Beichenzi's hands trembled. Half a year. It had taken half a year to recover from their last disaster, and now this.
"Where did that scar-faced monster get the demon-suppression script?" He gripped his shattered chess piece. "Almost no outsider has ever seen those seals!"
Yutang ground her teeth. "Six months of healing, and now this again! Beichen, should we test his background first?"
Beichenzi hesitated. "Anyone who possesses the demon-suppression script is no ordinary enemy. We wait for reinforcements."
He had learned caution the hard way — first from Zhou Qiyun's fist, then from the Heavenly Demon that chased Zhu Chanchan, and nearly from Su Yan himself when his memories had begun breaking through. Beaten men grow careful.
* * *
On Mount Fangzhang, Su Yan gathered Yuan Qi and the bell. Avia hovered nearby, spitting small fireballs into the air.
"Seventh Lord, your knowledge is unmatched. What do those sixteen words mean?"
Yuan Qi coiled thoughtfully. "'Mandate of Heaven' means acting on heaven's behalf. 'Eternal suppression in this life' means the prisoner is too dangerous to ever release."
The bell chimed, offended. "A-Ying is no prisoner!"
Su Yan cleared his throat. "I'm standing right here."
Yuan Qi continued. "'Prison and cage, seal and bind' — all variations on imprisonment. The last eight characters emphasize confinement from every angle."
He paused, smug. "I don't understand the dao-script, but ordinary words? A-Ying can't match me."
Su Yan let it pass. "The problem is this: I can only understand the meaning when I see the actual book. But Xu Fu keeps it hidden. How do we steal it?"
Avia's ears perked. "I heard that!"
Su Yan smiled. "Fairy, remember your life debt."
She twisted her fingers, caught between gratitude and loyalty.
Yuan Qi pressed the advantage. "Think how A-Ying saved you."
The bell chimed softly. "We're family, Fairy. Family helps family."
Su Yan couldn't actually remember saving her, but he nodded encouragingly.
Avia stomped her foot. "Fine! I'll help! But I won't betray Old Ancestor Xu!"
Days passed. Xu Fu never produced the book again, and Avia found no opportunity.
Other cultivators continued arriving with damaged texts and fragmented arts. Su Yan answered every question — formations, alchemy, seal techniques, finger arts. He helped them complete what was broken. In return, he accumulated secrets that most cultivators guarded with their lives.
His power grew steadily. More importantly, he now understood how to refine the longevity elixir stolen through the Mud Pill Secret. His vitality surged. Body and soul strengthened with each passing day.
Mount Li rose on the horizon, vast as a golden character planted in the earth. Its peak pierced the clouds. The mountain had grown since ancient times — far larger than the legends described.
Bodies littered the approach. Nuo masters had already broken through the outer gates, using blood sacrifice to disarm the killing formations within. Commoners, mostly — poor souls lured by treasure rumors, then murdered to feed the tomb's guardians.
"Brutal," Xu Fu observed. "Effective, but brutal."
They entered the tomb. Every few steps, another corpse. Hua Xianchen illuminated the passage with a mirror that revealed the walls' true nature — dead gods sealed within the stone, waiting to be triggered.
The blood offerings had already woken and killed them.
Su Yan recognized one of the dead — a Pei family cultivator he'd met briefly. Sacrificed like cattle.
The tunnel opened into a world within the mountain. Floating immortal peaks hung in the sky, bathed in ascending light. Rainbows arced between them.
"An ascension ground," Su Yan breathed. "Seven of them."
Someone had cut these sacred spaces from their original locations and transplanted them here. The severed edges still shimmered with prismatic light.
"The First Emperor harvested seven ascension grounds," Xu Fu explained. "He used their residual light to suspend his coffin closer to the immortal realm. See it?"
Su Yan activated his Heavenly Eye. Through the blinding radiance, he glimpsed it — a golden coffin, rotating slowly in the light.
Floating peaks hung inverted overhead, tinged with blood. On some, crimson dragons coiled, scales sliding in the half-light.
"The First Emperor slayed supreme beings and used their Inner Realm's five sacred mountains as seals," an ancient cultivator called Elder Zhushou explained. "Crossing will be difficult. The nuo masters used that river."
A silver river stretched before them, a hundred yards wide — mercury, heavy as lead, flowing between the peaks.
"It leads to the coffin."
Xu Fu stepped toward the water — then stopped. Su Yan felt it too. A presence vast as mountains, heavy as continents.
The river parted. A platform emerged, fourteen yards square, rising barely a foot above the mercury's surface. Upon it stood a figure twenty yards tall, golden from crown to heel, gripping a bronze sword, armored in celestial mail. Incense smoke poured from its body, mixing with the crushing pressure of a supreme magical treasure.
Behind it, a shrine manifested. Five sacred mountains floated in its aura. Water and fire refinement furnaces blazed. Twelve towers of gold rose toward a jade pool and spirit bridge.
The bell chimed, its voice thin. "A-Ying... that's a golden man? I may not be the strongest treasure anymore."
Then someone screamed. "Look at its face! The Deathless Immortal!"
Every head turned. The golden man's features were unmistakable — it wore Su Yan's face.
"The Twelve Golden Men were modeled after the Deathless Immortal!" someone shouted.
Yuan Qi stared, tongue flicking. "A-Ying... this tomb is full of you."