Su Yan turned. A second sun rose behind him, blazing with the essence of the sun. Spiritual energy flooded the valley. Plants that had been wilting now surged with life. Small creatures gorged themselves. Disciples poured from their lodgings, raising golden pills into the air to absorb the radiance.
Su Yan counted nearly three hundred of them. Every pill shone with refined power. These were no novices.
Some practiced sword arts across ravines, controlling flying blades from miles apart. The exchanges were fierce, elegant, deadly.
Su Yan stopped to watch. "Li Xiaoke is a true grandmaster," he thought. "His swordsmanship has touched the Dao itself."
A river of sword-qi surged through the gorge below, thick as a dragon. It wove around its wielder, then coiled upward, burst into the sky, and froze into a cloud of blade-light. A girl in yellow stood upon it. She cried out, and three massive beams of sword-light shot from the cloud, crossing and slashing through the air with terrifying precision.
"Beautiful technique," Su Yan said.
Li Xiaoke's voice came from ahead. "Friend Su, this way."
Su Yan followed him to the Carefree Hall at the peak. A golden bell hung above the roof, blazing brighter than the sun of this world. Its light was so intense Su Yan had to shield his eyes.
The bronze bell sensed the golden bell's hostility at once. It coughed. "Friend Li, when you forged bells to suppress demons, did you rank them by importance?"
Li Xiaoke replied with perfect gravity. "I treat all my treasures equally. Each one is unique in my heart."
The bronze bell trembled with emotion.
Yuan Qi muttered, "Chives."
* * *
The kitchen had prepared a feast of chives. Grilled, steamed, boiled, stir-fried. The table overflowed. The smell was sharp.
Li Xiaoke gestured for Su Yan to sit. "This is the highest honor our mountain can offer. I hope you will not disdain our humble fare."
"How could I?" Su Yan sat.
The bronze bell slipped outside and rose to the hall's roof. The golden bell rotated slowly above it. Deep patterns covered its surface — sun and moon, mountains and rivers, all living things reduced to simple shapes. As it turned, these patterns became light, projecting illusions into the air. Rivers flowed. Birds flew. Beasts prowled. The barrier it created shielded all of Jiucai Ridge.
The bronze bell looked at its own crude markings and felt ashamed. It could produce a shell of light in emergencies, but nothing like this effortless, endless defense.
"Are you the Carefree Bell?" it asked.
The golden bell turned, ignoring it.
"I'm also a bell forged by our master," the bronze bell pressed on. "We're brothers. You stayed with him. I guarded Little Stone Mountain. Our work is equally important."
The golden bell finally answered, lazy and cold. "I know. I watched when he made you. You were brass-colored then."
The bronze bell froze. "Brass and gold are not so different."
"The gap between us is the gap between gold and copper," the golden bell said. "He forged you from scrap brass in three days, copying my patterns onto you without care. He forged me from heavenly treasures — golden crystal from the southern peaks, essence of Mount Su, metals from fallen stars. He stole immortal fire and tempered me for forty years. Then he placed me in his Inner Realm, at the Jade Capital gate, and branded me with the Great Dao he cultivated. A hundred and fifty years in all."
The bronze bell's voice cracked. "The master said all treasures are equal."
"Do you believe that?" The golden bell laughed. "Some treasures are born with gold spoons. Others are born with rust. You think we do the same work?"
"I've suppressed demons for three thousand years!" the bronze bell shouted. "What have you done?"
"I am his Dao companion," the golden bell said. "Not his tool. Tools break and get replaced. Companions ascend together. When he flies to immortality, I will be his guardian immortal treasure. You — brass mixed with impurities — do you deserve to ascend beside him?"
The bronze bell shook with rage. "You're just a copy! A counterfeit! Let's settle this!"
The golden bell's voice turned deadly. "You're asking for death."
* * *
Inside the hall, Li Xiaoke raised his cup. "Three thousand years, friend. I never thought we would meet again. You haven't changed at all."
