The mountains, steeped in endless rain, knew Spring’s secrets best.

At the foot of the mountain, now known as Broken-Waist Peak, nestled a humble tavern. Within resided Song Ji, the mountain spirit whose name, along with her domain, had been altered. She, with her mystical gaze, peered towards the Jade Radiance Kingdom’s capital, her heart heavy with worry.

She no longer concerned herself with the fate of the Ma clan, but rather, her own precarious position so near the capital. The ripples of unrest worried her. How vast would the storm conjured by those travelers be? She feared a celestial battle that would leave mountains rent and valleys shattered, a conflict that would spiral out of control. The three guests who had sought shelter in her tavern – Liu Xianyang, the current master of Dragon Spring Sword Sect; Gu Can, the esteemed disciple of Master Zheng of White Emperor City; and Pei Qian, one of the Four Grandmasters of Precious Bottle Continent – were all individuals beyond her wildest dreams. Setting aside their status and power, Song Ji, being a maiden of the mountains, held the young, renowned Grandmaster Pei in particular admiration. Had it not been for the chaos brewing in the Jade Radiance Kingdom, she would have been overjoyed to have her in her establishment. She sighed, envying her fellow water deities, who could distance themselves from the storm’s eye. She lifted her skirt to reveal embroidered slippers, lamenting the “footlessness” of her gilded statue in the mountain shrine.

At that moment, a rustic old man materialized at the tavern’s entrance, startling Song Ji into nearly prostrating herself. He was, after all, a superior to her superior, their divine ranks separated by a vast chasm. He was none other than Tong Wenchang, Mountain Lord of the Western Peaks, now to be addressed as Divine Lord. His hands clasped behind his back, he stepped over the threshold, declaring, “Today, we speak not of affairs of state. No need for ceremony. I merely seek a place to drink. You are the host, and I, the guest.”

Song Ji, relieved in her astonishment, cast off her worries. With the Divine Lord present, her humble shrine was surely safe.

Within the capital, Gu Can, with a single step born of space-bending magic, left the imperial palace. Without a word to his nominal handmaiden, he strolled like a traveler through the streets near the Imperial Observatory. In a bookshop selling rare texts, he casually perused the shelves, selecting a mystical manual attributed to some nameless sage. He placed it in a prominent spot, for such works rarely found purchase in the common market. Gu Can opened it at random, finding a passage detailing a mountain hermit’s recipes for medicinal meals. According to the book, the hermit’s simple fare held great secrets: it cleansed the body and invigorated the spirit, allowing the eater to become light as a leaf, swift of foot, and tireless in the mountains. Gu Can shook his head, amused. The alchemists who sought enlightenment in the wilderness would never find such ease. Yet, a marginal note caught his eye, “The true alchemist seeking immortality gathers herbs across mountain and stream.”

A fair maiden glided into the shop, feigning a stumble, her waist twisting as she fell towards Gu Can. Without looking up, he placed a hand on her forehead and gently pushed her away. The bookseller stared, surprised that this customer was such a moral man. He would have “helped,” but in the chaos, he couldn’t guarantee where his hand might land on the woman’s body.

The woman straightened up, giggling behind her hand. “Was my performance passable, young master?”

Gu Can ignored her, asking the shopkeeper, “Do you have a ‘Hundred Swords Immortal Seal’ catalog?”

The shopkeeper was bewildered. “Compiled by what master of seals? Is it an original pressing, or a reprint?”

Gu Can smiled, setting down the book. He left the shop with Gu Lingyan, walking down a quiet alley. He briefly examined the fruits of her labor and gave a less-than-enthusiastic review: “Adequate.”

Gu Lingyan produced a charm shaped like a mountain ghost coin. “And this.”

“What is it?” Gu Can asked.

“Old almanacs, from various years, and some related texts. Mathematics isn’t my strong suit, so I just crammed them into my pouch.”

Gu Can extended his divine sense, briefly scanning the charm’s contents. He extracted a few thin volumes, returning the charm to her. “Return the rest to the Imperial Observatory.”

