The Sitian Jian

The man before Li Huowang wore a mask so large it covered nearly the entire upper half of his body. From beneath it, two legs in green trousers emerged—an absurdly disproportionate sight.

“This is the Sitian Jian of Later Shu. You can call him the Ritual Master. Since you’ve come to help, it’s only right you meet the local authorities.”

After introducing this man, Xuanpin gestured toward Li Huowang. “And this is the one I told you about.”

Li Huowang looked the man up and down, a mix of curiosity and suspicion in his eyes as he performed a Daoist salute. “Li Huowang of Qingfeng Temple greets the senior. Might I ask which sect the senior belongs to?”

From behind that mask, only a single character emerged. “Nuo.”

“Nuo? The Nuo opera?” Li Huowang couldn’t hide his surprise. As far as he knew, wasn’t the Great Nuo itself the name of this maddened world?

The Great Nuo was insane. And yet people still worshipped it? Not only that, but this man had actually secured the position of Sitian Jian through it? Could it be that even the maddened Great Nuo could grant power to others?

Was the Great Nuo a Siming? Or was it the legendary Great Siming? Or was this like the Eternal Heaven of Qingqiu—a god they had invented from their own imagination?

Li Huowang thought for a moment, then asked again, “Does the Great Nuo still bestow its power to others these days?”

But the Ritual Master in the enormous mask did not answer him. He only shook his head slightly.

Just then, Xuanpin’s voice sounded in Li Huowang’s ear. “You’d best not ask about that. No matter which realm you’re in, asking such a direct question is extremely rude. Especially on a first meeting.”

Li Huowang let it go. He had only been asking out of casual curiosity. He was here in Later Shu to handle serious business. “How is the situation in Later Shu? How are the Fa Sect’s attacks going?”

“Not well. Later Shu’s Dragon Vein has been seized. The dead you saw along the road are the result.”

“In fact, losing the Dragon Vein has also affected our fortunes. We’ve suffered defeat after defeat. If you had arrived any later, Later Shu would have fallen.”

At these words, Li Huowang’s brows tightened. He had imagined the situation was bad, but not this bad.

“Then what are we waiting for? We need to take back Later Shu’s Dragon Vein! Where is it now?”

Xuanpin exchanged a glance with the Ritual Master beside him before speaking again. “Before, perhaps it was possible. But now… I’m afraid it’s become somewhat difficult.”

“What do you mean by that?” Li Huowang’s frown deepened. It seemed that during his journey here, the situation had changed again.

“On the battlefield, things shift with every breath. You can’t expect the enemy to wait for you. Last month, on the yang day at the yang hour, the Fa Sect somehow gathered the Dragon Veins of Nanping, Siqi, and Later Shu into one. They’ve publicly declared that the Great Li Kingdom now has a Dragon Vein of its own.”

As he listened, a horrifying image formed in Li Huowang’s mind: three Dragon Veins twisted together like strands of rope.

A single Dragon Vein was already difficult enough to deal with. Now there were three. And something this precious would certainly be heavily guarded by the Fa Sect.

A wave of immense pressure washed over Li Huowang. Ji Zai was utterly useless. If he tried to take on something like this alone, one wrong move and he’d be dead where he stood.

After a moment’s thought, Li Huowang looked at Xuanpin and the Ritual Master. “I just got here. You’ve been here longer and understand the situation better. With things this bad, what plans does the Sitian Jian or the Later Shu court have?”

Xuanpin was silent for a while, then spoke. “We tried every other option before you arrived. We caused the Fa Sect some trouble, but in the end, we couldn’t reclaim the Dragon Vein. So the Later Shu royal family wants to abandon Later Shu and retreat to Qingqiu.”

“What?! They’re just giving up on Later Shu?!” Li Huowang found their flippancy hard to believe. How could someone with this kind of temperament even be an emperor?

“With the Dragon Vein lost and their fortune drained, it’s only natural for him to think that way. Don’t worry. The situation hasn’t reached that point yet.”

“But we don’t have any other way to deal with the Dragon Vein for now. Retreating to Qingqiu is still a move on the board. And it’s closer to the Great Liang, which makes it easier for His Majesty to send troops.”

Li Huowang paced back and forth, his brows locked tight. His face was full of reluctance. He had come all this way to reclaim the Dragon Vein. He didn’t want to flee back to Qingqiu the moment he arrived.

“Wait! There might still be a chance!” Li Huowang’s eyes lit up as he looked at Xuanpin. “How much of that Innate Pneuma you gave me last time do you have left? Give me all of it. I’m going to use it.”

Now that he was here, how could he not at least try? If he had enough Innate Pneuma, he could go toe-to-toe with the Dragon Vein!

“It’s all gone.” Xuanpin’s answer was blunt.

“Gone? How can it be gone?”

“Because every Heart-Element I could find has been drained dry. At a time like this, hunting for more Heart-Elements is no easy task.”

“What did you say? That Innate Pneuma was taken from other Heart-Elements?” Li Huowang’s pupils contracted.

“Naturally. Where else could rootless, causeless Innate Pneuma come from if not from a Heart-Element?”

“Ordinary people only know that a Heart-Element’s value lies in its five viscera and six bowels, in the bewilderment within its heart. What they don’t realize is that those are all external. The true value of a Heart-Element lies in its pneuma.”

For a moment, Li Huowang couldn’t accept it. He had never imagined that the very thing that had made him so incredibly powerful had been drained from living Heart-Elements.

Just as he finished speaking, a large, fat man floated down from the ceiling and leaned in to whisper something in Xuanpin’s ear.

This fat man was probably another one of Xuanpin’s hallucinations. When he finished, Xuanpin spoke again. “Heaven never seals off all roads. Perhaps we can try one more time.”

“How?” the Ritual Master, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.

“The Great Khan of Qingqiu is leading the army himself. He doesn’t intend to wait for the Fa Sect to attack. He plans to strike first.”

But the moment the words left his mouth, the expressions of all three present shifted at once. They raised their heads in unison toward the ceiling.

Xuanpin extended his slender hand from his Daoist robe and touched the ceiling. As he did, the ceiling gradually turned transparent, revealing the gloomy sky above. With the rumble of thunder, scattered raindrops began to fall.

The Sitian Jian seemed to sense something. His sharp fingernails flew through a rapid series of calculations. “Strange. The time doesn’t add up. Half an hour is missing.”

“What did you say?” Li Huowang asked in shock.

“A full day should have eleven hours. Now half an hour is missing.”

“Half an hour missing?” Li Huowang seemed to realize something. A chill surged from the depths of his heart.

“Xuanpin… what if the Fa Sect never wanted the Dragon Vein at all? What if their goal in taking it was to destroy it?”

The moment the words left Li Huowang’s mouth, the earth and sky began to shake. The Dragon Vein beneath the land had turned over.