Su Yan drank. The liquor burned. "You look well yourself. Some secret of eternal youth?"
Li Xiaoke laughed. "I studied the arts of immortals since childhood, but..." He set down his chopsticks. His face darkened. "Three thousand years ago, I was called supreme in both bell and sword. I thought no one could match me. Then I lost."
Su Yan's heart skipped.
"I hid for three thousand years," Li Xiaoke continued. "My cultivation soared. Again and again I dreamed of transcending the heavenly tribulation and ascending to the immortal realm, free of all chains. But that battle woke me. The path I thought was right... may not be."
"You used the Six Secrets," Su Yan said, "and still couldn't defeat Xu Fu?"
Li Xiaoke looked surprised. "The Six Secrets? Small tricks. Heretical shortcuts. A true cultivator would never touch them." He turned to Xue Ying'an. "Tell our guest what I always say about the Six Secrets."
Xue Ying'an straightened. "Master teaches that the Six Secrets are a crooked path. They sever the road to immortality."
Su Yan pushed a plate of chive-and-vermicelli dumplings toward him. "Ying'an, take these to the bell. It loves them."
Xue Ying'an carried the plate out, then froze. "Wait. How does a bell eat dumplings?"
In the hall, Su Yan smiled at Li Xiaoke. "Friend, we have met before. Two and a half years ago. And you fought Xu Fu more than once."
Li Xiaoke's smile held. "What do you mean?"
"Habits don't lie. In the Li Mountain tomb, your clothes, your hair, your beard — all perfectly arranged. You led us to the Nine Cauldrons." Su Yan leaned forward. "You were hiding inside Yuan Wuji. You fought Xu Fu first, saw him standing on the immortal mountain, and tried to knock him off. How did you know about the mountain?"
Li Xiaoke leaned in. "How did I know?"
"Because Xu Fu found you four years earlier. He defeated you then. For four years you studied him, found his weakness — his feet could not leave the mountain. So in the tomb, you struck." Su Yan's voice was calm. "A stranger wouldn't see that weakness. Someone who fought him before would."
Li Xiaoke's eyes flickered. "A cultivator learns from mistakes. If Xu Fu has such a flaw, someone will exploit it."
Su Yan smiled. "You coveted the Nine Cauldrons as Yuan Wuji. To fool his wife would be hard. So the old matriarch had to die."
Li Xiaoke sighed. "Husbands and wives know small habits. Even if the one who devoured Yuan Wuji absorbed all his memories, he couldn't mimic them perfectly. Marriages are... sensitive."
"After you were exposed, the strange eye in the Abyss of Cangwu wounded you. Then Flying Peak struck you. Facing the Ancestral Dragon, you had to retreat."
"The Ancestral Dragon commanded ten golden giants," Li Xiaoke said. "His power was boundless. No one could defeat him head-on."
"Later you sent a voice transmission, trying to lure us out."
Li Xiaoke shook his head. "We are old friends, Su. Such suspicion wounds me. You have no proof."
Su Yan split a dumpling with his chopsticks. The filling spilled across the plate. "I do."
Li Xiaoke stared at the scattered chives. He set down his chopsticks.
Su Yan split another dumpling. "A man like you leaves no loose ends. But Xu Fu is your loose end."
Li Xiaoke's eye twitched. "Stop splitting them."
Su Yan split a third. "You have others. The nuo immortals you devoured — their skins had sword marks."
"I said stop!" Li Xiaoke's voice rose.
Su Yan split another. "You were called supreme in bell and sword. But your sword is too distinctive. Those marks would be recognized by anyone who knew you. I know someone who knew you well. Qingbi."
Li Xiaoke's composure shattered. Veins bulged on his forehead.
Outside, the Carefree Hall exploded. Two bells collided in midair, their power erupting across the sky!
The bronze bell was battered, bleeding light, but it roared: "Today I'll suppress you and show the world who's the real copy!"