Vol. 2: Refining the Immortals
Yi City sat at the edge of the wild. The Yi Wang Palace carried none of the ethereal grace of ordinary immortal halls. Its stones were massive and blunt, carved with totems of swords splitting axes, spread across every wall. The place felt like a held breath before battle.
Bai Shuo had come with a purpose. She needed to find Chongzhao. She followed the maid into the main hall and stopped dead in the doorway.
The hall was already packed. Immortal and demon children had arrived early for the Wutong Martial Arts Banquet, filling every seat. At the throne, Beichen and Nanwan's Mujiu Chongzhao sat in prominence. Bai Shuo was only an outer disciple, here only because of Chongzhao's standing. She and Fan Yue had been seated closest to the temple gate, several meters back from the throne.
Word of Wuming Mountain had already spread. Groups of immortals and demons stared at Chongzhao in clusters, voices low, expressions riding the line between contempt and envy. The Yunxiao disciples sat near Nan Wan, faces blank as stone.
Bai Shuo settled into her seat and looked at the table. She frowned, picked up a piece of pastry, then lifted a wine cup and brought it to her nose.
No poison. She let out a slow breath.
She looked across the hall toward Chongzhao. He sat alone, drinking, eyes forward, as though she didn't exist.
When is this blockhead going to stop sulking? I still have business to sort out.
She reached into her Qiankun bag and drew out three small paper figures, then leaned close and blew.
The little paper men stretched, yawned, and stood up.
"Go to Ah Zhao and tell him..." She whispered her instructions. The first paper figure snapped to attention. It crept off the cushion and began crawling along the base of the wall toward Chongzhao, low and deliberate.
While she watched it go, her mind turned over what she'd seen outside. A bonfire burning at the palace gate. People from the outer city gathered in loose crowds as she passed through. The Wutong Heart Fire was not housed in the spiritual centers of the outer city's people. So why had the Inhuman King summoned them there?
The spirit lock formation would open tomorrow at noon. Yi City would no longer be sealed. Whatever the Inhuman King was planning, as long as she could get through the night alongside the immortal and demon children, it would be manageable.
The real question was whether Beichen and Mujiu would trust her. After Wuming Mountain, they should.
She sent the other two paper figures crawling quietly in the direction of Beichen and Mujiu.
Good thing the old turtle taught me every crooked path and back route there is.
Fan Yue glanced sideways at her, watching her hands move, then slid a cup of water in front of her. "Master, pace yourself."
"Good disciple." Bai Shuo drained it in one pull.
She looked up.
All three paper figures had gone limp. They lay flat on the floor, not moving.
What—
Before she could think, a voice filled the hall. Rich, measured, unhurried.
"You have come from far away, and this king has kept you waiting. A penalty cup, for my own neglect. Please, enjoy yourselves."
The Inhuman King sat on his throne. No one had seen him arrive. He raised his cup toward the room and drank it empty.
Silence. Then, quickly, the younger immortals and demons lifted their cups in return. No one dared do otherwise.
It may have been nothing. It may have been deliberate. But as the Inhuman King set down his cup, his gaze swept once toward Bai Shuo.
The cold hit her spine before she understood it. She dropped her eyes fast. Her palms were shaking.
A pair of hands closed over hers. She looked up and met Fan Yue's steady gaze. The tightness in her chest eased, just slightly.
Across the hall, Chongzhao watched this exchange. He said nothing. He drank. The wine went down like hot iron.
"Your Majesty." Wuliang's Shou'an, emboldened by Nan Wan's earlier remarks, bowed toward the throne. "I was told by Senior Brother Nanwan that the third Wutong Heart Flame would be chosen by the people of another city. Is that so?"
The Inhuman King turned his gaze on him. "Oh?"
Shou'an straightened his crown with a small cough, aware of the eyes on him. "The younger generation, Wuliang Shou'an."
