The Fourth Level

Xue Shi knelt on the stone platform at the center of the lake for an entire night. No one knew what Luo Tianshen had asked him that night, or what he had said in reply. All they knew was that when Luo Yan hauled him off the platform the next morning, the Blood God Clan deacon who had drained all his subordinates' blood with a sinister laugh in the Luo River Abyss had gone limp as a puddle of mud. He could not even stand, and all that remained in his dark red eyes was a terror bordering on collapse.

Luo Yan locked him in the deepest dungeon of the Luo Shen Residence and assigned four elders to guard him in shifts. Immediately afterward, Luo Tianshen summoned all the elders of the clan, and they spent the entire morning in discussion behind the closed doors of the council hall.

Xiao Yan did not know what they discussed, nor did he ask. He returned to his little courtyard, shut the gate, and sat in his room for three days.

His hands had spent three days healing in the Luo River Abyss, and another three after he came out. The ruptured meridians had reconnected, but faint red scars still lined his palms, and they felt a little tight when he clenched his fists. He had not shut himself in his room to tend to his hands, though, but because of the changes inside his body.

After coming out of the Luo River Abyss, Xiao Yan had noticed that the conflict between the Spiritual Energy he had assimilated and the remaining forty percent of his Dou Qi that had yet to be assimilated had changed.

Before, they had been as incompatible as water and fire. Spiritual Energy was water, and Dou Qi was fire. The water sought to put out the fire, and the fire sought to boil the water dry. Every collision was a fight to the death, which was why he had needed layer upon layer of Reverse Scales to guide and channel them, gradually turning the fire into water.

But now, something else had entered that conflict: cold.

The wisp of Mysterious Yin Ice Flame in Xiao Yi's arms lay dormant deep within his heart meridian, yet its breath seeped constantly out of the pink glow in fine strands, permeating his meridians, his Spiritual Energy, and his Dou Qi. The Dou Qi touched by that chill had grown much more docile, like a spirited horse whose mane had been stroked.

During those three days, a very light knock sounded outside the courtyard gate every day. Three knocks, then a pause. When no one answered, a rustling followed, and then the footsteps gradually faded away. Xiao Yan knew who it was.

When evening came, he would open the door to find a bamboo food box on the stone block by the courtyard gate, covered with a broad leaf. The food beneath the leaf had long since gone cold, but it was neatly arranged, each dish in its own small plate. He carried it inside, heated it up, and ate every last bite. The next morning, he put the washed food box back on the stone block.

Xiao Yan sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes closed and mind immersed in his body, watching the Dou Qi that had grown docile. He watched for an entire day and night. Then he opened his eyes and let out a long breath. He understood.

The Dou Qi of the Dou Qi Continent was an extremely yang force, and the Flame Mantra was the yang within yang itself. It devoured Heavenly Flames and refined blazing fire, so his Dou Qi carried a violent ferocity at its core. The Spiritual Energy of the Great Thousand World, on the other hand, was a harmony of yin and yang. Ferocity meeting harmony meant conflict.

But what if he first mixed a trace of yin cold into that ferocity, letting its own yin and yang complement each other and become more harmonious... would it still clash so fiercely with Spiritual Energy?

The light in Xiao Yan's eyes grew brighter and brighter. "Ice and fire complementing each other..." he murmured. He had heard those words back on the Dou Qi Continent. It was an extremely rare cultivation method that required two forces of extreme yin and extreme yang to reach a balance within the body. Once mastered, it possessed boundless power, but it was so difficult that nine and a half out of ten people would suffer Qi deviation and die when their bodies exploded.

Back then, he had possessed Bone Spirit Cold Flame, but that trace of yin cold had long since fused with the other Heavenly Flames, and he had never used it on its own. But now, he had one.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath and slowly directed his mind toward the pink glow deep within his heart meridian. Xiao Yi was still sleeping soundly with the wisp of ice flame in her arms. The frown had smoothed from her little face, and there was even a faint smile on her lips. Xiao Yan looked at her and said softly in his heart, Xiao Yi, let me borrow your pillow for a bit.

The little one smacked her lips in her sleep and paid him no mind.

Xiao Yan did not mind. His Soul Power transformed into an exceedingly fine thread and slipped quietly into the pink glow. From the edge of the ice flame, he carefully drew out a strand so thin it was almost invisible. Then he guided it to the edge of the sea of Dou Qi, beyond the three layers of Reverse Scales, and into the forty percent of Dou Qi that had yet to be assimilated.

Hiss!

The moment the strand of ice flame entered the sea of Dou Qi, the entire surface shuddered violently. The extremely yang Dou Qi and the extremely yin ice flame slammed into each other in an instant. One cold and one hot, one yin and one yang, they whipped up a raging storm inside Xiao Yan's body. His face turned pale at once, and a trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. But he did not stop. At the center of the storm, his Emperor Realm Soul Power carved the fourth layer of Reverse Scales, stroke by stroke.

