“Five Ox Mountain, at a time like this?” Chang Rong had finally managed to locate Lin Xiao and Qin Yao, and had barely caught up to them when he heard this. He blinked. “Five Ox Mountain isn’t exactly close, but it’s not all that far either. Going now means we won’t be back until past midnight.”

Qin Yao hesitated for a moment, then nodded firmly. “This matter can’t be put off any longer. I need to tell Master everything from start to finish. He and A’Han set out early this morning — they’re probably close to Five Ox Mountain by now. I’ll have Lu Da drive quickly, and we should be able to arrive before sunset.”

As she spoke, she made to leave. Lin Xiao quickly stopped her and said in a low voice: “If it’s that urgent, I’ll have them hitch up some fine horses — they’ll be far faster than an ordinary carriage. Send Lu Da back to the residence; I’ll come with you.”

His tone was unremarkable on the surface, yet the intimacy in it was unmistakable. Qin Yao’s heart gave a nervous flutter, and she cast a quick sideways glance at Chang Rong.

Chang Rong had nowhere to hide. He tilted his head back and stared fixedly at the sky, silently lamenting his misfortune, and wishing he possessed the ability — like those wandering spirits and phantoms — to transform himself into a wisp of smoke and vanish on the spot.

Qin Yao glanced up at the sky. The sun had already passed midday; she could not afford further delay. She accepted Lin Xiao’s arrangement.

On the way out of South Garden Lake, Qin Yao found Lu Da waiting by the roadside, and inside the carriage, Caiping sat eating. Qin Yao told them only that she urgently needed to reach Five Ox Mountain, and asked them to return to the Qu residence ahead of her.

Caiping looked Qin Yao over carefully, saw that her expression was composed and no different from usual, and let out a quiet breath of relief. She did not dare subject Lin Xiao to the same scrutiny, and obediently retreated to her seat in the carriage.

Not long after Lu Da and Caiping had gone, Wei Bo drove up in a carriage draped with a dark, oil-cloth canopy. The carriage looked unassuming enough, but the horses hitched to it were each marked with four snow-white hooves, their coats sleek and gleaming — clearly all of them were rare and exceptional steeds.

Qin Yao had not expected Lin Xiao to take her affairs so seriously. She looked at him with gratitude, then quietly boarded the carriage.

Lin Xiao swung himself onto his horse and fell into pace beside the carriage.

The party set off directly for the western outskirts.

Inside the carriage, Qin Yao sat quietly for a moment before she couldn’t resist lifting the curtain to look outside. She could see Chang Rong and six or seven other guards following behind Lin Xiao — most of them familiar faces, either from those she’d encountered at the Mang Mountains, or those who habitually stayed close to Lin Xiao’s side.

Qin Yao knew these guards were Lin Xiao’s most devoted men — loyal to him beyond question. Compared to the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, they seemed to be those Lin Xiao relied on most deeply. She didn’t know whether they had been raised in Prince Lan’s household from childhood, or had only come to Lin Xiao’s side at a later point. But judging by the way he interacted with them, she suspected it was the former.

She sat propping her chin in thought for a moment, then glanced up — and found Lin Xiao watching her with a gaze that blazed with warmth.

Her face went red. She retreated back behind the curtain at once.

The horses from Prince Lan’s household were indeed swift, and the journey to Five Ox Mountain took only about two hours. The summer days were long, and the sky was still bright; the moment Qin Yao descended from the carriage, she was met with the brilliant glare of the afternoon sun falling full upon the vast face of Five Ox Mountain. The surroundings were utterly quiet — not a single household at the foot of the mountain, and the official road shimmering with waves of heat, empty and desolate in every direction.

She looked around and felt quite lost, with no idea where to begin searching for Master and A’Han. She silently regretted not having brought any of the equipment from the observatory. If she’d had the handmade signal flares they kept there, she could have lit one now and let it off, and Master and A’Han would know she had arrived.

Lin Xiao was a man of action. He surveyed the area, then dispatched Chang Rong and the others to fan out and search for Qing Xuzi and A’Han, while he himself guided Qin Yao toward the path leading up the mountain.

The path wound upward from the base of the mountain — it appeared to have been carved out by the local authorities. It was not wide, and somewhat winding, but it was paved with green-stone slabs throughout, and was not difficult to walk.

After they had gone a little way, Lin Xiao looked back and noticed that the sun had flushed Qin Yao’s cheeks a vivid red. He couldn’t help saying: “It’s far too hot. Why don’t you go back and wait in the carriage? When we find the Daoist Master and A’Han, I’ll come and fetch you.”

Qin Yao shot him a glance. “I’m not so delicate as all that,” she said softly.