Since ancient times, the human kingdoms had maintained the practice of compiling and issuing almanacs. Some mountain folk liked to collect them, treasuring those of different dynasties. However, Gu Can only kept the ancient laws and some corrections to solar and lunar tables, as if he had no interest in the almanacs themselves. Seeing her disappointment, he explained, “According to common lore, if one collects almanacs from a full cycle of sixty years, their house will be consumed by flames.”

Gu Lingyan blinked. “What does that mean?”

“Your house will burn down.”

“Really?”

“Some things are better believed than tested. There’s no need to tempt fate.”

In a rare moment of pleasantness, Gu Can continued, “If a celestial change causes floods or other disasters, the kingdoms will ‘call forth’ a set of almanacs to perform an act of suppression. Thus, the location where the Imperial Observatory stores the almanacs has a certain significance. The name of the building will usually have the water radical: a character like ‘abyss,’ ‘source,’ ‘upstream’, ‘ford,’ or ‘harbor.'”

She nodded quickly, absorbing the information.

“Where did you get that mountain ghost coin?” Gu Can suddenly asked.

Gu Lingyan smiled sweetly. “Even in the desolate wilds, there are celestial docks and markets, aren’t there? Why can’t I have stumbled upon a bargain?”

Mountain ghosts were meant to be distinct from true mountain deities. Mountain ghost coins blessed by Taoist temples were considered pure Yang objects, used to ward off evil and protect a household.

Even on the mountains, they were popular because you didn’t have to worry about sending the ghost away after a time, a common problem with gods. They worked well to open ovens and guard wealth.

“It’s worth something,” Gu Can said. “Keep it.”

“Have you decided on a location for your sect?” Gu Lingyan asked.

Gu Can shook his head. “It’s no small matter. There’s no rush. It’s best to see a few places first.”

Gu Lingyan giggled. “In the end, you’re just hesitating, uncertain.”

To risk animosity with the Spirit Flight Palace and to meddle in the affairs of the Azure Apricot Kingdom to buy the land called Harmonious Joy Mountain, said to be a smaller version of the Scroll Lake, could have been seen as a waste of money.

But the heart of the matter was Gu Can’s wavering. He had the impulse to locate his sect on Harmonious Joy Mountain to prove something to someone.

But his reason told him this was idiotic.

Gu Can smiled and shifted his attention.

“What amuses you, my lord?”

“It’s funny what people say in the world of Precious Bottle Continent. It’s backwards, they don’t understand his background. Elsewhere, many insist that he was born into a family of scholars and was filled with wisdom from his youth. They will say, ‘Look at his almanac knowledge, that’s not the talk of a commoner!'”

She smiled, amused.

Gu Can continued, “Even those who know he’s a simple man, a dirt farmer, will say, ‘That’s how humble origins become noble.’ And it’s certain that ‘Master Chen had the will to do great things for the heavens and the earth.'”

The flattery made him laugh.

Gu Lingyan said cautiously, “If the Central Land Literary Temple hadn’t deliberately concealed it, they would call him ‘Master Chen’. ”

Gu Can dismissed it with a smile.

“Master, have you thought about what kind of person you want to be in this life?”

“Only what I don’t want to be.”

“Give me an example.”

“Someone useless, like you.”

“My master! How can you say? You haven’t tested if I’m useful or not!”

The heavens rain, and the earth flows. The bed is broken, but the bedmates are still in love, hahaha.

Gu Lingyan asked in confusion when Gu Can stopped, “Master, is this…?”

“I’m waiting for someone,” Gu Can said. “We arranged to meet here.”

Gu Lingyan grew more curious. “A master hidden in the imperial palace?”

“Not everything is free. National Preceptor Huang Lie is a Golden Core realm master. I’ve recruited him to be a venerated guest of my sect, to help with the day-to-day and to be familiar with the local customs.”

“Is it necessary?” Gu Lingyan asked.

“The White Emperor City doesn’t need it, but my sect does.”

