The person outside the door was indeed Divine Lord Yinze. However, he was still wearing Ma Xiao’s appearance, having shaved his beard, removed the bear fur armor, and tied his hair into a braid at the back of his head instead of bundled on top, looking much more agile.

Wiping the blood clean from his long sword, he sheathed it: “With no combat experience at all, what were you running around so fast by yourself for?”

“I… I thought Taishi Jun wasn’t here.”

“I fell together with you—how could I not be here?” Seeing the wound on my shoulder, he took out a medicine bottle from his chest and threw it over. “I can’t use magic arts now. Take this—it stops bleeding.”

I quickly swallowed the pill: “If you can’t use magic arts, how did you get down here?”

Yinze looked down at the sword at his waist, then looked up at me with disdain at seeing an idiot. I said, puzzledly: “Why can’t Taishi Jun use magic arts? I can.”

Yinze said, “If my divine body stays too long in the mortal realm, it easily causes ice and snow disasters. Therefore, I transformed into human form. This isn’t an illusion—unless I cast magic again to change back, this body is no different from a mortal’s. In this place, neither humans nor demons can use magic arts. When I fell in, I had no time to change back to divine form.”

“That is to say… this human body can’t use any magic arts at all?”

“Correct.”

“Then, if the human body is destroyed, what happens?”

“Death.”

“Then what should we do now?”

“There’s no exit in Lianyao Valley. We can only go down to the bottom level and take a detour through the underworld back to the immortal realm.”

Taishi Jun was indeed Taishi Jun—still so good at using simple answers to crush people to ash. In that case, Yinze was now even weaker than I. On this journey, I’d probably have to protect him. Suddenly, responsibility pressed on my shoulders like a thousand-pound boulder. Having only gone down a few floors, I already couldn’t handle the demons here alone. Going further down while protecting a mortal, we were probably doomed.

Since we’d die either way, I knelt: “Taishi Jun, if we can safely get out of here, please promise me one thing.”

“Speak.”

“Accept me as your disciple.” At the end, I didn’t forget to add: “Taishi Jun, now we two must depend on each other. I guarantee I’ll protect you on this journey, but I want to follow you!”

“Oh? Can you protect me?” He raised his eyebrows, inexplicably becoming interested.

Strangely, Ma Xiao’s face was ordinary and unremarkable, but paired with Divine Lord Yinze’s expressions, it radiated charming appeal.

I said guiltily: “I’ll do my utmost.”

“Very well, I’ll give you some pointers.”

“Yes! Thank you, Master!” I said excitedly, but met his suddenly cold gaze, so my momentum weakened again. “Thank you, Taishi Jun…”

I was celebrating too early. Previously, when Fu Chenzhi said Divine Lord Yinze was a strict teacher, I thought he was only fifty percent right. He was a tyrannical teacher. We stayed on this level, finding a few small demons to practice on. I fought with one for just a few rounds and eliminated it, but…

“Spellcasting posture incorrect.”

“Spiritual energy is too scattered.”

“Slow reaction.”

“Dodging movements too large—it makes your counterattack speed slower.”

“Your water manipulation curves around? Are you embroidering?”

“So weak, so slow—what’s the difference between you and that thing?” He pointed at the moss monster, flowing green water in the corner.

…

Having been praised by teachers in classrooms since childhood, my dignity suffered a devastating impact. I said mournfully: “Taishi Jun, I’m only a spirit…”

“Right, I almost forgot. Aren’t you a water spirit? How is it that after fighting so many times, you only know how to make ice arrows?”

“I can also make ice sculptures… but during combat, there’s no time to make ice blocks look pretty…”

Yinze was silent for a while: “I mean, if you keep using water manipulation to attack, you waste a lot of time. Why not directly use water-based magic arts?”

I said: “Taishi Jun, we Suozhao clan can only manipulate water, not transform water…”

“Who told you that?”

“You did.”

“When did I ever say that?”

The “Chronicles of Suozhao” said that Cangying God descended from heaven and told the Suozhao ancestors that water was the source of the Suozhao clan. If one carelessly drew water from within the body, it would be like pulling out one’s own roots and would shorten one’s lifespan… I had wanted to recite this passage to him, but the facts before me clearly showed: feudal superstition kills people.

In the end, I could only say: “Then can I transform water?”

“Do this movement.” Yinze cupped both hands in front of his chest as if holding a ball. “Then lift your qi, gather spiritual energy in your chest and abdomen, and guide it to your palms.”

I followed his movements and did as he said. Indeed, a continuous, clear stream surged outward from within my body, but it kept circling my shoulders.

He came a bit closer, pressing one hand on my back while pulling my shoulder back with the other: “When learning initially, posture must be standard, otherwise it will affect future practice.”

Being touched by him like this, my whole body shivered with alertness. I nodded repeatedly in agreement. He continued: “Now, push that spiritual energy out.”

After following his instructions, a miracle happened: thin water mist rose between my hands, rotating like a galaxy. I was both surprised and delighted, but didn’t dare make a sound, only looking up at him and nodding like a pecking chicken.

Yinze said: “Very good. Hook your index fingers together, concentrate, then gather the water mist from the index finger direction and use water manipulation to condense it into a water flow.”

