On the third day after the Buddha head was sent to the Great Ci'en Temple, another strange incident shook Chang'an.
This time, it did not occur within the city walls, but at a manor at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain outside the city. Thirty-seven households in the estate had, overnight, fallen into a deathlike slumber. No matter how loudly they were called, none would awaken. More unsettling still, at the entrance of every home, a mandala flower had been drawn in white ash.
When Pei Yunfan arrived with his men, the estate was unnervingly silent. No chickens crowed, no dogs barked—not even birdsong broke the stillness. Doors stood ajar in every household; pushing them open revealed men and women, old and young alike, lying in their beds, breathing evenly, cheeks flushed with color, as though merely asleep.
Yet none could be roused.
"It's a Soul-Severing Art," Li Muyan concluded after examining several homes, his expression grave. "A person possesses three souls and seven spirits. Their Heavenly Soul has been forcibly extracted. The Heavenly Soul governs wakefulness—without it, one falls into eternal sleep."
"Can they be saved?" Pei Yunfan asked.
"If the Heavenly Soul can be recovered, yes," Li Muyan shook his head. "But such souls are usually sealed by the caster within a specific vessel. If that vessel is destroyed, these people will never awaken."
Bai Suxin circled the estate and stopped beside an ancient well. "Look here."
Carved into the stone rim was a line of small characters: 'When the soul returns to Zhongnan, it shall come back at the full moon.'
"Zhongnan Mountain…" Pei Yunfan gazed toward the distant, rolling peaks. "Zhongnan again."
Xuan Bei crouched down and lightly traced the inscription with his finger. "The carving is fresh—no more than three days old. The one who carved it possesses formidable inner strength; finger force penetrated deep into stone. A true expert."
As they spoke, Wang Hu came running in haste. "Deputy Magistrate Pei! There's something strange in the ancestral shrine behind the estate!"
The shrine stood halfway up the hillside, modest in size, originally dedicated to the local mountain god. But now, the deity's statue had been toppled to the ground. In its place stood a black stone idol—three heads, six arms, bared fangs, trampling skulls beneath its feet. It was the Poison Immortal Sect's totem: the Poison Immortal Venerable.
Before the idol were arranged thirty-seven earthen jars. Each bore a slip of paper marked with the name of a resident from the estate. The mouths of the jars were sealed with red clay, stamped with bloody handprints.
"The Heavenly Souls are sealed inside," Li Muyan said after a close inspection. "These are Soul-Nurturing Jars, fired from special clay to sever yin from yang. But why extract so many Heavenly Souls at once?"
Bai Suxin walked around the shrine and discovered a loose stone slab beneath the altar. Lifting it revealed a staircase descending into darkness, cold wind gusting upward from below.
"There's something underground." She lit a fire striker and descended first.
The steps spiraled downward; after about half the time it takes an incense stick to burn, a natural limestone cavern emerged ahead. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and the sound of dripping water echoed sharply in the silence. At the center of the cavern stood a stone stele.
The stele was over three meters tall and a meter wide, black as ink from top to bottom. Its surface was densely carved with symbols—not Chinese, nor Sanskrit, but twisted characters like coiling serpents.
"This is…" Xuan Bei raised his lamp to examine it closely, then inhaled sharply. "The Poison Immortal Sect's Corrosion Script! Legend says these characters can carry curses—stare at them too long and they damage the mind."
Pei Yunfan averted his gaze and studied the base of the stele instead. There, a map was carved—the terrain of Zhongnan Mountain. One particular peak was marked distinctly, beside it two characters in Corrosion Script.
"Master Li, do you recognize these?"
Li Muyan stared for a long moment, his face turning pale. "I do… it reads 'Sacred Altar.'"
"The Poison Immortal Sect's main altar?" Bai Suxin asked.
"Most likely," Li Muyan nodded. "Thirty years ago, when the court suppressed the sect, it was said their main altar was burned to the ground—but its exact location was never found. If this map is real…"
"Then the remnants of the Poison Immortal Sect still have a hidden stronghold deep within Zhongnan Mountain," Pei Yunfan said gravely. "Extracting the villagers' Heavenly Souls is probably preparation for some ritual."
