The ancient golden crow wept, and fire swallowed everything.
Yuan Qi's scales sizzled. He smelled something delicious — himself. "A-Ying, calm him down. This is tragic."
Su Yan thought of everything Jin Buyi had suffered. His heart ached. He stepped forward and comforted the old bird. "I recognized you long ago. But you're so old, I wanted you to rest on the Fusang tree. Why did you follow me?"
Jin Buyi choked on his tears. He was ancient, forgetful, repeating himself again and again. But he never blamed Su Yan.
He blamed himself for forgetting. He had promised never to leave Su Yan behind, yet he forgot him for over four thousand years.
If not for the primal Dao essence Su Yan left in his body, and the fish-belly people's dual cultivation providing him with immortal medicine, he might never have remembered.
He babbled about his senility, his wandering mind.
He remembered the last time he saw Su Yan — the boy captured, locked in a prison cart, sent to Xianyang. Jin Buyi flew past, looked down, saw the youth looking up at him. And he flew away without recognition.
"From that day, I forgot you!" He wailed, and Su Yan's clothes caught fire.
Su Yan patted out the flames. Yuan Qi endured the burning and added, "It's not your fault. You're wounded. Heal first..."
Jin Buyi wiped his eyes with a wing. He looked at the blood on his feathers. "Not mine. From the people I cut. You smell good..."
Yuan Qi shrank back. "I'm nearly cooked. Please stop crying."
The old crow calmed. He raised a claw toward Su Yan. "Is this bell yours?"
Big Bell had been battered beyond recognition during the fight with Qingbi and the dragon. Then Li Xiaoke had used it to fight Jin Buyi, worsening the damage.
Jin Buyi was senile, but he had fought alongside Su Yan through countless battles — over thirty against celestial gods alone. He had even faced mysterious beings from above, beings that even gods treated with reverence.
This fight with Li Xiaoke was trivial in his long life. Old, yes. Defeated, no.
He remembered the bell vaguely and didn't discard it. He held it like a toy bell and showed it to Su Yan.
"Probably Bell Lord," Yuan Qi said, delighted.
Big Bell was barely more than its eight immortal runes now. The rest was shattered, its spirit unconscious.
Jin Buyi shook it. Wind whistled through the holes. "This bell is probably ruined."
He tried to hang it around Su Yan's neck, but it was too large. So he breathed fire and forged a flaming cord, hanging it around Yuan Qi's neck instead.
Yuan Qi didn't dare move. He felt certain the cord would burn through his throat and send his head tumbling off with the bell.
But nothing happened.
Then he felt his qi and blood slowly draining. He relaxed slightly. "Bell Lord's still in there. He's stealing my vitality to heal. But this time he might not recover."
Jin Buyi raised his other claw. "Is this sword yours?"
Su Yan's eyes lit up. The Eight-Faced Han Sword — one of the two supreme treasures of Jiucai Ridge!
"It could be mine!"
"The sword's imprint burned away," Jin Buyi said apologetically.
"Even better!" Su Yan grabbed it with glee.
Xue Ying'an watched with envy.
Jin Buyi was happy to see Su Yan happy. He tried to land on Su Yan's shoulder like in the old days.
Su Yan felt like a needle supporting a mountain. He staggered forward, his burden heavier than ever.
"We should return to Jiucai Ridge to heal," Qingbi said. "This place is not safe."
She sensed a wrongness in the world, her instincts screaming at her to leave.
The Land of Heavenly Punishment was desolate. The ancient beast that had carried the temple lay dead in the wasteland. Other beasts had scattered.
The beast had died during Li Xiaoke and Qingbi's battle — neither had held back, and the collateral destruction was total.
On its back, a lone doorway still stood, its immortal characters flickering.
Chunks of flesh fluttered down from the sky like bats, slipping through the door and into the well below.
"Not enough! Still not enough!"
A vast consciousness surged from the well. "I need more limbs, more power to break the immortal seal! My scattered flesh, return to me! Break free!"
This was the chance of ages. Li Xiaoke was powerful but cunning, stringing the god along with promises of breaking the seal, extracting heretic techniques in exchange. The god had done the same, luring Li Xiaoke to fold the mountains of the Divine Land into the sky above this world, providing food.
It had devoured millions, hollowed out the land, drained the spiritual energy, and finally freed part of its body.
But Li Xiaoke had stopped feeding it, playing the same game.
"At last, I will be free!" The well shook violently.
Jin Buyi wobbled on Su Yan's shoulder and hopped down. The old three-legged crow followed behind, bouncing on three feet like a giant vulture.
He was excited, afraid of seeming distant, and kept making conversation. But his memory failed constantly, and he loved collecting things.
"A-Ying, is this insect yours?" He picked up Yuan Qi's head in his beak and held it out.
"No."
"Then I'll eat it."
"Don't — Seven Lord, wake up! You're fine, he spat you out. Not dirty, not dirty."
A while later: "A-Ying, is this youth yours?"
Xue Ying'an hung from Jin Buyi's beak, despairing.
