The Crisis

The rear lands of Shu. Night.

While these men debated military strategy, Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao—still wearing her red bridal veil—stood in a corner like invisible figures, neither of them speaking a word.

They listened to the arguments between several factions, the compromises forced by the crisis, and the plans that followed.

The acquisition of the dragon veins of both Siqi and the rear lands of Shu had clearly energized everyone present—whether they were from the Supervisory Heavenly Office or the royal family. The atmosphere inside the command tent had improved considerably.

By the time the procedures were finalized, it was deep into the night. Xuanpin made a small gesture with his hand, and the entire command tent, along with several figures within it, dissolved like smoke on the wind.

“Now that the rear lands of Shu’s dragon vein is in our hands, once the Shu emperor issues a surrender decree, the Shu military clans will certainly turn their coats. The Fa Sect will likely be forced to contract back into Siqi. But we cannot follow the path they set for us.”

“Mm.” Li Huowang’s reply was flat.

“Li Huowang. That doesn’t sound like you.” Xuanpin had caught the change in the other man’s tone.

Li Huowang didn’t take the bait. Instead, he asked directly: “You lot scheme and deliberate and stir up trouble, but it’s all down here in the mortal realm. You know better than I do how the Fa Sect came into being, don’t you? Do you have any plans for their source?”

Xuanpin understood what Li Huowang was referring to. “We are, after all, only mortals of flesh and blood. We do not even know what the Siming above White Jade Capital are currently doing. How could we possibly interfere?”

“That’s not right, is it? The Supervisory Heavenly Office—‘Supervisory,’ it says. Isn’t it supposed to be watching the heavens? And don’t tell me you have no methods. Back then, to prevent the Heavenly Calamity, you tried to set up a formation inside the imperial palace to steal the Eye of the Ghost of the Mountain. This time, the trouble is far worse. Don’t tell me you haven’t considered making an even bigger move.”

Xuanpin’s red ritual robe was a field of darkness. There was no discernible face inside it. Li Huowang tilted his head slightly.

“You’re already working on something, aren’t you? You just don’t intend to tell me.”

The other man gave no reaction—but Li Huowang felt he had guessed correctly.

“There are some things you cannot help with. Telling you would serve no purpose beyond inviting more worry. Everyone has their proper role and their proper tasks. I am the Chief Astrologer. I have my work. And you have yours.”

The left corner of Li Huowang’s mouth pulled into a bitter, self-mocking smile. He turned and left, Bai Lingmiao following.

But he had barely taken a few steps before Xuanpin appeared before him again. “What do you plan to do next? You… and the White Lotus Saintess as well.”

“You won’t tell me what you’re doing. Why should I tell you? Looking back, our cooperation never really amounted to much anyway—one plus one never felt like more than two. So let’s just fight our own battles from here on out.”

Li Huowang lifted his foot and walked straight through Xuanpin’s body, heading for his own quarters.

“Are you holding a grudge? That time with the Earth Dragon—I was genuinely entangled. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to save you.”

Li Huowang did not stop. He had no intention of being a pawn on someone else’s board, not even if their immediate goals happened to align.

After this much time together, Li Huowang had seen the truth of it: Xuanpin was a cunning man. He seemed amiable enough, but he was always, always using the people around him.

“How is the expansion going? The White Lotus, in the rear lands of Shu?” Li Huowang asked Bai Lingmiao.

He hadn’t expected the one force he could truly command to be the White Lotus—the same sect whose village he had once massacred. Strange, the turns the world could take.

“It’s spreading quickly. Especially since we recovered the dragon vein.”

Li Huowang was not surprised. There were many who followed the Fa Sect, but there were even more who bent with the wind. Whoever won, they would follow.

“White Lotus believers from Qingqiu in Daliang are steadily arriving to establish branch halls.”

“How many of them can we squeeze out to fight? What kind of strength?”

If the Fa Sect could field troops, then the White Lotus could too.

“Li-shixiong… it won’t work. There hasn’t been enough time. We could rally them, yes, but these are ordinary folk. Sending them to fight would just be sending them to die. We need time to pick out the ones who truly believe in Wusheng Laomu and have the talent for cultivation—time to absorb them into the White Lotus properly.”

“But, Li-shixiong, if you need people to fight the Fa Sect, I can summon the Seventy-Two Protectors.”

“What use are seventy-two people?” Li Huowang had already learned the limits of the White Lotus believers. They were stronger than before, but still far from ready for real battle.

Bai Lingmiao hesitated, then spoke. “Li-shixiong… as the White Lotus Saintess, I can feel it. Wusheng Laomu has grown much stronger again.”

“Stronger again?” Li Huowang lifted his head, staring at the sky. He truly wanted to know what was happening in White Jade Capital right now. “Has she seized another Siming’s Heavenly Law?”

“Have them come try. Best if you send all the capable White Lotus hands. If the Fa Sect wins, it’s good for no one.”

“Alright. And you, Li-shixiong? What do you plan to do next?”

“What else is there to do? We’ve finally gained a bit of an advantage. Keep pressing it. They move, I move with them.”

“If they run into something too hard to crack, I’ll do the cracking.” He didn’t trust Xuanpin anymore, but that didn’t make them enemies. Not yet.

Li Huowang was about to say something else when his face twisted in pain. He clutched his arm. In moments, the red of his ritual robe was soaked through with blood.

“Li-shixiong! Don’t move!”

Her long fingernails striking the drumhead at a furious pace, Bai Lingmiao began to sing the familiar summoning verses of the Bang Bing Jue.

When Chaos first parted the dark and the light,
Heaven and Earth set Yin and Yang right;
Earth is Yin and Heaven is Yang,
The Moon is Yin and the Sun is Yang,
The North is Yin and the South is Yang,
Yin is the dark and Yang is the light…

As she beat the drum, the red veil over her head bulged with the faces of beasts. Those faces pushed against the fabric, sliding off her head one after another—and yet the veil atop her head never seemed to run out. A new one was always waiting beneath.

All the summoned spirit-immortals, still carrying the red veil on their heads, glared warily at Li Huowang, who was now writhing in agony.

Under the pressure of the drum and the chanting, they circled him nervously—afraid, it seemed, to draw close.

But the drumbeat grew more urgent. The chant grew harsher. And at last, one of the spirit-immortals was forced forward, until the nose beneath its veil brushed lightly against Li Huowang’s blood-soaked robe.

The next instant: a sharp, animal shriek of agony.

The red veil shredded into nothing. And then, like a contagion, the tearing spread. One by one, the veils of the surrounding spirit-immortals ripped apart, until nothing remained but strips of red cloth scattered across the ground.

“I’m—I’m fine!” Li Huowang straightened up from his hunched posture. The flesh of his face was peeling open and closing again like fish scales, each flap moving with an unsettling lightness.

And every single one of those cracks brought him the kind of pain a blade would leave behind. As layer after layer split open, even Li Huowang—hardened by countless battles—felt himself on the edge of passing out.

He drew a deep breath. “It’s nothing. Since that last step of the Ascension, it happens sometimes. I just need to get used to it.”