Su Yan sat at the Guo estate's gate in the Second Capital, watching Elder Bai's chess game end. The straw-hatted man lay broken among shattered stones.
"Why would they save me?" Su Yan wondered aloud. "The old man in white, the red lady, the sorrowful elder—they tried to feed me Mengpo's soup. Now they protect me?"
The bell hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps the soup was meant to protect you too. Hide your past so enemies can't find it."
"That's absurd."
"I know. But here we are, alive."
Guo Yue returned to the mortal world to gather information, leaving Su Yan and Guo Xiaodie trapped until someone lit incense for Guo Tianxiong again. Guo Xiaodie's eyes gleamed.
"Every clan's ancestors are wounded tonight. We can't sneak into their estates in the real world, but here? We're ghosts they can't see."
Su Yan smiled. "That seems wrong."
He was already walking toward the Cui estate.
Yuan Qi expanded to twenty zhang. The bell floated overhead. They passed through the Second Capital's streets like spirits, visible to each other but mere shadows to the mortal world.
The Cui estate was protected by a Lingyan spirit-god—incense fog swallowed intruders. They wandered for miles without entering.
"Forget the Cui family," Guo Xiaodie said. "Let's try the Shi."
The Shi clan had risen during the Han dynasty but only gained prominence recently. Their ancestor lay wounded, the household in chaos. Physicians mixed medicines. Cultivators channeled healing qi. Servants dragged Zhou clan women from pleasure houses to treat their elder.
Su Yan and Guo Xiaodie walked through walls, unseen and unheard.
"The Shi ancestor attacked first," Guo Xiaodie whispered. "Tried to break into our estate and capture you."
They found the Shi elder in his chamber. He looked like a youth, but his chest was split open, ribs exposed. His Xiyi Domain was cracked, lightning sparking through the wound.
"Your grandfather hits hard," Su Yan said.
"He was undefeated for a century."
The youth's eyes snapped open. He looked directly at them. Space trembled.
Su Yan grabbed Guo Xiaodie and retreated.
A black-clad youth entered, carrying a vermillion gourd. Behind him, servants carried more gourds. They opened them. Black smoke poured out—screaming souls, faces twisted in agony.
Su Yan's chest heaved. "Found you."
The Shi elder, Shi Molei, channeled some wicked art. The souls shattered into black smoke and poured into his wounds. Nine pitch-black grotto-heavens opened behind him, rooted in an abyss of darkness.
Black threads seeped into the Second Capital itself. Guo Xiaodie screamed as her arm began to rot.
Su Yan stepped between her and the corruption. He flicked his finger. A flame shot forth—Pure Yang Fire, the gift from Yun Qian's coffin.
The fire roared, devouring every thread of black qi.
Su Yan pressed his sword-finger to his brow, channeling all his spiritual sense into the flame. "Go!"
The fire erupted in the mortal world's Shi estate, engulfing Shi Molei. He thrashed, mouth open in silent screams, skin charring.
Su Yan held the flame until his spiritual sense wavered, then released it. The Shi elder lay like burnt coal, still breathing, still screaming in phantom flames.
The black-clad youth fled. Servants burned.
Shi Molei woke and called the youth. "Shi Jingtang. You kept your head. From today, you inherit my true teachings."
The youth kowtowed, ecstatic.
Shi Molei coughed blood. "I gained the Bubbling Spring secret, thought I'd rule the world. Now my lifeforce is burned away. I hate. I hate so much..."
He collapsed.
Su Yan and Guo Xiaodie visited the Zhao estate—both Zhao ancestors were crippled—then reached the palace gates. Two Lingyan spirit-gods guarded the entrance with golden whips. They slipped around back, through the cold palace where concubines' ghosts wept.
In the eastern palace, the Emperor roared. "Even you Guo dogs betray me?"
Su Yan peeked in. The Emperor's torso was nearly severed, cultivation dissipating.
"I only wanted to eat one man he was hiding," the Emperor raged. "Not a Guo! He tried to kill me!"
A eunuch knelt, face bloody. "Your Majesty, we've captured Zhou clan courtesans from the music bureau."
The Emperor threw his jade seal. "You want prostitutes to heal me?"
"Your Majesty, Zhou men are all dead."
"Bring them. Heal me. Then kill them. No souls remain."
Su Yan moved deeper into the palace, toward the Qinghua Hall. There, Pei Du sat motionless, nine grotto-heavens floating behind him. Across from him sat a yellow-robed youth—Li Huangshu—also manifesting nine heavens, a massive dragon threading through them, claws gripping Pei Du's twin realms.
They smiled at each other, testing, probing.
Then both turned. They looked through the veil between worlds, straight at Su Yan.
A dragon claw tore the Second Capital's sky.
The bell flew to meet it. The impact shattered the claw, but the bell careened into Su Yan, driving him backward through Qinghua Hall's wall. He tumbled between Pei Du and Li Huangshu, papers flying, invisible wind howling.
Li Huangshu clutched his bloody right hand. "Such a powerful demon?"
He grabbed incense from a censer, smeared it with his blood, and chanted. His face manifested in the Second Capital's sky, searching.
Su Yan grabbed cloth to mask his face. The bell wrapped itself in curtains. Yuan Qi hung a bedspread over his head. Guo Xiaodie tied a silk handkerchief across her nose.
They fled the palace as Li Huangshu's giant face hunted above.
Passing the Yuan estate, Guo Xiaodie slipped inside. Minutes later, she emerged devastated.
"She was bathing." Tears streamed down Guo Xiaodie's face. "Veyon is a girl."
Su Yan patted her shoulder, unsure how to comfort her.
Guo Xiaodie cried until his shoulder was soaked, then wiped her eyes. She glanced at Su Yan's solid frame and secretly adjusted her dress. *The King of Yao isn't bad either. But if Veyon's a girl... does she want him too? That little vixen.*