Layer by layer, thread by thread they had unraveled it — and though they had glimpsed only the tip of the iceberg, seeing one part reveals the whole. Lang Jiuchuan and the others had now made out what manner of monster hid beneath the State Preceptor’s human skin.

But perceiving it was one thing. How to strangle this ancient monster’s schemes while still in the cradle — that was the most critical matter of all.

The Gong Family Head furrowed his brow and said: “This is all only conjecture, with no real evidence to speak of. The imperial mausoleum — we cannot simply charge in on a whim. If we have guessed wrong, we would not only be alerting our quarry, we would likely find ourselves trapped and constrained. Furthermore, the State Preceptor’s prestige has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the Great Dan’s people. Even if we told them he is an ancient monster who has repeatedly seized the bodies of his own descendants, without any proof or evidence, I doubt anyone would believe us.”

“There is no need to speak of it — and speaking of it would accomplish nothing.” Lang Jiuchuan shook her head. “He is not like the head of the Rong Family, who values the clan’s reputation and can be restrained by the threat of public dishonor. As you said, his prestige runs too deep. He is revered like a deity by the common people. Spreading rumors is a thoroughly inferior tactic — useless effort.”

Gong Tinglan laughed coldly. “Revered like a deity? His actions are those of a deceiver of the world who steals glory that belongs to others. However much devotional power he has enjoyed as a result — the moment his true face is exposed, all of that power will become a boomerang that rebounds against him.”

The more thoroughly the world had been deceived, the more devastating the rebound would be.

Lang Jiuchuan smiled. “What the Young Family Head says is entirely correct.”

The Gong Family Head looked at these two young people, brimming with confidence as though they had no sense of the heights of Heaven, and gave a dissatisfied grunt. “Easy words spoken lightly — you have no plan whatsoever for how to expose his true face. Do not be too naive and underestimate your enemy. The most important point is, we need to probe around the imperial mausoleum to confirm whether what we just deduced is correct or not, do we not?”

Lang Jiuchuan and Gong Tinglan glanced at each other sheepishly. “This matter will have to be planned carefully before we act. But as for blocking every path of the State Preceptor’s schemes — we must start doing that from this very moment, leaving him no blind spots.”

If this person was truly Tantai Wuji, whose schemes had been laid over a thousand years, then charging in head-on would be no better than throwing an egg against a boulder. But neither could they turn a blind eye and allow him to keep quietly accumulating power and seizing every fortune and person of benefit to himself. If his conspiratorial calculations were allowed to succeed, all things in this world would become stepping stones for his ascent — and by then, what would become of all living beings was unimaginable.

Unable to clash head-on, they must instead avoid the edge of his blade, strike at what he could not afford to leave undefended, throw his rhythm into disorder, and from within that chaos seek their own opportunity.

Most critically — before he completed the final ritual, they had to find his original body and destroy his foundation. And so this imperial mausoleum — she had to find a way to breach it.

Lang Jiuchuan looked toward the Gong Family Head and said: “We need more like-minded people to join this cause — we must unite every force that can be united, investigate and cut off every possible avenue through which he steals fortune, and weaken his power as much as we can. Beyond that, he should be collecting people of special fate configurations, in preparation for whatever he is scheming toward.”

She described the matter of Wen Yue’s daughter.

The Gong Family Head’s brow locked together tightly. “More nation’s fortune and clan fortune, and now people with special fate configurations — even for a Golden Core breakthrough, do all of these things need to be used? Is he truly aiming only for the Golden Core realm to enter the immortal path?”

“It can only be for use in a formation — employing the formation’s power as an aid.” Gong Tinglan pressed his lips together. “He is protective of his own feathers and conserves his own strength. I fear he has claws and teeth in the outside world acting on his behalf. But the strength of our noble clans…”

The Gong Family Head’s complexion turned greenish. The Rong Family had fallen; the Feng Family was a weathervane — unreliable. Relying on their Gong Family alone, their strength was limited. And that was not even accounting for Lang Jiuchuan, who stood there entirely on her own.

Most humiliating of all, the majority of their fellow Dao practitioners had middling cultivation at best. How were they supposed to fight with this?

