The Zhou family mourned. Their pillar had fallen. The sky itself seemed to crack.
Su Yan did not leave. He stayed to honor the man who had walked the path first.
He couldn't tell if he felt grief or relief. Zhou Qiyun's shadow had vanished from his life. The man who could command his fate, who he could never escape, was gone.
Their rivalry had made him grow. Their conversations had taught him how to survive in this world.
Zhou Qiyun was no saint. His clan had ravaged Yongzhou and beyond. Heavy taxes and corvée labor had driven countless commoners to their deaths. Su Yan had hated the Zhou family since childhood.
Yet Zhou Qiyun possessed a magnetism that transcended morality. They had been teacher and student to each other. Su Yan taught him the immortal arts of qi cultivation. Zhou Qiyun taught him how to navigate the world.
Now that teacher was dead. Su Yan felt hollow.
"Su Yan," Zhou Heng said, waddling over with a letter. "The old ancestor left this for you. He said if he fell, I was to deliver it to Mount Wuwang personally."
Zhou Heng's face was ashen. "Since you're here, I won't make the trip. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Without our invincible ancestor, we're just monkeys. If we flee now, some descendants might survive. If we stay, the Zhou family ends."
Su Yan took the letter. "Why so certain?"
"We ruled because we had a living god. We also made enemies everywhere. Without Zhou Qiyun, our wealth becomes a death sentence. Former rivals, political enemies—everyone will strike. We must scatter before word spreads."
Su Yan nodded. "Take care of yourself."
Zhou Heng summoned a golden-winged roc and flew away. Other Zhou disciples fled in every direction.
Soon, only Su Yan remained on Mount Jiuyi.
* * *
Yuan Qi slithered down from Su Yan's shoulder. "A-Yan, what did the white-browed ancestor write?"
Su Yan unfolded the letter. The opening was familiar—"As if seeing you in person"—followed by polite greetings both false and sincere.
Zhou Qiyun wrote that he had prepared for every contingency, but humans were fallible. He had tried to transcend human limitation, to judge every decision with absolute rationality, yet he remained human. He could be careless. He could be merciful. He could weep for an ant and rejoice at a small insight.
He could admire a talented youth. He could envy someone smarter than himself.
Such a man made mistakes.
On the eve of tribulation, he had felt restless. The problem, he suspected, lay with the Mud Pill Palace Master. His victory over the Master had been too easy. What if it was all part of the Master's plan? What if the man he killed was not the true Master at all?
He was a three-hundred-year-old snake catcher. His enemy might be ancient beyond measure.
"If I am truly dead," the letter said, "only one possibility remains: the Mud Pill Palace Master is still alive, as I feared."
He laughed in the letter. "If none of this happened, you would never read this. I would burn it before ascending, preserving my reputation for infallibility. So yes, I am truly dead."
"I should have killed you before I died. You killed many of my descendants. You are smarter than me. Younger. You have more potential. All of this made me jealous."
"But I cannot."
"I will be eaten by the Mud Pill Palace Master. No one in the Zhou family can avenge me. After my death, they will scatter, hide, and die by the hundreds. I have no heirs left. Only one friend. I cannot kill you."
"I have a selfish request: please avenge me, Master Su. But I am too proud to beg."
Su Yan gripped the final page. Zhou Qiyun wrote that Su Yan lacked nuo arts and couldn't unify his Secret, Inner Realm, and Xiyi Domain. So he had left the Mud Pill Palace Master's original technique in the Demon Suppression Hall of the True Void Cave Heaven.
Alongside it, he left his own insights—his life's greatest treasure, worth more than any technique he had ever cultivated.
"I know you'll look. I know you won't resist lifting the cover of the original technique. The moment you cultivate it, you'll feel eyes open in the darkness behind you. I felt it too."
"You'll be in danger. But you will do it anyway. Because all nuo arts are traps."
"I searched the hidden Inner Realms of ancient nuo immortals. I found none alive. They are the ascension elixir of ancient qi cultivators!"
"The history of cultivation is written as master-disciple devotion. Read closely, and every page says cannibalism."
"If you want to use the power of the Six Secrets, if you want true unity, you must cultivate the Mud Pill Palace Master's original technique. If you lose to him, consider it my revenge for my descendants. If you win, you avenge me in my stead."
"Master Su, will you cultivate it? I cannot stop thinking about it."
"Qiyun, bowing."
Su Yan folded the letter. "That's so you."
Yuan Qi whispered, "A-Yan, will you cultivate it?"
The great bell chimed in alarm. "It's a trap! No nuo immortal has survived three thousand years! They all die in their hidden Inner Realms!"
* * *
Su Yan stood before the altar in the Demon Suppression Hall.
Beneath the offerings sat a stack of texts. The lower volumes held Zhou Qiyun's insights—his fusion of nuo and qi cultivation, the experiences of a pioneer.
On top sat the bait. The original technique.
Its cover bore a title: *Mud Pill Inner-Realm Longevity Art*.
Su Yan saw Zhou Qiyun standing on the other side of the altar, smiling with knowing eyes.
"Master Su, will you cultivate it? I cannot stop thinking about it."
Su Yan's heart pounded. His breathing grew loud in the silence.
Yuan Qi lunged forward. "I'll destroy these cursed books! A-Yan, qi cultivation can grant longevity too! We don't need Secrets! We can be true qi cultivators!"
The great bell rang agreement. "The serpent is right for once! If nuo arts are poison, don't drink!"
Su Yan raised a hand. "If a man lives without acting on his grudges, how is he different from dirt?"
He reached out. He opened the first page.
*A disciple asked: Can the Mud Pill Secret, refined nine times, grant longevity?*
*The immortal master replied: Nine refinements of the Mud Pill can grant longevity. By drinking heaven and earth's qi, one can steal from the Chaos Sea. Gathering qi in the Mud Pill Palace, one fishes for the immortal elixir.*
Su Yan read on. His Mud Pill Secret responded. The grotto-heaven's vitality stirred, fishing "immortal elixir" from the Chaos Sea.
The elixir was human vitality itself.
As he absorbed it, his body and soul strengthened at a perceptible rate. And darkness crept behind him.
Eyes opened in that darkness. They stared at him.
"I've been marked," Su Yan thought.
He smiled at the phantom Zhou Qiyun. "Senior Zhou, rest easy. I'm stronger than you. I'm smarter. I'll avenge you."
The phantom vanished. Only the books remained.