This was a famed scenic spot in the capital with a slight air of immortality, called Moon Mirror Pool. Jade Radiance Kingdom’s citizens had, since ancient times, been releasing fish in the water. A pavilion stood by the water, a mirror hung inside with an old couplet that said “The fish, shrimp, and turtles should not hide, this light only shines on dragons.”

Gu Can didn’t go into the pavilion and stopped near a small Taoist temple that would have been missed by an ordinary person. The temple’s couplet said “A gathering of spirits has a god, I don’t know who this all makes.” Gu Lingyan immediately knew the temple’s couplet went with the pavilion’s couplet. She looked at the Chongyang temple in a new light, too bad she couldn’t see the secrets it hid.

She looked over and saw a not-so-young Golden Core earth immortal.

Was this the master of the temple?

“Did you hand things over?” Gu Can asked with a smile.

Huang Lie nodded. “According to your instructions, I told Xue Pang the truth. When he heard it was you, he looked like he’d eaten shit and didn’t dare say anything.”

Realizing the impropriety of the analogy, the old man laughed hastily. “Excuse me, it was just a slip of the tongue. Anyway, the two of us were very polite, a good farewell.”

Gu Can said, “You can speak more freely later. Xue Pang can tolerate a national preceptor, and I’m more magnanimous than him.”

Huang Lie laughed. “That’s good. On the way here, I was still wondering if I’d been tricked into joining the sect, only to be turned away.”

Gu Can shook his head. “You’re still not familiar with the White Emperor City. The rumors are exaggerated. The native disciples are unruly, while the ones who join later are more disciplined.”

Huang Lie said carefully, “Can I visit the White Emperor City once, even if I can only see a rough outline? I’m so curious and yearn for it.”

Gu Can said, “The threshold for the White Emperor City will only get higher, so it won’t be easy. But it can be discussed, if you can reach the Nascent Soul realm.”

Gu Lingyan seemed to have just noticed Huang Lie. She smiled and said in a strange voice, “Oh my, amazing, a Golden Core old immortal.”

Huang Lie laughed. “So-so, so-so.”

Gu Can glanced at her. “Speak like a human.”

She listened and performed a curtsey, “Servant Lingyan, greetings, senior. I haven’t been with the master for long, so I don’t understand the rules. Please forgive me.”

Gu Can introduced, “She is now known as Lingyan. She’s from the desolate wilderness and a Jade Purity realm master. She has a good aptitude.”

Huang Lie wasn’t surprised. The venerable City Lord’s disciple had to have some pomp. It was nothing to be surprised about with an Jade Purity realm servant.

The old Golden Core was melancholic. The young woman was a distant Jade Purity realm master from the desolate wilderness.

Huang Lie couldn’t help but ask, “What kind of person is Master Chen? Is the White Emperor City’s true nature different from what the outside world says?”

Gu Can smiled. “Don’t try to test me with him.”

Huang Lie’s scalp tightened. “I wouldn’t dare, Master Gu has misunderstood.”

Gu Can said, “Then try not to let me misunderstand.”

It was only at that moment that Huang Lie began to understand the White Emperor City.

Gu Lingyan smiled radiantly.

Gu Can asked, “What is this place?”

Huang Lie laughed. “It was originally a family temple built by a noble who donated money. It was called the Alchemy Temple, but it’s now called Chongyang.”

Gu Can nodded. “I saw that the qi was good, at least compared to the Jade Radiance Kingdom. Alchemy Temple? No wonder I thought it was a good place for alchemy. It was renamed by a master. With it being so close to the water, it must be a good place to forge water pills. The name Chongyang also adds to it. There is melting of objects and the color will be red and purple. I guess there’s going to be a land immortal. As for how long, I’m an amateur and don’t know.”

Qi observation was separate from normal magic, it involved luck. It was similar to talismans, and depended on the practitioner. The ones who could usually do it was gods, or the Imperial Observatory.

Huang Lie said, “Want to go in for a cup of tea?”

Gu Can shook his head. “Let’s go somewhere else, wherever we end up.”

The mortal world, pollutes the people, is the heavens’s furnace, the alchemist’s forge.