As if to confirm his words, a deep, resonant hum suddenly echoed from the depths of the cavern. It sounded neither like beast nor man, but like a colossal metal vessel vibrating.
At the instant the sound arose, all thirty-seven Soul-Nurturing Jars began to tremble. Cracks spread across the red clay seals.
"This is bad!" Li Muyan exclaimed. "Someone is casting a spell from afar, trying to detonate the jars! If they shatter and the souls scatter, those people will be beyond saving!"
"Can it be stopped?" Pei Yunfan asked.
"Yes—but I need time!" Li Muyan pulled a handful of copper coins from his sleeve and rapidly arranged them on the ground. "I'll set up a Soul-Locking Formation to temporarily seal the jars. But I cannot be disturbed while forming it—any interruption and all will be lost!"
Bai Suxin and Xuan Bei immediately took up positions at his sides. Pei Yunfan gripped his blade and faced the depths of the cavern.
"I'll find the source of that sound."
The depths of the cavern were far more expansive than he had imagined.
Torch held aloft, Pei Yunfan advanced a hundred paces before three branching paths emerged ahead. He crouched to examine the ground and found fresh footprints along the central passage—not the mark of a single traveler, but of at least five or six.
He chose the middle path.
The passage grew ever narrower, until it could barely accommodate one person at a time. The rock walls were slick with moisture, icy droplets falling steadily. After roughly a quarter of an hour, the tunnel suddenly opened out into a vast subterranean chamber.
The cavern spanned nearly ten zhang across. At its center stood a circular altar, tiered in three levels, each densely carved with corrosive runes. Upon the highest tier rested a bronze cauldron, within which green flames burned—source of the ominous droning sound.
Around the altar knelt seven black-robed figures, murmuring strange incantations under their breath. With every line they chanted, the flames within the cauldron leapt another foot higher, and the tremors of the thirty-seven soul-nurturing jars intensified.
Pei Yunfan crept closer, concealing himself behind a stalactite. He soon noticed something unsettling—the seven figures were not arrayed around the altar at all, but kneeling toward the cavern wall.
What were they worshipping?
Following their line of reverence, Pei Yunfan's pupils contracted sharply.
Embedded in the rock face was an enormous skeleton.
It stood nearly two zhang tall, vaguely humanoid yet unmistakably inhuman. Its skull was grotesquely large, cheekbones jutting outward, jaws lined with two rows of razor-sharp fangs. Most disturbing of all was its chest cavity: where ribs should have been, there writhed curved, serpent-like black bones, coiling into an eerie sigil.
Dozens of thick iron chains bound the skeleton to the wall, each plastered with talisman seals. Yet most of the talismans were already damaged, and the chains themselves were mottled with rust.
The chanting of the seven black-robed figures grew more urgent. As their incantations rose, two points of green flame slowly ignited within the skeleton's hollow eye sockets.
"Poison Immortal…"
A chill ran through Pei Yunfan's heart.
He recalled the dying words of Gongsun Zhi and Wen Ruhui—"The Poison Immortal has awakened." It had never been a metaphor. There truly existed a so-called remnant of the Poison Immortal.
This had to be stopped.
Pei Yunfan swiftly calculated the distance and timing. The seven figures were wholly absorbed in the ritual—the perfect moment for a surprise attack. Yet he was alone, facing seven opponents of unknown strength.
As he hesitated, the bronze cauldron atop the altar suddenly began to shake violently. With a deafening bang, its lid flew open, and a column of green light shot upward, striking the skeleton directly.
"It's done!" the leading black-robed figure cried in exhilaration. "Poison Immortal, partake of the offering!"
The thirty-seven soul vessels exploded simultaneously.
It's over! Pei Yunfan's heart lurched. Once the vessels shattered, the souls would scatter—those villagers—
But the expected annihilation never came.
From the shattered jars burst thirty-seven streams of white light. Instead of dispersing, they were seized by an unseen force and drawn wholesale toward the skeleton.
The skeleton opened its gaping jaws and devoured the white light in its entirety. The green flames in its eye sockets flared brilliantly, nearly illuminating the entire cavern. Iron chains snapped one after another, talisman seals igniting and falling away.
"It's absorbing their heavenly souls!"
