Chương 85: Chapter 84: HIGHER REALM

CHAPTER 84 HIGHER REALM —∞— Meiyao's voice sounded in Jieyuan's head—they'd opened the mind-link even before they'd set off for the Valley—grimly: Can't sense her. Not Orangerealm. Jieyuan had already guessed as much; Xiaohu would've warned them of her approach if Yunzhu had been at Orangerealm. But this wasn't a surprise, just confirmation of what Qingshi had said. Jieyuan estimated the distance between them and Yunzhu. Not quite a hundred feet, but upwards of eighty feet.

The kind of distance that, from a mundane's perspective, a tenth-step Redrealm could close in an instant. And if Yunzhu was a tenth-step Yellowsoul, then she was to them what a tenth-step Orangesoul was to a mundane. Two whole realms between them. A hundredfold difference in speed. She could kill them faster than they could blink.

"Yunzhu," Meiyao said. Her voice was curiously steady.

"It's been a while." Xiaohu stood upright on Meiyao's shoulders, glaring up at the floating woman defiantly. Yunzhu didn't respond. She was too busy boring holes into Daojue with her stare. Jieyuan had found her stare deeply unsettling back when he had mundane eyes; with her current bloodstone eyes, it was worse. Blood…

As he forced himself to meet Yunzhu's gaze despite the unease and properly take in the color of her eyes, he found his first impressions confirmed: they really were the exact same shade of Daojue's eyes yesterday—transformed by the Ring—and of Tianzijun Juechen's. A perfect, immaculate blood-red. The only difference was the gemstone pattern over them.

When Qingshi had told them about how Elder Taishou was after chromal bloodlines, it had given Jieyuan a full new understanding of the father and daughter's interest in Daojue. But they were especially interested in Daojue, far more than they were in Meiyao; Jieyuan had seen plenty of evidence of that, and Qingshi had said so himself. And now Jieyuan was starting to suspect that there might be even more to it. Clearly, the Tianzijun Bloodline was special to Elder Taishou and Yunzhu, more so than other bloodlines.

It could be that it was just a more powerful bloodline (Meiyao would beg to differ, of course), but… The exact same shade. Just a coincidence? If there was one thing Jieyuan believed less and less with each passing day, it was coincidences. Another question occurred to him.

If Elder Taishou, Yunzhu's father, had a chromal bloodline (the one with a possible, mysterious connection to the Tianzijun), and she'd inherited the color of her eyes from him, did that mean she had both the Liangshibai Bloodline and her father's? Or had they merged into a new one?

"Yunzhu!" Meiyao shouted to get her attention. Jieyuan wasn't sure that was wise, but he was fairly confident that letting Yunzhu keep staring at Daojue like that would've been even worse. Yunzhu's head snapped back slightly, her lashes fluttering as she blinked rapidly. Then, still looking slightly dazed, she turned her attention to Meiyao. A beatific smile split her face. Her crystal crimson eyes lit up." Meiyao!" Yunzhu blurred.

Jieyuan was still in the process of jerking back when the red-robed woman reappeared in front of them, just a few feet away. Jieyuan's breath caught in his throat, and his heart caught in his chest as Yunzhu looked at them in pure, almost childlike wonder. Then something else snagged his attention: Xiaohu hadn't been able to sense Yunzhu, but somehow Jieyuan could. Not with his soulsenses; they only picked up on a void where Yunzhu was. Binding Blood Resonance told a different story.

Jieyuan wasn't even focusing on the Lawgift, but he could sense Yunzhu with it as clearly as Meiyao and Daojue. Even clearer, if anything. A flowing, living current of blood. And that didn't make sense. He'd already tested it: Binding Blood Resonance, like all his other Lawgifts that targeted someone, didn't work on someone at a higher realm. That was standard, a near-universal rule: lower-realm couldn't touch higher-realm.

So far, Jieyuan had only known of two exceptions, of two examples of powers that transcended realms: Meiyao's ability to sense and resonate with chromal beasts and plants (but so far, only from the Dome) and Daojue's ability to sense artifacts (which might have to do with the Red Ring, so he wasn't sure about that one, either). Now, apparently, Jieyuan could add a third exception to that small list.

"You three really are alive, then," Yunzhu said, a dreamy quality to her voice.

