Su Yan left the hidden realm with the Wu Hook sword and Big Bell floating at his shoulder. Yuan Qi emerged from the water behind them, his massive form casting a shadow across the river. Inside the realm, the kindly old immortal was still fighting the Cui clan cultivators. Su Yan didn't look back.
"Two years," he said, gazing at the mist-shrouded marsh. "Nine hermitages. Not one living nuo immortal."
Zhou Qiyun had spent eighty years searching and found seventeen empty hermitages. Su Yan was faster, but the result was the same. The trap had swallowed them all.
He raised the Wu Hook and made a single cutting motion. The river split from bank to bank, water rising like walls of glass, suspended ten yards above the mud. Su Yan sheathed the blade. The river crashed back together, foam spraying into the dawn air.
"Fine sword," he murmured, and tucked it into Yuan Qi's belly alongside his other trophies. "Wonder if the Cui family made it out alive."
He activated Heaven-Man Resonance, scanning the void for anomalies. His finger shot toward the marsh.
"There. Seventh Master, we're going."
Yuan Qi turned,驾驭大水, and the river rose into the air, carrying them across to Yunmeng's interior.
* * *
They had traveled several hundred miles when Su Yan spotted another group of nuo masters. Heavenly Eye active, he recognized the Guo family banners.
Guo Xiaodie felt it too. She turned, saw the serpent's horns cutting through the mist, and her heart leaped.
She flew to them on a sword beam and landed before Su Yan, who hadn't changed at all in two years—still fourteen, still compact and hard as iron.
"Demon King Su!" She punched his chest and winced, rubbing her wrist. "You really are the Undying Immortal! Not an inch taller, not a pound heavier!"
Su Yan smiled. "What brings you here?"
"We found a nuo immortal hermitage in the marsh." She hesitated. "Veyon... after the First Emperor attacked the capital, she left with the Yuan family survivors. No one knows where she went."
Su Yan's expression softened. "She'll return. When she does, the world will know her name."
Guo Xiaodie looked at his face and felt a sharp twist in her chest. She adjusted her collar slightly lower and thought, *No wall is unclimbable. I'll get through to him if it's the last thing I do.*
Then the lake surface bulged.
Water rose thirty yards into the air and exploded. From the spray emerged a creature the size of a fortress—qilin-shaped, horse-bodied, hooves churning the waves as it galloped across the surface. On its back, an arc of light shimmered like a portal.
"The hermitage is on that beast!" a Guo family elder shouted.
Su Yan leaped from Yuan Qi's head, Cloud-Ladder Sky-Leap activating beneath his feet. Yuan Qi roared, sword-qi erupting around his serpent body as he skimmed across the water. Big Bell shot ahead, bell-mouth backward, accelerating with each chime.
The dragon-horse was fast. Its tail lashed Big Bell aside, and it changed direction in a spray of exploding water. Su Yan used Cloud-Ladder to turn midair and caught up. He summoned his golden core, and the furnace of water and fire appeared, twin dragons reaching for the beast.
The horse's mane-patterned hide glowed, repelling the attack. It leaped, antlers smashing the furnace aside.
"Leave it to me!" Yuan Qi shouted.
The serpent caught a face-full of hooves for his trouble. While the beast was distracted, Guo Xiaodie flew in and hammered its skull with a fist backed by Crimson Palace power. The creature tumbled across the water, rolling for miles.
Su Yan landed on its back before it could rise. He studied the arc of light, confirmed his sensing had been correct, and knocked.
The portal rippled. A young woman in Han-dynasty dress—black robe, red sash—poked her head out, studying them with sharp, curious eyes.
"Who's there? You're disturbing my peace."
Su Yan bowed. "Is this a nuo immortal's hidden realm? Are you its master?"
She smiled, dimples showing. "I am. And you're my teacher, come to eat me?"
She stepped out, stretching. "Didn't expect you to be so young. I've hidden for so long, and still you found me. Well, even if you're my master, I'll fight to the death."
Her aura erupted. Even Big Bell swayed under the pressure.
