BOOM—

Roaring flames lit up the stalactites overhead. Lin Sui’an hauled Hua Yitang into the passage at speed and glanced back once, her eyes cold as frost.

Fire was not the ideal solution — but it was the fastest one. Talisman water was a liquid. In fire, it would boil into vapor, and the toxicity could spread easily. Fortunately the cavern was underground, so it would not harm innocent people. Even so, they needed to move quickly — otherwise they might not succeed in burning the poison at all, and instead end up as smoke-cured poison corpses themselves.

Using the fire’s light to navigate deeper into the passage, she could see the path ahead was rugged and winding. The fresh, damp air swept toward them — the scent of earth soaked by rain. The ground above could not be far. Lin Sui’an’s spirits lifted. “The exit must be—”

Hua Yitang’s hand suddenly wrenched free of hers without any warning. Lin Sui’an spun around — and her expression changed in an instant. A hand with prominent, bulging tendons had seized Hua Yitang by the throat, and was dragging him backward out of the passage. In a split second he had vanished into the blinding, roaring blaze.

Things had gone very wrong!

There had been someone else inside the cavern!

Lin Sui’an’s toes pushed off the ground, and she reversed course in pursuit. In the blink of an eye she was back inside the burning cavern. Her feet hammered rapidly against the stone walls, her body accelerating through the air in a spinning arc. The force of her passage cut a path through the flames. She spotted the one who had seized Hua Yitang — it was Bingsi, who had previously crossed swords with Old Ba of the Qiu family.

Lin Sui’an stepped on her right foot with her left, using it as a launch point to shoot herself forward another half zhang. With a grasping technique she shattered the arm Bingsi was using to hold Hua Yitang hostage, wrapped her other arm around Hua Yitang’s waist, launched a flying kick straight into Bingsi’s lower abdomen, and used the recoil from that blow to spin them around and land back at the edge of the cavern.

Hua Yitang clutched his throat and coughed and retched violently. On his pale neck, five terrifying handprints had already appeared. If she had been even a moment later, he would likely have been choked to death.

Lin Sui’an kept one hand shielding Hua Yitang behind her and swept a sharp gaze around the space. Their current position was in the dye vat area — the fire here was not burning as intensely, but the water vapor was rising in clouds, and the air was thick with the toxic fumes of talisman water.

The cloth still covering her nose and mouth retained traces of fragrant incense — barely enough to serve as a makeshift poison filter. She had no idea how much longer it would hold. The exit was near the embroidery rack area, a straight-line distance of more than ten zhang; going around the edges of the cavern would be even farther.

Suddenly, three large dye vats directly in front of her shook in unison. The embroideries soaking inside came flying up through the liquid all at once, like three drenched, dripping ghosts lunging toward Lin Sui’an. Hua Yitang’s coughing transformed into full-throated screaming. Every hair on Lin Sui’an’s head stood on end. She slapped Hua Yitang away from her, spun around, and launched herself to meet the threat.

Without Qian Jing, Lin Sui’an’s combat effectiveness was severely limited. She could only rely on her own fists and feet. Fortunately her speed had not been affected — her fists flew like the wind, her palms struck like blades, and a continuous storm of spinning kicks crackled through the air like a thunderclap. After a rapid flurry of strikes, the embroideries fell away to reveal human shapes crumpled on the ground.

The three figures writhed, stripped the embroideries from their bodies as if peeling off a second skin, and revealed their true forms beneath.

Lin Sui’an’s pupils contracted sharply. Three men — wearing the ginger-yellow uniforms of Xian De Manor’s inner-court guards, name plaques embroidered on their chests reading Bing Shisi, Bing Ershisi, and Bing Sanshisi.

Bingsi walked slowly through the smoke and flame and came to stand at the center.

Four faces — different features, different complexions — yet they stood with the exact same rigid posture and the exact same frozen expression, as though they were all one person. Behind them the flames raged and writhed. The talisman water had been scorched from their bodies, and now their blue-green irises spun wildly inside their sockets. The swollen veins covering their temples, necks, and the backs of their hands crawled like worms beneath the skin. The fingers of all four trembled and twisted into the curved, claw-like shape of a beast’s paw.

“Were they — were they soaking in the dye vats the whole time?!” Hua Yitang exclaimed. “Doesn’t that mean they’ve been—”

Lin Sui’an clenched both fists and said quietly, “Hua Yitang — run!”

