved his Mud Pill Secret in two.