The land had been rewriting itself for three years.
North of Mount Jiuyi, new territory kept emerging from the Abyss of Cangwu, shoving the great river two thousand miles northward. The city of Jingzhou, once the seat of Cui Yongyi's governorship, now found itself cut off from its own counties by newborn mountains and lakes. What had been dry land became a country of water—ten thousand miles of marsh, countless lakes glimmering like scattered coins.
Clouds drifted across the water. From above, the boundary between sky and lake dissolved: clouds became dreams, water became heaven, heaven sank into water, and clouds walked upon the waves.
The ancient Yunmeng Marsh, vanished for three thousand years, had returned.
Governor Cui Yongyi stood at the marsh's edge with two thousand nuo masters at his back—family members, retainers, and hired hands armed with every treasure the Cui clan could muster. At their center walked a young man who drew every eye: Cui Dongli, eldest son of the main Cui household.
"Since ancient times, Yunmeng has been impassable," Governor Cui said. "Now it's back. And it's no longer territory any governor can claim."
Cui Zhicai, a family elder, smiled. "Dongli will change that. He's already unified three secret realms—Mud Pill, Jade Pool, and Crimson Palace. A grandmaster without precedent."
The younger cultivators murmured agreement. "The Young Master deciphered the immortal scripture the family captured from the other shore. No one else could read it."
"If the other families hadn't hoarded their secret realms, Young Master Dongli would have unified all six by now."
Cui Dongli accepted the praise with a faint smile. Three years ago, the Demon King Su had carved his legend into the capital's riverbed with a single stone axe. Cui Dongli had watched from the banks, shaking too hard to draw his sword.
But that was then.
"The hermitage that surfaced here dates to the Qin-Han era," Cui Dongli said. "If we can find a nuo immortal from that period, we might learn how to avoid the trap that consumes modern nuo immortals."
They entered the marsh and found the portal—a shimmering gate standing on the water, guarded by Cui clan members who'd been waiting for days.
The moment they crossed through, fire filled the sky.
A three-legged golden crow shrieked down, its true sunfire roasting the vanguard alive. Elder Cui Zhicai blocked it, and the crow transformed into a single eye hanging in the air. Then it became a winged sun and flew away.
Before they could recover, a six-eyed, three-legged toad dropped from above. Its tongue lashed out, stuck to a dozen cultivators, and swallowed them whole. It ate a hundred before Elder Cui drove it off. The creature leaped into the sky, became an eye, then a pale moon that watched them from hiding.
They pressed forward. Immortal mountains floated overhead. Between sun and moon stood a radiant celestial palace wreathed in ten thousand beams of light.
"Jade Capital!" Cui Dongli breathed. "The hidden realm of a nuo immortal! The Jade Capital secret realm must be recorded there!"
They climbed toward the sacred peaks. Fleshy tendrils dropped from above, wrapping around cultivators and dragging them into the sky. Those caught screamed until their voices cut off.
Cui Dongli spat Samadhi True Fire, burning the tendrils. The stench of cooked meat filled the air as they retreated upward.
At the summit, sword light erupted everywhere—hundreds of blades swimming like fish through water, cutting down anyone too slow to dodge. Elder Cui Zhicai and Governor Cui blocked what they could, but more fell with every heartbeat.
"Dongli!" Zhicai shouted. "Break the formation!"
Cui Dongli's forehead ran with sweat. He couldn't see the pattern. Then a massive tail descended from the clouds above.
A child's voice echoed down: "Grab my tail. Climb up."
They looked up. The tail was thicker than a house pillar, covered in pale scales that caught the light like prisms. The cultivators grabbed hold, and the tail lifted them through the sword storm, through the clouds, and deposited them in the Jade Capital celestial palace.
A serpent's head rose before them—horns black and white, eyes like bonfires in the deep. The serpent coiled around the entire palace, its body vanishing into distant cloud banks.
"You never learned the Sword Control Art?" the serpent asked in that same young voice. "I thought A-Yan taught everyone."
Cui Dongli's blood ran cold. *The snake yao. The Demon King's companion.*
* * *
Inside the palace, a youth's voice drifted from an inner courtyard: "Senior, my yin and yang fires have reached triple refinement each. Water and fire merge in the furnace. My golden core is nearly complete. But I don't yet understand the 'unobscured' part."
An old man answered, sounding both kindly and furious: "If I understood it, would I be sitting here getting robbed? Child, take your Jade Capital cultivation method and leave. Don't delay my feast!"
The cultivators crept forward and saw the scene: a benevolent-looking old immortal sat beneath Big Bell, his robes torn, his face twisted with rage. Before him stood a broad-shouldered youth, bowing respectfully.
"Senior, you were both a cultivator and a nuo master. Why were you harvested too?"
"My master taught me evil arts on purpose! He planned to eat me when I finished cultivating! I lure people here to eat them instead, to rebuild my body and take revenge!"
The youth sighed. "Senior, you couldn't beat him alive. What makes you think you can dead?"
"Enough chatter!"
The youth released the bell and turned to leave. As he reached the palace gate, Cui Dongli shouted: "Su Yan! Stop!"
The youth paused. Turned. Smiled.
"Something you need?"
Cui Dongli's blood surged. "Three years ago at Luo River, I watched you slaughter the capital's defenders! I shook with fear and couldn't move! Today I've mastered my arts. Today I defeat the demon in my heart!"
"Three years already?" Su Yan looked surprised, then amused. "All right. I'll give you your chance."
He didn't move. He simply let his presence unfold.
Mud Pill. Jade Pool. Crimson Palace. Yellow Court. Four grotto-heavens blazed behind him—Chaos Sea, Tusita Palace, Jade Void Palace, Yellow Court Pagoda. Then Jade Capital grotto-heaven opened, three layers deep in an instant.
Five sacred mountains manifested. A celestial river thundered through his Xiyi Domain. At the fifth heaven, water and fire merged into a furnace, and from that furnace rose a golden core whose light pierced every shadow in his inner world.
Su Yan smiled gently. "You may attack."
Cui Dongli's sword hand trembled. Sweat drenched his robes. He tried to move, tried to summon his spirit, tried to remember the techniques he'd spent three years perfecting.
He couldn't. There was only fear, vast and absolute, pressing down on his soul like a mountain on an ant.
He screamed and collapsed.
Su Yan withdrew his presence and walked past him. "Senior, I like your Wu Hook sword. May I have it?"
"Have your grandmother!" the old immortal howled.
Su Yan raised Big Bell and smashed the mirror formation on the mountain below. "Thank you on her behalf."