“I, the number one young master of Yangdu, am not the sort of despicable coward who abandons a companion to save his own skin!”

“Go!” Lin Sui’an turned sharply and barked the order. “If you stay, I’ll be distracted!”

Hua Yitang’s eyes reddened. He gathered up his robes and ran for his life. The guards tagged with the “Bing” designation surged forward all at once — and so did Lin Sui’an—

Searing wind and blinding light seared across her eyes. She pushed her speed to its absolute limit. Every battle she had ever fought surged up in her memory at once. Her body drew on Jiang Chen’s twin-dragon technique — both hands moving in separate patterns simultaneously — while her left hand executed the grasping method from Berke Buplov to crush one man’s hand bones, her right palm became a blade to deliver Qian Jing’s sword form to cleave through two men’s ribs, and a spinning aerial kick connected squarely with one man’s neck. She touched down lightly, looked back — and Hua Yitang’s retreating figure had already disappeared into the passage. He had made it out.

The four she had knocked down slowly rose from the ground, lurching and listing, dragging broken hands and feet. Their blue-green irises stopped spinning and went fixed and glassy, staring at Lin Sui’an with a dead, straight-ahead blank.

Lin Sui’an’s heart sank: their speed and strength were not up to Old Estate Master Qiu’s level, but it seemed they had lost all sense of pain — like corpses that simply would not stay down. If this went on, would she end up perishing in the fire alongside them?!

The four guards launched a second wave of attack. Lin Sui’an had no choice but to meet them head-on once more. A rapid, ferocious volley of strikes — nearly shattering every last arm bone and leg bone among them — and yet it was useless. Still they dragged broken limbs and slowly rose to their feet, staring at Lin Sui’an with those dead, fixed, glassy eyes.

The fire inside the cavern grew higher and hotter. From the ceiling came a sharp cracking sound as the stalactites began to fracture. The interior was blazing like a furnace, and yet Lin Sui’an felt a bone-piercing cold.

She knew this feeling. It was the same cold she had felt the day the white livestock bones were unearthed in Yangdu.

Without warning, the leader, Bingsi, opened his mouth and spoke. “Qian… Qian Jing’s… master… save… save us…”

Lin Sui’an was struck as if by lightning. She stared in horror as blue-green tears welled up in Bingsi’s eyes and streamed down his face. He took one step forward, and then another. Behind him the other three followed, step by step — their blank, expression-frozen faces streaked with blue tears, not a flicker of feeling on them.

“What did you say?!” Lin Sui’an’s voice rang out as a fierce cry — and then, for the third time, all four attacked. This time their speed was faster, their strength greater, every move a merciless killing blow. Lin Sui’an’s mind had fallen into disarray. Her attacks had no pattern, and she was forced into constant defense. Several blows she failed to block landed heavily in her abdomen. She staggered backward, gasping for breath through the pain.

This was now a very bad situation. The cavern was saturated with talisman water fumes. The fragrance of the cloth covering her face had long since faded, and what had been a precarious but manageable balance between fragrance and toxicity had just been shattered — as Lin Sui’an’s breathing rate spiked sharply, the volume of poison flooding into her lungs increased dramatically with each breath.

The bloodthirsty killing intent that always stalked in her shadow came screaming to life, pouring into her mind, flooding over her eyes, seeping into her eardrums.

The joints of Lin Sui’an’s fingers crackled with a sound she could not suppress — the sound of excitement she could not contain.

The excitement of wanting to kill!

The four guards launched their fourth attack. Lin Sui’an vaulted skyward, swept her legs in a wide, airborne arc, and sent all four crashing to the ground. Dark red blood vomited from their mouths. Lin Sui’an shot forward and closed her hand around Bingsi’s neck. The pulse in Bingsi’s throat beat into her palm one pulse at a time, and a feeling she had not felt in a long time surged up in her heart — light yet agonized, sorrowful yet joyful, cruel yet kind, distant yet intimately near — and her grip tightened, and kept tightening…

Bingsi’s body spasmed and convulsed. His bulging eyes continued to stare fixedly at Lin Sui’an. His voice was like the faintest dust carried on the air: “Kill… us… save… save us…”

Lin Sui’an’s arm shook violently. She breathed in and out in rapid gulps. The faint trace of fragrance she could still catch slipped into her nostrils and drowned, engulfed by the endless tide of bloodlust and killing intent.