"You're not a Qin-Han nuo immortal?" Guo Xiaodie gasped.
"I'm a nuo master from the Han, fought beside the High Ancestor when he slew the white serpent. Later I learned the nuo immortal trap exists, so I found a way to hide." She studied them. "You're not here to kill me?"
Su Yan shook his head. "We came seeking the true nuo law."
Bai Qiuzi laughed. "There is no true law. Nuo arts were invented to deceive people. If there were a true law, why would I still be hiding?"
* * *
She led them inside her hidden realm. It was beautiful—mountains and rivers, dao images everywhere, immortal light hanging in the sky like curtains. They saw her complete Xiyi Domain: five sacred mountains, celestial river, three passes, Twelve Towers, spirit bridge. And above it all, her Primordial Spirit waited at the bridge's end, ready for ascension.
Strangest of all, grotto-heavens hung inverted in the sky—not just Mud Pill's nine, but Jade Pool's nine, and Crimson Palace's nine.
"You walk both paths," Big Bell said, amazed. "Cultivation and nuo."
"Nuo masters were always cultivators," Bai Qiuzu said. "The character 'nuo' is just 'person' plus 'difficult' plus 'immortal.' When the orthodox path failed, some cultivators opened secret realms instead. They were called nuo."
She explained the ancient debates, the Qin Emperor's book-burning, the slaughter of those who spread trapped techniques. She herself had realized the danger when her friends vanished one by one, their hermitages empty, their bodies hollowed out.
"I hid my realm on this dragon-horse and drove it into Yunmeng Marsh. My teacher searched for me for millennia and never found me."
Su Yan asked, "If nuo law began as deception, who created it?"
"Someone with terrible intentions." Her expression darkened. "The techniques spread too deliberately, too perfectly. Like seeds planted in fertile soil."
Suddenly she stiffened, checking her realm's boundaries. "My concealment is leaking. If you sensed me, my teacher might too."
She raised a mirror to the sky. In its surface, a blurred figure appeared, searching. A man's voice echoed in their minds: "Qiuzi, you've hidden for four thousand years. Must we keep playing this game?"
Behind the figure, a Primordial Spirit manifested—vast, radiant. A third eye opened on its forehead, scanning layer after layer of void.
"You misunderstand me, teacher," the voice said softly. "I admire your talent. I would never eat you. Come out, and I'll teach you the true law."
Bai Qiuzi's hands trembled. She pulled out a silver needle, ready to strike if the eye found them.
Then a black coffin fell from above.
The blurred figure looked up. The mirror cleared for one instant, revealing a handsome man in his thirties, a single tear-mole beneath one eye. Then he vanished.
Yun Qian landed before the coffin, frowning. "Strange. I felt your presence. Why did you leave the Abyss of Cangwu?"
She flew away with the coffin.
Bai Qiuzi exhaled. "They're gone. But I'm moving soon. Any last questions?"
Su Yan produced three slim hand-copied manuals. "These contain true methods for refining the medicines of Mud Pill, Crimson Palace, and Jade Pool. They should prevent your teacher from sensing you."
Bai Qiuzi read them, her eyes growing wider with every line. "You came seeking my law, and instead you give me three true laws." She smiled, dimples deepening. "You still need Bubbling Spring, don't you?"
She mounted her dragon-horse. "Leave that to me. Wait at the mountain god temple on Mount Dongting!"
The beast galloped away across the water and vanished into the marsh.
* * *
Su Yan waited through the night at the temple. Big Bell kept sighing. "That Li Yingzhu woman promised to send Guo Xiaodie to your bed. She hasn't arrived."
"I'm talking about Bai Qiuzu," Yuan Qi said.
"I thought you meant Li Yingzhu."
Hoofbeats thundered outside. Bai Qiuzi leaped from her dragon-horse, covered in blood, her robes torn. She pressed a black scripture into Su Yan's hands.
"Black Water Yellow Springs Scripture. Took some work."
Su Yan took it. "You—"
"We'll meet again in the jianghu!"
She swung back onto her horse and galloped into the darkness, a streak of fierce grace vanishing like a shooting star.