"A disciple of Yuzhen Xianjun." The Inhuman King's expression softened by a degree. "The selection method for the third Heart Fire was personally determined by Jin Yao Xianzuo. Does Shou'an Xianjun have doubts?"
"I would not dare." Shou'an pressed on, voice shrinking under the weight of the room. "The Wutong Martial Arts Banquet has always been a contest between the immortal and demon clans. Involving the people of another city is... unusual. The younger generation only sought to understand..."
His voice trailed off. The Inhuman King had not moved, had not raised his voice. But the pressure from the throne had thickened in the air like a hand pressed to every chest in the room, and the hall fell completely silent.
Every immortal and demon child present felt it. The alien race was lowly in standing, yes. But the Inhuman King was the pinnacle of a true ruler, half a step from demigod. Shou'an had walked in here with the courage of a man who had swallowed a bear's heart.
Then the Inhuman King sighed.
The pressure dissolved. The air shifted. When he spoke again, his voice carried something older and quieter.
"The confusion of Shou'an must be shared by many here. I will speak plainly. The Wutong Martial Banquet was held in Yi City at this king's invitation to Jin Yao Xianzuo. When I look at all of you, I feel it keenly. The rising generation of the immortal and demon clans is like waves cresting on the open sea. My people cannot compare."
Every head in the hall turned toward the throne.
"After tomorrow, this king will open the barrier that His Majesty Twilight set around Yi City. Aliens will be permitted to walk in the three realms."
The words landed like thunder on dry ground.
The room exchanged glances. Aliens could not cultivate spiritual power. To immortals and demons, they had always been something close to uncivilized, kept alive only by the shelter of their sealed city. Why would the Inhuman King open that shelter?
He continued, unhurried.
"Because of what they are, foreigners cannot practice. Because they have been sealed here for generations, their knowledge and cultivation are far behind yours. I am growing old, and Yi City cannot be without capable hands. I asked Jin Yao Xianzuo to set the Wutong Martial Banquet here so that you would come, see this place, and see its people. The three realms have long misunderstood us. They believe aliens are cruel and savage. This banquet exists to ask you to set that aside. When my people walk among you in the future, I ask that you remember today, and treat them with that in mind."
He looked across the full hall. His face carried a plain, unguarded appeal.
The room understood then. This was why he had welcomed them into his palace before the final Heart Fire had even been chosen. Not ceremony. Not politics. The Inhuman King was trying to find a way through for his people before he was gone.
Bai Shuo stared at him. He didn't seem false. Could she have read this wrong? Someone who loved his people this completely — how could that same person allow evil spirits to take root inside the city walls?
Maybe the Inhuman King didn't know. Maybe the evil surrounding the crown prince had nothing to do with him.
Should I tell him? About the dark aura on the prince?
She turned it over and reached no answer.
"Your Majesty speaks earnestly." Beichen, who had not said a single word all evening, spoke. His expression was grave, the words direct. "Kunlun will protect any alien who walks in the three realms."
The Inhuman King looked at him. Something shifted in his face when he saw the sincerity in Beichen's eyes.
Nan Wan hadn't expected that from the man who never volunteered anything. He muttered something uncharitable under his breath and quickly bowed his hands. "As will I."
The rest of the hall followed. The Inhuman King smiled, thanked them, and raised his cup again. Of every response offered, only Beichen's had moved his expression. The louder promises earned nothing from his face.
Bai Shuo, still wrestling with herself, lifted her cup with everyone else.
The wine of Yi City was unlike any she'd had. Not sweet and lingering like an immortal's vintage, not sharp like a demon's. Something in between — faintly sweet, clean going down, strangely refreshing.
Shou'an had no such philosophical thoughts about it. He drained several cups in a row, eyes going soft at the edges, courage expanding with every swallow. He reached for another and rose unsteadily to his feet.
"Your Majesty!"
The people nearest to him recognized the look and braced.
"Does Shou'an Xianjun have more to say?" The Inhuman King's voice remained easy.