Lin Xiao saw that her words carried a bashful playfulness, and warmth stirred within him. After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out on impulse and took Qin Yao by the hand, pulling her along as he walked. “The mountain path is steep,” he said. “I’ll pull you along — it’ll save you some effort.”

Qin Yao startled and immediately tried to pull away. “If Master and A’Han see us—”

Lin Xiao paused mid-step and looked back at her with a smile that was not quite a smile. “So what you’re saying is — as long as Master and A’Han aren’t around, you don’t mind?”

Only then did Qin Yao realize the implication of what she’d said. She stared at him for a moment, then found herself so amused by her own blunder that she couldn’t help it — she broke into a red-faced laugh.

Suddenly, voices drifted down from somewhere ahead. “Master, we left the Pei residence this morning without going back to the observatory — where are we supposed to get water from? And you drank the whole flask yourself, and yet you’re still blaming me. I’m thirsty too.” The tone was full of aggrieved complaint.

Master and A’Han!

Qin Yao was seized with something close to panic. She yanked her hand free of Lin Xiao’s as quickly as she could — but it was already a beat too late. From ahead came the sound of rapid footsteps approaching, and Qing Xuzi’s voice rang out in disbelief: “A’Yao?”

Qin Yao went rigid. After a long moment, she slowly stepped out from behind Lin Xiao, her expression deeply sheepish. “Master.”

She was too anxious to look her Master in the eye, and silently prayed that his eyesight had grown poor enough with age that he had not seen clearly what she and Lin Xiao had been doing.

But she had clearly underestimated her Master. Qing Xuzi had not only seen Lin Xiao holding her hand — he had also seen her laughing at Lin Xiao with perfectly obvious willingness and delight.

Qing Xuzi came charging at Qin Yao like a thunderclap, seized her by the arm, and yanked her to a safe distance. He rounded on her with fierce accusation: “How did you come to be here?”

If it had been any other young man pulling Qin Yao along, Qing Xuzi would have unleashed a thorough tongue-lashing followed by a few well-aimed blows. But this happened to be Lin Xiao.

From their first two encounters, he had already made out that this Young Lord of Prince Lan’s household harbored feelings for his A’Yao — feelings he didn’t even bother to conceal, and quite shamelessly so. It was only because A’Yao had such an oblivious nature that she had gone this long without understanding the other party’s intentions.

His own wish, naturally, was that Qin Yao would not marry someone of such exalted birth. But then, even Luo Cha hadn’t managed to drive the Young Lord of Prince Lan’s household away from Qin Yao’s side — which spoke clearly enough to how genuine his feelings were. Add to that the fact that he was handsome, unmarried, and his character was not without merit; if Qing Xuzi simply stood in the way, he would only be making trouble. And this person was clearly set on Qin Yao — even if he and the Qu family discussed sending her far away from Chang’an, this man would certainly not give up so easily.

This, then, was why he had been tacitly permitting matters these past days.

But tacit permission was not the same as allowing Lin Xiao to take things further and further without check. Though Qing Xuzi had entered the monastic life at a young age, he still counted himself as someone who understood the ways of the world — he knew the nature of young men’s hearts. If Lin Xiao got carried away in a moment of weakness, it might be entirely to his satisfaction, but for Qin Yao, it could easily become a lifelong regret.

He glared at Qin Yao with furious eyes, thinking that when they returned, he would leave no stone unturned in lecturing her — and would keep a strict and relentless watch, to make absolutely certain Lin Xiao did not take any advantage.

Qin Yao stood meekly before Qing Xuzi, enduring her Master’s gaze — sharp as a blade — fixed upon her without blinking. After a moment, a new worry crept in: she wondered if a kiss could leave visible traces, and whether her Master might notice something. The thought only made her more flustered, and she had the near-irresistible urge to pull out her handkerchief and wipe her mouth.

Lin Xiao, for his part, was perfectly composed. He stepped forward, turned to face Qing Xuzi, and offered a sincere and respectful bow — the kind a junior gives to an elder. It was evident that he was, in following Qin Yao’s lead, addressing Qing Xuzi with the full respect owed to a Master. Qing Xuzi watched this, and felt a fresh wave of inward discomfort.

A’Han had been standing behind his Master and had not witnessed what passed between Lin Xiao and Qin Yao. He only knew, puzzlingly, that Master had erupted in anger again out of nowhere. Sensing the stiff and awkward atmosphere, and not knowing what lay behind it, he wandered over to Qin Yao’s side and said, with his characteristic guilelessness: “A’Yao, why did you come along with the Young Lord? Didn’t Master say you were supposed to enjoy the Flower Festival?”

Qin Yao’s eyes shifted, and she promptly straightened her back, rescuing herself. “Master, I came because there’s something important I need to tell you. Once you hear it, I think you’ll understand why.”

