The Twenty-Month Azure Fish Ring

Atop Filth Mountain.

Li Fuchan immediately began using the Gold-Gathering Secret Origin Art to gather the Spirit Object within the mountain.

Perhaps Flying Light considered it unripe, but for Li Fuchan, it was already good enough.

The thing was like water and mist, like smoke and cloud, giving off a faint glow. Li Fuchan enveloped it in Golden Light and carefully placed it in a jade box. Only then did it settle down.

This brought him a measure of enlightenment, clearing up things he had previously only half understood. The Treasure Light between his brows brightened slightly.

A mountain was a mountain only because of its immense bulk. For Wu Earth to become a mountain, it had to take root and sit upon a repository.

He had once told Ning Xiufu that Wu Earth was the repository of fire. That claim had been wrong, simply because his Dao Attainment had been too shallow then. Having read a few Daoist texts, he had heard the wind and taken it for rain.

Vast as Wu Earth was, it was a heavenly stem, belonging to the heavens. How could it be a repository?

Only the earthly branches rested upon the earth and could contain the qi of the heavenly stems.

Hence the term "Hidden Stems."

Thus, the repository of fire was not Wu of the heavenly stems, but Xu of the earthly branches.

The “green” was, in truth, black, denoting parched, hot earth. He had sensed it while gathering the Spirit Object: Earthfire lay hidden within Greenbriar Mountain. The Fei clan's history also recorded that Fei Yiming had once used Earthfire to refine pills.

"Briar" signified a sharp edge, which metal and stone could produce. There were indeed many fragments of ore on Greenbriar Mountain, scorched out by the Earthfire.

Viewed in this light, the repository upon which Wu Earth sat had to be the Xu Earth repository.

Xu Earth of the earthly branches was the true repository of fire, storing Ding Fire, hiding the stem Wu Earth, and retaining the remnants of Xin Metal.

That was why it could confine the Wandering Gold Spirit Object while nurturing and refining it with fire.

"With this insight alone, the journey was worthwhile."

Li Fuchan exhaled.

These were not things he could have suddenly understood out of nowhere.

A Plea for Thirty-Six Years of Romantic Tales contained all manner of stories and a jumble of doctrines from various Daoist traditions. Some were nonsense, and others outright fabrications, but many held genuine value. Li Fuchan often sorted through them, winnowing out the chaff and keeping the grain.

On top of that, he had obtained the Gold-Gathering Secret Origin Art and witnessed Flying Light wield it with transcendent mastery.

Once everything connected, understanding dawned.

"With this, switching cultivation methods will be easier."

He did not linger for even a moment.

Li Fuchan swept up all the dozens of storage pouches. With a flicker, he darted several dozen yards away, then vanished into the depths of the mountains in a few bounds.

Before long, a surge of monstrous qi erupted in the direction of Filth Mountain. Like raging floodwaters bursting through a dike, it surged and crushed outward in all directions, flattening trees and sending startled birds tumbling wherever it passed.

Faint sounds of furious cursing mingled within it. Even across who knew how many miles, they still made his eardrums ache.

Presumably, Flying Light had caught the false body that had lured him away and discovered something amiss.

Li Fuchan paid no heed to what happened behind him. Clutching the bulging heap of Storage Bags, he sped onward until he reunited with his own false body.

He retrieved Light-Deceiving and Brow Peak from its hands in turn. Without taking time to examine them, he casually dispersed the remaining Blood Qi with a slap.

The false body dissolved into a cloud of red mist. Without looking back, he leaped away.

This escape had cost him only two Spirit Talismans and a little Blood Qi in exchange for so many possessions. It had certainly been a bargain.

Once he left the bounds of Greenbriar Mountain, Li Fuchan dared not pause for even an instant.

The monstrous qi behind him clung to his trail like something gone mad. Even from far away, he could feel its savage, near-insane killing intent pressing toward him like a mountain, unceasing day and night.

With the Three Lights within him and lightning lending him strength, Li Fuchan rode the wind. His figure almost became a streak of lightning, flickering across the sky.

Were it not for his concern that the Thunderbolt would cause too much commotion and draw the attention of some great monster, who might casually slap him out of the sky,

he would have left Flying Light far behind long ago.

Pursuer and fugitive raced on like this for five full days.

On the fifth day, the monstrous qi relentlessly pursuing him finally began falling behind. Though it still trailed him in the distance, that suffocating pressure faded with each passing day.

Li Fuchan dared not relax in the slightest. He forced himself to keep running for another two or three days, fleeing until he could no longer sense even a trace of monstrous qi behind him.

Only then did he find a village, slip into an abandoned cellar, and hide himself while holding his breath.

The cellar was damp and gloomy, the smell of mildew assailing his nose. Li Fuchan sat against the mottled earthen wall, his eyes half closed, and finally released a long, stale breath.

He rubbed his knuckles, silently weighing matters in his mind. This is already deep within the Southern Border. If I go any farther, I should see the cities that hold back the monsters. Their walls have restrictive wards, and Immortal Sects and Aristocratic Clans stand guard within. But I cannot go any farther.

If he rashly approached and happened to arrive during a Monster assault, those atop the walls would not care whether he was human or monster, enemy or friend. A wild volley of arrows would rain down, and his death would be for nothing.

Thinking this, he closed his eyes again, and his breathing gradually deepened.

When he woke again, two days had passed.

Only now did he have time to inspect the Fei Household members' Storage Bags.

The cultivation methods and arts were of secondary importance. Apart from one movement art, none stood out, and even that movement art was hardly worth much. Adhering to his principle of wasting nothing, Li Fuchan scanned them all with Treasure Light.

What remained were Spirit Objects and Spirit Stones.

Though the Fei Household had fallen on hard times, it still possessed some wealth: a total of one hundred and twenty-one Spirit Stones, forty-three kinds of Spirit Objects, and sixteen magical artifacts.

Li Fuchan selected a clasped Jade Ring tied with a green tassel. Named the Twenty-Month Azure Fish Ring, it was an Outer Scenery-grade magical artifact, one Fei Yiming had worn in his day. It had remained with Fei Cai, but since Fei Cai had resolved to die, he had left it to the younger Fei clan members before departing.

The jade ring could store metal and accumulate qi, concealing and nurturing its contents. Given enough time and a stroke of fortune, it might even impart a little spirituality to a certain kind of qi. It had something of a repository's nature, though this was merely a possibility. Judging by his knowledge, that possibility was exceedingly small.

Li Fuchan tested it. The ring could replace the jade box, holding the Wandering Gold qi and that Spirit Object. It could also contain as many as twenty strands of fire qi, which could condense into a grain of Fire Essence over twenty months. At present, it held three grains of Fire Essence.

Released by surprise, they could burn away half of Flying Light's life without difficulty.

"Fei Cai had such a deadly weapon yet left it unused, choosing instead to wield a halberd that had already fallen in grade. That was hardly wise."

Li Fuchan put away the Twenty-Month Azure Fish Ring.

He placed the remaining Spirit Objects in one Storage Bag, the magical artifacts in another, and the Spirit Stones in a third.

Looking at the three Storage Bags, Li Fuchan could not help saying, "Now even I count as a wealthy man."

After sorting through everything, he discovered another booklet. Its cover was old, but it had been kept in pristine condition.

There was no title on it.

Li Fuchan opened it and found that its pages contained pasted-in excerpts cut from letters and personal accounts—in other words, diaries—as well as scattered phrases and passages from historical texts.

The many signatures beneath them all bore the same name.

"Fei Yiming?"