Shou'an patted his own chest. "Please be at ease, Your Majesty. When I return, I will inform my master of Yi City's reopening. From that day, Wuliang and Yunxiao will stand as protectors of the alien race." He announced this with the gravity of a man declaring war.
The room exhaled.
He then pointed at Chongzhao.
"But, Your Majesty — Shou'an feels a deep injustice over this Wutong Martial Banquet, and asks Your Majesty to judge fairly!"
"Oh? What injustice?"
"Two Heart Fires came from Wuming Mountain. One to the immortals, one to the demons — fine. But why did that boy receive the immortal Heart Fire? In both reason and sentiment, it should have gone to Beichen Shangjun or Senior Brother Nanwan. Why should a child from a crumbling Eastern Sea sect take what belongs to my immortal clan?!"
The words found a mark. No one else said anything, but the resentment had been sitting quietly among the immortal children since Wuming Mountain. Whispers moved through the hall. Glances toward Chongzhao, heavy with dismissal.
Chongzhao's expression did not crack, but it was not easy to sit under that weight, and Bai Shuo could see it.
Beichen's brow drew together. Before he could speak, the Inhuman King's voice came down from the throne, calm and without hurry.
"In front of the Inhuman Tomb, this young immortal drew away the resentment that had gathered against my people. His contribution was real. The Heart Fire was fairly given."
"Your Majesty!" Shou'an stepped forward, the interruption not registering through the wine. "Lord Beichen and Senior Brother Nanwan also entered Wuming Mountain. Did they not also draw that resentment?"
"They did."
"Then why should he receive the Heart Fire and not them? If this concerns my immortal clan, let the children of my immortal clan decide who it should go to. If I am dissatisfied, then let Your Majesty ask us — all of us here — who should hold the Wutong Heart Fire!"
The move was not stupid. Drunk or not, Shou'an had dragged the entire hall of immortal children into it as his backing, using the Inhuman King's own earlier appeal against him.
Beichen saw where this was going. He intended to speak, to put the matter straight himself. He had personally given Chongzhao that fire. The Inhuman King should not be made to bear this. He opened his mouth.
The Inhuman King raised one hand toward him, and he stopped.
"My Heart Fire was given to this disciple. I do not believe it was given unjustly."
Shou'an had lost ground. He pressed harder. "Your Majesty, tomorrow Yi City reopens. A minor immortal sect cannot protect your people in the three realms."
Bai Shuo went rigid.
He was threatening the Inhuman King. Threatening the safety of the alien people to pry the Heart Fire away from Ah Zhao.
Fan Yue's hand closed around her arm. If it hadn't, she would have walked across the hall and kicked him.
The immortal children who had been quietly sympathetic to the complaint a moment ago went still. There was a difference between resenting Chongzhao's good fortune and trading innocent lives for a fire they wanted. They couldn't go that far. They didn't want to.
"Your Majesty, that is not what we intend." One of the immortal children stood, face red, and bowed. "We had no such intention."
Above them, the Inhuman King sat with his eyes cast down, turning a wine cup between his fingers. His expression gave nothing.
The immortal child stood there, burning with embarrassment, calling Shou'an every kind of fool in his head.
Then the Inhuman King spoke.
"So this is the justice of immortals. My alien race, trapped in this barbarian land for thousands of years by your false benevolence and empty righteousness. It was never worth it."
The sigh beneath the words was old and tired. What rode on top of it was cold.
Bai Shuo looked up sharply.
What is happening? The Inhuman King had just cursed the entire immortal clan over one man's drunken outburst.
The immortal child who had tried to separate himself from Shou'an found his voice again. "Your Majesty, Shou'an was rude. But Your Majesty should not condemn my entire clan for it."
"Condemnation?" The Inhuman King looked up. He smiled. His eyes were ice. "What about you?"
The immortal child opened his mouth. His vision swam. He vomited a mouthful of blood and dropped.
"Lan Shu Xianjun!"
