The old man on the donkey arrived at noon.
He was followed by a youth with the expression of carved wood, who led the beast up the broken slope without speaking. The donkey was an ass in every sense. It kept wandering over to Niu Zhen and Niu Gan's pasture, turning its hindquarters, and kicking.
The great bell whispered to Su Yan. "Incense power. That donkey is no animal. And the old man is worse."
Su Yan nodded. He had already noticed.
The two bulls finally lost their temper. They rose on their hind legs, nostrils smoking, eyes burning with underworld fire. The donkey laughed, rolled, and stood as a two-zhang monster with a donkey's head and a wrestler's body, golden with refined incense.
"I have achieved my golden body!" it brayed. "Kneel, cattle! Become my mount!"
Niu Zhen and Niu Gan looked at each other. They drew the Soul-Lashing Whip.
The donkey's screams lasted until sunset.
More visitors came. An old man in white robes, leaning on a staff, followed by a youth in black who glanced at Su Yan, then at the wooden-faced boy, then at the stone axe in the corner. His eyes lingered.
"Passing through," the white-robed elder said. "May we shelter here?"
"So may we all," Su Yan said.
Li Yingzhu arrived next, dragging a yellow-robed youth by the sleeve. The youth blushed at Su Yan, at the ground, at his own hands.
"This is the highest point for a thousand li," Li Yingzhu announced. "Perfect for watching the—oh. It's you."
She leaned close. Her breath smelled of ripe peaches. Su Yan called up his mountain visualization and held it like a shield.
"Imperial Uncle Li," the black-clad youth said, bowing to the yellow-robed man. "I thought the years had claimed you."
Li Huangshu smiled, shy as his nephew. "Not while the interesting times continue."
A painted boat descended from the clouds, its hull trailing music. Xiang and Shisan Niang stepped onto the stone, perfect as painted dolls. They saw Su Yan.
Their perfect faces turned the color of old ash.
They remembered a bronze basin. They remembered fingers punching through metal. They remembered nearly dying in an alley in Lingling County.
Su Yan smiled. "Plenty of room."
"Random," Xiang breathed.
"Agreed," Shisan Niang whispered.
Guo Xiaodie arrived with her family's ancestor—a white-bearded colossus whose gaze turned the world white. Guo Tianxiong stroked his beard and surveyed the gathering.
"Zhou Qiyun beat every expert in the New Territory to prepare for this," he said. "Of course we're all here. This is the only show worth watching."
"Where's Young Master Wei?" Guo Xiaodie whispered to Su Yan.
"Gone his own way."
More ancestors arrived. Some Su Yan knew by reputation. Some he didn't. They formed camps along the mountain's ridge, eyeing each other like old wolves at a truce.
At nightfall, the Naihe River rose. A barge of imperial gold sailed up its black water, carrying a coffin to the summit. The Underworld Emperor sat up inside it, his primordial spirit hovering like a second moon, staring toward Mount Jiuyi.
"No one dares enter a thousand li of that mountain," he said. "Zhou Qiyun has marked his territory in blood. We watch from here, or we do not watch at all."
Chains rattled in the dark. A giant landed on the cliff opposite, wrapped in iron links thick as a man's waist. Su Yan opened his Heavenly Eye and saw a barefoot titan sitting among the trees, returning his stare.
Then the giant leaped and was gone.
A black coffin settled where he had stood. Yun Qian stepped from behind it, calm as moonlight on snow.
Su Yan's heart lifted. He started toward her—
And stopped. The sorrow-faced elder from the Naihe Bridge landed nearby, followed by a white-robed administrator and a woman in red. All three looked like they had swallowed vinegar.
Su Yan walked past them. They looked even more miserable.