Wang Zhiwu wrapped his arm around Wei E’s shoulder, then walked into the distance, grinning all the while. “Tell me everything in full detail, and I’ll let you leave.”

Wei E couldn’t help but blurt, “Your Excellency, do you suspect that someone was impersonating you?”

“A clever man!” Wang Zhiwu applauded.

Wei E was starting to understand. He couldn’t help but feel vexed and aggrieved. “Just as I thought. I knew there was something not right about that idiot! He wasn’t on guard against me at all, and he did everything I told him. I thought he was an idiot, but now... it turns out I was the real idiot all along!”

He then went on to explain how he’d met Su Yi and how he’d lured him into the Tiger’s Den, the territory of River King Purple Tiger, in full detail.

In the end, Wei E said with an aching heart, “To think I took him for a brother! Who’d have thought he was so black-hearted as to impersonate your esteemed self? I’m sure he was trying to bring disaster upon you, Your Excellency!”

Wang Zhiwu frowned. The fake Wang Zhiwu’s methods were strange indeed; it was hard to guess what he was really playing at.

Wang Zhiwu went on to ask for a few more details, but in the end, he couldn’t figure anything out. The fake Wang Zhiwu had come out of nowhere, but aside from spending an enormous amount of money on all sorts of cultivation resources, he hadn’t done anything noteworthy.

Perhaps the fake is really just enemies with River King Purple Tiger. He might be impersonating me to redirect the blame for whatever he’s really planning, thought Wang Zhiwu. He’d heard that River King Purple Tiger was frequently one of River Emperor Bai Ye’s distinguished guests.

Wang Zhiwu’s eyes narrowed as something suddenly occurred to him. Is the fake Wang Zhiwu perhaps targeting River King Purple Tiger so that River Emperor Bai Ye will target me? It seems entirely possible!

Wang Zhiwu had come to the world beneath the River of Destiny on extremely important business. He’d yet to begin his operation, but he knew that when he began, he’d be in competition with the Four City Lords!

But I’ve been keeping such a low profile, and I’ve never once revealed my identity. Who could possibly have been so senseless as to impersonate me?

Wang Zhiwu couldn’t help but curse the culprit out. He decided to take a trip to the Tiger’s Den and see just what son of a bitch had been so brazen as to impersonate him. When he found the bastard, he’d cut him to pieces!

“Fellow Daoist, we’ve found a lead! Quick, come with me!” Suddenly, a snowy-skinned beauty in green appeared out of nowhere. She had pointed ears and eyes like spring waters.

Wang Zhiwu was stunned. “Really?”

“Hmph!” The girl snorted. “When have I ever lied to you?”

Wang Zhiwu was at a loss for words. In the end, he just patted Wei E on the shoulder and said, “You did well, little brother!”

With that, Wang Zhiwu and the young woman in green dashed off, vanishing into the sea of people in the blink of an eye.

Wei E had long since broken out in cold sweats. He stood there in a daze, completely dumbstruck.

The woman in green had looked young, but Wei E recognized her at a glance. She was a legendary River Empress! An unparalleled existence who ruled over a forbidden zone!

Wei E dared say with certainty that he wasn’t mistaken this time.

That “big idiot” had been bold enough to impersonate Wang Zhiwu, but no one in these waters would dare to impersonate River Empress Lu Ping!

Strange. River Empress Lu Ping hasn’t visited the Spirit Treasure Celestial City in tens of thousands of years. What is she doing here? Wei E frowned.

But then, he suddenly slapped himself in the face. You idiot! You’re nothing but a small fry. Who are you to try and guess what they’re thinking?

Fortunately, the bodhisattva is looking out for me. He saved me from disaster... As he thought this, he instinctively reached for the pendant carved with the image of a bodhisattva.

...

Meanwhile, deep within the Tiger’s Den, in that manor shrouded in blood-red mist.

Su Yi followed Old Man Lu inside, only to discover that the manor contained a separate world, a hidden realm all its own. But it was small, just about one hundred acres across, and covered in all manner of palaces and pavilions.

Old Man Lu led the way in silence. He didn’t seem at all worried that Su Yi would run away. Moreover, it seemed he couldn’t be bothered to talk to a soon-to-be-slaughtered fatty sheep.

Su Yi didn’t ask any questions, either. He was busy evaluating his surroundings. From time to time, he paused to glance up at the sky.

A voice rang out. “Old Man Lu, who did you bring this time?”

Su Yi looked over and saw a man in black leaning against a nearby pavilion. His skin was tinged with dark blue, and his face was long and narrow. He carried a white bone sword half as tall as he was. The protrusion at the base of its hilt was shaped like an infant's skull.

“A fatty sheep who delivered himself straight into the Tiger’s Den,” Old Man Lu said candidly. “I planned to take him to the Myriad Refinements Chamber first.”

“The Myriad Refinements Chamber is a wonderful place,” the black-robed man said with a grin. “Skin him first, then pluck his tendons and cook up his flesh and blood. Mash his organs into a pulp, and extract his soul. Refine it into lamp oil, and he’ll suffer torment so terrible that he’ll long for nothing more than a quick death.”