"I had heard rumors, but… Heavens. This is… This is—" A blur of movement; Yunzhu's head snapped up. She stared into the edge of the canopy rimming the clearing. Jieyuan risked a glance up, wondering if the father had arrived, but instead he caught a cloudcraft descending. And on it were four people. Two men, two women. One he'd seen just earlier that day: Yongyi.

The other three Jieyuan still recognized, even if it'd been about a year since he'd last seen them: Protectors Wanxin and Yuyan, and Chief Junjie (though none of them had their own positions anymore, with Qingshi's takeover). Meiyao's aunt, stepmother, and father. Together with Yongyi, they made up virtually all of Meiyao's remaining family. Wanxin also had the dubious honor of being Yunzhu's mother.

"Mother," Yunzhu said softly. Xiaohu yipped; Meiyao's eyes widened. Before Jieyuan could ask, Wanxin and Yuyan—not bothering to wait for Yongyi to lower the cloudcraft—jumped down to the ground; they landed a short distance to the side. The sisters, side by side, could've passed for twins (both tall and wearing white and beautiful in the sharp, angular way of the Liangshibai) if it weren't for their eyes. Yuyan's orange eyes were on Meiyao; Wanxin's blue ones, on the other hand, were fixed on Yunzhu.

Meiyao was staring at them in utter incomprehension. Even more than this admittedly surprising turn of events would warrant, in Jieyuan's opinion. Meiyao? Jieyuan asked her. Is something up? They— Yuyan rushed forward; she reached them in just a few long strides before wrapping her arms around a shocked-still Meiyao, pulling her step-daughter into a tight hug. Yunzhu had no reaction to that, didn't even seem to notice; all of her attention right now was on her mother, who was just as focused on her daughter.

Yongyi landed the cloudcraft behind Wanxin. Both he and Junjie quietly stepped off into the crystal ground. Yongyi, Jieyuan noticed, didn't seem to know whether to look at his half-sister and mother or at his aunt and cousin; Junjie, by contrast, watched only his wife and daughter. Jieyuan remembered Meiyao's father being a rather expressionless man—your standard Metalsoul—and even though the man didn't wear much of an expression, his dark eyes glimmered.

Jieyuan, for his part, wasn't sure what in the Heavens he was supposed to do. He'd come here expecting a great many things, but not a family reunion. And where were Qingshi and Elder Taishou?

"You're alive," Yuyan whispered breathlessly. Jieyuan could barely hear it.

"Heavens, Meiyao, I thought— We thought— We thought we'd lost you. You're alive. Really alive. Gleaming Heavens." Meiyao, it seemed, was as lost as he was, because he heard her whisper furiously to her step-mother, who was still hugging her tightly, "What— What are you doing here?" Jieyuan grasped the handle of the Shifting Sisters and used Twin Serpent Cognition to double his mind. He kept the Twin trained on Yunzhu and Wanxin while he focused on Meiyao and Yuyan.

"Yongyi told us— Told us you were back, about the plan," Yuyan said, voice quiet but thick with feeling.

"He wanted to evacuate the Liangshibai while Taishou is"—at that name, Yuyan's voice warped with emotions Jieyuan couldn't even begin to puzzle—"busy over here. But we couldn't just… just leave you. We came to help." Jieyuan appreciated the sentiment, but he wasn't quite sure how much help Redsouls would—"But…" Here, Meiyao's voice became even lower. If he hadn't been right beside her and focusing on it, he wouldn't have been able to make out anything.

"How are all of you Orangesouls?" Yuyan twitched in clear surprise but didn't break their embrace. Jieyuan was plenty surprised himself. All of you. He knew for a fact that Yongyi wasn't an Orangerealm, so was Meiyao referring to Yuyan, Wanxin, and Junjie? Regardless, that did explain one thing: Xiaohu's yip when the four of them appeared and Meiyao's reaction.

"You can tell? How…" Yuyan whispered, her voice just as quiet.

"It was Wanxin. She had figured out a full Orangerealm hymn set more than a decade ago. She just never used it or told anyone. But after Qingshi took over, she shared it with us—me, your father, my father. We were planning to do something about Qingshi… but it's turned out he wasn't the enemy."

"Oh, Qingshi's the rotting enemy," Meiyao said darkly, "just not the biggest one." Three Orangesouls. Jieyuan gave it some quick consideration. Their steps wouldn't be high; matters of heavenly affinity aside, unless they had secretly managed to get their hands on orange prisms, they'd have had to use ambient chroma, which made for much slower cultivation. Even if they were high-steps, though, they wouldn't have been that much help against a Yellowsoul.