Pei Yunfan no longer hesitated. He leapt forward, blade flashing, and slashed at the bronze cauldron atop the altar.
"Who's there?!" the black-robed figures cried out in alarm—but it was already too late.
The blade struck like lightning. With a thunderous clang, a fissure split the cauldron's body, and the green radiance dimmed at once. The soul-absorption was interrupted, and the skeleton let out a furious roar that shook the cavern, sending fragments of stone raining down.
All seven black-robed figures turned at once and surged toward Pei Yunfan. Each wielded a bizarre weapon—a bone staff, a poison banner, a drum skinned with human hide… Their movements were uncanny, their coordination flawless, clearly the product of rigorous training.
One against seven, Pei Yunfan was hard-pressed to defend himself. Their martial techniques were unorthodox, attacking from impossible angles, and every weapon was laced with poison—one graze meant injury.
Worse still, the skeleton was tearing free of its chains. With each chain it snapped, its strength returned another measure, and the green fire in its eyes burned ever brighter. Once it fully broke free—
Pei Yunfan dared not finish the thought.
"Hold on! We're coming to help!"
Li Muyan's voice rang out from the cavern entrance. He arrived at last, together with Bai Suxin and Xuanbei.
The moment Li Muyan entered, he flung out a handful of talismans.
"By the Profound Origin of Heaven and Earth—suppress!"
The talismans affixed themselves to the skeleton, temporarily restraining its movements. Bai Suxin raised her jade flute; its notes solidified into a wall of sound, halting three of the black-robed figures. Xuanbei swung his monk's staff, Buddhist radiance flooding the cavern and forcing the remaining four to retreat again and again.
The pressure eased. Seizing the opening, Pei Yunfan launched a fierce counterattack, severing one black-robed figure's bone staff with a single slash, then driving his blade through the man's chest. The body collapsed lifelessly, its mask falling away to reveal a young face, pallid as paper.
"Puppets!" Bai Suxin cried out. "They've all been refined into poison puppets!"
No wonder their coordination was so perfect—they were not living men at all, but controlled husks.
Li Muyan swiftly formed hand seals. "In that case, destroy the core!"
He drew a Bagua mirror from his robes and aimed it at the remaining six figures, chanting rapidly. Golden light burst from the mirror, striking them. Their movements froze instantly, mechanical grinding sounds issuing from beneath their masks.
"The control nexus is beneath the altar!" Li Muyan shouted.
Understanding at once, Pei Yunfan charged forward and cleaved open the altar's base. Beneath it lay a complex mechanism, countless threads extending outward, each connected to one of the six figures.
With swift strokes, he severed every thread.
The six black-robed figures collapsed in unison, motionless.
Yet the danger was far from over.
The skeleton had already torn free of all its chains and was slowly stepping down from the wall. With every step, the ground quaked. It lowered its skull toward the four of them, green flames dancing in its eye sockets, radiating boundless malice and hunger.
"Mortals…"
The skeleton spoke, its voice layered as though spoken by a thousand mouths at once.
"You dare disturb my feast… die."
The skeletal creature struck with a single palm. The force of the blow carried a reeking cloud of green miasma. Pei Yunfan twisted aside just in time; the ground where he had stood was smashed into a deep crater, the rock within it hissing as it corroded away.
"Watch the poison fog!" Bai Suxin retreated swiftly, lifting her jade flute to conjure a wall of sound that stemmed the spread of the toxic vapors.
Xuanbei stepped forward, staff held crosswise. "Amitābha! Abomination—submit to judgment!"
He began to chant the Śūraṅgama Mantra. The solemn resonance of Buddhist scripture surged through the cavern. When the sound touched the skeleton, its movements slowed perceptibly, wisps of black smoke rising from its bones.
Yet within moments it adapted. The green fire in its eye sockets flared brighter.
"Bald monk… is that all you've got?"
All six skeletal arms—mere bone, yet terrible—lashed out at Xuanbei. He raised his staff to block, but the impact was monstrous; his grip split open, blood flowing as he staggered backward again and again.
Seizing the opening, Li Muyan rapidly set a formation. Thirty-six bronze coins flew outward, embedding themselves around the skeleton to form the Celestial Dipper Demon-Suppressing Array. As the formation activated, golden light coiled around the creature like chains, binding it in place—for now.
