The sacred white robe slowly spread across the ice surface like white clouds. Li Si sighed regretfully while simultaneously tracing the direction from which the black arrow had come. Atop the Ink Star Rock a hundred zhang high above the giant ice crouched four men wrapped in black cloaks. The black arrow had been shot from among them. The four cloaked men made contact with Li Si’s gaze, then threw down vine ropes and slid down like geckos with whooshing sounds, landing on the ice surface three zhang from Li Si.
Of the four, the two in front were thin as bamboo poles, yet their exposed palms showed bulging veins filled with power. The one slightly behind had a short, stocky build, solid as a mountain stone. The last was tall and imposing with restrained sharpness. All four wore large black cloaks with black gauze covering their faces, silently confronting Li Si and the others. Li Si’s intuition told him the other three were all waiting for one command from the tall cloaked man.
Mita wept sorrowfully, holding the pale-faced A Mu. “Who are you people? Why did you assassinate the Saintess?”
The fat Daoist moved close to Li Si and said in a low voice, “Could Wu Ying have accomplices?”
Li Si remained noncommittal. Strange light flashed in his eyes as he suddenly said coldly, “I thought we were separated by yin and yang, never to meet again. I didn’t expect to encounter you again in this sacred fairyland. Are you well, Great Elder Wu Yan?”
Li Si’s words were astonishing. The fat Daoist, Mita, and even Yun Yan all stared dumbstruck at the cloaked men. The four cloaked men all trembled. The last tall cloaked man slowly walked to the front and removed his black gauze, seemingly talking to himself yet also conversing with an old friend. “Wu Ying was utterly confused, but there’s one thing he didn’t say wrong. Li Si, you truly are a clever person who opens one’s eyes wide.”
The tall cloaked man was truly and certainly Wu Yan, who had been poisoned to death. The other three cloaked men also removed their black gauze. The two withered old men were masters of the ancient tribe with no equal. The short, stocky man was remarkably You Huai. Mita’s mouth dropped open in shock. You Huai guiltily avoided looking at Mita.
“I’m ashamed, ashamed,” Li Si said flatly.
“However, there’s also an old saying: the cleverer someone is, the faster they die, because clever people always know too many secrets.” Sharpness swept through Wu Yan’s turbid pupils. He smiled abruptly. “But I’m more curious how you knew I wasn’t dead yet.”
Li Si said neither humbly nor arrogantly, “You schemed and staged a good show, but unfortunately you revealed a flaw from the very beginning.”
“Oh.” Wu Yan’s smile disappeared. “I’m all ears.”
“The flaw was the Phoenix Gallbladder poison.” Li Si looked back at the “Poison Hand Holy Physician” fat Daoist before continuing, “Phoenix Gallbladder is one of the seven great strange poisons of the great world, incomparably toxic with no one yet able to cure it. The most terrifying aspect of Phoenix Gallbladder is how quickly the poison takes effect. The moment someone is poisoned, all the toxins urgently attack the heart. After the heart becomes paralyzed and stops, it then flows to other parts. The last place the toxins flow through is a person’s eyes. The entire process takes about two quarter hours.” Li Si paused, then continued, “But when the Great Elder died suddenly at the sacrificial feast, his eyes already showed purple poison stasis, indicating he’d been poisoned to death for at least two quarter hours, not just recently killed. So the truth is Great Elder Wu Yan didn’t die at all. The one who died was only an unlucky wretch with similar appearance.”
“During the sacrificial feast, the oil lamps were extinguished twice by gusts of wind, and the great hall fell into darkness. I speculate you used a substitution trick at that time, swapping the imposter with yourself.” Li Si paused again. “Your precautions indicate you saw through Wu Ying’s scheme long ago, then turned the tables on him, luring Wu Ying into the trap. Though Wu Ying was sinister and ruthless, he never imagined he’d be betrayed by someone at his side. Isn’t that right, Ban Xi?”
