Su Yan looked up. Zhou Qiyun's severed soul-head flew upward, Samadhi True Fire blazing out, incinerating the crescent blade. The soul reconnected, whole again.
Su Yan's mind reeled. If even souls could regenerate, what would happen if Zhou Qiyun cultivated a true Primordial Spirit? Would that become indestructible too?
The colossal creature blotted out the sky. It collided with Zhou Qiyun.
The heavens fractured like a broken mirror.
Su Yan watched escaped thunder-fire drift through the cracks, then detonate—more brilliant than any festival fireworks.
As the colossus struck Zhou Qiyun, the skeleton on its head rose and thrust its sword.
That sword-stroke seemed more dangerous than the beast's attack. Zhou Qiyun's chaos sea behind him churned. Nine grottos emerged, plunging into the sea, mobilizing every scrap of power to resist.
A blinding explosion of light. Immortal radiance poured through the shattered sky. Su Yan saw colors impossibly vivid—shades that shouldn't exist in the mortal world.
Where the light touched, the underworld around the pagoda tree churned violently. It was deep night, the height of the underworld's invasion. Yet where immortal light shone, the underworld retreated. Even the Nai River stopped flowing.
The boundary between yin and yang realms trembled. This descending light possessed power to interfere with the war between worlds.
Su Yan traced its source. It poured from Zhou Qiyun's body. He looked like an ascended immortal, transcendent and alone.
A fairy realm opened around him.
Su Yan saw the mountains and rivers of the mortal realm extending like a scroll. A paradise!
The colossus and the pagoda palace master were instantly pulled inside. The skeleton on the beast's head leaped, shooting toward the fairy realm's edge, trying to escape before it fully expanded.
But the realm grew faster than it flew. After several hundred miles, the immortal landscape had fused completely with the world. No boundary remained.
The skeleton halted in midair. No New Territory. No pagoda tree. No Nai River. It understood: without killing Zhou Qiyun, there was no escape.
It turned back, racing to the beast's head. Better to fight together than separate.
Their previous battle at Mount Wuwang had been rushed—neither side fully prepared, neither able to unleash ultimate techniques before retreating.
Now, in this seemingly guaranteed trap, Zhou Qiyun had unleashed his Inner-Realm Subtle Transformation's final form, dragging them into his fairy realm for decisive battle.
Su Yan looked up, watching the bone emperor pulled into that immortal landscape, moved despite himself.
Inner-Realm Subtle Transformation was a Nuo master's unique cultivation path—preparing a paradise for when lifespan ended, a place to hide and endure forever.
But Zhou Qiyun's approach differed. His Inner Realm didn't seek concealment.
He intended to fuse his fairy realm with the entire mortal continent. Turn the world into paradise. No need to hide between yin and yang like the White-Robed Nuo Immortal.
He wanted to live openly as an immortal. Openly eternal.
In this alone, he surpassed the White-Robed Nuo Immortal countless times over.
Zhou Qiyun's fairy realm bloomed. The flesh growing on the underworld soldiers rotted away. They woke from their stupor, howling, and charged Huaihua Palace.
The thirteen Zhou elders rose to meet them.
Each elder's grotto blazed bright, distorting space. Some became rivers sweeping through the air, scattering hundreds of soldiers. Others became mountains crushing from the sky. Some became rainbows the elders rode, slaughtering in all directions.
But there were too many soldiers. Many slipped past, rushing the palace.
"Demon King Su, now is our chance to leave."
Su Yan turned. Veyon and Elder Xiao stood nearby. "The Zhou powerhouses are occupied. No one can stop us. If you're willing, Elder Xiao can escort us out."
Su Yan hesitated, then shook his head. "My friends are still in the tree. I can't leave them."
Elder Xiao sneered. "Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment. Su Yan, you know neither. You'll die here. Come with me, and I'll get you out!"
Veyon smiled faintly. "Truly the Demon King Su. Elder Xiao, let's go."
She left with Elder Xiao. The old servant cut through the soldiers, killing dozens, and vanished into the night.
Zhou clan members poured out, fighting the ghost soldiers. Su Yan didn't join them. He slipped back into Huaihua Palace, searching for valuables.
He'd witnessed the Zhou clan stripping the Shui Temple bare. The lesson stuck. He rummaged through Zhou Qiyun's study, spotted a jade seal on the desk, and grabbed it.
Then the sky shook. A massive mountain range crashed into the underworld mountains—a hundred miles of colossal body.
Su Yan looked up. The beast's head was falling from Zhou Qiyun's fairy realm.
He saw the canopy shatter, flying backward, breaking apart in blazing light. The bone emperor shattered. His ruined Primordial Spirit burst into flame and fled.
Su Yan placed the jade seal back, wiped his fingerprints, closed the door, and retreated.
"Robbery requires knowing who you can rob." The simple youth understood his limits.
The beast's head crashed down, rolling for miles, blocking Veyon and Elder Xiao's escape.
A new mountain range. Blood gushed from its base, forming a river five or six zhang wide.
