The youth in rough cloth had thick brows and honest eyes. He tucked his golden core away and tried to make himself small in the corner.
Su Yan approached. "I am Su Yan of Lingling. May I ask your name?"
The youth wiped his hands on his shirt, flustered. "I'm Xue Ying'an, from Daozhou. My master sent me to find immortal opportunity."
Big Bell shot forward, ringing with excitement. "Is your master Li Xiaoke? Han-dynasty cultivator, black clothes, white sash, red collar, eight-faced sword at his waist, mustache like a八字?"
Xue Ying'an stared. "You know my master?"
Big Bell laughed until it nearly cracked. "Know him? I am his treasure! He forged me three thousand years ago! We fought demons together, visited hermits, faced every danger!"
Xue Ying'an hesitated. "Master does have a bell. But it is a golden bell called the Carefree Bell. It never left him."
"You misremember."
"Master and my seniors often speak of it. The Carefree Bell tells us stories of its adventures with master."
Big Bell's patterns flared. "See? These are your master's cultivation marks!"
Xue Ying'an studied them. "They are master's marks. But master said he forged several copper bells to suppress demons, because he would not risk the real Carefree Bell. You must be one of those copies."
Big Bell went rigid. "You're wrong. You're hearing wrong."
"The Carefree Bell has no rust. Its patterns are deeper, clearer. Yours are... rougher."
"Mine are more artistic!" Big Bell shouted. "Seventh Master, tell him what artistic means!"
Yuan Qi said nothing.
Xue Ying'an added, "We live at Jiucai Ridge on Nine Dragon Mountain. Master folded space itself to hide us. If you don't believe me, come and ask him."
Big Bell urged him to leave immediately. Xue Ying'an refused—he had come for immortal opportunity and could not return empty-handed.
Su Yan coughed. "Bell, you've waited three thousand years. A few more days won't matter."
Big Bell fell silent, then shrank into a corner, refusing to speak.
* * *
Su Yan questioned Xue Ying'an about Nine Dragon Mountain. The sky there had two suns. Master had folded the mountain outside normal space.
"Four years ago, a man standing on a floating stone found my master," Xue Ying'an said. "After he left, master was furious. He took his eight-faced sword and the Carefree Bell and went out. He returned injured, muttering that the path was wrong. He even struck me. Then the world began to change."
Su Yan listened carefully. Xu Fu had found Li Xiaoke before the underworld invasion. Li Xiaoke had gone to confront Xu Fu and lost. Then the Heaven-Man Resonance ended, new territories emerged.
"Ying'an, do you recognize this sword technique?"
Su Yan moved. A sword qi like a rainbow descended from the sky—the Boundary-Breaking Sword Qi he had comprehended at the Water Mouth Temple.
Xue Ying'an gasped. "That is master's Carefree Sword! Where did you learn it?"
Su Yan's face darkened. He described the white-robed nuo immortal Chen Mianzhu: how someone had used this exact sword qi to split his Inner-Realm Subtle Transformation, how an eight-faced sword had pierced Chen Mianzhu's brow, how Chen Mianzhu had been eaten—flesh, soul, everything—by the very person who taught him nuo arts.
"Your master taught Chen Mianzhu nuo arts with hidden traps," Su Yan said. "Then he found him, killed him, and devoured him."
"Stop!" Xue Ying'an's sword flew out, pure and fierce, aimed at Su Yan's throat.
Su Yan did not move. "I'm not your enemy. But your master is not a good man."
A chill wind swept through the city. An armored warrior walked through them—through their bodies—as if they were ghosts.
Yuan Qi shrieked and shrank to a foot-long serpent, jumping to Su Yan's shoulder.
"The dead have emerged," Su Yan said quietly.
Ghostly soldiers in armor charged through the streets, shouting battle cries, their broken Xiyi Domains floating behind them. These were cultivators who had reached the final pass, their Primordial Spirits waiting on the spirit bridge for Ascension.
Xue Ying'an's sword remained pointed at Su Yan, but his hands shook.
The ghosts fought an invisible enemy, dying by the scores, their bodies shattered, their domains pierced, their Primordial Spirits crushed. From across all worlds, the strongest warriors gathered here—and they were being slaughtered by one person.
Su Yan grabbed Guo Xiaodie. "Get everyone out of the city! Now!"
But before anyone could move, the stone city trembled, tilted, and lifted into the air. The dragon-headed god blazed with thunder, dragging the city into the void.
No one noticed that the city had already left the world behind.