Zhou Qiyun looked up at the serpent coiled around his dragon carriage. His white eyebrows drew together. The carriage was a treasure, but it couldn't accommodate something that size.
Yuan Qi had been thirteen or fourteen zhang long before. Now he was thicker and longer. Even curled, he barely fit.
Veyon looked up at him. "You've gained weight. Go on a diet."
"Never!" Yuan Qi hissed.
Su Yan said, "Patriarch Zhou, he can change size. Yuan Qi, shrink a little."
Yuan Qi channeled the True Cultivation of the Ba Serpent. After considerable effort, he shrank—slightly.
"Patriarch Zhou, can your carriage enlarge a bit?"
They settled on a compromise: Yuan Qi stuffed inside, head protruding through the window. The carriage interior grew cramped.
Zhou Qiyun entered and squeezed in with them. He didn't mind discomfort. If you had talent and usefulness, he tolerated much. If not, you were in danger.
The divine dragons pulling the carriage strained. Their legs trembled as they stepped onto incense-clouds. Finally they rose, flying toward Yongzhou.
The carriage passed through clouds, over green mountains and waterfalls. Rainbows arched between peaks. Moisture from the rainbow clung to the carriage, painting it in colors.
Inside, Zhou Qiyun sat by the window with three scrolls. Su Yan glanced at them. They contained the same content—three translations of Tuo's Scripture.
A soft hand captured his. Fingers traced characters on his palm.
Su Yan stilled. Veyon sat beside him, writing silently on his hand.
*Scripture.*
Su Yan nodded. Zhou Qiyun was comparing all three translations.
Su Yan captured her hand in return, writing a long message on her palm. Veyon tried to follow, then realized he intended to write an essay. She snatched her hand back.
Su Yan brought his fingers to his nose. *Why does Brother Yuan's hand smell like flowers? Is he a flower yao?*
He'd heard legends of flower spirits living in buds, perfuming the air. He'd never met one.
"Strange. Today it's lily and gardenia." He sniffed again. "And something milky-sweet. Does Brother Yuan still drink milk?"
Veyon caught him sniffing his fingers. She glared.
Zhou Qiyun looked up from his scrolls. "The eldest son cultivated Tuo's Scripture. He must have changed considerably?"
Cold ran down Su Yan's spine. The bell shuddered in his mind. *He knows we killed the eldest son!*
Veyon went rigid. If Zhou Qiyun asked, it was already serious.
Su Yan answered honestly. "The eldest son cultivated the translated scripture. His strength increased, but his masculine yang drained away. He transformed into a woman."
Zhou Qiyun's gaze locked onto his. Su Yan met it without flinching.
"Why didn't you cultivate it?" Zhou Qiyun asked.
Su Yan understood now. Zhou Zhi had stolen the scripture and cultivated immediately. Su Yan had translated it but resisted. Why?
*Perhaps the translation was a test—would I become female too?*
Su Yan smiled. "I detected the flaw during translation. Cultivating it would drain masculine yang and transform the practitioner. I chose not to."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"A man of Patriarch Zhou's caliber would see it himself. Someone of your brilliance would use the scripture as a stepping stone to create your own art, not be bound by another's method."
Zhou Qiyun smiled. "Well answered."
Su Yan asked, "About the eldest son..."
"He became a woman. A disgrace to the Zhou family." Zhou Qiyun returned to his scrolls. "Dead is fine. Saves me the trouble."
Su Yan exited the carriage. Veyon followed. Elder Xiao started to follow, but Zhou Qiyun waved him back. Only when his master nodded did the old servant step out.
He found Su Yan and Veyon gone. Panic seized him. *Did he abduct the young master? How do I explain this to the matriarch?*
He leaped to the roof. Relief—Su Yan and Veyon sat on Yuan Qi's enormous head.
The serpent's scales were smooth between his antlers, flat as boulders. They sat there, wind in their hair, warm despite the season.