A sharp sound was tearing through her mind — like one voice, or like countless voices all at once.

[Kill him!] [Kill them all!] [Kill everyone, and you will be free!] [Kill everyone, and the suffering ends!]

Lin Sui’an squeezed her eyes shut. The tendons on the back of her hand stood out in sharp relief. Her wounds split open. Blood soaked through the thick bandaging. The fresh scent of blood mingled with the fragrance still clinging to the bandages and drifted through the air.

Lin Sui’an’s eyes flew open.

Get out.

You are nothing. You will not control me.

Her fingers released. Bingsi slid softly to the ground and vomited up a mouthful of dark purple blood.

Lin Sui’an slapped herself hard across the head and took a clear look around. She wasn’t sure exactly when, but it seemed that her earlier kicks had landed squarely on the guards’ abdomens, forcing much of the talisman water out of them. Though all four were barely breathing, they were at least still alive.

There was still time!

Lin Sui’an tore away the bandages from her hands and rewrapped the cloth around her nose and mouth instead. She grabbed two men by the arm with her left hand, seized the ankles of the other two with her right, and began dragging all four toward the exit. Behind her, fractured stalactites were crashing down and shattering. The cavern walls glowed red-hot as a furnace. The ground seethed with scorching heat. Lin Sui’an clenched her teeth and walked on. The effort of suppressing the killing intent was beginning to exact its toll — a long-unfamiliar wave of weakness crept through her body. The four people she was dragging seemed heavier and heavier… and heavier still…

Great drops of sweat fell from her brow onto her lashes, then slipped slowly downward, like tears. Lin Sui’an’s vision grew more and more blurred. Almost there — just a little further — she could already see the dark mouth of the passage ahead, right in front of her. Just hold on a little longer… just hold on a little more… her foot caught, and she stumbled and pitched forward—

A fragrant, warm, lush sweetness caught and held her. Lin Sui’an heard a familiar heartbeat. She slowly lifted her heavy eyelids, and saw Hua Yitang’s reddened eyes. His face, white as jade, was streaked with blood and blackened with soot. The scent of fresh air still clung to him, mingled with the warm fragrance — sweet, so sweet…

Lin Sui’an smiled. “Your face looks just like a painted cat.”

“Lin Sui’an! You—”

Whatever he said after that, Lin Sui’an couldn’t hear. She was too exhausted. She fell asleep.

Taoist Xuanming let out a “pfft” and spat up dark purple blood, clutching his chest as he cursed under his breath.

He had never imagined that after so many days, the chest pain had not only failed to subside — it had been growing worse and worse.

It made no sense. The amplifying talisman water he had swallowed that day during his confrontation with Yun Zhong Yue had been personally prepared by himself. He had put it through multiple trials on human subjects, and the effects had been proven impressive. How could there be aftereffects this severe?

Could the raw ingredients have been impure? Was the ratio off? Or had he overlooked some critical step?

Taoist Xuanming was utterly at a loss. He rose from his meditation mat and went to the writing desk. Pressing the Dragon God Fruit carved relief mechanism, he retrieved from inside the wall cavity a scroll bound in blue with a black seal, settled back onto the bed, propped himself against the headboard, pulled the covers up, and read it slowly with great care. This scroll had been passed on to him by the Third Master. He had read it no fewer than a hundred times. What it recorded seemed fantastical and strange at first glance, but was in truth miraculous and profound. Above all, the method recorded within for refining Dragon God Fruit had truly opened his eyes and enriched him immeasurably.

Suddenly, from outside the meditation chamber came a rapid knocking. “Elder Brother! Elder Brother! Something terrible has happened!”

Taoist Xuanming swiftly put away the scroll and raised his voice. “What has you in such a panic?!”

“The underground secret vault is on fire!”

“What?!” The shock Taoist Xuanming felt was no small thing. He flung back the covers and leapt from the bed, throwing open the chamber door. “How did the fire start?! When did it start?!”

Standing outside the door was Xuanming’s junior brother, Taoist Xuanqing — long-faced, high-nosed, with a broad high forehead and hair combed with meticulous precision. Now he wore an expression of utter misery. “No one knows — it was just a moment ago. Several of the secret passage hidden doors in the inner courtyard suddenly began belching black smoke. I immediately sent people to investigate, and every passage is filled with smoke. The vault must be on fire!”

