Carrying Fire, Moving the Star Continent; Riding Clouds Out of Ding Lake!

In the dim cosmos, twelve streams of starlight spread across the heavens and lit up the vast expanse. They traveled slowly along their appointed paths, as though they would never go dark.

Yet at the very moment Wang Ping killed You Xuexin—

One stream of starlight suddenly rippled, like a pebble dropped into a lake. The faint disturbance sank deep into the light.

Within it lay a magnificent continent.

Surrounded by sea on all sides, it held towering mountains, a web of rivers, and more scenic and historic sites than could be counted. Streaks of light flew to and fro. It was plainly a sacred land of immortals.

But just then, in the continent's northwest, thunder cracked beneath a clear blue sky. No clouds or rain appeared, only peals of thunder rolling overhead, growing ever louder. Beasts stampeded across the ground, birds took flight, mortals knelt and kowtowed, and cultivators looked around in bewilderment.

"What's going on?"

The younger cultivators looked at one another, unable to make sense of it.

Only a few veterans sighed at the sight.

"Thunder sounds in the heavens without any visible cause. I'm afraid a Qi Refiner has been disturbed and grown angry. Heaven and earth have answered his will, hence this bolt from the blue."

"And the thunder seems to be coming from... Sun-Moon Lake?"

As they talked, a young cultivator slapped his palm.

"I remember! Martial Uncle Mingyou of Sun-Moon Lake is nearing the end of his lifespan. He must have realized while meditating that he has little time left, and suddenly grown angry..."

"Shh! Watch your tongue!"

Before he could finish, the senior brother beside him clamped a hand over his mouth so hard he nearly tore it open.

"Do you have a death wish!?"

The senior brother snapped, "Martial Uncle Mingyou refined the Insight into Truth and Falsehood, Illuminating Qi. Talk carelessly, and he can see you with a single thought!"

Fear crossed the young cultivator's face. "Is... is he really that powerful?"

"Of course! Whose disciple are you, not to know even that?"

"Uh, I haven't taken a master yet. I'm still an Inner Sect Disciple..."

"Oh, inner sect. That explains it."

With that, the senior brother took a disdainful step back, washed the hand he had used to cover the other man's mouth with Dharma Power, then turned and left.

The young cultivator was left standing there, a mess in the wind.

Similar scenes of confusion unfolded elsewhere across the continent. Many raised their heads and gazed toward the distant source of the thunder in the clear sky.

Sun-Moon Lake.

Despite its name, it was vast enough to be an inland sea. Its waters were black and white, like a classical ink painting.

At the center of those waters, where the two halves met, stood a small island with a thatched hut. Someone emerged from it: a figure in black-and-white robes and a fishtail crown, holding a horsetail whisk. Despite the formal attire, he looked like a young boy.

He stood there and looked up at the sky.

For ten thousand miles around the hut, lightning serpents coiled and thunder rolled overhead. Brilliant rosy clouds shimmered, until water and sky reflected the same colors.

The boy stared straight at those clouds. Light blazed in his eyes, flickering between brightness and shadow. Then he lowered his head and sighed.

"Xuexin is dead."

His voice was nothing like his appearance: aged and heavy with the weariness of approaching death.

"She died while escorting the Five Thieves Stealing Heaven Myriad Transformation Divine Talisman. Bringing it to me was filial of her, but she abandoned her post all the same."

The rosy clouds rippled faintly, their colors shifting.

The boy frowned, his voice hardening. "Whatever the case, she cannot die yet. I need her to keep watch over the Eight Trigrams Furnace for me."

The clouds stilled. Only then did the boy give a slight nod. "Good."

He turned his gaze to the other side of the heavens, fixed it on one of the stars, and gently pushed up his fishtail crown.

Rumble!

A towering auspicious cloud of three interwoven colors surged from the ground. It pierced the heavens, then unfurled into a vast canopy.

The canopy reached the sun and moon above and stretched over rivers below. Lightning wandered around its edges, and the Heavenly Drum sounded from time to time. Now it spanned the firmament, seated at the center of heaven and earth. With a single breath, it drew spiritual energy surging in from every direction, while myriad rosy lights gathered around it.

Then the cloud canopy soared skyward.

In an instant, it smashed through the Thirty-Three Heavens and vanished into the cosmic sea of stars. Stars flickered in succession along its path, heaven and earth shook, and it fled to an immeasurable distance.

At almost the same moment, the boy disappeared.