But if Qingshi managed to deal with Elder Taishou somehow, then depending on the exact steps of Wanxin, Yuyan, and Junjie, they might be able to do something about Qingshi in turn. Granted, if Qingshi could kill a tenth-step Yellowsoul, Jieyuan wasn't sure how much good more Orangesouls would be, either. If… maybe… depending… might… Jieyuan had to fight a scowl. He knew too little. Too many crucial parts were missing, Qingshi's plan for dealing with Elder Taishou chief among them.

He was piling conjecture on top of conjecture here. He could spend all day thinking up plans and countermeasures for a thousand different outcomes, and it might very well do him no good. He had absolutely no idea how things would turn out. The Twin, meanwhile, tracked Yunzhu and Wanxin's reunion, which was already turning out to be a very different sort. Mother and daughter remained several feet apart, staring at each other without moving.

"Yunzhu," Wanxin finally said, "it's been a good while." Her voice was flat, contained; just the barest hint of tension bled out of it. Her stony face told a similar story. Both Yongyi and Junjie, still behind Wanxin, turned their attention fully to her and Yunzhu.

"It has, Mother," Yunzhu said; she sounded curiously neutral, like her mother. But she didn't do as good a job at keeping her feelings from her face: her mouth was pinched, and Jieyuan found a shadow of sorrow on the slight furrow of her brow. Wanxin drew her lips into a flat, hard line.

"You are truly a Yellowsoul, then?"

"Yes, Mother."

"What step?"

"Tenth." Jieyuan and Wanxin both inhaled sharply. So did her nephew and brother-in-law behind her. Jieyuan wondered how it was possible that his worst-case scenarios so often turned out to be real. To Jieyuan's left, Meiyao and her step-mother broke up their hug; Yuyan moved to stand by her side as they both turned their attention to Yunzhu and Wanxin. Yuyan opened her mouth, like she meant to say something, but Meiyao grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Yuyan shot Meiyao a complex look but then settled back.

"I see," Wanxin said.

"I see your eyes were also a lie. Ruby eyes—but the shade is wrong, isn't it? And a ruby-eyes would've been limited to Redrealm. How did you even hide it? I gave birth to you, Yunzhu; I held you in my arms as soon as you had left my body. You were born with mundane eyes, I'm sure of that." Yunzhu's reply was just as prompt and obedient as the ones before: "The color's from Father. And he is the one who hid it.

He could sense I had been conceived with two chromal bloodlines, so he sealed them while I was still inside your womb, mother." That was one of Jieyuan's questions answered, at least. Two chromal bloodlines. Rotting Heavens. Wanxin seemed just as taken aback by that." Two chromal bloodlines? How is that…" She caught herself.

"No. That's not important. Your father. My husband. Let's talk about him. He is the one abducting our family, then?"

"Yes." Wanxin visibly shuddered, but she took a deep breath and took back control of herself the next instant.

"Why? Why is he doing that?"

"Because that is what he does," Yunzhu said.

"What his side of the family does. Just as the Liangshibai seek the Gleamstone Origin—" A man's voice sounded, soft and silky: "The Miwanxue seek the Perfect Blood." There was a red-robed man hovering in the air, where Yunzhu had been floating before. Right over the Gleamstone Maw. Except he hadn't slowly descended from the sky like Yunzhu had.

Jieyuan hadn't had to turn his head to look at the man; the spot the red-robed man was at had already been in Jieyuan's line of sight; and in his perspective, the man had just appeared there. Materialized as if out of thin air. Even from a distance, it was clear the man was unusually tall; that length of body was only heightened by how thin he was, bordering on gaunt, where most cultivators, as martial artists, tended to be solidly built. Pale skin and handsome, sharply so. And the eyes—crimson. Blood-red.

The same blood-red shade as Yunzhu's and of a Ring-transformed Daojue and Tianzijun Juechen. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. The last time Jieyuan had seen Elder Taishou (except he's not an elder anymore, Jieyuan reminded himself), the man's eyes had been mundane, and he'd been wearing orange robes and an elder's coat, but there was no mistaking him now.

Not with his unusually slender build, and with how tall he was, being the only person as tall as Daojue that Jieyuan had ever met outside the Absolute Sword Trials.

"So you finally appear," Wanxin said, facing her husband.