“In this world there must surely be some who have truly withdrawn from society to cultivate in seclusion. If there are — word travels from one to ten, from ten to a hundred. Those who truly uphold the Dao and protect living beings will themselves act on Heaven’s behalf to right what is wrong. Family Head, I have always believed that he who has the Dao has many allies.“

Lang Jiuchuan’s calm composure eased the Gong Family Head somewhat. He let out a long sigh. “I shall go and pay a few visits, then.”

Lang Jiuchuan raised an eyebrow slightly. Those words — did they not imply that he actually knew of some people who were living in seclusion, and that the Gong Family had neither suppressed nor recruited them?

“I will trouble you with that matter. As for the imperial mausoleum — I will find a way to probe it.”

But the Gong Family Head said: “The imperial mausoleum is heavily guarded, and he has been scheming there for a long time — he must regard it as the apple of his eye. Unless it is absolutely necessary, I do not recommend forcing your way in. You were planted as a living stake inside it once already. Your divine soul escaped, and so that stake can be considered destroyed. If you are a critical core in his plans, he will not let you go. Do not let yourself be drawn back in. Rebirth through fire is no easy thing — Heaven will not keep opening back doors for you.”

Though this was a warning, it was delivered in the tone of a senior taking care of her.

Lang Jiuchuan gathered her robes and bowed to him once more. She exchanged a few more words with them, then took her leave.

Departing from the archive tower, Gong Tinglan walked alongside her and said: “My father was right. He has schemed against you for a long time. If your deduction is correct, placing you as a living stake deep within the imperial mausoleum served not only to nourish the dragon vein — it was also nourishing his original body. You escaped — and he will not simply let the sky be wide open for you to fly freely. He has made no move thus far, yet he is using a child to lure you in and test your strength — he must have an even deeper plan. You are in danger.”

“I know. He will try to kill me once more.” Lang Jiuchuan said serenely. “I will prepare for the worst.”

Gong Tinglan’s heart sank.

The worst — that could only mean that when she was seized once again as the core eye of his formation, she would fight with everything she had against that ancient monster. Even if it came to mutual destruction.

Would Lang Jiuchuan do that? Gong Tinglan believed she would. She and he were alike — born with a bone of defiance running through them.

“We will keep in contact.”

Gong Tinglan nodded. Just as she was tearing open the shadow path, something occurred to him and he asked: “By the way — do you know what the State Preceptor’s honorific title is? When I was looking through the historical records, I noticed that when he was appointed State Preceptor, no honorific title was recorded. He has always been called only ‘Canglan State Preceptor.’ Is ‘Canglan’ not a Daoist name?”

Something flashed through Lang Jiuchuan’s mind at lightning speed. Her memory fixed on a single scene, and her voice carried the faintest tremor as she spoke: “It is — Wuji!”

“What?” Gong Tinglan’s pupils contracted sharply.

“On my second birthday, it came time for me to receive a Daoist name. It happened that I had obtained a piece of azure dragon wood, and he stroked my head and said that the Eastern Wood Element of the azure dragon was well-matched to my Four Pillars and Eight Characters. I blurted out a name for myself on the spot — Qingyi, the Azure One.”

Lang Jiuchuan gazed into empty space, as though she could see the image of that small girl nestled in the arms of a man robed in white that outshone the snow. The small girl tilted her head back and asked naively: “What is Shifu’s name?”

“Canglan — bearing the meaning of great ambition and steadfast will, unafraid of hardship, pressing ever forward. That is my name.”

“Canglan — not impressive enough. It does not suit you… A’Yue! I have a Daoist name now — Qingyi! Hurry up and call me A’Qing!”

The small girl had slipped free of her master’s arms and broken into a run on two short little legs toward a pretty companion who had come strolling over. Behind her, carried on the wind, came the faint and indistinct words of her master.

“Then Wuji it shall be.” The State Preceptor clasped his hands behind his back. “Wuji the Supreme — that is a fitting honorific title for me.”

The small girl had already seized her companion by the hand and run off.

Wuji — formless chaos, boundless and without image. From Wuji arises Taiji; from Taiji all things are born. Wuji is eternal.

The expressions of both Lang Jiuchuan and Gong Tinglan shifted strangely. The State Preceptor of today — peel back that layer of skin, and he was not Tantai Qing at all. He was that ancient monster who had lived for a thousand years:

Tantai Wuji.