Librarian of the Heavenly Emperor's Library

Xiuqiong Plain was vast, stretching over a thousand li in both directions. Mountains encircled it, their peaks capped with gleaming Bai snow, their slopes clothed in green pines and cypresses, red maples and Bai birches. Below lay lush carpets of grass, clear streams, and cascading waterfalls. It was as though winter, autumn, and spring had been gathered into one place; standing there, one could take in the finest scenery of every season.

Shi Feiyang found a long, narrow Mountain Valley in the Northwest Qian Position. High mountains enclosed it on every side, with only a winding path to the west connecting it to the surrounding Xiuqiong Plain.

The Mountain Valley was over a hundred li long, backed to the Northwest by a main peak three or four thousand zhang high, its summit covered in glaciers that had never melted since ancient times. Shi Feiyang chose a suitable spot, excavated an ice cave, and stored Geng Peng's frozen body inside. Once he obtained the Soul-Gathering Form-Refining Pills, he would find a way to rebuild Geng Peng's soul and bring him back to life.

He dug himself a cave at the foot of the mountain to serve as his living quarters. It was several dozen zhang wide, with an enormous Crouching Dragon Stone in the center. He also diverted a spring into it, letting the water flow around the Crouching Dragon Stone.

This was the sort of environment in which he felt most comfortable.

In addition, he made a concealed door and dug another three hundred zhang diagonally downward, installing nine stone doors along the way, each weighing ten thousand tons. At the deepest point lay an even larger, spherical cavern, which he used as his cultivation chamber.

He arranged things this way because the Dongling Zither's power was far too mysterious and unpredictable. A casual pluck could turn a demon's soul upside down, or even cause Soul Scattering, and could split mountains and shatter stone. If he played it outside, all the creatures on Xiuqiong Plain would instantly become like loaches freshly tossed into boiling oil, while many of its beautiful rocky landscapes would be blasted into ruins.

Most importantly, he did not want Ancestor Hollow Space to discover the full extent of his abilities.

He carved talismanic seals into the ceiling, floor, and walls of the deep cavern and laid down restrictive wards. Only after making certain nothing could go wrong did he begin taking stock of everything he now possessed.

First, he had obtained Geng Peng's Heaven-and-Earth Bag. Unlike other such bags, it was woven from golden threads made by working bird feathers together. Its interior was enormous, filled with treasures Geng Peng had collected over a thousand years.

Geng Peng rarely visited the Central Land, so most of his collection came from the sea. There were many materials for refining artifacts and pills, all manner of pearls, gemstones, coral, exceptionally beautiful seashells and conches, and numerous eggs laid by unknown creatures. Some had green shells, some red, and others shells that changed color. The largest were bigger than cartwheels, while the smallest resembled longans. All were sealed with Spells.

Shi Feiyang did not know what he might be dealing with and dared not hatch them carelessly. Naturally, he had neither the inclination nor the energy for that at present.

There were also parts of animal and human bodies: Dragon claws, tiger heads, eagle wings, leopard tails... as well as human heads and limbs. All had been preserved with Spells and medicines and remained remarkably fresh.

Shi Feiyang found a Jade Casket containing a stack of papers that had not yet been bound into a book. Every page bore both illustrations and text.

After reading for a while, he finally understood that these concerned one volume of the Chiyou Threefold Scripture: methods for freely exchanging the limbs and body parts of any living creature. For example, one could cut off a human head and attach it to another animal's body, creating a human-beast monster, or attach an animal's head to a human body. As for replacing hands, feet, hearts, and lungs, the variations were too numerous to list. The contents were extraordinarily extensive.

Shi Feiyang was somewhat disappointed. When he first found the papers, he had thought they were the Chiyou Threefold Scripture itself. Instead, they were merely Geng Peng's research notes. He had no desire to study such things, which were of little use to him.

Then he recalled that Ancestor Hollow Space's most famous possession was the miraculous medicine capable of reattaching severed limbs, the Ten-Thousand-Year Mending Paste. The friendship between him and the brothers Geng Kun and Geng Peng probably had something to do with that.

Besides Geng Peng's Heaven-and-Earth Bag, he had also obtained half the contents of Lady Baoxiang's Heaven-and-Earth Bag.

The Heavenly Fox's hoard was utterly different from Geng Peng's. Apart from some materials for refining artifacts and pills, it consisted mostly of herbs, along with Five Elements essences gathered throughout the Central Land, radiance of the sun and moon, heavenly dipper and earthly fiend energies, and Five Sacred Mountains Cloud Qi. There was water from one mountain's famed spring, fine tea from another, and many precious porcelain and jade vessels, as well as all manner of everyday necessities.