This layer of Reverse Scales was unlike the first three. The Reverse Scale Spirit-Guiding Method had never had a fourth level; this one was his own. The first layer, "Core," was to recognize the source and keep it from being lost. The second bore flame markings, using Spirit Marks to guide the Flame Mantra's devouring. The third, "Connection," drew half inward and fused half outward, connecting with heaven and earth;

And for this fourth layer, what Xiao Yan carved amid the storm was the character "Fusion." It was neither guidance nor channeling, but a way to let the yin fuse into the yang and the yang fuse into the yin, allowing the Dou Qi itself to first become something in which yin and yang complemented each other, before fusing with Spiritual Energy.

One scale, two, ten, a hundred... The fourth layer of Reverse Scales lit up one by one around the outer edge of the sea of Dou Qi. Each scale bore a fine marking, one half pale gold and the other ice blue.

After an unknown length of time, the raging storm gradually subsided, and the sea of Dou Qi grew calm again. But the color of its waters had changed. No longer was it a blazing, almost dazzling gold-red, but a warm, subdued pale gold with a faint hint of ice blue. Where it bordered the Spiritual Energy, the once sharply defined boundary had now blurred until it was almost invisible.

Dou Qi flowed slowly into Spiritual Energy, and Spiritual Energy flowed slowly into Dou Qi. There was no conflict, no tearing, like two streams finally flowing into the same river.

"It worked," Xiao Yan said softly, opening his eyes. Outside the window, it was already deep into another night. He lowered his head and looked at his hands. A wisp of flame rose gently from his palm, pale gold in color, but around its edge was an extremely faint halo of ice blue.

Assimilation: eighty percent.

From sixty to eighty percent-in the records of the Luo God Clan, even the fastest of the visitors from Lower Planes who had endured assimilation had needed a year. He had taken only three days.

Xiao Yan did not sleep that night. He opened the door, walked into the courtyard, and sat down on the stone stool beneath the old scholar tree. He lifted his head to gaze at the stars. The night sky over Luo Shen City was clear, and the stars were plentiful and bright, dotting the black canopy one by one like a handful of scattered silver.

What had the starry sky over the Dou Qi Continent looked like? He could no longer quite remember.

He only remembered that at Jia Nan Academy, he had often lain on the roof watching the stars. Xun'er would sit beside him, hugging her knees and quietly keeping him company. Sometimes, as they watched, she would suddenly turn to him and call, "Brother Xiao Yan," then say nothing more, only smile.

He remembered watching the stars during his time with the Snake-People Tribe, too. Back then, Cai Lin had still been Queen Medusa, so proud she thought no one her equal. Standing at the highest point of the royal city, she would cast him a cold glance and say, "What are you looking at?" Yet she herself had stood there all night as well.

He remembered the first time he had met Xiao Xiao in the Jia Ma Empire. The little girl had already been able to run and jump. Held in his arms, she had tilted up her little face and asked him in a tiny voice whether he was her daddy. He also remembered the courtyard in Wutan City, where that sturdy little fellow Xiao Lin had planted his hands on his hips and shouted that he was going to tell Mother Cai Lin on him.

He remembered Yao Lao, too. In the days before his departure, Yao Lao had patted his shoulder and laughingly scolded him. "You little rascal, when you get over there, you'd better carve out a place for your master. Then, when I come over, I can enjoy an easy life."

Xiao Yan gazed at the starry sky, the corners of his mouth slowly rising. "Hehe, teacher, this place is much bigger than the Dou Qi Continent. Carving it out will take some time."

He took the four Soul Jades from his robes and laid them out one by one in his palm. Gu Yuan: steady. Zhu Kun: active. Xun'er: that dull, aching tremor was still there. Cai Lin...

Xiao Yan's gaze fell on the last jade token, and his brows knitted slightly at once.

The mark on the token flickered between bright and dim. When bright, it was dazzling; when dim, it nearly went out. The changes were more violent than ever before, like an oil lamp wavering in a fierce wind, liable to be blown out at any moment, yet stubbornly flaring back to life again and again.

She was fighting with all she had. Xiao Yan clenched the jade token and said softly, "Wait a little longer. Wait for me just a little longer."

Very light footsteps sounded outside the courtyard gate. Xiao Yan raised his head as the gate was pushed open. A drab gray figure strolled in with his hands behind his back and stopped beneath the moonlight.

Luo Tianshen looked at the Soul Jade in his hand, then at his face, somewhat pale in the moonlight. His brows twitched slightly, and something flashed through his eyes.

"Can't sleep?"

Xiao Yan smiled at his words. "Can't sleep."

"Then come take a walk with this old man."