The sight staggered Su Yan more than the phoenix itself. A divine bird commanded the allegiance of lesser fowl, but ten thousand mountains prostrating before a single peak—that was something else entirely.
What secret slept within Mount Jiuyi? Was there truly an immortal here?
"This is the real Mount Jiuyi," Su Yan murmured. "Why was it hidden? Why did it appear now?"
He'd assumed the underworld invasion was random—a conspiracy to free the coffin girl, accidentally triggering catastrophe. Now he saw connections: the plague god's summoning, the Nether River's diversion, the rescue, the invasion, new territories emerging, the Abyss opening, the nine peaks revealing their true forms, the phoenix appearing.
Someone had orchestrated everything.
"A-Yan. I've been here before."
The bell's voice was distant, dreamlike. "My master brought me to this mountain. I saw the ten thousand peaks pay homage. Three thousand years ago... the geography was different. I remember my master saying someone great was buried here. When they were interred, the mountains bowed..."
"This world might be returning to its true shape," the bell finished.
Su Yan stood at the summit, heart pounding. A great figure's burial, commanding universal obeisance—what kind of Dao-form was that?
Excitement erupted from the paulownia tree. "It's a fledgling! The divine birds are guarding a child-phoenix!"
"Catch it and we're rich!"
"Even a lesser divine bird is worth a fortune!"
Elder Xiao looked up. "Young master, should we climb?"
Veyon studied the tree. Its canopy covered the entire peak. Birds the size of mountains cast shadows across the slopes. "Let's get closer. But be careful—some people aren't here to observe Dao-forms. They're here to capture."
She leaped onto a branch. Elder Xiao followed.
Su Yan didn't move. He stood at the cliff's edge, staring at the sea of mountains, perfectly still.
"Don't disturb him," the bell said quietly. "He's touching the threshold of communion with the Dao."
Yuan Qi settled beside Su Yan, trying to catch the subtle resonances of his divine consciousness. The serpent's eyelids drooped. Within moments, he was snoring.
Su Yan's consciousness expanded. His divine consciousness became the mountain's nerves—feeling wind brush the forests, water trickle through stone, roots drink from the earth's depths. He was the mountain.
He sensed every blade of grass, every hidden fox, every fish in every pool. He drifted into the Cangwu Sect's great hall, where a disheveled middle-aged man devoured spirit pills by the handful. The man glared directly at him and hurled a furnace.
Su Yan's consciousness slipped past like wind, finding a lake where a young woman bathed, dancing through spray. He passed through her arms, bringing a chill.
He reached the paulownia tree. Its ancient consciousness touched his, vast and welcoming.
Higher still, he found the fledgling phoenix. It turned, sensing him, surprised. Su Yan's wind brushed its feathers. It sneezed flame at the empty air.
Then he passed himself. Yuan Qi lay in his collar, eyes wide, mouth slack, snoring loudly.
A sound intruded—whispers, calls, growing louder, pulling him downward. His body grew heavy, turning to stone. Something grasped his legs, his chest, dragging him toward the Abyss.
The chasm opened like a mouth. He fell, tiny as an insect, toward the devouring dark.
A serpent appeared at the edge—black-and-white horns, familiar face. "A-Yan! Grab my tail!"
Yuan Qi's tail lashed down. Su Yan seized it. The serpent hauled him up, out, into light.
Su Yan woke. He stood exactly where he'd been, unmoved. But his clothes were soaked with sweat.
"I heard the whispers during communion," he told the bell. "They tried to pull me into the Abyss. Yuan Qi saved me."
"You communed too long. Your mind left your body. What you experienced was your flesh dying."
Yuan Qi yawned awake. "Weird dream. You fell into the Abyss and I pulled you out with my tail."
Su Yan and the bell went silent.
"What else did you see?" the bell asked.
"A man eating pills in the great hall. He threw a furnace at me. The fledgling phoenix on the tree—it sneezed fire at me. And a girl bathing in a lake. She had a tiny black mole below her left breast, no bigger than a sesame seed."
The bell hummed with interest. "The man and phoenix are hard to verify. But the bathing girl..."
"Let's check the lake! See if there's really a girl with a sesame-seed mole!"
Su Yan and Yuan Qi said nothing.
"Don't you want to see the mole?" the bell demanded. "What are you waiting for?"
Su Yan coughed. "The paulownia tree is right here. Let's ask the phoenix if it saw me. Much simpler."
The bell grumbled.
As Su Yan turned toward the tree, he froze. A slightly plump young woman in green was rushing toward them, white undergarment visible beneath her dress.
"I was bathing and missed the phoenix! Out of my way!"
"A-Yan," Yuan Qi whispered. "Is that the mole girl?"
The woman heard. She stopped. Her eyes found Su Yan.
Behind her, a blue sky erupted from nothing—piercingly clear, scattered with clouds.
"You peeping tom!" she screamed.