Qin Yao spoke, then quickly withdrew her hands.

The warmth of her palm still lingered on Lin Xiao’s lips. His thoughts stalled for a moment. He saw Qin Yao turn and start forward again, and quickly caught hold of her arm.

“What great evil entity? How did you end up in this tunnel?” He tried with all his will to push aside the ill-timed thoughts now threading through his mind, and lowered his voice.

The tunnel was narrow — easily enough space for one person, but with two pressed together, it became distinctly close.

Qin Yao felt as if Lin Xiao’s breath fell right at her ear as he spoke. The sensation set the tips of her ears flushing red quite involuntarily. She quickly turned her body to the side, uncomfortable, putting a little more distance between them.

Steadying herself, she murmured: “This is not the moment for lengthy explanation. A short while ago I laid a boundary seal at the tunnel’s exit — the evil entity cannot sense our presence here for now. But I must get to Master as quickly as possible so he can come and deal with it.”

Earlier, in Shuangyan Lane, Qin Yao had realized with a shock that the female ghost had switched Feng Chuyue’s place — she had acted out of fury and struck at the ghost. The ghost had resorted to the same trick as before, trying as she had the last time to seize Qin Yao’s throat with her ghostly claws. But Qin Yao had learned her lesson from that bitter experience and had no intention of letting her succeed again. Before the ghost could get close, she unleashed the Soul-Devouring Bell without a moment’s hesitation.

Yet the female ghost proved far more formidable than Qin Yao had imagined. When struck by the Soul-Devouring fire, instead of being scattered to oblivion, she instantly transformed into a mass of black shadow and fled.

Qin Yao’s thoughts were with Feng Chuyue, and she gave chase without letup, pursuing the shadow through nearly half of Chang’an. Seeing that she could not catch it in any short span of time, she reached for the signal flare — and realized then, groping through her bosom, that her firestick had been lost at some unknown point along the way.

By the time Qin Yao borrowed a firestick from a night patrol officer, the female ghost had circled back to Shuangyan Lane and slipped into the high walls of the abandoned estate, vanishing entirely.

Qin Yao was deeply puzzled. When ordinary malevolent spirits were injured, they typically retreated to their lair to recover. Yet after making such a wide circuit, this female ghost did not go to the Jinghai Marquis’s manor to find Qin Cheng — she still returned to this abandoned estate. Could it be that this old estate was truly her hiding place?

Qin Yao then searched carefully through the estate’s garden — but found nothing. She kept searching until she reached the foot of the ancient tree where she and Feng Chuyue had hidden earlier. Only then did the compass in her bosom give a reaction. She had thought there might be some array beneath the tree that nourished the female ghost, but after feeling around for a while, she unexpectedly found that there was a deep tunnel hidden underground.

She followed the tunnel forward for what felt like a long while, and at last reached the exit. But beyond the tunnel there was not only the female ghost from earlier — there was also another great malevolent entity, one far more difficult to deal with than she had anticipated.

Qin Yao saw at once that she had no hope of rescuing Feng Chuyue — she might not even be able to save herself. She had no choice but to retrace her steps and release the signal flare to call for Master and Senior Brother.

“A’Yao, is that you?” Behind her came Qing Xuzi’s voice. His hearing was exceptional — he had detected from some distance away that Lin Xiao was speaking in a low voice with someone, and the tone and cadence of the other person was unmistakably Qin Yao.

“Master.” Delight broke across Qin Yao’s face. Afraid that Master would have difficulty moving in the dark, she quickly lit the firestick.

Qing Xuzi came close and, by the light of the flame, swiftly looked Qin Yao over. Seeing that his disciple was unharmed, he let out a breath of relief, then said: “Just now you sent up the flare and then you were no longer where you’d been — how did you end up back in the tunnel? You gave us a great search.”

“I thought it would take you all some time to arrive. I was worried about Feng Chuyue being harmed by the two evil entities, so I came back into the tunnel to keep watch. I never imagined you would all get here so quickly.”

And not only that — she had also not expected that once she had gone down into the tunnel, the tunnel’s opening would close on its own. Without a careful eye, one would never find the entrance.

Qing Xuzi glanced at Lin Xiao with a complex expression. It was thanks to this man’s quick-wittedness that they had found Qin Yao. Without him, they might still be searching even now.

At this moment A’Han also arrived. Seeing Qin Yao, he was first overjoyed, then overcome with guilt and remorse. If he had not been lazy and skipped accompanying Qin Yao tonight, how could all this trouble have come about in the first place?

He was just opening his mouth to speak when, from deeper in the tunnel ahead, there came a sudden, bizarre sound — as if something were dragging fingernails across the tunnel wall. The sound was not loud, yet it was especially eerie and grating, like something being scraped across the human heart.

In the next instant, something came hurtling down the tunnel toward them with fierce, violent speed. It was bearing down on Qin Yao, who stood at the front, and was about to strike her.

All four of them reacted as one to the threat. Qing Xuzi swiftly drew a talisman paper from his sleeve. He chanted the Talisman to Break Hell’s Gate, his feet stepping the ritual paces of the Grand Dipper, and called out sharply: “Break—!”

The talisman paper that had been light as a feather became instantly rigid and straight, as if caught in an invisible gale, and flew directly toward the oncoming thing.

Fss— In the darkness came the smell of burning flesh and skin. Yet the thing emitted a cold, malicious laugh — its momentum not the least bit slowed — and shot straight for Qin Yao.

Qin Yao had already begun invoking her incantation the moment she heard the strange sound. But she had already unleashed the Fire Dragon once earlier when dealing with the female ghost, and had not yet fully recovered her inner strength — her spiritual power was insufficient, and the Fire Dragon was sluggish and lazy, reluctant to emerge from the Soul-Devouring Bell even after she had been pressing it for some time.