Elder Xiao prepared to climb over. Veyon stopped.
"We can't leave," she said calmly. "Let's go back."
"Young Master, climb this mountain and we're free!"
Veyon shook her head. "The Zhou patriarch is now the strongest under heaven. Far stronger than when he defeated my ancestor Yuan Wuji."
"Rather than escape and be caught, better to stay voluntarily. We can learn much from him."
"But he'll eliminate you once you're no longer useful!"
"Elder Xiao, don't you understand? He threw down the Mud Pill Palace Master's head as a warning."
Veyon turned back toward Huaihua Palace. "He could throw that head as a mountain in our path. He could also throw it directly onto us. We couldn't stop it. We'd be crushed."
Elder Xiao staggered, following her. "The patriarch can't be that strong. He couldn't fight two supreme beings and watch us simultaneously..."
Veyon looked up at the battle in the sky. "He's already an earthly immortal. As long as he doesn't make mistakes, he's invincible. Immortal. Yet..."
She frowned. "Patriarch Zhou, what more do you seek? Why do you still need us to decipher cultivator arts?"
Back at Huaihua Palace, the disturbance had settled. Su Yan was waiting.
Elder Xiao saw him and flushed, hiding his face. "I called him unwise and unenlightened, yet he predicted our return."
Su Yan didn't care. He looked up at the final confrontation in the fairy realm, worry on his face. "I never imagined the patriarch was this strong. I thought at best they'd wound each other."
His confidence in escaping had vanished.
Veyon shared his concern. Zhou Qiyun wouldn't tolerate their idleness. He'd demand the Tuo Scripture deciphered.
Fail to decipher—death.
Decipher—also death.
"Then give him the Tuo Scripture." Su Yan said suddenly.
Veyon stared at him. After a moment, she nodded.
The sky-battle ended. Su Yan looked up. The skeleton stood in the air. Its sword shattered. The skeleton remained standing.
Zhou Qiyun, white eyebrows on a youthful face, straightened his clothes. He knelt before the skeleton, hands pressed to the ground, forehead touching earth.
"You were my teacher after all. Though your intentions were foul, you still showed me favor."
He spoke calmly. "Killing you is unfilial. I kneel, asking teacher's forgiveness."
The skeleton laughed. "Good, good! A disciple like you—I can depart in peace!"
It exploded into dust.
Zhou Qiyun retracted his fairy realm. The magnificent landscape rolled into his body like a silk painting.
He descended steadily. But upon landing, he stumbled. Blood trickled from his lips. He swallowed it.
Su Yan and Veyon's hearts leaped. "He's injured! He's not invincible!"
But Zhou Qiyun glanced at the pagoda tree and smiled. "Seeing me injured, you still don't strike?"
Su Yan and Veyon went rigid, every hair standing on end.
The implications terrified them.
Zhou Qiyun walked over, nodded lightly, and said, "These next few days, I want to see the deciphered Tuo Scripture. Prepare yourselves." He entered Huaihua Palace.
Su Yan and Veyon looked at each other. After a moment, they spoke in unison: "Was he actually injured? Or pretending to lure out another enemy?"
Elder Xiao was confused. "What other enemy?"
Su Yan and Veyon both looked at the pagoda tree.
Elder Xiao followed their gaze. "The tree? Impossible. It's just a tree..."
Su Yan whispered in Veyon's ear, "Your steward's a bit slow. Don't obey him in everything. He'll drag you down."
Veyon whispered back, "I know. But Mother is strict. She insists I obey him outside."
"He'll make you stupid too. Your earlobes are beautiful. Translucent. Like they let light through."
Veyon's earlobes turned red.
Elder Xiao stepped between them, face dark, and pushed them apart.
Su Yan laughed. "Let's sleep. Tomorrow we decipher the Tuo Scripture!"
The night passed uneventfully.
At the midnight hour, lightning flashed. The earth shook. Zhou Qiyun's chamber exploded. Everyone rushed out. Shadows danced on the window-frames. Axes and candle-flickers within.
Massive roots burst from the ground like giant pythons, coiling around Zhou Qiyun's room.
The pagoda tree trembled twice, then stilled.
Su Yan stood among the crowd, unsure what happened.
Then, beneath the layers of roots, the door opened. Zhou Qiyun stepped out, complexion improved. "I borrowed eight thousand years of vitality from Brother Pagoda. Much better now. Everyone, return to rest."
Su Yan and Veyon's scalps prickled. They turned and walked away in silence.
After a moment, Veyon whispered, "The bell said the pagoda tree had eight thousand years left."
Su Yan nodded. "He pretended injury to bait the tree into attacking, then seized its vitality. Once the tree struck, it fell into his trap."
"Actually," Veyon said, "he was genuinely badly wounded."
Su Yan's eyes flickered. When Zhou Qiyun killed the Mud Pill Palace Master, he was indeed heavily injured. The tree could have killed him then. But Zhou Qiyun's act of weakness made the tree hesitate.
Once Zhou Qiyun returned to his room and prepared his trap, he baited the tree again.
The tree struck. And died.