"This thing is vicious. The array won't hold for long!" Sweat beaded on Li Muyan's brow. "We need to find its weakness!"
Pei Yunfan studied the skeleton intently. At the center of its chest, amid the writhing black serpent-like bones, he spotted a fist-sized black crystal pulsing in time with the green flames.
"That crystal!" he shouted. "It's feeding the skeleton!"
"The Poison Immortal's Heart Core," Bai Suxin recalled from ancient texts. "Legend says the sect condensed the essences of countless venomous insects and herbs into a heart core to serve as its power source. Shatter it, and the body will collapse!"
But how?
Though restrained by the array, the skeleton struggled madly, golden chains snapping one after another. Worse still, it clearly knew its own weakness—six bony arms locked tightly over its chest.
"I need time to prepare a single decisive strike," Pei Yunfan said grimly. "Young Master Li, Miss Bai, Master Xuanbei—can you hold it for thirty breaths?"
The three exchanged a glance and answered in unison, "We can!"
Li Muyan bit his fingertip and traced a talisman across his palm with blood.
"By blood as guide, I summon the righteous gods of thunder—swiftly, in accordance with the law!"
A low rumble echoed from the cavern ceiling. A bolt of lightning crashed down onto the skeleton's skull. It reeled, the green flames flickering wildly.
Bai Suxin raised her jade flute and blew a note higher and more piercing than ever before. The sound waves transformed into countless needle-like vibrations, striking directly at the creature's joints. Its movements grew stiff and jerky, like a rusted machine.
Xuanbei sat cross-legged, planting his staff before him. Hands pressed together, he began to chant the Great Compassion Mantra. With every syllable, the golden radiance around him intensified, until he rose like a living arhat and thrust his palm forward.
"Seal of Great Compassion!"
A colossal golden palm-print slammed into the skeleton's chest, forcing it backward. In that instant, the arms guarding the heart core were torn aside.
Now!
Pei Yunfan had long been poised to strike. He poured every shred of inner strength into his blade. Moonlight-like radiance flowed along its edge. This was not his Delusion-Cleaving Saber, but a technique he had forged himself and never once used against another—
Barrier-Breaking Blade.
To shatter all obstructions and behold the true form.
The blade flashed like a falling star, faster than sight itself. The skeleton had no time to react; the tip of the saber pierced straight into the heart core.
Crack.
A faint, brittle sound.
Time seemed to freeze.
The skeleton lowered its head to stare at the blade in its chest, then slowly raised its gaze to Pei Yunfan. The green flames in its eye sockets thrashed violently, filled with disbelief.
"No… impossible…"
The heart core shattered completely, dissolving into black dust that drifted away. The green flames extinguished in an instant, and with its support gone, the bones collapsed in a clattering heap.
Silence returned to the cavern.
The four of them slumped to the ground, gasping for breath. That battle had drained every ounce of their strength.
After a long while, Li Muyan let out a bitter laugh. "If that thing had escaped… Chang'an would truly have been doomed."
Bai Suxin walked over to the remains and picked up a fragment of skull. "Look at this. Something's wrong with these bones."
In the firelight, the fragment gleamed with a metallic sheen, ringing crisply when tapped.
"This isn't human bone," Xuanbei said after examining it. "It's some kind of alloy… artificially made."
"A man-made Poison Immortal?" Pei Yunfan frowned. "Could it be that what the sect worships isn't a god at all, but an artificial construct?"
Li Muyan's eyes widened in realization. "I understand now! The so-called 'Poison Immortal' may be a war weapon created by ancient alchemists of the sect. They fabricated myths to inspire worship—but in truth—"
Before he could finish, a soft chuckle echoed from deep within the cavern.
"An excellent guess."
A man in white stepped out of the shadows.
He appeared to be in his early thirties, refined and scholarly, holding a folding fan like a wandering literatus. Yet anyone who could appear here was anything but ordinary.
"Who are you?" Pei Yunfan tightened his grip on the saber.
"Sima Qingyun," the man replied with a gentle smile and a courteous bow. "The current head of the Poison Immortal Sect."
The color drained from all four faces.