Ban Xi’s body stiffened violently. He unconsciously glanced at the bloody, fate-unknown Wu Ying and said fiercely, “Hmph, we can only blame Wu Ying for overestimating himself, vainly attempting to usurp the position of Great Elder. I am a holy disciple of the Gu Yao Sect. How could I collude with him? So I secretly reported to the Great Elder long ago.”
“What a high-sounding excuse, what a two-faced appearance—truly shameless!” The fat Daoist spat with disgust. Ban Xi, holding his eagle scissors, silently moved closer to Wu Yan’s group.
The divination stones at Yun Yan’s chest swayed. He hastily said, “I knew nothing of Wu Ying’s conspiracy. I’m innocent, Great Elder.” Wu Yan revealed a meaningful smile. “You’re innocent, but you were also the first to support Wu Ying’s ascension, my priest.”
Yun Yan shook his head and waved his hands but couldn’t argue.
“Everyone, be patient. I haven’t finished speaking.” Li Si looked at Wu Yan. “The one who bound and beat up the fat Daoist in Xingtian City was also you, wasn’t it? You worried the fat Daoist would expose the Phoenix Gallbladder conspiracy if he attended the sacrificial feast, so you arranged for people to deal with him to prevent him from reaching the Hall of Ten Directions in time. By your judgment, without the fat Daoist, no one else would recognize Phoenix Gallbladder. Unfortunately, I happen to have an old friend whose greatest hobby for decades has been studying dead people and how to make people die. His interpretation of poisons could be called master level. When bored, he always prattles to me about various poisons. Through exposure and influence, I’ve learned a bit, and Phoenix Gallbladder just happens to fall within this bit of knowledge.” Li Si’s old friend was precisely the strange old man called the first coroner of the great world—Lao Sitou.
“Actually, after seeing through your fake death, Mita and I went to the ancient tribe’s ancestral tomb to confirm the poisoned person’s identity, but in the tomb we only found an empty coffin. The substitute’s remains had long since vanished. This was also planned by you in advance, wasn’t it—disposing of the substitute.” Li Si seamlessly revealed Wu Yan’s deception.
Wu Yan’s face remained impassive, but his heart had long been in turmoil. “When you exposed Wu Ying, you already impressed me. I never imagined you’d see through even more people and matters. My scheme couldn’t deceive you either. From this it seems I still underestimated you. You’ve truly opened my eyes once.”
Li Si smiled. “I’m ashamed, ashamed. Since I’ve satisfied the Great Elder’s curiosity, why don’t you also satisfy mine?”
“What do you want to know?” Wu Yan’s voice was like falling stones, oppressive and heavy.
Li Si’s gaze shifted from the dead Saintess’s body to Wu Yan’s wrinkled face. “You’re already the Great Elder of the Gu Yao Sect, below one and above all others. Why still do these things? Why were you so cold to Wu Ying and his mother? Why must you kill the Saintess? What exactly do you want to obtain? Give me an answer.”
“The answer is very simple.” Wu Yan threw off his black cloak and slowly removed his upper garment, revealing his back. Heavens! On Wu Yan’s back protruded horizontally and vertically over a dozen white bones. The ghastly white bones were like white hands and feet Wu Yan had grown, having long become part of his living being. Mita covered her mouth and cried out. Li Si, the fat Daoist, and the others also widened their eyes. You Huai quietly closed his eyes. Li Si said in shock, “You, you’re also an outcast?”
“Yes.” Wu Yan’s tone was ice cold. “However, I didn’t completely transform into an outcast. Back then, to save me, Man Kua stole one of the three great forbidden techniques from the ancestral temple—’Ten Directions Poison Species’—and sought out from countless poisons one that could make a person reborn, to suppress my deformity. Though the deformity ultimately stopped at a budding state and my wisdom and consciousness weren’t affected, the terrifying side effects of the poison substance make me suffer bone-gnawing, tendon-bursting pain every month. My entire being hovers between unable to live and unable to die. In the blink of an eye, it’s been a full seventy years. I’ve lived in hell for seventy years. Now that my lamp oil is exhausted, what awaits me is yet another purgatory. I’m unwilling, so I want to live again!”
