Over four thousand one hundred years. Rong Chen Zi was smiling too, but an entity over four thousand years old who had taken on disciples back then… that would have been very rare, wouldn’t it? He had never heard of the Blazing Yang Technique, yet the golden hands Jiang Haoran had unleashed when channeling his inner power seemed to have some record in Daozong’s archives.

Rong Chen Zi took He Bang’s hand and led her outside. Her hand was soft and smooth. Her small face was as translucent as fine jade, her eyes like still autumn water. From the mountainside down to here, she had grown somewhat tired — a faint bloom of color, like March peach blossoms, had risen on her cheeks. Her water-colored robes billowed and layered as they drifted, her grace and beauty without compare in this world.

Rong Chen Zi let the thought go. “Are you tired?”

He Bang shook her head. Her spirits were still good: “Zhiguan, there’s water over there!”

Coming out of the courtyard, there was an ancient well outside. The spring source was very good — even in the driest years this well had never run dry. He Bang ran over to the well, then drew up some water — and her expression changed: “This water… what’s that smell?”

Rong Chen Zi stepped forward and dipped his fingers into the well water and sniffed. The smell of serpents — faintly acrid, as if many snakes had rolled through the water.

Were these the Ming Serpents? Where were they now? Among those villagers — could there already be puppets among them, ones whose breath had been stolen or whose bodies had been taken over?

Everyone’s expressions turned somber. He Bang, too, grew unusually serious. She stared into the well. The mouth of the well was square, just wide enough for one person to go up or down. The four sides were stone-built, thick with moss. Looking down from above, only a pale and shadowy gleam of water was visible.

“Could they all be hiding in the water?” Ye Tian spoke up. Naturally she was asking the three-eyed serpent. The serpent peered down and looked — it was more frightened than any of them: “If the master finds out, she’ll have my hide for certain!”

Ye Tian kicked it: “I really can’t see what use you are!”

He Bang immediately chimed in: “It can fish with its tail — it’s very good at it!” The three-eyed serpent immediately slithered in a flash to hide behind He Bang.

Rong Chen Zi had no patience for their antics: “I will go down the well to look.” He was already removing his outer robe to descend. He Bang hesitated: “Zhiguan, you really want to go?”

Rong Chen Zi nodded, his expression resolute. Only then did He Bang mutter: “Fine then, let me go instead. In water, at least I have nothing to fear!”

Rong Chen Zi knew she was timid, and had no wish to frighten her. Yet He Bang was rarely one for pretense — the words were barely out of her mouth before she leapt straight into the well. She entered the water without a sound, and the surface showed only a single expanding ring of ripples.

Though this great river clam clearly had formidable origins, Rong Chen Zi was still unable to put his mind at ease. He stared at the surface of the well, unable to hide the anxiety in his eyes. Ye Tian stood at his side, also gazing down into the depths, as though comforting him — or perhaps comforting herself: “She is an inner cultivator of the water element by nature. In water, nothing should be able to harm her.”

Rong Chen Zi gave a low sound of acknowledgment. All eleven people and one serpent fell silent.

Below the surface, the water was dim. Yet He Bang could see reasonably well in water. There were no fish in the well. The deeper she swam, the more vast and open the space became. Gradually, before her eyes a field of red, star-shaped aquatic plants appeared — a whole expanse of red algae. On either side were pillars of crystal, with a path running between them, at the end of which stood a palace of crystal. The water around her was a deep, clear blue — soft and familiar.

He Bang’s expression shifted to one of bewilderment. This was impossible. How could she have returned to the Sea Sovereign’s Palace in the Lingxia sea territory?

She followed the path through the red algae. On both sides, jellyfish floated — peach-blossom pink, gemstone blue — all scenery intimately familiar to her. She arrived before the palace gates, which opened as they always had. Two guards bowed respectfully: “Your Majesty, the Sea Sovereign.”

He Bang shook her head. From within the palace, a figure slowly approached — crimson robes, black hair, steps like the unfolding of lotus blossoms: “Where have you been off to playing now?” His voice was as warm as winter sunlight. Still speaking, he set down the tray he was carrying onto the table. “Today I made your favorite — scallions braised with sea cucumber. Come eat.”

He Bang walked in a trance toward the table. On the crystal dish lay braised sea cucumber with scallions, just as promised, along with a dish of eight-treasure sweet bean fish. The person before her had a complexion as bright and fair as polished jade, his every movement refined and elegant: “You’ve come back all sweaty again.” He took a soft cloth and wiped He Bang’s hands. “All right, eat while it’s hot.”

He Bang’s eyes reddened instantly.

The fragrance of the food — it was real. He Bang sniffed, and immediately began to drool. But she still had too many things she needed to ask: “How am I here? How can the Sea Sovereign’s Palace be at the bottom of a well in Li Family Village?”