"My husband, Luoyefen Taishou. But that's not your real name, is it? What was it you said? Miwanxue? Are you Miwanxue Taishou, then, or is your given name also a lie?" That name, Miwanxue—it struck a bell. Jieyuan had come across it before. Back in the Fatebloom Woods, while going through the jadebooks of Yikongwei Beidao, the creator of both the Fatebloom Heart and Absolute Will Command.

A bad feeling had been brewing in Jieyuan's stomach from the moment they set off toward the Gleamstone Valley; now that feeling grew into a deep, frosty chill that seized his heart.

"It's nice to see you as well, dear," Taishou said, sounding perfectly pleasant.

"And neither of my names is a lie. I am Luoyefen Taishou. Luoyefen is my father's family name, and Luoyefen Taishou is the name I was given before the Heavens. My mother thought it safer that way. Her family, the Miwanxue Clan, is well-known in Yellowrealm circles; she did not want to risk the Incandescent Serenity Sect finding out about our presence here." Taishou adopted a thoughtful look, and Jieyuan realized it wasn't just Qingshi who had a taste for theatrics.

"I will admit, however, that I do view myself as a Miwanxue. My mother certainly raised me as one, and it is a fact that Miwanxue blood runs through my veins. Once I've finished with my business here, I will seek out my kin and take on the Miwanxue name. My daughter and I, in fact."" Our daughter," Wanxin snapped.

"Well, yes," Taishou said, but dismissively, like he was indulging her.

"You—" Wanxin scowled, took another deep breath.

"I have so many things to say to you, Taishou. But there's one thing I need to know before everything else. What have you done to my father?"

"Zhaoyong? Fret not," Taishou said in a way that was not comforting in the least.

"You shall become acquainted with his fate sooner than you think. If it's any consolation to you, dear, your father did not suffer. None of the Liangshibai did. Yunzhu would not have forgiven me otherwise. My research on the Liangshibai is already straining the limits of her sensibilities as it is. Poor girl." The poor girl in question, Yunzhu, closed her eyes but didn't otherwise react.

"He's dead, then," Wanxin said.

"You killed my father. And all the other Liangshibai you abducted." Taishou cocked his head, pensive, then gave a slow, considering nod.

"That is not incorrect, no." Another deep breath from Wanxin as she glared up at her husband.

"The Liangshibai took you in. My father considered you a son. We married before the Heavens. I gave you a daughter. Does none of that mean anything to you?"

"Oh, I am very grateful for Yunzhu," Taishou said. He sent a warm smile his daughter's way. Yunzhu did not return it; she kept looking between her father and her mother, the hint of sorrow Jieyuan had seen earlier now clearer than ever.

"She is a marvel," Taishou said, seemingly unbothered by his daughter's reaction.

"The Miwanxue have studied chromal bloodlines for ages, and my mother taught me everything she knew. Yunzhu is the first known case, to my knowledge, of someone with two chromal bloodlines. She is an impossibility—a gift from the Heavens, in fact—and for that I shall always be grateful to you, dear."

"But not grateful enough to spare the Liangshibai," Wanxin said bitterly. Jieyuan wasn't sure what her angle was; she should know that Taishou was a tenth-step Yellowsoul and that she stood absolutely no chance. Unless she didn't really have a plan; this man was her husband of decades, after all. Odds were she just wanted answers. What was more curious, rather, was why Taishou was taking the time to answer. Was he indulging himself? Taishou certainly wouldn't feel threatened, given his step.

Taishou offered his wife a sad smile.

"I'm afraid not. This matter transcends us. It was my mother's dream to unravel the mysteries of the Liangshibai. The Miwanxue have known of your clan for a long time now, but this is the territory of the Incandescent Serenity Sect, and they're fiercely protective of their vassals. They've captured some Liangshibai in the past, but they found your bloodline wasn't worth a confrontation with another Yellowrealm sect."

"That's not—" Wanxin started to say, but Taishou carried on, like he hadn't noticed: "My mother was as daring as she was ambitious, however. She had met a bottleneck in her research and was in need of inspiration. She turned her attention to the Liangshibai Bloodline and infiltrated the island. But she had no interest in studying the Liangshibai themselves; that hadn't borne much fruit in the past. Instead, she sought to study the source: the Gleamstone Depths."

Taishou gave a low and sorrowful sigh, and Jieyuan had the impression that this, at least, was real.