Among all these odds and ends, two things gave Shi Feiyang a particularly pleasant surprise. One was a magical treasure called the Dust-Veiling Banner.

The banner was only about an inch long, made of neither silk nor hemp; he could not tell what it had been woven from. A human heart was embroidered at its center, radiating five-colored light. Its shifting, lustrous glow made it seem to beat. When brought close, it fell into rhythm with Shi Feiyang's heartbeat, naturally creating a subtle resonance.

Besides the Dust-Veiling Banner, he had obtained several sheets of paper recording Spells and secret methods for refining treasures.

Lady Baoxiang's father, Old Man Xuexue, had ascended long ago, and the Heavenly Emperor had assigned him to guard the Langhuan Library. The Heavenly Emperor's Library collected books from all three realms, its contents as vast as a sea of smoke, numbering far more than tens of millions of volumes. It required many librarians, and Old Man Xuexue was only one of them.

Because he missed his daughter in the mortal world, Old Man Xuexue had secretly learned many Immortal Arts, then passed them to her using secret techniques.

These Immortal Arts came not merely from this world, but from throughout all the heavens and the entire realm of existence. Many of their written scripts, languages, customs, materials, and implements differed from those here. Even Old Man Xuexue could not fully comprehend them. Often, he simply passed along whatever he read that seemed useful or good. In truth, he dared not practice them in heaven either, for fear his colleagues would discover him.

Lady Baoxiang gathered these Immortal Arts together, recording them first so she could slowly study them later. There were quite a few Spells she had spent years pondering without managing to master.

When the Heaven-and-Earth Bag ruptured earlier, this book had also been torn apart in the distorted space. Shi Feiyang had obtained only a few scraps of paper. Even after painstakingly piecing them together, much remained incomprehensible. Yet they actually contained the refinement methods for the Dust-Veiling Banner and another magical treasure, the Myriad Treasures Ruyi Pure Yang Heart-Transferring Lock, as well as two Spells: Thousand-Li Courtyard-in-a-Pouch Shrinking Projection and the Jiyin Ninefold Surge Lesser-Vehicle Myriad Treasures Art.

There were others too, but too much was missing. For example, one art called "Thirty-Six Heavenly Dipper Transformations" had only its name followed by a couple of sentences: "The number of heavenly transformations is thirty-six; the number of earthly transformations is seventy-two. For the Way of Heaven revolves, passing through ten degrees to traverse the stations of the celestial stars. Earth models itself upon heaven; the Way of Heaven gives birth, and the Way of Earth brings to completion. Earth's qi changes once every five days..." After that remained half a character, resembling either "is" or "vast heaven." It was impossible to derive any further understanding.

What a waste, what a waste! That wanton Fox Lady Baoxiang spent all day seducing men. You could tell from the name alone how formidable this immortal art was, yet she couldn't figure it out even with it in her hands. Still, thank goodness she couldn't, or I probably wouldn't be alive now.

Shi Feiyang prepared to refine the Dust-Veiling Banner.

In fact, most of Lady Baoxiang's Spells had to do with space.

Thousand Miles Courtyard-in-a-Pouch Shrinking Projection did just what its name suggested: it compressed a distance of a thousand li into a single house and courtyard, condensing the world's scenery into a small pouch or sachet.

Its essence was still the compression of space, which was then used for travel.

The Dust-Veiling Banner was said to be capable of containing Mount Sumeru within a mote of dust or a mustard seed. In reality, its underlying principle was the same.

Shi Feiyang first mastered Thousand-Li Courtyard-in-a-Pouch Shrinking Projection, achieving fresh breakthroughs and insights in his ability to perform Reversing Yin and Yang and rearrange space. He then refined the Dust-Veiling Banner, gaining twice the result for half the effort.

The Dust-Veiling Banner had originally been linked to Lady Baoxiang's heart and breath. Wherever it was, a mere thought from her would make it transform into a streak of golden light and fly back.

However, it had first been sealed inside the Jade Casket Heavenly Book and then swallowed by Shi Feiyang. Now it was in his underground cultivation chamber at the North Pole, behind layer upon layer of restrictive wards. No matter how capable Lady Baoxiang was, she could not summon it back.

Thanks to brother "Zhang Yeyu" for another generous tip and his support. May you stay forever young!