The fall triggered something. The children closest to him rushed over, and went down the same way, coughing blood onto the floor.
And then it spread.
One by one, the immortal and demon children across the entire hall vomited blood and collapsed. Nan Wan went down. The room filled with the sound of bodies hitting stone.
"What is this?" Beichen and those near him had gone pale. They were still upright, but barely. The room tilted in their vision.
Bai Shuo sat untouched. More than untouched: she felt a warm, steady force flooding her spiritual veins, filling in the thin places.
A sound hit the floor beside her. She turned.
Fan Yue's face had gone dark. His forehead touched the ground.
"Mumu!" She tore open her Qiankun bag, found a medicine bottle, and poured it into him. Nothing. The medicine did nothing.
She swung her head toward the throne. "Ah Zhao! It's the Inhuman King — it's him!"
She didn't need to finish. The magic weapons were already in the air. Chongzhao, Beichen, and Mujiu had drawn and leveled at the throne simultaneously.
Mujiu's face was the color of ash. He had forced the blood back down his throat. His small Death Wheel trembled in his grip. "Inhuman King. What have you done?"
The Inhuman King looked at the three of them from his throne with a blank face. He raised one hand and brought it down.
Pure force. No technique, no weapon. One stroke.
All three lost their footing, vomited blood, and fell.
"Ah Zhao!"
Bai Shuo ran. Something caught her mid-stride, an invisible wall of force, and held her there, locked. She pressed against it with everything she had as the Inhuman King descended from the throne, walking with the unhurried ease of a man arriving somewhere he had always been going.
She watched him come toward her.
The wine wasn't poisoned. I checked. They all drank the same wine. How?
These were not ordinary people. The immortal and demon children of the hall had trained their whole lives, taken tonics and elixirs enough to make a lesser person's blood run gold. Standard poisons were useless on bodies like these. Something far more specific had been used.
And why am I still standing?
The Inhuman King stopped in front of her. He studied the space between her brows with something like curiosity. "I see. No spiritual platform at all. Little half-immortal, you've been filling yourself with elixirs."
No spiritual platform. What does that mean?
"You want to know how this king managed it."
She looked up at him with fury she wasn't trying to hide. Then nodded.
"This king used no poison."
The room sat still around her. The gentle force was still moving through her veins.
Not poison. She felt it. She turned that over. And then a thought arrived so clearly it almost spoke aloud.
"You fed them the last Wutong Heart Fire."
Wutong Heart Fire was demigod-tier. Beyond refining weapons, it could reshape and elevate spiritual power. But its strength was absolute. Only a Supreme Lord could absorb it into their spiritual platform without consequence. These younger generation immortals and demons had no such foundation. The fire had entered their spiritual platforms and shattered them from within.
Blood wasn't a sign of poison. It was the sound of a spiritual platform breaking.
Bai Shuo had no spiritual platform. The Heart Fire had nowhere to detonate. It had simply flowed into her, quiet as water filling a cup.
"You are clever." The Inhuman King looked down at her. "But only half an immortal, in the end. Girl, to be sacrificed for my alien race is a worthy end for you."
Sacrifice. The word hit her like cold water. What sacrifice? What is he trying to do?
She never got the chance to ask. The Inhuman King raised his palm. The light went out.
Before the dark took her completely, one thought surfaced: the princess of Yi City, who had followed them since the hot springs, appointed to protect Fan Yue — she had not been seen since they left that place.
Bai Shuo fell.
Wu Zhao appeared without sound at the Inhuman King's side.
"Your Majesty. Everything is in place."
"Proceed."
A pause. Wuliang's voice, uncertain. "Your Majesty — are you certain? Zhen Yu cannot be trusted. If those immortal and demon children are killed, there will be no place left in the three realms for our people."
The Inhuman King did not look at him. He looked into the dark beyond the hall's open walls, out into the night sky where nothing was visible yet.
"After tomorrow," he said, "my alien race will never be trapped in this isolated city again."