“My Man Kua once told me the long-lived, miracle-possessing Saintess of the Gu Yao Sect at Ten Directions Mountain secretly guards a treasure. No one knows what this treasure is, much less has anyone seen it. Past Great Elders of the Gu Yao Sect passed down orally that the treasure is hidden in the holy land’s ice palace. I killed the Saintess to enter the palace and obtain the treasure. I firmly believe the treasure can make one reborn and immortal. This is also the source of the Saintess’s immortality.” Wu Yan poured out in one breath the bitter secret hidden in his heart for many years, inevitably feeling melancholy.
“Saintess, treasure.” Li Si murmured to himself. At this moment, was there truly a treasure hidden beneath the crystal-bright, bone-piercingly cold ice surface that the Saintess had guarded for hundreds of years? If there really was one, what exactly would the treasure be? Li Si also couldn’t help but feel curious, his mind reeling.
Wu Yan instantly captured the greed revealed by everyone and smiled coldly. “As for why I was cold toward Wu Ying and his mother, there’s perhaps one matter you still don’t understand.”
Li Si waited for what Wu Yan would say. Wu Yan glanced at the fate-unknown Wu Ying. A fierce gleam burst from his turbid pupils. “This matter is that outcasts cannot reproduce, and I’m no exception. So Wu Ying and Wu Jiong aren’t my biological sons. Their birth father is… your Man Kua.” Wu Yan’s face moved toward Mita.
Mita’s ears buzzed. Her heart felt a jumble of emotions. “You’re lying, you’re lying!”
“I’m not lying to you. This is also why your Man Kua had to die.” Wu Yan said slowly. Mita suddenly understood. “Could it be Man Kua’s death… was your doing?”
Wu Yan smiled noncommittally, which counted as acknowledgment.
“Why didn’t you simply kill Mita too to eliminate all witnesses?” Li Si asked suspiciously. Wu Yan’s voice became high and shrill. “How boring that would be. Watching them kill each other as blood siblings day after day—wouldn’t that be more spectacular?”
“I’ll kill you to avenge Man Kua!” Mita put down A Mu, drew her dagger, and charged at Wu Yan. Wu Yan’s eyes showed contempt, as if Mita were an ant beneath his feet. The two withered old men channeled internal force into their arms and shocked Mita away. After landing, Mita spat fresh blood but still struggled to rise and pounced again.
“Seeking death!” Wu Yan said coldly.
The two withered elders were about to deliver a killing blow to Mita when suddenly two figures flew through the air—precisely Li Si and the fat Daoist. The fat Daoist shouted loudly, “We’ll take these two old fellows.” Mita bit her lip tightly. “Thank you.”
Mita dodged past the two withered elders. You Huai appeared before her. You Huai looked at Mita with a complex expression. Mita raised her head. “Will you let me pass, or kill me?” You Huai’s expression was inscrutable. His Flower Bone Curved Blade hesitated between revealing and not revealing. In the end, he didn’t strike. Mita looked at You Huai gratefully.
The dagger stabbed toward Wu Yan. Wu Yan expressionlessly raised his hand lightly. A sharp bone spur drilled out from between his fingers and collided with the dagger, producing “clang clang clang” sounds. Mita struggled to support two moves before her defenses were wide open. Wu Yan’s voice was hoarse. “Go find your Man Kua.”
Wu Yan’s bone spur stabbed into Mita’s chest. Just as it was about to pierce deeper, time and space suddenly seemed to freeze. A white gauze flew forth, delicately and lightly coiling around Mita and pulling her to safe ice. Wu Yan turned to look and met an ethereal, mysterious gaze. His entire being froze because that glance came from the Saintess, whom he’d thought was already dead.
Had she died or not? Wu Yan’s heart trembled.
