The Three Realms Beyond the Bridge

"Perhaps I'm getting old. I truly don't understand why you'd do something so pointless."

When Hu Ma finished his final sentence and drew his thoughts inward, he caught sight of the National Teacher's face falling silent out of the corner of his eye.

He knew how cutting those words were, and he knew just how furious the National Teacher would be.

The National Teacher knew he had never stepped onto the bridge, so naturally he could never have imagined that Hu Ma might master the Talisman Suppression Mother Style. Perhaps Hu Ma himself hadn't imagined it at first, either. The one who had seen the subtlety in it was someone else: Zhou Zhiming, the Young Master of the Yang Ming Zhou Family.

The timing of Zhou Zhiming's arrival with Great Hall Official Tie Jun to welcome him amid the Panshan Army's formation had been strange.

The way he had spoken to Hu Ma after meeting him had been just as strange.

Later, Hu Ma had left, but Zhou Zhiming had left his family's daughter at Hu Ma's side. That was even stranger.

By then, Hu Ma had already decided to cultivate the Nine Pillars Path and abandon the road beyond the bridge. But that didn't mean he wasn't curious about the abilities of those who had crossed it. He had already learned about the realms of the Bridge Guests from Old Abacus.

By common understanding, breaking through the three gates of the Estate marked one's entry into transcendence. Everything thereafter existed somewhere between illusion and reality, and the arts were so wondrous and uncanny that it was hard to judge one against another. Still, broadly speaking, there were several realms.

The first step onto the bridge was called "Human Non-Human."

A little farther along came "Ghost Non-Ghost."

Farther still was