On Jise Peak

Song Jixin stood for a while, then turned and left in silence. Just as he had said, the two men of the same age who had been neighbors in Mud Bottle Alley for years had little to talk about. They had disliked each other since childhood and had never walked the same road. Yet neither had likely imagined that the boys once separated by a single courtyard wall—one the "Supervising Official's illegitimate son," loudly reciting his lessons, the other a potter's apprentice pricking up his ears to steal a little learning—would become a powerful prince of the second-greatest dynasty in Vast Heaven and Earth and Lord Yin Guan of the Sword Qi Great Wall. Earlier still, one had been a young master who wanted for nothing, with a maidservant to keep house, while the other was a straw-sandaled pauper who often went hungry and sometimes helped carry water.

Song Jixin could not help looking up at the sky. Would the sunlight and moonlight that had once spilled into Mud Bottle Alley feel their journey through the mortal world had been worth the trip?

Song Jixin walked on slowly, leaving Chen Ping'an without a goodbye. Chen had once seemed like a stalk of Weed Grass growing in a rice paddy, someone passersby would never glance at twice. But they had been neighbors for roughly ten years. Song Jixin had spent his whole childhood and youth looking at that house and narrow alley, until he was sick of the sight. Yet now, from the deep grass of his childhood, he gradually saw a towering weed emerge.

What did any of that have to do with him?

Unexpectedly, after Chen Ping'an rose from a deep bow, he called Song Jixin back. Song Jixin turned. "Something you need?"

Chen Ping'an came over. "Does the