Xue Lingfu lay trapped beneath the willow, watching Su Yan charge closer with the bell in tow. The City God sat up and laughed. "The Underworld's fortune is boundless today!"
When he and Zhou Yihang had struck together, the bell's counterforce had nearly shattered his five-hundred-year golden body. The Earth God had shoved incense into his shrine just in time to stabilize him.
Now Su Yan approached, spinning as he ran.
Xue Lingfu raised a shield of incense. The bell pulverized it, struck his shoulder, and sent him tumbling. A second blow. A third. He couldn't track them. The bell smashed him airborne, struck him again mid-flight, and hurled him toward the temple.
Zhou Yihang dodged aside as the City God crashed through the wall.
Su Yan kept spinning, horizontal to the ground, the bell a whirling hammer. He pounded Xue Lingfu through the floor. Golden fragments sprayed like sparks.
Then he turned on Zhou Yihang.
"This old man is finished," Zhou Yihang thought, ice-cold, as the bell slammed him again.
Su Yan whirled between them, never giving either a moment to recover. When Zhou Yihang tried to rally, Su Yan spun back and smashed him. When Xue Lingfu stirred, the bell returned.
"Work together or die!" Zhou Yihang shouted.
Xue Lingfu seized the newly crowned God Huang Sanduo from the temple and flung the six-armed statue at Su Yan.
Su Yan met it with the bell. The statue exploded. Huang Sanduo—barely a god for an hour—scattered into dust, his lonely true spirit drifting toward the underworld.
But the distraction bought time. Zhou Yihan mustered his Eastern Lord Heaven-Flattening Seal and struck the bell.
"DONG!"
The bell soared, tumbling end over end into the sky. Su Yan tumbled with it, thrown helplessly through the air.
The bell hit the street, bounced, and rolled fifty zhang. Su Yan rolled with it.
Zhou Yihang and Xue Lingfu watched, understanding dawning. "That's how to fight him."
Su Yan rose, shoulder wound reopened. Both enemies were too drained to press the advantage. They stared at each other across the ruined square.
Su Yan backed into the medicine shop, grabbed the heavy sack of herbs the clerk had prepared, and retreated carefully so the bell wouldn't demolish the building.
Then he turned and ran.
The bell clattered behind him, trailing smoke and noise like a festival parade.
Neither Zhou Yihang nor Xue Lingfu pursued.
"Walk by the river long enough, and your shoes get wet," Zhou Yihang muttered, forcing his Mud Pill Secret to repair his ruined flesh. "This time we nearly drowned."
Xue Lingfu's half-shattered golden body crackled, fragments dropping as gold. The Earth God scurried over, burning incense and kowtowing. Slowly, the golden shards leaped back to rejoin his form.
"Su Yan caught us unprepared with his artifact," Xue Lingfu said flatly. "With caution, that broken bell is nothing. But Zhou, you won't be capturing anyone soon. You're bound for the Yellow Springs."
As he spoke, yao-qi flooded the town entrance. A yao-god strode in.
"I have Earth Gods who travel underground, summoning allies and spying," Xue Lingfu said. "Can you resist my yao-god in your condition?"
Zhou Yihang smiled weakly. "You can call allies? My Zhou family's nuo art turns grass and trees into soldiers. Summoning juniors is trivial."
From the other end of town, Zhou clan officials arrived—Grain, Treasury, Population, Military, Justice, and Prison departments. Behind them came village gods and mountain spirits, bowing before the wounded City God.
On Zhou Yihang's side, dozens of nuo masters gathered. Fewer in number, but each far stronger than common grass-gods.
Both forces lined up, killing intent thick enough to choke the air.
Since the death of Emperor Zhidao, divine power and Imperial authority had clashed openly. Nowhere more fiercely than Yongzhou.
"A misunderstanding," Zhou Yihang said, dressed again as the refined elder.
"Indeed," Xue Lingfu agreed. "The criminal Su Yan flees. We waste time while he escapes."
They ordered their forces to hunt. Both leaders retreated to recover.
Xue Lingfu whispered to an Earth God: "Summon the Dragon Spirit of Ningyuan Temple."
Zhou Yihang sent for his son. When Magistrate Zhou Yang arrived and saw his father's wounds, he paled.
"Su Yan is on the run. Take our best men personally. I'll watch your back against Xue Lingfu. Also, report to the Provincial Governor. Request Zhou family reinforcements."
"A country boy warrants the Governor?"
Governor Zhou Heng commanded Yongzhou's military and elite fighters. Zhou Yang had never entered the family's inner circle.
"Su Yan has reached yao king level in his demon art," Zhou Yihang said. "The Zhou family cannot let him fall to the Underworld."
Zhou Yang hesitated. "Father, the Patriarch's power surpasses gods and ghosts. Why does he care about demon arts?"
Zhou Yihang's eyes grew distant. "Twenty years ago, I followed clan elders to Mount Duxiu in Beiliu County. We found an ancient grotto—a Qi Refiner's sanctuary, nearly intact. Three elders, two hundred core disciples, a thousand nuo masters. We encountered phenomena no nuo art or ghost technique could explain. Only immortal magic could account for them. We couldn't comprehend them. Do you understand? We couldn't even understand what we saw."
His voice shook. "We paid in blood. A thousand nuo masters died. Half our core disciples fell. One elder perished. What we brought back included a jade slip from the ancient Qi Refiner Tuo Yu—and a hand-copied manual."
He wiped his eyes. "That manual was a cultivation method. Convoluted. Nearly unreadable. Several of our brightest minds died trying to decode it. Others went white-haired from the strain."
"What did the elders say?" Zhou Yang whispered.
"They said..." Zhou Yihang paused. "They said Tuo Yu's translation of the immortal method began exactly like demon arts."
Zhou Yang's mind reeled.
Demon cultivation was worthless—everyone knew that. Yao kings peaked at Qi-Gathering, then hit a wall. No path forward.
But if immortal methods and demon arts shared the same foundation...
"That is why Su Yan matters," Zhou Yihang finished. "If we cannot have him, no one can."
* * *
In a cave on Mount Xiao, rain hammered the mountainside. Su Yan tended a pot of medicine over a fire.
Yuan Qi huddled nearby, shivering. In the corner, a black bear trembled.
"Don't worry, Xiong Qianli," Su Yan said gently. "We'll leave when the rain stops."
The bear spoke human words. "Su the Benefactor, you're lying again! Last time you stole my scripture and promised to return it. You never did!"
* * *