The grotto-heavens were Li Xiaoke's lifeblood. He had ripped them from his victims and grafted them onto himself like stolen organs. The immortal medicines within sustained his longevity. The grotto-heavens refined them.
The best secret realm was one cultivated purely — a single path pursued to its absolute limit. Li Xiaoke had harvested exactly such realms.
The Yuan clan, generation after generation, had fed him their Yellow Court secret realms to strengthen his consciousness. The Shi clan had provided Bubbling Spring realms until both Shi Molei and Shi Jingtang died by Su Yan's hand.
Now those grotto-heavens flew from Li Xiaoke's body like startled birds. His power plummeted.
"You're dead!"
Li Xiaoke's consciousness surged. In an instant, he visualized a great bell — similar to the Carefree Bell, but covered in strange, meaningless runes.
Those runes were the nuo arts of the Six Secrets.
He had taught the cultivation methods to every major clan. Naturally he mastered the arts himself.
At the same time, he activated his Mud Pill vitality to regrow his shaved eyebrow. "Wait — how many hairs on the left? Is it more than the right?"
He shook off the distraction. "Kill them first, count later!"
His techniques erupted. Ten thousand manifestations of the Dao surged forward, carrying the Six Secrets' power.
Qingbi's face changed. Her sleeve swept out, scooping up Su Yan, Xue Ying'an, and Yuan Qi. She flashed away.
Her Gourd Heaven Immortal Scripture was miraculous. In the next instant she stood behind Li Xiaoke. Her sleeve flicked, sending the three of them flying to safety.
The terrifying bell-sound destroyed everything in its path. The ancient temple shattered, leaving only the sealed doorway standing.
The door's immortal runes flickered, mostly intact.
Behind it, the altar was gone. The well remained, its chains snapped in seven places.
Su Yan, propelled by Qingbi's power, flew backward. From afar he saw the girl standing on her black coffin, robes fluttering, pushing the Gourd Heaven Immortal Scripture to its peak.
A gourd-shaped world seemed to surround her. Her Primordial Spirit leaped outside that world while her body remained within.
"Li Xiaoke, you walk the devil's path. Let me show you true cultivation!"
She struck forward. Her palm vanished and reappeared in the sky — a jade hand descending from the heavens with crushing force.
The hand was impossibly large, its power sharp enough to match Li Xiaoke at the peak of Six Immortal Domains.
Su Yan stared, his understanding of cultivation shaken to its core. Was the dual-cultivation path truly the only way forward?
He had believed qi cultivation was a dead end. No qi cultivator could match a Six Secrets nuo master.
Qingbi proved him wrong.
She had not reached the immortal realm in any single aspect — not mana, not consciousness, not vitality, not strength, not Primordial Spirit, not yin-yang energy. Yet she fought Li Xiaoke evenly, face to face.
Li Xiaoke summoned his bell-shaped technique, mobilizing grotto-heaven after grotto-heaven to counter her.
Qingbi's ten fingers danced through endless seals. From beyond the sky, a giant's hands mirrored her movements, raining attacks upon Li Xiaoke.
Each blow from above carried the weight of a great technique powered by multiple secret realms.
"Gourd Heaven — so that's what it means."
Su Yan manifested his Six Secrets and twenty-one grotto-heavens, stabilizing himself. He looked up, eyes sharp. "Her technique creates a gourd-world. Her Primordial Spirit stands outside it, independent. This surpasses even the Grand Yin Origin-Nurturing Art. Why is it called the Immortal Scripture?"
The title meant questioning immortals — using one's Dao to ask the celestials how to ascend. The creator of this technique had not been certain of transcendence.
Li Xiaoke roared. The Eight-Faced Han Sword flew to his hand, and sword qi filled the sky, rushing toward Qingbi.
He was called unmatched in both bell and sword. The Han Sword's power exceeded even his bell technique.
Qingbi's seals dissolved the sword qi. She tried to redirect it back at him, then her face changed. She vanished from her position.
The thousand sword beams exploded where she had stood, their brilliance swallowing everything.
She reappeared, blood trickling down her calf.
Li Xiaoke's power was too great. She couldn't control his sword qi — it had nearly killed her.
The dragon mount flew overhead. "Qingbi, put aside our grudges for now. He has a weapon and you don't. Use me!"
Qingbi didn't hesitate. She raised the dragon mount.
It vanished.
The next moment, a colossal dragon head squeezed through the sky from beyond. Thunder erupted wherever it moved.
The dragon roared and dove at Li Xiaoke.
Li Xiaoke drove the Han Sword harder, but the dragon's scales turned the blade. It raised a claw and smashed down.
Li Xiaoke summoned the Carefree Bell to block. The impact sent him flying.
The dragon's tail whipped around and shattered his bell-shaped technique.
With the technique broken, Qingbi stripped another dozen grotto-heavens from his back.
Li Xiaoke raged, trying to summon the Carefree Bell. It remained silent.
"Worthless bell, you betray me too!"
The dragon crowed with delight. "Your Carefree Bell is destroyed! Without it, your sword can't harm me. You can only take a beating!"
Its claw tore three wounds across Li Xiaoke's immortal flesh, nearly cutting him in half.
The wounds healed instantly. His dozens of Mud Pill grotto-heavens granted vitality beyond even Zhou Qiyun's level.