“Then why are you standing here?! Go put the fire out!” Taoist Xuanming bellowed — then a sudden bolt of intense chest pain struck, and he almost didn’t manage to draw his next breath.

Taoist Xuanqing hurriedly steadied him, fanning the air rapidly with one hand. “Elder Brother, please do not agitate yourself. I have already sent disciples, but all the passages are billowing with dense smoke — no one can get in. We’ll likely have to wait a while—”

“Send people immediately to the stone grotto on the southern shore of Dragon God Lake! There is a wide, concealed entrance there!”

Taoist Xuanqing assented over and over, called a young Taoist acolyte over and gave him instructions, then helped Taoist Xuanming back inside to rest. He lowered his voice and counseled, “Elder Brother still has the Dragon God Festival grand ceremony to preside over tomorrow — your health must come first!”

Taoist Xuanming slumped against the headboard, exhausted. “What about the Four Beasts standing guard?! How could something of this magnitude happen with no warning whatsoever?!”

“The newly trained Four Beasts are not very capable. Their current status is unknown — whether they live or have died is unclear. These past few days, the temple has been entirely occupied with preparations for the Dragon God Festival, and everyone has been stretched thin. Xian De Manor also borrowed a great many disciples today — and before we knew it, security had grown lax, and the vault caught fire.” Taoist Xuanqing’s face was full of guilt. “It was this junior’s negligence. I await Elder Brother’s punishment!”

Taoist Xuanming frowned. “What did Xian De Manor borrow disciples for?”

“I heard it was because — Qiu Wen has been killed.”

Taoist Xuanming was taken aback. “Who killed him?”

“Qiu Hong insists it was Miss Fang’an from Fang Family Clinic.” Taoist Xuanqing said. “And apparently the people from Fang Family Clinic have all fled — the matter is as good as certain.”

“Fang Family Clinic!” Taoist Xuanming slammed the table, then winced as another shudder of chest pain hit. “I remember now — when Yun Zhong Yue came to cause trouble, we looked into them!”

Taoist Xuanqing lowered his head. “That is correct.”

Taoist Xuanming paced back and forth several times, then gave a cold laugh. “I understand now. Fang Family Clinic and Yun Zhong Yue are working together! Heaven-cursed Yun Zhong Yue — burning my Dragon God Temple, injuring my disciples, killing my old friend — a most vicious, utterly conscienceless wretch! I, Xuanming, swear to fight you to the end!”

Taoist Xuanqing stood with his eyes lowered and said nothing. In the shadow, the corner of his eye gave an involuntary twitch.

“Wait — last time Yun Zhong Yue burned down the Yuanji Hall. Could it be that at the time he had already found the secret passage entrance?” Taoist Xuanming found this increasingly plausible and flew into a rage. “This fire in the vault must also be his handiwork!”

Taoist Xuanqing’s eyelid twitched again.

Taoist Xuanming laughed coldly. “Our Dragon God Temple’s passages are a labyrinth without equal in this world. Even if Yun Zhong Yue is the greatest thief under heaven, once he is inside our passages, he will find it impossible to escape. Xuanqing, I order you — take men immediately and search every passage. I want him found alive or dead!”

Taoist Xuanqing blinked. “But… the disciples still need to fight the fire…”

“At this point the stored goods in the vault are probably beyond saving for the most part — let it go. We can simply make more.” Taoist Xuanming ground his teeth. “Capturing Yun Zhong Yue, that root of all this evil, is the one thing that matters above all else!”

Taoist Xuanqing was struck with sudden clarity. “Elder Brother, your wisdom is unmatched! This junior will depart at once, and will not fail Elder Brother’s trust!”

Taoist Xuanming gave a nod and waved a weary hand.

Taoist Xuanqing withdrew from the meditation chamber with respectful formality. In the instant the door swung shut, he caught a glimpse of the blue scroll partially visible beneath Taoist Xuanming’s bedding — and a sharp gleam of light sliced through his eyes.

Skit:

Yun Zhong Yue — currently inhabiting the body beneath Taoist Xuanqing’s skin: Of all the injustice — how does every last piece of blame end up on my head?!