Mortals say immortals are good, a pill is eternal, but they don’t know how hard cultivation is.

They walked together looking at willows.

Within Chen Ping’an’s mind.

Ma Ku Xuan had Zhou Mi behind him like a lustful god, shining gold.

Chen Ping’an frowned. “How did you do it?”

Ma Ku Xuan said, “Summon.”

“You aren’t good at remembering, in Apricot Blossom Alley, the kids were scared and lost their souls, and the parents would find them. Human knowledge is lost, and I’m bringing it back. I spent money to bring you someone who had seen a lot. So it was worth it.”

“Have you thought about the consequences?”

“You want me to get rid of my last resort when you’ve already attacked me? You want me to wait until next year for ancestral day?”

Chen Ping’an said, “What I’m talking about has nothing to do with this world. I mean you. You want the Ma clan to toast you at the ancestral day.”

Ma Ku Xuan paused. “Then you were also wrong. I don’t want to take revenge for them. Because they gave birth to me, I just want to repay them, so we can settle the score. So you coming to take revenge is a dead end. Why did I make money back then to deliberately reveal that you and Ning Yao were hiding in the Immortal’s Graveyard? Did I want that money? Why did I deliberately make you hate me, even though I thought you and I were friends, because one day we meet, we can settle things quickly? But you disappointed me.”

Chen Ping’an said, “Ma Ku Xuan, you are the one who is troubled, because you don’t accept your background. In your heart, you hate your origins and you can’t see tomorrow’s fate, so you became friends with Yu Shiwu, who was in the same situation. You don’t accept where you came from, and you can’t find where you’re going, so you’ve become a rootless weed.”

“Since yesterday was wrong, then tomorrow will be more wrong. So you’ve been waiting for today.”

Chen Ping’an took a deep breath and smiled, rolling up his sleeves. “I know what that’s like, because I’ve been there. You’re right, we are friends, at least for a long part of our lives.”

Ma Ku Xuan said, “Unfortunately, we’re not destined to be friends. Then let’s make today more enjoyable. Don’t become like the Green Divine Mountain wine in your shop. It’s horrible.”

Chen Ping’an smiled. “Those words don’t come from a wine drinker. Drinking wine depends on where you are. You can just pay for it, just as you can ask your friends to ship it from Sword Qi Great Wall. They taste different because you’re paying for the snow money.”

Ma Ku Xuan asked with a smile, “Why are you suddenly so talkative?”

Chen Ping’an pointed to the twenty-foot-tall “Zhou Mi.” “I just want to see how long this brother can last. If you brought a fake fourteen-realm master, you wouldn’t waste half a word with me, so I could avoid fighting and delay. If it’s a Flying Ascension realm fighter, you’d be too embarrassed to talk for more than a few words, so I could retreat while fighting. But now it seems like it’s just a pseudo-Flying Ascension, immortal realm, but with a few Flying Ascension realm moves, burning incense, so you’re not in a hurry?”

Ma Ku Xuan clicked his tongue. “You sword cultivators are mean.”

The sky began to snow heavily.

Ma Ku Xuan had heard that the sword cultivators of Sword Qi Great Wall didn’t have tombs when they died.

Like a grave, the snow fell, sacrificing fallen heroes.

Ma Ku Xuan shouted, “Chen Ping’an.”

“Yes?” Chen Ping’an asked in confusion.

A pool of lightning appeared, and from it fell a jagged mountain of lightning, and morphed into a thin golden sword. As the golden lightning hit Chen Ping’an’s head, he punched it and blew out a crater around him.

Ma Ku Xuan didn’t use any spirit energy and used the landscape to fuel his moves.

After taking dozens of strikes, Chen Ping’an shook his arm.

Chen Ping’an was confused, why didn’t Ma Ku Xuan launch more strikes?

Earlier, when talking about Dragon Tiger Mountain Celestial Master’s Mansion, Ma Ku Xuan seemed arrogant, he thought he could teach Zhao Tianlai the true meaning of lightning.

Ma Ku Xuan smiled from afar. “I gave you time to rest but you wanted to use it to refine your body. You tenth-realm martial artists are great.”