Thus it was said: carrying fire, he moved the star continent; riding clouds, he rose out of Ding Lake!

Space shattered, Heaven in a Pot collapsed, and the flying vessel fell out of the void, crashing heavily onto a mountaintop.

"This is bad, bad, bad!"

On the wrecked vessel, the man surnamed Lin was pale with terror. A jade pendant in his robe had suddenly cracked. It was a secret treasure he had gone out of his way to obtain before setting off.

It could sense disturbances in the qi of heaven and earth. If any one of the Twenty-Four Seasonal Qi changed, the treasure would alert him.

And just now, the Insight into Truth and Falsehood, Illuminating Qi had stirred so violently that it shattered the pendant. That meant he was the cause. When he thought of You Xuexin's master, the one who had long resided at Sun-Moon Lake, he could no longer contain his fear.

"He's... he's coming!"

"How is that possible? He actually noticed You Xuexin's death? With a Qi Refiner's Divine Abilities, he can ride the qi of heaven and earth. He'll be here soon!"

The more Lin thought about it, the more frightened he became.

He could no longer spare a thought for the Five Thieves Stealing Heaven Myriad Transformation Divine Talisman right beside him. He pulled a talisman from his robe and ignited it with Dharma Power.

"No. I have to run first..."

Flames flared. The talisman bore a Divine Ability: Fire Escape. Its light engulfed Lin.

His figure vanished in the flames, clearly having escaped to another region. Only the band of frenzied Marauder Cultivators remained.

Three breaths passed.

Every Marauder Cultivator stopped dead. The boy appeared among them out of thin air, holding the Five Thieves Stealing Heaven Myriad Transformation Divine Talisman.

The magnificent cloud canopy appeared above him as well.

Three colors interwove within it, water and fire sustaining each other. To the countless living beings beneath its shadow, it was now the "heavens" themselves.

"Heaven above..."

Thud! Every Marauder Cultivator dropped to their knees as one and gazed up at the canopy with devout faces. As they bowed, they turned to ash.

"He ran?"

The boy surveyed the area. He soon saw the Six-Desire Demon Banner standing firm, and You Xuexin's soul floating aimlessly in the air.

But though it was called You Xuexin's soul, her cultivation had been insufficient to preserve it. Once deprived of her body and exposed to heaven and earth, her true spirit had already dissolved into the surrounding spiritual energy and entered nature's cycle. It had no awareness left, only a wisp of wandering yin energy.

In other words, he had arrived too late.

"Interesting."

The boy gave a cold laugh. He reached toward the empty air before him as though grasping something invisible, then slowly turned it.

Rush!

The sound of surging rivers rang through heaven and earth. The once-clear scene blurred, turning hazy.

Then the Marauder Cultivators who had been reduced to ash came back to life within that haze. Everything flowed backward into the past. Before long, fire flashed, and Lin—who had just escaped with his life—was dragged back to his original spot!

And it did not stop there.

Time kept flowing backward. At last, You Xuexin's soul changed. Her true spirit, already absorbed into the cycle of spiritual energy, was forcibly drawn back out.

Awareness returned to her soul.

Then it descended.

Her body, which had also turned to ash, swiftly reassembled. Her full figure took shape again, her soul entered it, and her halted breathing resumed.

"Ha... hah!"

You Xuexin jolted upright. Bewilderment filled her eyes, while the world around her, hazy and unreal a moment ago, came back into focus.

"This is..." Her gaze shifted, and she quickly spotted the boy. She froze, then seemed to realize what had happened. Her face went deathly pale. Slowly, she turned and prostrated herself. "I have troubled Master to come in person to the mortal world. Please punish me."

Her trembling voice held both fear and excitement.

She feared that her death had disturbed the boy and that he would blame her. Yet she was also thrilled by the Divine Ability he had displayed.

"Heaven-Reversing Sun-Dial Instrument!"

"That must be it. No other Great Divine Ability could have brought me back after I died and my soul's true spirit entered the cycle of spiritual energy."

People always said time could not flow backward, that the years would never turn back.

Yet for the Immortal Sect's Qi Refiners, even precious time had to obey their will and bow before their mighty power!

"Get up," the boy said quietly.

"It matters little. This place is no longer very close to the mortal world. Besides, I have some connections in the Divine Weapons Institute. They won't make too much of it."

