Qin Zhizhen sidestepped, and Yama Lord of Bian City passed right by him. Then a rift opened in the void, and it happened to fall straight into it.
The gateway in the void was naturally only a feint. Behind several layers of concealment, he had in fact opened his own Sea of Hidden Intent. Along the connection Jiang Wang had established, he let Yan Xiao plunge headlong through.
The booming voice of the Yama Son of Heaven echoed over the ice coffin—
"Your bird."
Dou Zhao's showing this round had indeed been dazzling. And he had spat a blade with such suddenness that Qin Zhizhen had no answer for the moment. Fortunately, Yama Lord of Bian City had nothing to do with him; someone else could carry that pot.
Jiang Wang remained motionless within the ice coffin, one hand covering the Azure Cauldron as he gazed at Zuo Qiu Wu within the Mountains and Rivers Seal. They seemed like two silent statues, able to watch over one another until the end of time.
An aged monk whose face shifted through all living beings, clad in a patchwork cassock, entered the pavilion beyond the sea of intent. "Pavilion Member Qin, you truly love a joke."
"Yama Lord of Bian City is a great lord of the Underworld, a divinely ordained official. Independent in thought, orderly in conduct, constrained only by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva... What yours or mine is there? We are all contributing to the Netherworld."
Then he looked at Dou Zhao. "As for being broad-minded... that is not entirely wrong."
"This was passed down by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. It seems to be called the Great Dream Sutra, used to help Him sweep away His own stray thoughts. As the Confucian elder said, 'When rites collapse and music decays, demonic thoughts grow thick