The thunder kept booming as Ma Ku Xuan pulled the heavenly water and doused Chen Ping’an in it. It was a horrible noise.

Inside a cave, Chen Ping’an kept blocking.

“Are you using your martial arts alone? You don’t use teleport and sword flight?”

“I want to see how long the pure power of a peak master can last.”

By Ma Ku Xuan’s calculations, when Chen Ping’an takes a break to breathe, he’ll launch another divine hand at him.

The scale of this heavenly tribulation was enough to kill an Jade Purity sword cultivator.

For Ma Ku Xuan to do more, he’d have to pay a price: become a god.

If that was to happen, Ma Ku Xuan would lose his emotions and memories. Since he was going to stop here, Ma Ku Xuan prepared other gifts for Chen Ping’an.

In the bottom of the collapsed area, it was snowing and the lightning was rampant.

The owner of the red robe was unfaltering in his attacks.

Would Chen Ping’an be able to eat the lightning?

Ma Ku Xuan asked, “Peak martial artists are that strong?”

Zhou Mi said, “He is the greatest martial artist ever.”

Ma Ku Xuan grinned. “It’s going to be good for him.”

Zhou Mi was noncommittal.

Ma Ku Xuan laughed and slapped his knee. “When he gets out, he’s going to blame me. ‘Your methods are too dirty.’ Right?”

Zhou Mi said, “You’re still inside the formation.”

Zhou Mi used his special magic.

As Chen Ping’an breathed, he slumped.

Chen Ping’an frowned and shook.

As he moved, the ground around him fell into a giant hole.

Chen Ping’an shook his sleeves and looked at Ma Ku Xuan.

Ma Ku Xuan laughed, “Get used to it.”

Ma Ku Xuan smiled, “I heard that Master Chen likes to be a good person, so I’ll let you know what it costs to be a good person.”

Chen Ping’an said with a nod, “I like those words. You’re a friend, Ma Ku Xuan.”

Ma Ku Xuan pointed at Chen Ping’an’s shoulder, “Everyone has a ghost on their shoulder.

“I’m just showing it to you. If you have enough merit, you won’t notice it. If you’re weak, you’ll feel cold and think there’s something behind you, right?”

“There’s a saying that ‘disaster doesn’t reach family,’ or ‘confiscate the family.’ It’s because they’re afraid of the consequences.”

“Those who died by your hands, directly or indirectly, those who you fought on the Scroll Lake or Sword Qi Great Wall, no matter if they were good or bad, human, demon, you’re carrying them on your back now.”

Chen Ping’an was bent over.

Ma Ku Xuan asked with a smile, “Have you seen what it’s like to carry something in the mountains? I think you’re similar.”

Chen Ping’an asked, “Have you ever seen a woman carrying something in the mountains?”

Ma Ku Xuan was stunned.

Chen Ping’an said, “I have. Do you know how they use bamboo shoots?”

Ma Ku Xuan said, “It’s hard for me to say this, Chen Ping’an, you shouldn’t take the suffering of others so seriously.”

Zhou Mi warned, “Don’t drag on.”

Ma Ku Xuan nodded, “Let’s continue.”

Chen Ping’an extended his hand.

Zhou Mi’s expression changed.

Ma Ku Xuan asked, “Is it not working? Did a fourteenth-realm master help Chen Ping’an set up some protection?”

Zhou Mi shook his head. “It’s weirder.”

“First, we create a heavenly tribulation, then we use the secret method to show the karma. Next, we’re going to imitate the demons of the cultivators?”

Chen Ping’an sneered, “If that’s the case, then your three axes are extraordinary. An ordinary immortal might not be able to withstand it.”

Before Ma Ku Xuan even made a move, the immortal was half dead.

The sky opened up and a sword flew through.

Not targeting anything.

Just Chen Ping’an.

Cutting himself.

The red robe came off.

A person in a blue robe walked out and came here, “I’m meeting you.”

He put on the robe.

Chen Ping’an smiled. “It’s not easy. You were actually able to force my true self to come here.”