The Saintess made no movement. Instead, A Mu before her leisurely awoke. Her limpid, deep pupils reflected the scene on the giant ice. Her soft, boneless palm lightly flicked her fingers, as if the entire world began to rapidly revolve.
And the Saintess who had died also likewise lightly flicked a finger.
“It should end.” A Mu’s voice was like an orchid in an empty valley.
A Mu’s serene, unworldly expression disappeared, replaced by an otherworldly cold solemnity. She slowly extended her left hand flat and lightly flicked her fingers as if in silent fury. The Saintess unknowingly stood up again, the black arrow swaying in her chest, once more making the same finger-flicking motion as A Mu. In an instant, wind and clouds suddenly changed. The entire ice pavilion emitted rumbling sounds and began to crack. Over a hundred beams of ice light separated from the ice pavilion and shot toward Li Si, the fat Daoist, Wu Yan, You Huai, and others twenty zhang away.
Li Si only felt white light flashing. A cold force transmitted from his long sword into his four limbs and hundred bones, as if even breathing would be frozen. Li Si involuntarily dropped his sword. At the same time, the fat Daoist also threw down his short sword, Ban Xi threw away his eagle scissors, You Huai endured for a moment before also dropping his Flower Bone Curved Blade. The two withered elders’ iron fists were frozen by white frost. Wu Yan’s bone spur between his fingers was “crack crack” shaved flat by the white light. The bone spur shattered into powder and drifted with the wind. Wu Yan’s gaze showed terror as his sight locked onto the Saintess risen from death. “Impossible! The black arrow was coated with Phoenix Gallbladder strange poison. Even if you weren’t shot to death, you should have been poisoned to death! I’ve endured for decades just to wait for this moment of your death. How have you stood up again… You should be dead, you should be dead.”
Under severe stimulation, Wu Yan’s expression twisted. A Mu’s eyes drifted vaguely, her gaze wandering beyond everyone else as she said softly, “You couldn’t possibly kill her. Wu Ying couldn’t either. No one can kill her because she had no life to begin with.”
A Mu removed the Saintess’s deep blue mask. Beneath the mask, the Saintess only had a pair of empty, silent eye sockets—no nose, eyes, or ears. Her entire face was carved from sharply angled blue ice, not possessing half a human expression. Li Si stared dumbfounded. “The Saintess’s wound didn’t bleed. Could she only be… an ice person?!”
A Mu smiled, as pure as when Li Si first met her. “She’s an ice person, also a mechanism person I left behind to guard the ice palace.”
“Does this mean you’re the Saintess of the Gu Yao Sect?” Li Si asked aloud.
Mita said at a loss, “A Mu…”
“A Mu.” The fat Daoist murmured.
Wu Yan’s turbid eyes surged with hatred, as if he wanted to grind A Mu’s bones to dust.
A Mu nodded lightly, like a child untouched by worldly affairs. “I am the Saintess.”
“What’s going on exactly? I’m completely confused. A Mu, why have you become the Saintess of the Gu Yao Sect?” Mita said in confused distress.
A Mu’s gaze was clear. “Mita, this is a very long, very long story, but I’m willing to tell you.”
Everyone held their breath, even Wu Yan and the others whose purpose was to kill the Saintess. Clearly, curiosity about the Saintess’s mysterious origin temporarily covered everything. Everyone craned their necks, concentrating intently as they waited for A Mu’s story.