"It was her undoing. She was severely wounded in her exploration and ruined her soul in her escape. Powerless, she settled down in Radiant Gold City. She met my father shortly afterward, and I was born from their union." Ruined her soul? That reminded Jieyuan of something else: of how Daojue's master had damaged his soul and, stranded on the island, founded a new Tianzijun Clan. But it wasn't just that; he vaguely recalled there being someone else who'd ventured into the Gleamstone Depths and barely made it out.

Protector Yuanzhi, whose cave they had found back in the Gleamstone Hunt, where they'd found Gleaming End. And now that Jieyuan sent his thoughts down that particular memory lane, he recalled something else—how Protector Yuanzhi had supposedly burned her soul in her escape. Soulburning. That was the name of the power Anren had said cultivators could properly use if they reached seventh-order Pain affinity. Jieyuan felt like he was onto something here.

"She entrusted to me the mission of finishing what she'd started," Taishou continued. Fervor crept into his voice.

"I've learned from her mistakes; I shall not seek out the Depths. But I will master the Liangshibai Bloodline, even if I must unravel every single Liangshibai alive. I am nearly done with my research. I have been studying the Liangshibai for decades now, and my apprentice's revolution came at just the right time. There's enough happening that my actions have gone mostly unnoticed." Wanxin opened her mouth, about to say something else, but Taishou's gaze drifted away from her.

Jieyuan tensed even further as those blood-red eyes focused on Meiyao.

"Ah, Meiyao," Taishou said.

"Dear girl, it lightens my heart to see you alive and well. For so long, I had thought you lost. I'm sure we'll have much to talk about later. I am very curious about how you returned from the Dome." Meiyao met his red eyes with her green ones, glaring defiantly.

"You will not get a word out of me."

"Truly?" Taishou said.

"I think you should reconsider—""Like rot I —""—because if my suspicions prove true, I can reunite you with your mother." Meiyao went deathly still, her earlier fire smothered dead by shock.

"My… mother?"

"Indeed. I was not at the sect at the time of her abduction; I was out in the city with you and Yunzhu, if you recall. But given the descriptions of the man who took her and his actions, I am confident he was from the Immaculate Blood Cult, if not a Miwanxue himself. I suspect he came to the island to abduct a Liangshibai—perhaps seeking inspiration as my mother had, perhaps out of desperation—and your mother caught his attention." Meiyao's eyes were wide now. She was shaking.

On her shoulders, Xiaohu growled lowly.

"The Linzushen Bloodline, much like the Liangshibai Bloodline, was known to the Miwanxue but deemed too risky to research," Taishou said.

"With the strength of your mother's bloodline, however, she was a prime specimen and very much worth the risk. I would not be surprised if she were still alive, seeing as she should be her captor's sole Linzushen subject."

"You mean…" Meiyao visibly struggled with her words, with her emotions.

"My mother, she's at the Immaculate Blood Cult? She's still alive?"

"That is a distinct possibility, dear girl," Taishou said.

"Not a guarantee, as I said, but it's barely been a decade since Lianhua was taken away. Hardly enough time to plumb the depths of a chromal bloodline. Moreover, you are not the only one with family in the Cult." Taishou's gaze shifted to a spot on Jieyuan's right side." Tianzijun Daojue." Taishou uttered the name like he could taste it and found it delectable.

"All of what I said to Meiyao applies to you a thousandfold, my boy: I am so very glad you are not lost to me. Tell me, Daojue, are you aware of the origins of your bloodline? Are you aware that there exists another Tianzijun Clan, a Bluerealm one, and that your bloodline hails from it?" Daojue, of course, said nothing. Movement on Jieyuan's other side caught his attention: Meiyao, stepping forward, making to speak; to demand Taishou tell her more about her mother, Jieyuan was sure.

He moved to stop her, but Yuyan was faster, grabbing her step-daughter and shushing her with a look. Not unlike how Meiyao had stopped her from speaking earlier.

"My mother's first contact with the true Tianzijun was over a century ago, when fortune struck, and she happened upon a Tianzijun. One in the same, soul-ruined condition she would one day suffer from." Taishou smiled ruefully.

"She brought him back with her to the sect and spent decades studying his bloodline. It was, in fact, while she was researching the Tianzijun Bloodline that she met with the bottleneck that led her to venture onto this island. Her Tianzijun prisoner should still be alive, tended to by her servants in her absence." Daojue still kept silent; Taishou was undeterred.