"How many grotto-heavens can you lose?" the dragon taunted. "Without them, you can't match us!"
Li Xiaoke poured everything into the Han Sword, but he couldn't pierce the dragon's scales. Every time his bell technique broke, Qingbi seized the opening and stole more grotto-heavens.
Suddenly, Li Xiaoke summoned with all his might. "Bell! Where are you?"
Far away, Big Bell shrieked, "A-Ying, I think I'm about to betray you!"
Su Yan grabbed the bell's nose, but overwhelming force flooded into it and threw his consciousness and qi aside.
He let go, shouting, "Qingbi, the bell's turned again! Be careful!"
Big Bell whistled through the air and hovered above Li Xiaoke's head. Layered barriers of light erupted, shielding him.
The bell's power clashed with the dragon. Old enemies met again — the dragon had been suppressed by Big Bell for three thousand years, and now it threw itself at the bell in fury.
Li Xiaoke got his breathing room. He turned his full attention to Qingbi. The battle raged, shaking heaven and earth.
Then a tremor passed through the world. Su Yan and the others felt their bodies stretch and compress, space distorting around them. When it stabilized, Qingbi flew back holding a dragon's head, her face calm.
"You were right," she said. "Qi cultivation is obsolete. I need both paths."
Her robes were torn in a dozen places, her wounds severe. Her Primordial Spirit was riddled with holes, her Xiyi Domain pierced through.
Su Yan stared at the head in her hands — triangular maw, vicious eyes. The dragon mount.
In that final clash, the dragon had been crushed by Big Bell and beheaded.
Its eyes were still open, bloody tears dripping down.
Yuan Qi whispered, "Died with eyes open..."
"Because I'm not dead yet!" The dragon head glared at Su Yan. "We had him beaten until that worthless bell switched sides! I heard you opened your Mud Pill secret realm. Heal me, now!"
"The wounds carry residual techniques. They can't heal them."
Qingbi turned and opened her coffin. "My injuries are too severe. I need to suppress the residual power first. Li Xiaoke is wounded too, but less than us. We must leave."
She placed the dragon head inside and closed the lid.
As the coffin sealed, Su Yan glimpsed bright grotto-heavens floating within its dark space. A cold worry gripped him.
Those were the grotto-heavens she had stripped from Li Xiaoke. If temptation overcame her, she might graft them onto herself and become another Li Xiaoke.
Qingbi stabilized her wounds. She stood unsteadily.
The coffin lid cracked open silently. Qingbi glanced at the floating grotto-heavens within.
This black coffin was forged together with Li Xiaoke to suppress the rogue celestial. Instead, Li Xiaoke had sealed her inside it.
The "rogue celestial" was actually the god's mount — a cunning, vicious sky dragon. When it saw Qingbi imprisoned, it tried to take advantage and humiliate her.
Inside the well at Stone Mountain, Qingbi had used the coffin as her fortress. For centuries they fought to a standstill, then she surpassed it. They made a pact against their common enemy.
Later, they ambushed Big Bell together and escaped.
The coffin had made Su Yan mistake her for a ghost.
But it was only a defensive treasure. Against Li Xiaoke's power, it couldn't attack — so she used it to store the stolen grotto-heavens.
"Should I transplant them? With them, I could be as strong as Li Xiaoke. No — stronger."
Her gaze was complex. The dragon head inside shuddered.
She stared at the tempting grotto-heavens. After a long moment, her breath steadied.
The coffin lid closed on its own.
"Become someone like Li Xiaoke? Then I'd rather die."
She focused on purging the residual techniques from her wounds.
Su Yan breathed easier. *If she fails this test, she becomes another monster who feeds on people.*
Laughter rang out. Li Xiaoke flew toward them, covered in blood, a broken bell above his head. His grotto-heavens were battered, his power diminished.
"Qingbi, dragon, Su Yan — you're not leaving today!"
He raised the Han Sword. Sword qi slashed across the sky.
Then the heavens blazed with light. A sun-like fireball streaked down, and a talon seized the falling sword.
An old voice cried out with joy: "Su Yan! A-Ying, I finally found you! I remember you!"
*Screech!*
Wings like a thousand blades unfurled from the fire, slashing toward Li Xiaoke.
Li Xiaoke panicked and tried to summon Big Bell, but it was riddled with holes, wind whistling through its cracks. The wing-blades sliced through the gaps and cut him to ribbons.
He roared and tried to pull the Han Sword free, to sever the talon. Then a second talon emerged from the fire and gripped the bell's nose.
Li Xiaoke tried to command the bell, but its power was broken. He couldn't match the bird's strength. A three-legged golden crow burst from the flames, wings of light chopping down again and again.
"I'm at Six Immortal Domains! How can I lose to you?"
They tangled in midair, sword qi and bell-sounds echoing, until a streak of light broke away and vanished into Jiucai Ridge.
Su Yan and the others waited anxiously. Then a ball of fire stopped before him.
The flames parted, revealing an ancient Jin Buyi, covered in blood. He pressed his great head against Su Yan's face.
"I found you, A-Ying! Four thousand years — I finally found you!"
Tears of flame spilled from his eyes, forming pools of fire around his head. "I thought I lost you!"