Sima Qingyun seemed unconcerned. He strolled to the altar, surveying the shattered bronze cauldron and scattered bones with a regretful shake of his head. "What a pity. This 'First-Generation Poison Immortal'—though merely a prototype—cost me no small effort."
"A prototype?" Li Muyan seized on the word.
"Indeed." Sima Qingyun turned back, his smile serene. "The true Poison Immortal has slumbered for thirty years at our main altar on Mount Zhongnan, awaiting full awakening. This one was but an imitation, used to test the efficacy of the 'Heaven-Soul Nourishment Method.'"
He glanced at the shattered soul jars. "The results were promising. Thirty-seven heavenly souls increased the prototype's activity by thirty percent. A shame you destroyed it."
"You used living people as test subjects?" Bai Suxin demanded angrily.
"For a grand purpose, minor sacrifices are necessary," Sima Qingyun said matter-of-factly. "Once the true Poison Immortal awakens, it will wield boundless power—enough to restore our sect's former glory, even to… unite the realm."
"Delusional nonsense!" Xuanbei snapped.
"Whether delusion or destiny, you will soon find out." Sima Qingyun folded his fan. "Three days from now, on the night of the full moon, at the Mount Zhongnan main altar—the true Poison Immortal will awaken completely. When that happens, the heavenly souls of a million lives in Chang'an will become its sustenance."
He paused, then looked at Pei Yunfan. "Deputy Magistrate Pei, Young Master Li, Miss Bai, Master Xuanbei—you are all exceptional talents. If you are willing to join us, you will be richly rewarded once the great work is done."
"And if we refuse?" Pei Yunfan asked coldly.
"Then…" Sima Qingyun's smile turned icy. "In three days, Mount Zhongnan will be your burial ground."
His figure blurred, splitting into several afterimages before vanishing into the depths of the cavern.
The four wanted to give chase, but exhaustion weighed them down. They could only watch him disappear.
"Mount Zhongnan's main altar…" Pei Yunfan murmured.
It seemed the final battlefield awaited them there.
By the time they returned to the village, dawn had already broken.
One by one, the thirty-seven villagers awoke, utterly unaware of what had transpired. They remembered only that they had dreamed a long, indistinct dream. Pei Yunfan did not tell them the truth; he merely said that a band of mountain brigands had been causing trouble and had already been eliminated.
After settling the villagers, the four mounted their horses and rode hard back toward Chang'an. They needed time to prepare, allies to gather, and far more information about the main altar on Mount Zhongnan.
Along the way, Li Muyan remained uncharacteristically silent.
"What's on your mind?" Pei Yunfan asked.
"I keep thinking about what Sima Qingyun said," Li Muyan replied, frowning. "He claimed the true Poison Immortal has been dormant for thirty years, awaiting awakening. Thirty years ago was precisely when the imperial court launched its campaign to eradicate the Poison Immortal Sect. Don't you think there might be a connection?"
Bai Suxin considered this. "You mean the purge thirty years ago may not have been entirely successful? That the sect's core forces withdrew into the depths of Mount Zhongnan and lay low for three decades?"
"It's possible," Li Muyan nodded. "And Sima Qingyun himself is so young. Thirty years ago, he would have been little more than a child. For him to become sect master, either he is the direct heir—or…"
"Or what?" Pei Yunfan pressed.
"Or there is someone behind him," Li Muyan said gravely. "Someone who truly controls everything."
Pei Yunfan recalled Gongsun Zhi's dying words: 'The Poison Immortal is the person you would least expect.'
The least expected person…
Who could it be?
When they reached Chang'an, before they could even step into the yamen, Wang Hu rushed up to them in a fluster. "Deputy Magistrate Pei, you're finally back! Someone from the palace is here—they say you must be seen immediately!"
"The palace?"
"Yes! An envoy from the Directorate of Palace Attendants, bearing a verbal decree from His Majesty!"
A chill ran through Pei Yunfan's heart.
Had news of the Poison Immortal Sect reached the palace so quickly?
Or had the palace known something all along?
He straightened his robes and drew a slow breath. "Lead the way."
Whatever awaited him ahead, he would face it.
For Chang'an.
For the innocent people.
And for that untainted sense of justice he carried in his heart.