“Just how fatty is this sheep, anyway?” A serpent the size of a house emerged from a distant pond. It was covered in crimson scales, and it had a flickering, serpentine tongue. Its eyes shone with cruel, sinister light.

Old Man Lu said, “I heard that the little baby’s wealth is worth three hundred Destiny Jades at the very least.”

“Tch. Are today’s fatty sheep really so wealthy?” The man in black sighed.

The giant serpent suddenly said, “He isn’t scared at all, even now. No, he isn’t even nervous. That’s no way for a helpless little lamb to act.”

Its eyes bore into Su Yi. “How about I eat him first and see if there’s anything suspicious about him?”

“It’s true. That kid seems extraordinarily calm.” The man in black suddenly rose, leaning on his white bone sword, his hands resting on the hilt. His eyes cut into Su Yi like sharp swords. “Master is currently hosting a secret meeting in Endless Waves Hall. We cannot allow anything unexpected to happen!”

“Now that he’s come to the Blood Lantern Hidden Realm, he’s doomed, even if he’s a River King,” Old Man Lu said calmly.

He turned to look at Su Yi, then said calmly, “How about you try struggling to see what happens?”

Su Yi decided it was about time to drop the act. “To tell the truth, I came here with two goals. First, to shake the people tailing me. Second, to gather information.”

“Oh?” Whirlpools revolved in the depths of Old Man Lu’s turbid eyes as he gazed at Su Yi. “So there really is a problem with your identity?”

Su Yi said forthrightly, “Yes.”

He was so honest that Old Man Lu, the man in black, and the giant serpent didn’t know what to think.

“Did you deliberately pretend to be an easy mark and deliver yourself to our door?” said the man in black, the depths of his gaze surging with murderous intent.

“I wouldn’t say that. I had no idea that Ol’ Brother Wei E would lead me somewhere like this, either,” said Su Yi.

He paused, then said seriously, “Perhaps this is a fortuitous encounter?”

“A fortuitous encounter? Fuck that bullshit!”

Boom!

The giant serpent in the lake flicked its tongue, which shot forth like a beam of bright-red light, then wrapped around Su Yi like a rope. But when the snake prepared to pull Su Yi in and devour him, it was shocked to discover that he wouldn’t budge!

“You’re too temperamental,” said Su Yi. He shook his head slightly. “That’s no way to have a conversation.”

The tongue wrapped around him split into pieces, inch by inch. The giant serpent shrieked, then writhed in agony, stirring up massive waves.

Clang!

A flash of white light descended from the heavens. The man in black was attacking. He gripped his white-bone sword with both hands, then attacked with unstoppable force, his sword qi like a raging tidal wave, turbulent beyond measure.

Su Yi didn’t even look at it. He just snapped his fingers, and a massive impact rang out.

The man in black was sent flying back, sword and all, as if struck by lightning. His whole body convulsed, and his sword wailed in his grip.

Old Man Lu was the closest to Su Yi. When he saw this, he turned to flee, space contracting beneath his feet. But before he’d gotten far, a powerful hand clamped down on his shoulder.

“You said you wanted to see me struggle, yet here you are, running away without even trying to struggle. That isn’t fair.” Su Yi patted Old Man Lu on the shoulder. With a flash of light, the old man transformed into a five-colored rooster and collapsed on the ground.

Su Yi raised his hand and tapped. The white-bone sword whooshing toward him vanished. A moment later, a bloody hole appeared, running right through the giant serpent’s skull.

The man in black quivered from head to toe, then shouted at the top of his lungs, “Hurry up and tell Master that we’re under attack!”

Su Yi just smiled and waved his sleeve.

Several tens of thousands of feet away, the man in black exploded as if he had been suddenly chopped into tiny pieces, dissipating with a bang.

Old Man Lu, or rather, the rooster that he’d become, quivered from head to toe. “If you do this, River King Purple Tiger won’t spare you!”

“Mm,” said Su Yi. “I don’t plan to spare him, either.”

As they conversed, a clamor of voices arose throughout the hundred-acre hidden realm. Figures shot toward them from all sides with startling force and momentum.

Su Yi took out a jug of wine and had a sip. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to keep a low profile, but that at this point, there was no need to hide any longer. All he needed to do was kill his enemies.

“Who are you? Why have you invaded this lofty one’s territory?” A deep, solemn voice rang out as a tall man in purple robes appeared. His subordinates clustered around him, like stars gathering around the moon.

Thousands of river denizens had surrounded Su Yi on all sides, all of them locked onto him. But he disregarded them all and focused exclusively on their leader, the tall man in purple robes.

Suddenly, Su Yi noticed that three River Kings stood beside him. This was outside of Su Yi’s expectations; according to Wei E, River King Purple Tiger was the only River King in his faction. Supposedly, his subordinates all had yet to acquire true names. Thus, the appearance of three additional River Kings was unquestionably unexpected.

The purple-robed man was, of course, River King Purple Tiger, one of the mightiest River Kings in the city’s underworld. He’d been in the middle of a secret meeting. They were discussing important business. Who’d have expected someone to attack now, of all times?

At first, he’d been startled, and he’d expected a leak and an attack by a rival faction. Now, it seemed obvious that that wasn’t the case.

Their opponent was just an unfamiliar young man in gray!