"The local Tianzijun clan was not known to my mother; it came into being not even a thousand years ago. I first heard of it not even two decades ago; it was my intention to pay them a visit after I was done with the Liangshibai and confirm whether they had any connection to the Bluerealm clan." Now Jieyuan was starting to question his earlier assumptions about a possible connection between the Tianzijun and the newly revealed Miwanxue Bloodlines.

Were Taishou and Yunzhu's interest in Daojue because of Taishou's mother's research?

"I was disheartened, truly, when I learned of the massacre. Only months later, however, you appeared—with your name and your violet eyes—and I knew then that I had the favor of the Heavens themselves." Jieyuan wouldn't have been surprised if, in that moment, Daojue transformed again. But that didn't happen. The extent of Daojue's reaction was the slightest of tremors. Taishou's blood-red eyes turned to Jieyuan.

"And then there's you, Jieyuan," the man said, in that same soft, easy tone.

"You lack a chromal bloodline, but Yunzhu told me of this mysterious power you used the day of the revolution, the one that allowed you to slay opponents far above yourself. I'd very much like to learn more about it." Jieyuan knew, immediately, what Taishou was referring to: Fatebloom Incarnation. Jieyuan had used it to kill several tenth-step Redsouls that day, in front of the Gleamstone Palace, when he wasn't even half their step. And Yunzhu had been there, though she'd supposedly disappeared early on.

Jieyuan had known using Fatebloom Incarnation there was a risk, but it had been one he was willing to take; chances were he'd have died otherwise. He sure couldn't have predicted that it would end up catching a Yellowrealm's attention, though. No response came to mind. Nothing he could say to Taishou could help their situation in any way. There wasn't a plan in the world that could help his odds against a tenth-step Yellowrealm.

Jieyuan didn't even know Taishou's angle, why he was taking the time to tell them all these things. It wasn't like the things Taishou had said would make Meiyao and Daojue go with him willingly. None of them were idiots here; even if Meiyao did end up meeting her mother and Daojue the other Tianzijun, it would be in the worst of circumstances: as research subjects, imprisoned and with nothing to look forward to other than death. And it wasn't like Taishou needed their cooperation, anyway.

"Now, Yunzhu, dear," Taishou said, turning his attention to his daughter, "I accept your unwillingness to aid me in my endeavors, but you also promised me not to interfere. So please come up here, and—" A gleaming streak cutting through the air, too fast. And then came a beat of stillness, where Jieyuan saw it all clearly: there was someone in the air, right next to Taishou, floating just a little lower. Qingshi. He was alight, covered by a shimmering, kaleidoscopic mantle, the same eerie glow of gleamstone.

Qingshi's hands were thrusting upwards, into Taishou's chest, right through the center of it. Qingshi was holding something, but the object was hidden from sight, most of it buried inside Taishou's body. Only the barest hint of a bloodied edge of gleamstone poking out of Taishou's back.

"Ahhh," Taishou said, in a slow exhale, before smiling a blood-stained smile. He gave a light cough, splattering blood into Qingshi.

"There you are. At last. I was running out of things to say, apprentice." Qingshi said nothing, just stared impassively up at Taishou, holding the gleamstone object buried inside the Yellowrealm. It took Jieyuan a few moments to realize what was happening: around the wound, on Taishou's chest, gleamstone was appearing. Slowly spreading outwards, like an infection. Taishou seemed to have noticed it, too.

"Oh? Interesting." There was a wet gurgle to his voice as blood dripped down his lips.

"That is quite the dangerous thing you have there, Qingshi." The gleamstone was spreading faster by the second; like a wave, it consumed Taishou's chest, now extending toward his arms, neck, and stomach. But then Taishou changed. A ripple ran through his body. And then he transformed, all the colors and textures of him bled into something red and smooth: a great mass of blood in the shape of a man. A shimmering blur; Qingshi reappeared a few dozen feet away, staring warily at the blood-thing where Taishou had been.

The object in his hands was revealed now: a sharp, thin, jagged edge of gleamstone. A shard. And unlike normal gleamstone, it didn't just gleam but outright glowed, rainbow light radiating off it in steady pulses, like a heartbeat. Jieyuan then noticed that Qingshi's mantle was pulsing in just the same way, to the same beat. It was Qingshi's speed that really caught Jieyuan's attention, though; he was too fast for a tenth-step Orangesoul.

