"But why would the pagoda tree try to kill him?" Veyon didn't understand.
The tree could have simply stayed still and survived.
Its body was vast, roots countless, buried deep underground—possibly larger below than above. Killing such a magnificent life would be difficult.
But once it attacked, Zhou Qiyun could trace its spiritual consciousness to its hiding place and destroy it.
"The tree probably wanted a new body to inhabit. Zhou Qiyun was the strongest here, already wounded. If he couldn't resist, the tree could possess him. After all, it only had eight thousand years remaining."
Su Yan felt deeply. "Our human lives last barely a century. Even a cultivator like Patriarch Zhou only has three centuries. The tree, even dying, had eight millennia. Trading that for a mayfly human's existence—hardly worth it."
Veyon considered. "Perhaps when it saw Zhou Qiyun's Inner-Realm Subtle Transformation, his fairy realm, it realized it could live forever that way."
Su Yan shivered.
Zhou Qiyun had probably planned to exploit the tree from the moment he revealed his fairy realm. Every word, every action, baiting the trap.
He didn't want to stay wounded long. He had a second task.
The pagoda tree was his healing medicine.
Then—had Zhou Qiyun chosen this place for his battle with the Mud Pill Palace Master specifically to exploit the tree?
"The tree might truly have been wicked, as the bell suggested. But Zhou Qiyun used fishing tactics to make it err. Too calculating. Not the righteous path."
Su Yan remembered Zhou Qiyun's words.
"Against these undying old monsters, you truly can't afford a single mistake. Any slip means death."
Mistake meant death.
That simple.
"Zhou Qiyun is an undying old monster to us. We face the same rule. No mistakes, or any slip could kill us."
* * *
The next morning, Su Yan noticed the pagoda tree's fragrance had faded. The dense elemental energy had thinned.
Yet the flowers bloomed more fiercely than ever. Every bud burst open overnight, as if spending its last life-force to blaze brilliantly in the underworld.
"Pity. You made one wrong move." Su Yan watched petals fall like snow.
He returned to the great hall and began deciphering the Tuo Scripture word by word.
The tree was dead. The Mud Pill Palace Master was dead. The bone emperor had fled. Once Zhou Qiyun's wounds healed, he'd move to his second task. Before then, Su Yan had to finish the deciphering.
How much to reveal required careful judgment.
Too much, and he'd become useless. Too little, and he'd also become useless. He needed to stay in the narrow space between useful and useless to survive.
And he had to provide genuine scripture.
Zhou Qiyun's comprehension was terrifying. Fake texts mixed with real ones would be detected. Earning such a man's suspicion meant certain death.
Su Yan deciphered and cultivated simultaneously, neither hindering the other. He'd hoped to reach the second layer of the Gate-Breaking stage while the tree bloomed. Now that hope was gone.
These days, more Zhou clan members arrived at Huaihua Palace—disciples and students from the Shui Temple relocation.
In the great hall, several Zhou youths kept glancing at Su Yan with strange expressions.
Su Yan focused on his work, ignoring them.
Before long, Zhou Qiyun emerged and sought out Su Yan and Veyon. "Both of you are exceptionally intelligent. Have you deciphered the Tuo Scripture?"
They each presented their translations. Zhou Qiyun placed both scrolls side by side, opened them simultaneously, and read with one eye on each.
After a long while, he closed both. "Only this much?"
Veyon said, "This is my limit."
Zhou Qiyun looked at Su Yan. Su Yan made a show of reluctance. "If we had more time..."
Zhou Qiyun rolled up both scrolls and pocketed them. "I'm going to the Underworld Court to meet the Underworld Emperor. You'll accompany me. The Tuo Scripture and inner-court records will be available for your study."
Su Yan and Veyon breathed silently in relief. Their translations were just sufficient to keep them alive.
"I need to climb the tree first. My friend Yuan Qi is still up there."
Zhou Qiyun waved dismissively. "Hurry back. My people have already begun felling the tree. Everything here will be taken."
Su Yan rushed out of Huaihua Palace toward the pagoda tree. Zhou clan Nuo masters were busy everywhere.
Some cleaned the battlefield, cutting the colossus into sections—materials for treasures, medicine, and food, sorted with mechanical precision.
Others sketched Dao-form diagrams of the beast and the tree. More dismantled Huaihua Palace, loading its components onto carts.
At the tree's base, over a dozen men and women in sword scabbards channeled flying swords to cut the trunk. Their sword arts were exquisite, bodies glowing as they moved like glittering snowballs.
"Cosmic Demon-Slaying Sword. Fine technique! If Magistrate Zhou Yang had possessed such skill, he wouldn't have died."
Su Yan praised them, passed by, and leaped onto the trunk, climbing along its dragon-scale bark.
A voice called from below. "Eldest Brother, that's Su Yan!"
The woodcutters looked up. The speaker was the Zhou disciple Zhou Youyou had saved from Su Yan.
Their leader was a man in his thirties, tall, with features somewhat resembling Zhou Qiyun's. Fair-skinned, beardless, face powdered, clothes bright and floral.
Zhou Zhi. Eldest son of the Zhou inner court.
"Follow him!" Zhou Zhi and his people leaped after Su Yan. "Don't strike yet. Killing him here might be noticed. The patriarch would be angry. Higher up, no witnesses."