I continued following his instructions, and the water mist truly gathered together, condensing into a babbling stream.

Yinze said, “Make it flow faster. Push it out.”

When I pushed the water flow out, it became a powerful water force that pushed the rocks ahead back three or four meters.

I immediately felt the exhilaration of mastering a divine technique. I clapped my hands, put them on my hips, raised my head and chest, and raised my eyebrows at Yinze.

Yinze said: “Exactly so. This is the most basic ‘Condensing Mist to Form Water.’ Remember, all Taoist arts related to water follow: mist transforms to water, water transforms to ice, ice transforms to blade.”

Afterward, he taught me some basic magical technique essentials. It turned out that the move “Condensing Mist to Form Water”—if one didn’t gather power in the index fingers but did the opposite, spreading both arms and dispersing the mist—would become “Smoke and Mist Rising to Heaven,” making enemies unable to see where you were. In other words, it was essentially the golden cicada escaping its shell. So far, I have found this move most practical.

After the lesson ended, we had just turned a corner when a toad spirit over a meter tall jumped out. Under Taishi Jun’s guidance, I defeated it in just a few rounds. Just as I was feeling proud, unexpectedly, the mantis caught the cicada while the oriole lurked behind—that terrifying centipede spirit had spotted us from very far away.

It moved its hundreds of human hands, stuck out its five-foot-long poisonous tongue, and came racing sinuously toward us.

Cangying God, this thing looked truly too frightening! Could we run away?

No wait, Cangying God was now a clay Buddha who couldn’t even protect himself. He was in human form now and couldn’t possibly outrun this centipede.

I rushed in front of Yinze, determined: “Taishi Jun, I’ll protect you!!”

“This centipede has cultivated for a thousand years—you can’t beat it. Stand back.” Yinze remained as calm as always.

“But…”

“Stand back!”

His rebuke scared me into retreating two steps. He drew his long sword, standing straight with the sword tip pointing to the ground. In my urgency, I used “Smoke and Mist Rising to Heaven,” but the mist I had just released was blown away by the centipede spirit’s breath from far away.

Discovering our weakness, its eyes glowed as it seemed even more excited. Its eyes were as big as watermelons, with yellow poison dripping from its tongue tip. In the quiet air, there was only the rustling sound of its rapid crawling. When fully extended, this thing was actually several times larger than the Yuwu, with skin as thick as steel. Even together, we two couldn’t possibly defeat it.

Seeing it was only about ten meters away from us, Yinze ran toward it carrying his sword.

At the same time, the centipede suddenly stopped, raised its body, and extended its tongue.

“Taishi Jun!!”

I saw Yinze leap high, heading straight for the centipede’s face. The centipede’s whole body shook, and it extended four more thin tongues.

This was it—Taishi Jun was about to die, and I wouldn’t be far behind.

Not wanting to face the upcoming carnage, I covered my ears and closed my eyes for a while, but still forced myself to open them to see what happened next.

However, the scene before me was completely unexpected: the centipede spirit stood frozen in place with wide eyes, motionless. Yinze appeared at its tail, kneeling on one knee with both hands gripping the sword hilt, the blade piercing into the ground.

At this moment, his braid was a beat slower, falling gently onto his back like willow catkins.

The centipede spirit suddenly split lengthwise into two halves, falling to both sides. In the center of a pile of wriggling organs, exposed on the ground, was a sword mark extending half the length of the corridor. Blood flowed like a river, seeping into this thin crack.

Simply… simply amazing…

I almost forgot that Fu Chenzhi’s swordsmanship was learned from Taishi Jun. But Taishi Jun said this was a mortal body—was he not joking? No matter how brilliant the swordsmanship, how could a mortal so easily defeat a thousand-year centipede spirit, like crushing an ant?

Well, a god was still a god—even as a mortal, he was still divine.

Yinze stood up, sheathed his clean, bright long sword, didn’t turn around, but half-turned his head: “Luowei, let’s go.”

“Ah? Oh, alright.”

He called my name just now?

Finally upgraded from “little water spirit” to “Luowei”—how hard was that for me!

Looking at his tall figure walking ahead, I suddenly felt that Lianyao Valley was as warm and safe as childhood bed curtains.

I trotted to catch up, following closely behind him like a little tail.

Lianyao Valley was truly jaw-droppingly large. For the next several days, we were on long journeys, searching for exits to lower levels. Fortunately, some floors had plants, so we didn’t have to resort to eating demons. The further down we went, the more demons had cultivated human forms. By the seventeenth floor, Yinze was even pestered by a devastatingly beautiful fox spirit.

This fox spirit originally lived by absorbing men’s vital essence and had seen countless people, yet seeing Yinze’s mortal face, her heart was stirred. She insisted on marrying him in this ghostly place no matter what. Yinze almost killed her, but I mediated for a long time before dragging him downstairs.

Finally reaching the twentieth floor, we had just entered through the teleportation array when we saw the back of a sword-bearing youth ahead. Seeing such a familiar silhouette here, I thought I was hallucinating.

However, when he turned around, it was Fu Chenzhi.

I said in shock: “Brother? Why are you here…”

However, his eyes were red-rimmed, and without a word, he wielded his sword and stabbed toward us.