Then he glanced at the Six-Desire Demon Banner beside You Xuexin. Under his gaze, neither the fiends within it nor the Six-Desire Demon King could hide. They could only submit to his scrutiny. After a while, the boy said softly, "This magical implement caused your death."

"You refined it yourself, didn't you?"

"Your technique was crude. Its principal soul lost control and ran wild when you used it. It already resented you, so a backlash was only natural."

"What? But..."

You Xuexin faltered. On reflection, though, her master could not be wrong. Regret quickly appeared on her face.

But soon she frowned.

"Forgive my boldness, Master... How, exactly, did I die?"

She could not remember.

That should not have happened. Time had clearly been reversed; she ought to remember her death. Yet when she tried, the memory was strangely indistinct.

She only remembered that she seemed to have died in some absurd way.

Why!?

A chill went through You Xuexin. She looked up and saw that the boy was frowning too. He shook his head. "It must be that little thief's doing."

"His Five Thieves Stealing Heaven Method has supreme mysteries. If he killed you with it, naturally you would not remember. It would also explain why I found no trace when I reversed time. That little thief delights in erasing cause and effect. Catching one small fry was already an unexpected gain."

The boy turned to the man surnamed Lin, whom he had brought back.

"Huh?" said Lin.

Even now, he had not come to his senses. His mind still lingered on the joy of escaping in time with a Fire Escape Divine Ability talisman, and his face was blank.

To him, only an instant had passed, yet it also felt as though he had crossed ten million years.

When the boy's gaze fell on him, he finally regained the ability to think. He came to himself and looked at the boy.

But to Lin's eyes, the boy's figure was shrouded in an overwhelming presence, vast as mountains and seas. A single glance nearly made his heart burst with terror.

"So... so I didn't escape after all..."

Thud!

Lin dropped to his knees and slammed his forehead against the ground. He did not dare shield himself with Dharma Power; he even let his skin split open. Blood poured out at once.

"I beg you to forgive me, Master!"

"An Inner Sect Disciple who has not become a True Disciple dares call me Master?"

The boy's tone was mild. One glance pierced Lin's soul, but he found nothing useful there either. Impatient, he swept his sleeve.

Lin and the Marauder Cultivators who had been revived by the reversal of time fell once more. Their bodies broke apart and dissolved into nothingness.

You Xuexin swallowed.

"Master..."

Her gaze caught on the Five Thieves Stealing Heaven Myriad Transformation Divine Talisman in the boy's hand. As though remembering something, she hurried to explain in a low voice:

"Congratulations on obtaining this treasure, Master. I asked about it beforehand. It records the Life-Stealing Thief, which can steal Life Essence. Once you master it, you can use that essence to replenish your lifespan. You will no longer have to endure the Divine Weapons Institute and Immortal Formula Institute holding power over you."

"Life-Stealing Thief..."

The boy examined the jade slip again. Its strange, demonic allure could drive cultivators mad with obsession, yet it could not shake his Dao heart in the slightest.

"...A chicken rib. Barely worth the trouble."

"That little thief knows how to scheme. Everything he let slip beyond the sect is incomplete. It has the power of a spell, but it cannot compare to a Divine Ability, much less touch the qi of heaven and earth."

"This is useless to me."

The boy crushed the jade slip, then looked at You Xuexin. "You should never have accepted this task. Your intentions were filial, but your efforts backfired."

"Go back. Put aside all other schemes. You have only one thing to do now: watch over the Eight Trigrams Furnace for me at the Divine Weapons Institute. See that the Dharma Treasure for extending my life is refined as soon as possible, then bring it to me. Once the deed is done, you will have your chance to master a Great Divine Ability."

You Xuexin bowed in alarm. "As you command, Master!"

The boy nodded, then added casually, "As for your Six-Desire Demon Banner, it was crudely refined, but it may still be salvaged."

"Your time watching over the Eight Trigrams Furnace is an opportunity."

"Choose the right moment to throw it into the Eight Trigrams Furnace and refine it patiently for a dozen years or so. It might shed its old form entirely and become a Dharma Treasure."

"Thank you for your guidance, Master!"

Within the Peace Scripture.

Wang Ping sat on the raised platform, still shaken. He watched light rise and sink across the majestic book before him, brightening and fading. Only after a long while did he let out a breath.

He had a stomach full of things to say, but in the end, all he could manage was an astonished outburst:

"Holy shit... That's Qi Refinement?"

Was there something wrong with this whole immortal cultivation system!?