Veyon touched Yuan Qi's mane. "So soft! Like a chick's down!"
Su Yan stroked it too. Yuan Qi rumbled, "Keep touching and I'll bite!"
They ignored him and stroked twice more. Yuan Qi sputtered. "I'm a snake! No humanity! One more touch and I'll poison you!"
They stopped reluctantly. "When can you take human form?"
Yuan Qi exhaled mist. "I sensed the tailbone gate opening. Comprehended the inversion of heaven and earth, the exchange of fire and water. Established my own primal root. The gate opened. I also felt ancestral blood calling from the depths of time. I followed it naturally. This is what resulted."
Su Yan was lost. "Bell, can he transform again?"
"I don't know how many times a yuan-serpent can transform. Most yao transform once. He's done it twice..."
Veyon was impressed. "He comprehended true Dao. Awakened ancient bloodline. Seventh Lord has great spiritual root—he bears the mark of the Great Dao."
Su Yan sensed it too. Yuan Qi carried an intangible weight, still as mountains in rest, terrifying in motion.
The bell said, "A-Yan, look at this stupid snake. His Gate-Breaking was proper! Yours didn't even count!"
"What's the difference?"
"None. He just added some pretentious snake philosophy."
Yuan Qi gazed into the distance, voice heavy with manufactured gravitas. "I comprehended heaven's vastness, earth's weight, life's emptiness. I have achieved Dao... I'm starving! The pagoda flowers withered! I've been famished for days!"
Elder Xiao approached gravely. "Seventh Lord, why not eat life's emptiness?"
Su Yan and Veyon burst out laughing. Elder Xiao's mouth twitched, then he straightened. "Young master, a lady does not show teeth when laughing."
Veyon composed herself. Then she said, "Demon King Su once tried flying on swords repeatedly without success. I've researched Zhou family records. True sword-flight is lost. Ancient records describe Pre-Qin cultivators not standing on blades, but wrapping sword-qi around themselves like flowing light."
She showed a diagram—a cultivator surrounded by sword-light, body enclosed in a shuttle-shaped cocoon of qi.
"Sword-light protects the body. It can break the sound barrier, pass through thunder and fire. Much better than standing on a sword."
"Unfortunately, the technique is lost," she continued. "The Yuan family has divine-consciousness leaping arts. The Zhou family has body-transformation methods. The Guo family has cloud-ladder sky-soaring arts. But none compare to true sword-flight."
Su Yan asked the bell, "Do you know sword-flight?"
"My master found a fragmentary formula once. He recited it before me."
The bell recited thirty-odd words. Su Yan understood immediately. Veyon wrote them down, puzzling over their meaning. Su Yan explained. Her eyes lit up.
"My Yuan family excels at divine consciousness. We might complete the missing portions!"
Elder Xiao hesitated, then stayed silent. *If Yuan methods can complete a lost art, it benefits everyone.*
Veyon wrote a hundred characters before her wisdom ran dry. Su Yan joined her. Both possessed extraordinary sword comprehension. Soon they composed a two-hundred-word sword-heart formula.
Their eyes met. Light flickered between them.
"I'll try first," Su Yan said. "With the bell, I won't die from falling."
Veyon smiled—and leaped from Yuan Qi's head. Elder Xiao couldn't stop her.
Su Yan dove after her. They plummeted. Wind screamed. At terminal velocity, sword-light erupted around them—qi spiraling from their fingertips, forming shuttle-shaped cocoons of blazing light.
*Whoosh!*
Two light-shuttles crossed above the river between mountains, raising twin walls of water. They accelerated, pulling up sharply, racing along cliff faces, circling peaks.
Zhou Qiyun pushed open his window. He watched the two light-shuttles twine together, rising above the carriage, then separate through valleys.
He smiled faintly. "Such talent. Comprehending lost sword-flight so quickly. But..."
His expression chilled. "What a pair of dogs."