“The long story begins six hundred fifty-five years ago during the late Spring and Autumn period. At that time, among the descendants of the Muyi clan in Lu state emerged a great master of magnificent talent and bold vision named Mo Di, later honored as Master Mozi. Mo Di spent his life promoting his Mohist doctrine with universal love and non-aggression at its core. Mohism also became one of the important schools of thought during the Warring States period. Besides Mohist doctrine, Mozi’s other achievement with profound influence on later generations was his mechanism techniques. Mozi inherited and developed the traditional mechanism techniques of the Muyi clan, creating mechanism techniques that shocked the era. He himself became a mechanism master renowned throughout the realm. The chariot and iron swallow bird he created were all marveled at by people of the time. But while the world knew of one mechanism master, Mozi, they didn’t know that among the Muyi descendants existed another world-shaking person—that was the mechanism master Shi Cong, who founded the Form Person Master lineage. Shi Cong’s natural talent in mechanism techniques even surpassed Mozi’s, but he and Mozi took two different paths. Mozi cultivated the heart and oriented toward peace. Most of his mechanism creations were manufactured for peace while also improving common people’s lives. But Shi Cong wasn’t like this. He loved slaughter and war. After age thirty, he devoted all his energy to creating one work—the Form Person Master.” A Mu paused for breath. Li Si’s heart trembled listening—Form Person Master! He’d already heard of the deeds of Form Person Master founder Shi Cong in the Ant Bone Tower on Golden Island. If A Mu as the Saintess had truly survived for over five hundred years, could she also be a Form Person Master?! Li Si sighed endlessly.
A Mu recovered and continued, “Form Person Master is also called mechanism person. In Shi Cong’s conception, the Form Person Master possessed fearless will, a body with sinews of copper and bones of iron, and overwhelming sharpness. He even thought of using Form Person Masters to end the Spring and Autumn period’s century of warfare. Shi Cong’s mad idea made the Muyi clanspeople scoff at him. They thought Shi Cong was a lunatic. Shi Cong was driven into wild mountains and desolate ridges, living by gathering fruit and hunting, sleeping by heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers. By age fifty, he finally created the first Form Person Master that could move like a human. But Shi Cong wasn’t satisfied because the Form Person Master he created lacked wisdom and could easily be deceived by traps or schemes. So Shi Cong traveled every corner between heaven and earth, seeking peerless materials to try to change the Form Person Master’s wisdom. Another twenty years passed. When everyone had forgotten Shi Cong’s existence, he appeared at the clan territory with a Form Person Master over one zhang tall. He’d come back to find Mozi.”
“Form Person Master?” Wu Yan meaningfully scrutinized A Mu telling the story.
“Shi Cong sought Mozi to challenge him. He wanted to prove he was the world’s foremost mechanism master. His Form Person Master easily defeated Mozi’s mechanism beasts. The unparalleled wisdom the Form Person Master displayed in battle shocked Mozi even more. Mozi inquired of Shi Cong and learned Shi Cong had found the raw material to change the Form Person Master’s wisdom. Shi Cong defeated Mozi and wanted to create more Form Person Masters to dominate the world, but in his excitement, he suddenly fell ill because his decades-long cherished wish was fulfilled. Mozi took in the gravely ill Shi Cong. Besides carefully tending to him, he also instilled in him his own esteemed Mohist thought. Shi Cong was gradually moved by Mozi’s utmost sincerity and subsequently abandoned his idea of dominating the world. Another ten years passed and Shi Cong was about to die. He didn’t want the Form Person Master he’d researched his whole life to thus vanish from the mortal world. He entrusted Mozi to help him find descendants of his bloodline to pass down the Form Person Master technique in his stead.” A Mu paused. “But the sharp Form Person Master had long attracted the covetousness of rulers of various states. They dispatched assassins attempting to kill and seize the technique. To preserve Shi Cong’s bloodline and the Form Person Master technique, Mozi gave Shi Cong’s descendants a half-true, half-false fake copy. This way, even if they encountered evil designs, the complete original wouldn’t be lost to bring calamity upon the world. Mozi and Shi Cong’s descendants set a fifty-year appointment, hoping time’s settling could make the feudal lords forget the Form Person Master. Who’d have thought after fifty years, Shi Cong’s family was still in desperate flight and wandering? The clan leader pleaded with Mozi to continue safeguarding the Form Person Master technique. Simultaneously, the clan leader led his clanspeople to hide among black mountains and white waters, thereafter living in seclusion and obscurity. Both sides set another fifty-year appointment. If no one from Shi Cong’s family came to the appointment after fifty years, it would mean the situation was grim. The appointment period would automatically extend one hundred years, then another hundred years, until five hundred years were complete and the agreement would dissipate. The Form Person Master technique would remain forever in Mozi’s hands.”