As the thing bore down on her, sweat dripped from Qin Yao’s temples. In her mind, she cursed furiously at the three dragons for being utterly unreliable.

Just as she was nearly frantic with anxiety, from behind her came the resonant hum of a sword — a cold flash of light, and something with an extremely keen edge swept past the hem of her sleeve and drove into the malevolent entity that was almost upon her.

Simultaneously, Qing Xuzi’s horsetail whisk struck through the air and landed with force on the entity.

The thing let out a shrill, inhuman shriek. Its momentum broke, and it rapidly retreated.

Lin Xiao struck and, without pause, pushed past Qin Yao with his sword raised, determined the entity not escape. He gave chase all the way to the tunnel’s end.

All around fell into utter silence. Not a trace of the suffocating, sinister yin energy from moments ago could be felt. The entity was clearly no longer in the tunnel.

Before him was a darkness so thick it seemed solid — except for a faint glimmer of light just visible overhead. Lin Xiao understood inwardly that the light must be coming from the tunnel exit Qin Yao had described.

“Young Lord—” Qin Yao had by now caught up and reached Lin Xiao’s side. She looked upward and said: “Above us is a thin plank. Push it open and we can get out. But I am worried those two evil entities may be standing guard just outside — we must be cautious.”

“It’s fine,” Lin Xiao said in a low, steady voice. “You stay here. I will go up and take a look.” He felt along the wall and found, just as it had been at the entry point, a row of footholds cut into the wall, leading straight up to the faintly lit opening at the top of the tunnel.

Qin Yao had no intention of letting Lin Xiao go up alone into unknown danger. She quietly tested her spiritual power, found she could finally invoke the Soul-Devouring Bell again, and promptly released the three dragons to coil around Lin Xiao’s body, giving him a full measure of protection.

Lin Xiao was slightly taken aback. Something like the gentle warmth of an early spring breeze seemed to pass through his heart — soothing every corner of it into ease. Though it was not at all an appropriate moment for the feeling, he still could not help turning back to look at Qin Yao with a smile.

At the top, Lin Xiao groped around the faintly lit area until he found the loose thin plank. The plank was neither thick nor heavy — with just a light push, it gave way easily.

Looking up from below, Qin Yao and Qing Xuzi and the others suddenly felt a strange sensation come over them.

Qin Yao had already had some misgivings earlier, and now was utterly at a loss. By all reasoning, the two evil entities possessed formidable dark arts and could come and go wherever they pleased without the slightest need of a tunnel to conceal their movements. It was evident, then, that this tunnel had most likely been dug by the Jinghai Marquis for his own ease of passage.

Yet he was so cautious and thorough — leaving no gaps, accounting for everything — that having dug the tunnel, why had he not fitted it with heavier planks at the openings, or even stone or iron? Two thin, flimsy boards, easily pushed open by anyone — wasn’t he afraid that the tunnel might one day be discovered, ruining everything after all his careful work?

After thinking it over, Qin Yao had a dim suspicion: could it be that Qin Cheng was not the only one who regularly passed through this tunnel? And that this other person, unlike Qin Cheng, had no martial arts ability — though coming and going often, they lacked the strength to move heavy planks, so Qin Cheng had no choice but to use only thin, lightweight boards for their convenience?

In other words — Qin Cheng had an accomplice?

But — Qin Yao furrowed her brow inwardly — who could that person be?

Just as she was turning this over, Lin Xiao’s voice drifted down from above: “A’Yao.” His tone was calm — plainly there was nothing amiss outside.

Qin Yao quickly called back in reply, and she, Qing Xuzi, and the others climbed out of the tunnel.

Qing Xuzi and A’Han looked around, and found themselves inside a small, dilapidated temple. Remarkably, a single candle was lit inside the hall, casting the surroundings in shifting light and shadow. Cobwebs thickly festooned the carved beams above, and the deity statue that had once stood in the center of the hall had faded into near illegibility, leaning to one side. Candlesticks and incense burners lay scattered everywhere.

Most of the tables and chairs in the hall had been broken or smashed beyond use. Only beneath the base of the statue stood a long table, covered with a bed-cloth of apricot yellow — soaked through with bloodstains.

Qin Yao withdrew the fire dragons and looked at the bed-cloth, saturated with great swaths of dark, blackened bloodstains. A deep, unsettling unease stirred inside her. A short while earlier at the tunnel exit, she had caught one quick glimpse of the great evil entity’s appearance before she was seized by horror and hastily retreated — she had not taken in the scene inside the temple at the time. Now, looking at what lay on this long table, the question rose: could this be where those women had their eyes and noses cut out?

Qing Xuzi had also noticed the long table. He swung his whisk and walked over, circling it slowly. Then he seemed to notice something, and his steps halted. He crouched down, looking at the floor.

There, amid the thick accumulated dust on the ground, lay a scatter of footprints of various shapes and sizes — boot prints, and the smaller prints of women’s embroidered shoes — all crossing and overlapping in confusion, impossible to distinguish one from another.

But one set of prints stood out in particular, conspicuous beyond all the rest. Not only were they enormous — as large as a folding fan — they had only four toes, each one tapering to an extremely sharp point, like the edge of a blade.

Qing Xuzi took in these part-human, part-beast prints, his face draining of color. He looked up at Qin Yao. “Terrible — can it be that what you encountered just now was a Luo Cha?!”

Before the last word had even left his mouth, something on the beams above gave a sudden, piercing shriek, and a vast black shadow plunged straight at him.