The Zhou disciples cursed. "This wretch kills people on our ground, and the patriarch still keeps him alive!"
Zhou Zhi said coldly, "The patriarch wants eternal life. His Nuo arts have reached their limit. He wants demon-cultivation techniques for new insights. Heh—he occupies the position forever, seeks immortality, won't become emperor, and won't step down. How are we younger generation supposed to advance?"
They voiced agreement. "Eldest Brother's cultivation advances swiftly. If you become patriarch, we'll serve you wholeheartedly."
They climbed two or three thousand zhang without striking. Four disciples saw their chance, removed their sword scabbards, and planted them before them.
The scabbards clicked open. Small flying swords shot out, growing in the wind, rising into the air!
Zhou clan refined these scabbards as Nuo treasures. A great clan possessed endless treasures.
They channeled the Cosmic Demon-Slaying Sword—far more exquisite than Zhou Yang's execution. No need to plant demon-willows to control the blades. Hand seals and focused will were enough.
The flying swords danced upward like snowballs rolling up the tree. But they didn't return. Neither did Su Yan.
The four sword-callers sealed their blades again. The swords flew back. They relaxed.
Zhou Zhi sensed danger. "Careful!"
Before his warning finished, the returned swords suddenly accelerated, piercing hearts, throats, foreheads. Too fast to intercept.
Even the disciple who'd escaped the hall died—sword through his throat, more blades through chest and forehead, pinning him to the tree, eyes wide, dead.
"This Su Yan is a sword grandmaster! His sword art surpasses our Cosmic Demon-Slaying Sword!"
Zhou Zhi raised two fingers, striking *ding ding* sounds, shattering the swords aimed at him. His fingers trembled. Such power hidden in those blades!
He looked down. The fingers that struck were cut, blood seeping. His Vajra Body was broken.
The remaining disciples channeled their scabbards, swords dancing into protective silver spheres. *Ding ding*—the spheres pierced through, swords scattering.
The disciples were pinned through their brows, nailed to the tree.
Sixteen had become six. Ten Zhou clan members died in that single sword ambush.
"Incredible sword art! But even more terrifying cultivation!"
Zhou Zhi's face chilled. "Your intelligence was wrong! His cultivation is far deeper than you claimed!"
Several survivors had witnessed Su Yan's hall killings. But his cultivation had grown enormously since then. These days, he'd cultivated day and night while the pagoda bloomed. Though not quite "a thousand miles in one day," he'd reached the first layer of the Gate-Breaking stage in a single leap.
He'd comprehended the Eight Yuan Tones. He tempered his bones, blood, organs, soul, and divine consciousness into steel. His sword power had increased tremendously.
Measuring today's Su Yan by yesterday's standards was fatal.
Zhou Zhi leaped, roaring. Brilliant light erupted behind him—a bird-headed, human-bodied, bird-footed god-form manifested, similar to Su Yan's Elephant-King God Body but different.
The god-form's wings flapped. Zhou Zhi ran parallel to the trunk, feet against bark, shooting upward.
His sleeves billowed. Countless golden feathers flew out like ten-foot flying knives, whistling through bark crevices at incredible speed.
Su Yan, hidden in the bark texture, was forced out. He dodged the feathers weaving through the gaps.
Each feather's edge was razor-sharp, forged like steel. Wide as blades, each plume seemed assembled from thin golden swords—a Dao-form.
The Dao-form of the Great Peng!
"The Zhou clan definitely possesses a Great Peng Dao-form diagram. Otherwise they couldn't craft feathers with such precision!"
Zhou Zhi charged, fists and legs raining down like a storm. The Peng god-form attacked with him—fists and palms becoming wing-blades, legs becoming talons that could tear anything apart.
Su Yan met him with Ba Serpent Eight Forms and Dragon-Serpent Six Forms. Both serpent forms scattered, qi and blood steaming like mist.
Su Yan's body shook. He retreated up the trunk, bark exploding beneath his feet, splinters flying.
Zhou Zhi's wings spun, more golden feathers forming a golden flood, cutting at Su Yan from all directions.
The other five disciples charged up from below, but they couldn't match Su Yan and Zhou Zhi's speed.
Zhou Zhi spun in midair, the Peng god-form spinning with him. Two ten-zhang wings became divine blades, *crack crack*, cutting into the tree toward Su Yan.
Surrounded by golden feathers, Su Yan had nowhere to retreat. He planted both feet deep into the trunk, visualized the Eight Yuan Tones, and thrust both palms forward to meet the Peng wings.
Violent elemental energy surged from his palms, transforming into roaring dragons and serpents that crashed into the blades. The shockwave shattered every golden feather in range.
"Mang-gu!"
Dragon and serpent roared. Zhou Zhi grunted. The Peng god-form's wings shattered. The form exploded. Zhou Zhi's skin cracked, blood mist steaming from his body.
He tumbled and rolled, falling toward the ground.
Su Yan was surprised. "He's strong—took one Eight Yuan Tones strike and didn't die!"
In that instant of pause, the five remaining disciples caught up. They were about to activate their scabbards when a delicate laugh rose from below.
"Since my success, I've rarely found a worthy opponent!"
Su Yan froze. "That voice... male or female... wait—"
He stared, shocked. "A genius! He deciphered the Tuo Scripture! Does that mean he's lost his masculine yang entirely?"