Chunyu Lin’s fine brows furrowed slightly, as though he did not understand what she was saying: “What Li Family Village?”

He Bang suddenly jumped to her feet: “And you! You were clearly dragged into a crevice in the rock by a Ming Serpent. I checked your pulse — there was no way to save you. How are you here?”

Chunyu Lin sat down beside her, carefully picking out the fish bones for her, his voice affectionate with a thread of helpless exasperation: “Your Majesty, what game are you playing now? I went to the Eastern Sea this morning to buy fish. You promised you would stay home quietly. Instead you slipped out again, and only now you’re back. What Ming Serpent, what crevice in the rock?”

He Bang looked around at the furnishings of the palace — all exactly as she remembered them. Her expression grew alarmed: “Could it be that I have truly been dreaming? Then what about Rong Chen Zi?”

“Ah…” Chunyu Lin coaxed her to open her mouth, and placed a section of deboned sweet bean fish inside for her. Gentle and warm as always. “Who is Rong Chen Zi? Sounds like a Daoist. Your Majesty, you would do best not to get involved with his kind.”

He Bang felt as though she were wandering in a dream: “Impossible…” She let out a yawn and looked herself up and down from top to bottom. “But then, where did I go off to play?”

Chunyu Lin fed her another piece of soft, tender fish, and asked quietly: “Is it good?”

He Bang almost swallowed her own tongue along with it, answering without a moment’s hesitation: “Delicious!”

Chunyu Lin smiled faintly: “Then eat, and after you’re done, Your Majesty should take her afternoon nap.”

He Bang ate the fish, still turning things over in her mind: “But what about Rong Chen Zi?”

Chunyu Lin used the cloth to dab the corners of her mouth clean, smiling like a flower: “More of your strange talk.”

He Bang quickly finished the fish. Chunyu Lin patted her belly gently: “Are you full?”

He Bang nodded. Chunyu Lin lifted her in his arms, passed through the resplendent halls of the palace, and carried her into her bedchamber — even the bedding was her usual. Chunyu Lin set her down on the crystal bed. He Bang did feel a little drowsy. She transformed into her true form as the great river clam, withdrawing her whole body into her shell. Chunyu Lin gently patted the surface of her shell, humming a melody of the sea.

Just as He Bang was on the verge of sleep, she suddenly woke back up — Rong Chen Zi was waiting for her up at the well. And Chunyu Lin had clearly already died. Qingyun had even been carrying a few big oranges for her. Yet the Chunyu Lin before her seemed so vivid and real. Could it be that everything that had happened at Qingxu Temple had truly been nothing but a dream?

Sleep was pressing in. The great river clam tossed and turned, resisting the pull of unconsciousness. No — she had to find a way to test this. She bit down on her own hand inside her shell hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. Yet outside, Chunyu Lin continued patting her shell, his song tender and full of feeling. He Bang thought and thought, and then a method actually came to her — when a true form took on human shape, was there not said to be a kind of membrane? If this were a dream, that thing would still be there intact. That was it!

Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. Yet she took on human form, curled up inside her shell, and reached down to feel for herself. Though the method was embarrassing beyond words, it was at least effective. Her finger found no resistance whatsoever. He Bang used her Clear Mind Technique to sweep through her own consciousness and drive away the drowsiness. No — the old Daoist was not a dream; he was real! So then… was Chunyu Lin the dream?

She pushed open her shell and looked at the warm, jade-like Chunyu Lin. She closed her eyes and opened them again. Then she rose, and brought her palm down in a strike.

Everything around her shattered. The Sea Sovereign’s Palace, the red algae, the jellyfish, the guards — all of it vanished. The bottom of the well was once again just the bottom of a well: dim, cold, and silent. But what was terrifying was — Chunyu Lin was still there.

He looked at He Bang, and his gaze was full of love and sadness: “You no longer wish to be with me?”

He Bang shook her head: “No. You are already dead. You are a Ming Serpent in disguise!”

Chunyu Lin let out a soft sigh: “Come back to the sea with me. Those days we spent together were full of happiness, weren’t they?”

When he sighed, he always managed to make one’s heart ache for him. He Bang slowly backed away: “‘When no thought arises — that is mind; when no thought ceases — that is Buddha; when every form is taken on — that is mind; when every form is let go — that is Buddha…'” She recited a Buddhist verse, her right hand summoning her dharmic staff. The well water seemed to become sentient, surging straight toward Chunyu Lin. Churned by the water, the figure of Chunyu Lin flickered — and in an instant, dissolved into nothing.

He Bang was suddenly seized by an urgent need to return to Rong Chen Zi’s side. She rode the water upward. But the rim of the well was empty of anyone. Where had Rong Chen Zi gone?