“But it wasn’t only Shi Cong’s descendants whose circumstances were difficult. Master Mozi had experienced all manner of deception and trickery from Spring and Autumn states and long felt disappointed in the world’s great trends. Moreover, assassins also repeatedly struck at Mozi’s lineage. Disheartened and cold, Mozi retreated overseas with trusted clanspeople in the second fifty years, living in seclusion on a mysterious island in the vast sea. But Mozi didn’t forget his promise to Shi Cong. He dragged his aged, decrepit body to the appointed place of Ten Directions Mountain, but Mozi didn’t wait for Shi Cong’s descendants. The agreement extended to the next hundred years. How could Mozi, growing old and feeble, endure to the next appointment? Thus Mozi conceived an idea—he would create a Form Person Master himself. Because the Flame Moon Island where he’d retreated in seclusion was the very island Shi Cong discovered when gathering the Form Person Master’s heart, the ‘Five-Colored Asura Stone.’ The island was rich in materials and preserved a small amount of Five-Colored Asura Stone.” A Mu’s face grew increasingly pale, but the story wasn’t yet finished. “Abandoning other matters, Mozi devoted himself wholly to creating the Form Person Master. Mozi, studying the Form Person Master technique for the first time, marveled at it endlessly, but he didn’t rigidly follow Shi Cong’s ideas completely. Instead, he used years of accumulated mechanism technique experience to further perfect the Form Person Master. The old man displayed incomparable creativity. The Form Person Master took shape step by step. At this time, Flame Moon Island experienced an accident. The entire island suddenly shook and quaked. Mozi rushed to the seaside for a look. A ten-thousand-year or even older glacier islet had drifted from the ocean’s depths. Mozi immediately felt this was heaven and earth’s omen that he would complete a work of demonic craftsmanship seizing heaven and earth’s creative power. Thus Mozi directed his clanspeople to build a magnificent ice palace unprecedented in history using the glacier islet as a model. After ten years of painstaking effort, the Form Person Master and ice palace were finally completed simultaneously. Mozi followed precedent in giving the Form Person Master wisdom while also bestowing delicate emotions and the ability to accumulate memories. As for the ice palace, Mozi exhausted nearly all of Flame Moon Island’s resources to forge it into a dazzling, unprecedented masterwork. Having completed two miracles, Mozi’s mind and strength were exhausted. He fell ill and couldn’t rise. He entrusted his final wish to the Form Person Master—that was the promise to Shi Cong. The Form Person Master was grateful to Mozi, so she took him as master and promised to faithfully keep the agreement. Mozi smiled and peacefully passed away. The Form Person Master bowed farewell before Mozi’s grave, controlled the ice palace pervaded with marvelous techniques, and sailed toward the interior. Referencing the stars, after half a year she finally reached the North Sea. However, after reaching the North Sea surface, a rare maritime hurricane suddenly encountered caused the ice palace to lose control. The entire ice palace was like an indestructible ice awl piercing through obstructing mountain ranges. Ten Directions Mountain welcomed a heaven-collapsing, earth-splitting catastrophe. The ice palace pushed forward ten thousand zhang, drilling into the inner mountain belly adjacent to the earth’s core flame spring. The Form Person Master was caught off guard and fell unconscious in the violent impact. When the Form Person Master awoke, she found herself in a soundless underground secluded realm. Ancient tribe member Shi Ze, who witnessed the ice palace phantom in the heaven collapse, pursued fearlessly. He discovered the Form Person Master dwelling here. Shi Ze revered her as a deity and voluntarily led his people to submit. The following year, Shi Ze established the Gu Yao Sect worshipping the Form Person Master.”
“Having said so much, you should understand.” A Mu’s voice was ethereal. “I am the Form Person Master who came as promised.”