Ascension Day

Young Master Xiang scrambled away, fleeing for dozens of miles before he could no longer suppress his injuries. He collapsed on his back, wheezing raggedly.

A moment later, the beautiful Thirteenth Lady limped over, coughing up blood.

The two masters looked at each other, both thoroughly mortified.

"I never expected his cultivation to be so unfathomably deep. We really blundered."

Young Master Xiang caught his breath and sat up. "Thankfully, we ran fast," he said. "Otherwise, we’d surely be dead."

Thirteenth Lady collapsed into a sitting position. "I couldn’t gauge the depth of his cultivation at all," she said. "He just sat there and made a few faint gestures, and we were severely wounded. Could he be an Ancient Qi Refiner from the Pre-Qin Era, intentionally disguised as a young man?"

She was deeply ashamed. When Xu Ying dealt with them, he hadn’t even fully raised his hand, yet they were beaten half to death. They hadn’t even seen how he’d attacked!

Young Master Xiang shook his head. "We’ve been searching for Ancient Qi Refiners for so many years and only just found one at Stone Mountain. Where did this one suddenly pop out from?"

Thirteenth Lady couldn’t make sense of it either.

On the Naihe River, the wind had died down, and the moon shone brightly. Even the usually boisterous lonely souls and wandering ghosts in the river were silent. Besides Xu Ying, not a single one dared to even breathe.

After severely wounding the two masters, Xu Ying’s gaze grew deep and distant, as if he himself had become a great master.

After a moment, the young man snapped out of his smug reverie. ’If I get arrogant, I could easily get myself killed for no good reason,’ he thought. ’It’s like all those veteran snake catchers who think they’re invincible. One careless bite, and they’re pushing up daisies.’

Still, the Copper Basin was astonishing. It had disguised a minor Qi Refiner like him as a peerless master, beating Young Master Xiang and Thirteenth Lady until they fled, coughing up blood. The sight made Xu Ying grow even more fond of the basin.

’The girl in the coffin gave me the Copper Basin, but she never said I had to give it back. In that case, I won’t.’

The young man thought, ’This Copper Basin... maybe it’s a token of her love for me. For the basin’s sake, even if she is a ghost, I suppose I can reluctantly...’

The Maple Leaf Boat traveled east for several thousand li overnight, finally arriving near Wuyang Mountain. Suddenly, the sky brightened as the morning sun broke through. Xu Ying knew this was bad and immediately clutched the Copper Basin.

Beneath the Maple Leaf Boat, the entire Naihe River suddenly dissipated without a trace. The boat became an unmoored leaf, fluttering down from the sky.

Xu Ying fell from the sky. Although he was unharmed, the bottom of the Copper Basin was cracked on impact, and water began leaking out from the fissure!

Xu Ying was devastated. He scooped up the basin and broke into a sprint, shouting, "The Hu Family! Hu Family! Lend me a piece of silver! Gold would be even better!"

The Fox Demons lived in a small town at the foot of Wuyang Mountain. Dawn was just breaking, and many of the Fox Demons were not yet awake when they saw Xu Ying burst into town, carrying the Copper Basin.

A Hu Family elder came out and asked hurriedly, "Xu Demon King, what brings you here?"

The water in the Copper Basin was about to run out. Xu Ying had no time to explain. Seeing a Golden Ring on the elder’s finger, he yanked it off and tossed it into the basin.

The water in the basin was nearly gone. The Golden Ring landed with a PLINK.

Xu Ying hurriedly looked up. Suddenly, the sky seemed to crack open, and a giant golden ring descended, about two miles in diameter, falling from beyond the heavens.

BOOM!

A violent tremor shook the land. The two-mile-wide golden ring tore through the atmosphere, wreathed in roaring flames, and smashed toward Wuyang Mountain. The demons of the mountain, big and small, screamed in terror and fled in all directions.

Having known deep poverty, Xu Ying looked up with great anticipation. But as the golden ring fell, it grew smaller and smaller. What was once a mile or two across soon shrank to a few hundred yards.

By the time it reached Wuyang Mountain, it was only fifty or sixty feet wide.

CLANG!

The golden ring spun as it slammed down, embedding itself in a cliff face.

Xu Ying ran over and pulled the golden ring from the cliff. The ring was only four feet across, but it was immeasurably larger than the Golden Ring and weighed at least a thousand pounds!

"I’m set for life..." Xu Ying’s voice trembled.

He looked at the broken Copper Basin. The water had all leaked out, and with it, the Divine Power of the girl from the coffin vanished.

Xu Ying tossed a small pebble into the basin. There was only a faint CLINK. No Stone Mountain came crashing down from the heavens.

"What a pity. A treasure like this is countless times more powerful than the legendary Treasure Basin, but it’s just too fragile."

Xu Ying was quite disappointed. Still, he had ended up with a massive golden ring. He figured that Mr. Xu wouldn’t have to worry about food or drink for the rest of his life, and a betrothal gift would no longer be a problem.

Da Zhong floated silently behind him. ’The little punk thinks the Copper Basin is the treasure,’ it thought, ’but the real treasure was the Demoness’s Space Divine Power. Only the likes of Immortals can cultivate such a Divine Power. For that Demoness to have mastered such a technique is truly extraordinary. Her escape this time is like a dragon leaving the shallows.’

It suddenly occurred to the Bell that the Demoness wasn’t demonic at all; in fact, she had repelled the Plague God’s invasion. In that case, wasn’t it a sin for it to have suppressed her?

’Could I be a bad Bell?’

It grew dejected and mumbled to itself, ’Could it be that my master and I are the villains? No, my master is honorable and just, brilliant and mighty. How could he be a villain? It’s more likely the Demoness is a hypocrite who deliberately deceived us!’

Xu Ying returned the Golden Ring to the Hu Family elder and headed back to Qinyan Cave, carrying the giant golden ring on his shoulder. When he arrived, he saw a Big Snake coiled at the cave entrance.

The snake’s head was over ten feet wide. Horns grew from its head, forked like newborn, fuzzy deer antlers. One was black and one was white, and you could even see the blood vessels within them.

The Big Snake was over a hundred feet long, coiled up in front of the cave. Its scales were like Bright Mirrors, reflecting the spring sunlight with a golden-red luster.