The Zhu family watched in disbelief. Su Yan had done nothing, yet the old immortal howled and thrashed like a man on fire.
"Is he faking injury to extort compensation?" someone muttered.
The truth was simpler. The old immortal had attacked Su Yan's soul, and Su Yan's indestructible true spirit had shattered the assault. The old man's spiritual fingers were broken, and the pain echoed into his physical body. Those two fingers on his hand were now numb, dead to sensation.
He wept, then stopped, clutching his hand. "This boy carries a soul-protecting treasure. If I had it, I might survive heavenly tribulation."
His thoughts turned darker. His body was ruined by other-shore immortal fire. Zhu Zhongquan would soon forge his golden core. Then the old immortal would seize that body, kill Su Yan, and take the treasure.
Zhu Zhongquan watched Su Yan, smiling on the outside, burning within. *My immortal opportunity, ruined.*
Su Yan knew the villagers could not keep the Crimson Immortal Plant. Once the procession left, the Zhu family—or others—would return.
He consulted the village elders. The plant, they said, had been seized from the Ancient Yunmeng Battlefield by their ancestors. Their people were warriors from another world, sent to suppress a demon. When the Heavenly Road broke, they were stranded here.
Su Yan examined the plant more closely. Its nine leaves glowed with Dao patterns. Within the light floated a fist-sized sphere of watery light—irresistibly alluring.
He reached for it. The moment it touched his palm, it melted into his skin.
The plant wilted slightly. Within Su Yan, a cool force spread through his body, catalyzing his Mud Pill secret medicine. His skin shone with inner light. An intoxicating fragrance rose from his pores.
"A-Yan, you smell delicious. Let me taste!" Yuan Qi drooled.
Su Yan glared at him. The light faded, but the scent remained.
"Bell," Su Yan asked, "what was that water-light?"
Big Bell circled him eagerly. "My master once spoke of a substance from the Heavenly Dao world and immortal realms called Primal Dao Essence. That's what you absorbed."
Yuan Qi and Big Bell fought over who would get a taste of Su Yan's qi-enhanced blood. Su Yan sealed his Xiyi Domain shut.
* * *
Su Yan taught the villagers a simple mantra to control the plant's power—part cultivation law, part defensive art. For the Guo and Zhu families, such a technique would be restricted to inner-circle elites. For Su Yan, it was a moment's inspiration.
He asked about the stone city. The elder shook his head. "A cursed place. Empty for ages. The ghosts of our ancestors still drill there, fighting eternal battles. On the night of the full moon, the city vanishes. Anyone inside disappears with it."
Another old woman added, "A fool survived once. Came back raving, wanting to kill everyone."
The elder remembered: "Strange people entered the city several days ago."
Su Yan thanked them and gathered Guo Xiaodie, Zhu Hongyi, and Li Yingzhu.
"The city vanishes on the full moon. Tonight is the fourteenth—after midnight, it becomes the fifteenth."
Guo Xiaodie had been licking his ear. He pushed her face away.
"If we enter now, we might reach the Ancient Battlefield and find more immortal plants. Also, the elder said people already entered the city. The smoke we saw was their cooking fires."
Guo Xiaodie snapped to attention. "Who dares steal Guo family's plants?"
They set out for the stone city.
* * *
The city wall was built from the skeleton of an impossibly vast serpent, its tail meeting its head to form the gate. Claw marks three feet across scarred the bone.
Arrows shot from the battlements—bone shafts two to three zhang long, whistling through the air with force that could knock back three-grotto-heaven nuo masters.
"Li family nuo masters!" Li Yingzhu shouted. "Which blind fool attacks me?"
A young man appeared on the wall. "Second Aunt! A misunderstanding!"
He turned to his archers and whispered, "If you can't kill them, don't provoke them."
Li Yingzhu warned her people: "That's Li Tingshu, the Li family's finest young talent. He calls me aunt but would murder us all if he could."
They entered cautiously. Li Tingshu greeted them with bows and smiles, then fixed his gaze on Su Yan.
"The legendary Demon King Su! I've heard my father and Uncle Li Huangshu speak of you often."
He bowed deeply, secretly channeling a technique to test Su Yan.
Su Yan walked right past him without a glance.
Li Tingshu's face flushed with rage.
Su Yan surveyed the city. Li family nuo masters. Cui family, including Cui Dongli. And on a stone bridge, a white-robed youth played a zither—Gao Xingqian, a prodigy from a powerful house.
More arrived: Chai Wuyong of the Chai family, and two young men from the Zhao family. The Chai and Zhao were new houses, weaker than the great clans, forced to ally.
Su Yan felt several hostile gazes. He ignored them.
Then a lone youth walked through the gates, a golden core floating before him.
Su Yan's eyebrows rose. "That cultivator is strong. He trains only cultivation, no nuo arts."
Big Bell trembled. "A-Yan, I sense my master's aura from that boy. He practices my master's law!"
The bell shook with hope. "Could my master still be alive?"