"No, but don't eat him! He's a friend."
Back on Jiucai Ridge, Qingbi stood at the peak and looked down at the Land of Heavenly Punishment. Her heart quailed.
"This place is cursed. An unspeakable evil hides in the fabric of this world, waiting to break free. We can only stay briefly to treat our wounds. Tell your fellow disciples to leave immediately."
Yuan Qi frowned. "Why don't we hunt Li Xiaoke down? He's badly wounded. Now is the perfect time!"
Qingbi shook her head. "If we leave, that evil will enter the Divine Land. It could destroy a world. Once I'm healed, I'll move this mountain back and sever the connection. As for Li Xiaoke — he's a cornered dog. Nothing to fear. We'll deal with him after."
Su Yan nodded inwardly. *This woman has a hero's heart.*
Xue Ying'an recovered his spirit. "You heal. I'll evacuate the others!"
He rushed off.
Su Yan watched him go, wondering whether the other disciples would listen to someone they considered a traitor.
He got his answer immediately. Sword qi erupted. A dozen Jiucai Ridge disciples attacked Xue Ying'an with sword cases and small bells.
"Traitor! Today we sacrifice you to heaven!"
"Kill the dog!"
"Kill him to avenge Master!"
Xue Ying'an defended himself, shouting, "The heretic god is breaking free! If you don't leave, everyone dies!"
He had no treasures, only sword qi. But his sword qi severed flying swords and shattered the supposedly indestructible small bells.
Xue Ying'an was shocked. "When did I get this strong?"
He had opened three grotto-heavens and carried primal Dao essence in his body. Without realizing it, he had surpassed every other disciple on the mountain.
One by one, he defeated them all. Then he dragged them off the ridge, equal parts amazed and thrilled. "My qi is still at peak! My wounds heal instantly! Dual cultivation is incredible!"
Su Yan and Qingbi settled in to heal. Su Yan used the fight as a chance to steal Jiucai Ridge's sword techniques.
Their sword arts were supreme. Li Xiaoke was a Han-era master, and his teachings were legendary.
Su Yan's sword foundation came from him, but he had never advanced beyond the basics. Watching Xue Ying'an fight, his comprehension soared to new heights.
Qingbi's wounds were the worst — residual techniques from Li Xiaoke's attacks, requiring her own power to purge.
The dragon mount was in similar shape. Its body below the neck had been pulverized by Big Bell, yet it clung to life. But it was dying.
Qingbi stabilized herself first, then helped purify the residual techniques from the dragon's wounds.
Su Yan assisted with his Mud Pill vitality, accelerating its physical recovery.
"I know you," the dragon said, studying Su Yan as its new limbs grew. "My master hunted with me. We surrounded you together. Then my master died. He called you a rebel."
Jin Buyi picked up the dragon curiously and tried to swallow it.
The dragon spread its limbs, trying to brace against the beak. "Stop! Stop! We were enemies, now we're allies!"
Jin Buyi spat it out regretfully and patted its massive head.
"Allies, allies," the dragon muttered. "That worthless bell betrayed us."
Then the Land of Heavenly Punishment convulsed. The earth split open, white vapors pouring from the cracks.
Su Yan stood and activated his Heavenly Eye. The ground had torn apart, flesh surging into the sky, spreading across the heavens.
Jin Buyi spread his wings behind him. "The blades my master forged for me — I don't remember where I left them. Let me sense them."
He opened his wings, ancient consciousness spreading, sunfire engulfing him until he became a second sun.
The world shook. The torn earth became an abyss, and countless chunks of flesh shot upward, plastering themselves across the sky.
More and more flesh poured out, gradually covering the entire heavens.
Meat-columns descended, unfolding thick tentacles that swallowed the fleeing ancient beasts whole. When they retracted, only white bone remained.
The suns were blotted out. Darkness swallowed everything.
Only Jin Buyi's fire on Jiucai Ridge's peak remained.
"Qingbi, how much have you recovered?" Su Yan shouted.
Qingbi hesitated. She raised the black coffin.
She wasn't strong enough to move Jiucai Ridge back to the Divine Land yet. But if she transplanted the grotto-heavens inside the coffin, her power would surge enough to do it.
She started to act — then Jin Buyi's white feathers trembled. "I sense my blades! They're coming!"
*Crack!*
The sky behind them split open. Two blinding lights sliced through the heavens and descended to Jiucai Ridge, standing like bright monuments behind Jin Buyi and Su Yan. Their radiance refracted into thousands of cutting edges.
The endless flesh surging toward them fell away in sheets where the blade-light touched it.
Su Yan turned. The two blades shone with such intensity that his eyes could barely focus — their surfaces were too smooth to hold his gaze.
They were taller than Jin Buyi himself. One stood to each side of the old crow, embedded in the earth.
Su Yan looked at the Eight-Faced Sword in his hand, then at the twin divine blades, his expression blank. "I forged these?"
He tossed the Han Sword to Xue Ying'an. "Keep this. I must have left something better for myself."