The Heavenly Demon walked slowly up Mount Song.
Below, in the Sima Grotto-Heaven, the great clans had gathered around an open coffin. The immortal corpse was gone. In its place stood a young man draped in ancient feathers and gold thread, turquoise at his throat, a kingfisher crown in his hair. He smiled — and his tongue unfurled like a serpent's, wrapping around a woman's throat and lifting her high.
He ate them all. Then he began to climb.
At the summit, Yuan Qi snored loudly, his tongue lolling in the wind. Zhu Chanchan shivered against Su Yan's back, her borrowed clothes billowing in the mountain gale. Only Beichenzi seemed calm, arranging a stone chessboard by moonlight.
"The old man has style," the bell murmured.
Su Yan ignored them. He studied the two golden pages, letting his spiritual sense expand through the Primordial Dao Heavenly Sensing. The world opened before him — countless heavens, ancient minds drifting in the void, their thoughts slow as continental drift.
*Incredible.*
He pushed further, searching for Weixu itself —
A malignant consciousness brushed against his own.
Su Yan snapped back, his vision swimming. "It's here."
Beichenzi's fingers closed around a white chess piece. "Good. I sensed it too."
He placed the piece.
A mountain-sized stone fell from the sky, trailing fire, crashing toward the slope below. The impact shook the peak. But from the smoke, a figure emerged — unscathed, still climbing.
Beichenzi's smile vanished. He placed another piece. Another. Stones rained down, each impact carving craters into the mountainside. The old man's hands bled. His nose bled. He placed pieces faster, desperate, black and white flying together in chaotic patterns.
"What is this thing?" he gasped.
"Heavenly Demon," Zhu Chanchan whispered.
Beichenzi's face went gray. *A Heavenly Demon.* He should never have followed these children.
"Bell!" Su Yan shouted.
The bell shrank to pebble-size and shot into the chess jar. Beichenzi's bloody fingers closed around it, trembling. He summoned his Primordial Spirit — the spirit's fingers gripped the bell too — and together they raised it high.
Thunder rolled across the sky. A vast bell-shape blotted out the stars, gathering storm and lightning as it descended. The sound shook the mountain to its roots, driving the peak down a hundred zhang into the earth.
The Heavenly Demon vanished beneath it.
Beichenzi collapsed, unconscious, his last thought grim: *At least if it eats him, my troubles end too.*
The bell landed on the chessboard, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. "Kid... I'm empty."
Zhu Chanchan hammered it. "Keep going!"
"No qi left!"
Su Yan pressed his palms to the bell, pouring his own cultivation into the ancient bronze. The massive bell flickered, becoming translucent — then vanished entirely.
In the crater below, a bloody figure twitched. Flesh crawled. Reformed.
"Not dead," Zhu Chanchan said, her voice small.
Su Yan kicked Yuan Qi awake. "Run!"
Yuan Qi blinked. "What? I was dreaming about fish."
Su Yan grabbed Zhu Chanchan and the unconscious Beichenzi, threw them onto Yuan Qi's head, and pointed downhill. "*Move!*"
The serpent didn't argue. He plunged down the shattered slope, carrying them into the darkness as behind them, something inhuman pulled itself together and began to follow.
* * *
Far to the south, a phoenix cried out in its sleep.
It was not a happy sound.