That level of speed—one that gave the impression of outright teleportation—was more along the lines of what Jieyuan would've expected from a tenth-step Yellowsoul. But that couldn't be it, not unless Qingshi had somehow managed to fool Xiaohu's senses. Even though the gleamstone shard was no longer buried inside Taishou—or whatever the crimson thing was—the spread of the gleamstone on it hadn't stopped. In moments, all traces of crimson were replaced by gleamstone.

The moment the spread was complete, the newly transformed crystal statue dropped from the air and crashed onto the ground, falling straight into the Gleamstone Maw. Jieyuan stared at it, then spared a glance at the others. Qingshi's expression was grim as he surveyed the area warily; Yunzhu, Jieyuan's next biggest concern, was staring at Qingshi. No, not at Qingshi, exactly, Jieyuan realized, but at what he was holding. The gleamstone shard in his hand.

And it wasn't just her: all the Liangshibai (except Junjie, who was only one by marriage) were staring fixedly at the shard. And then Taishou reappeared, floating out from among the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, eyes on Qingshi." Very interesting indeed. I knew you might have a trick up your sleeve, but you still managed to surprise me; I did not think I might lose a clone today. You truly are the most blessed Liangshibai ever born… after my daughter, of course."

Qingshi's reply was cold and clipped: "A clone?"

"Why, you didn't truly believe it would be this easy, did you?" Taishou cocked his head, smiling.

"That object in your hands—it must be truly something, that resonating with it grants you speed comparable to mine. I cannot sense it. Is it Greenrealm? Or even higher, perhaps? I must say I am looking forward to learning more." Taishou's red gaze moved past Qingshi to the group gathered on the ground.

"And in the meantime, as for you… Hmmm. I might as well try out my new creations." Taishou flicked his hand. A red streak shot forward, past Qingshi, and landed on the ground in front of the Gleamstone Maw. A clump of blood, Jieyuan saw, flattened against the crystal floor by the impact, barely as big as an open palm. A beat later, it expanded, stretching several dozen feet wide and almost half as thick, to nearly the same dimensions as the Gleamstone Maw behind it. A red pool flat on the crystal ground.

Jieyuan couldn't really say he was surprised when shapes emerged from the pool, rising slowly and unnaturally upward, thickly coated in blood but distinctly human in their outline. More than a dozen of them, side by side. Even as they rose, the blood coating them slid down their body, returning to the pool underneath, revealing more of them, of their bodies. People.

They wore red robes like Taishou and Yunzhu did, and no armor; their faces, hands, and feet were bare and covered in glowing, throbbing red lines—lines just like the ones Jieyuan had seen on the Shifting Sisters and Daojue the day before. Even with the lines, though, their faces were recognizable. Their eyes were closed, but all of them had the distinct, sharp lines of the Liangshibai. Some were even a little familiar to Jieyuan, though he couldn't really put names to them.

The eyes opened; some were red, ruby; others had orange eyes, of topaz. Liangshibai eyes. Those eyes stared at them, at Jieyuan and the others, without emotion. The pool of blood on the ground shrank, receding, until it was completely gone, leaving behind the row of red-robed, transformed Liangshibai. Jieyuan noticed two things: both Qingshi and Taishou had disappeared at some point, not a trace of them left; the same for Yunzhu. Jieyuan wasn't sure whether to celebrate or despair.

With Qingshi gone, the Liangshibai had broken out of whatever trance seeing the gleamstone shard had put them under, but now all of their attention was taken up by these Liangshibai that Taishou had just released.

"Feiyuan?" Jieyuan turned; Yongyi had taken a few steps from behind Wanxin. His eyes were locked into one of the transformed Liangshibai, specifically: a young woman, one of the few that Jieyuan found slightly familiar. Yongyi's lover. Feiyuan, red-robed, orange-eyed, covered in glowing red lines, stared back at Yongyi. Her expression twitched. Her lips parted, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. She croaked wetly, "Yong… yi?" Yongyi shot forward.

Meiyao and the Liangshibai reacted immediately, rushing after him; Wanxin was the fastest; she closed in on Yongyi just a beat later, a hand reaching out to pull him back just as he reached Feiyuan. But at that very same moment, Feiyuan's arm shot forward and punched through Yongyi's chest—and his upper body burst into a shower of blood and gore.