Before her Master could raise any objection, she launched at once into a full account of everything that had happened — at Jade Spring Mountain, and just now at South Garden Lake — leaving nothing out.

“I remember you once said, when you were teaching the Demonology Compendium, that a jiangshi thrives in soil and rots in water — it cannot possibly move through water. Yet based on what I observed at both Jade Spring Mountain and South Garden Lake, this jiangshi was clearly traveling by waterway. And if I didn’t see it wrong, the child who died in South Garden Lake was most likely killed by the jiangshi draining his blood.”

Qing Xuzi’s expression shifted dramatically. “Are you absolutely certain of this?” he cried out.

“Not a word of it is false.” Qin Yao nodded. “That’s exactly why I thought — if you, Master, continue searching the mountain, we may never understand the true origins of these jiangshi. Wouldn’t it be worth having a look at the Cangheng River at the foot of the mountain? It may well yield something.”

Qing Xuzi looked at Qin Yao with an expression of stunned uncertainty. After a long moment, he suddenly turned and strode off down the mountain, saying as he went: “I have come to Five Ox Mountain many times, always sensing that the dark energy is too concentrated here — each time suspecting something is amiss in the mountain, and nearly turning the whole of it inside out in my search. Yet it never once occurred to me to look at the Cangheng River below. If what you say is true, and these jiangshi are able to travel by water, then the Cangheng River must harbor something peculiar.”

The group made their way down the mountain. When they listened carefully, they could indeed hear the soft sound of flowing water; following it, they soon found themselves standing before a river that appeared quietly out of nowhere.

The river was wide — a full hundred feet across. Though it flowed from west to east in unbroken motion, its water was dark and still, with almost no waves. It looked less like a living river than like a stagnant pool.

The moment they reached the riverbank, the Chixiao Sword — which had been silent for some time — suddenly rang out again with its ringing cry. Qing Xuzi activated his Heavenly Eye, and crouching down with a grave expression, he examined what lay within the river for a long moment. “This river truly has something strange about it,” he said in a cold, measured voice.

He then instructed A’Han to take the Boundless Mirror out of the pack, and applied a sealing technique over the river’s surface. Shortly after, a black mist — as dark as ink — began to rise and flow outward from the mirror’s face.

Qin Yao watched from beside them, her heart quietly alarmed. This black mist was condensing far faster than the one she had seen at the Pei residence before, and its color was far deeper — clearly, whatever lay within the Cangheng River was far more malevolent than the evil entity encountered at the Qu residence.

The group examined what appeared in the mirror while slowly moving along the riverbank. Just then, Chang Rong and the others came walking toward them from the opposite direction. Seeing what was happening, they rushed closer. “What are you all doing?” Chang Rong asked.

Everyone’s attention was fixed on the Boundless Mirror, and no one had the time or inclination to answer him. They continued along until they came to a massive outcropping of rock. The riverbed here seemed to have grown suddenly shallower, and the current quickened; at the base of the rock, a whirlpool was clearly visible.

By now the entire face of the Boundless Mirror had been flooded with black mist, which was flowing down over the rim of the mirror. Chang Rong and the others watched in alarm as that black liquid moved toward A’Han’s hands — but the moment it left the mirror’s surface, it dissipated into nothing, as though it had never existed.

Only then did the group understand: it was clearly all an illusion conjured by the mirror, serving the same warning function as the Young Lord’s Chixiao Sword.

Qing Xuzi stroked his beard, studying that whirlpool for a long while. Then he planted his horsetail whisk upright on the riverbank, closed his eyes, and intoned a string of incantations. A flash of clear light swept past the bank like a gauze curtain, enveloping the whirlpool in a shimmering veil.

After completing the ritual, he tied his Taoist robe around his waist and said, “There’s something strange beneath this place. As your master, I must go down and take a look. A’Han, keep the Boundless Mirror and my Golden Binding Rope safe. We’re going down now.”

He did not mention Qinyao at all. It was impossible to tell whether he was still angry with her, or whether he was simply mindful that she was a young woman and it would be inconvenient for her to enter the water.

Qinyao quickly straightened up and volunteered eagerly, saying, “I’m going too.”

Qingxu Zi gave no response. He and A’Han entered the water one after the other, slowly disappearing into the whirlpool until they could no longer be seen.

Qinyao hurriedly followed them into the water as well. Lin Xiao knew he could not stop her, so he merely turned back and said to Chang Rong and the others, “Keep watch around the area. Do not let anyone interfere with Daoist Master Qingxu’s formation. If anything goes wrong, go at once to Dayin Temple and seek Abbot Yuanjue.”

Having said this, just before Qinyao vanished into the whirlpool, he grabbed her hand and allowed the force pulling downward within the vortex to drag the two of them together to the riverbed.