Qing Xuzi was closest. He flung himself forward without a second thought, the straw rope streaming behind him, lashing it around the Jade Corpse’s neck and hauling her backward with all his strength.
Qin Yao rushed forward as well. She first deployed the Soul-Devouring Bell to shield A’Han, keeping the Jade Corpse’s teeth from reaching his throat, then wrapped both arms around A’Han’s waist and wrenched him backward with everything she had.
But she had already forgotten — the Soul-Devouring Bell posed virtually no threat to any part of the Jade Corpse’s body. Even with the Soul-Devouring flame as a barrier, it could not stop the Jade Corpse’s teeth from drawing inexorably closer and closer to A’Han’s neck.
In a flash of movement, Lin Xiao drove his sword in from an angle and slashed at the Jade Corpse’s arm. The sound of metal striking stone rang out, and the hand gripping A’Han finally showed the barest hint of loosening.
A’Han possessed extraordinary natural strength. Seizing that momentary slackening, he rolled aside just in time and broke free from the Jade Corpse’s hold.
The moment Qing Xuzi saw A’Han escape, he released the rope, leapt into the air, and in a series of bounding strides put a considerable distance between himself and the Jade Corpse.
The monk who had been holding the vajra knot, horrified by the trouble he had caused, scrambled to find his footing and directed his sacred implement back toward the Jade Corpse.
A golden net materialized above once more and began dropping down over the Jade Corpse.
But this time the Jade Corpse had learned her lesson. Seeing that A’Han was already more than a yard out of reach, she let the killing energy surge through her — and in a move no one anticipated, her arm shot out and grabbed Qin Yao, who had barely taken two steps away, and locked her tight in a crushing embrace.
Then she simply let the golden net fall over her. With a low, cold laugh, she dragged Qin Yao down into the water alongside her.
Everyone looked on in horror. Was the Jade Corpse intending to have Qin Yao buried with her beneath the Jade Spring?
The Jade Corpse’s arms were like iron clamps, holding Qin Yao immovably fast.
Qin Yao struggled, but it was useless. In her desperation, she began kicking and cursing wildly.
Lin Xiao, who had not seen this coming, felt his expression go cold. He levelled his sword and lunged without hesitation, driving it hard at the Jade Corpse’s arm.
Qing Xuzi and A’Han went pale with alarm and likewise surged forward to help.
But the Jade Corpse suffered the golden net tightening around her, suffered the Chixiao Sword carving lines one after another into her arms, and refused absolutely to let go — she had made up her mind that Qin Yao was going to be buried with her.
Qin Yao saw that despite the desperate efforts Lin Xiao and the others had mounted in a matter of breaths, she was still no closer to breaking free. A nameless panic flooded her chest. Like a small animal cornered, she buried her face against the Jade Corpse’s arm and gnawed at it with her teeth.
But the Jade Corpse’s arms were as cold and unyielding as iron. Even if Qin Yao ground every tooth in her mouth to dust, she would never leave a mark.
Cold sweat poured from Lin Xiao’s forehead; his heart sank lower with each moment. He struck the Jade Corpse’s arms with his sword over and over, then pivoted and thrust at her chest — but though the Jade Corpse showed signs of wavering, she would not release her hold.
Her gaze blazed with a dark, cold fire. Having already decided to go down fighting, she paid the river and everyone on the bank no attention whatsoever.
Listening to the ringing of the Chixiao Sword hammering against her body, she slowly turned her eyes toward Lin Xiao. Glimpsing the white skin of his throat, her mouth began to itch — she opened her jaw to lunge for it — but before she could move, the golden net blazed with a surge of light, and her barely-open mouth was forced shut again, unable to reopen.
She knew what the golden net was capable of. She abandoned any thought of biting someone and creating another golden corpse — she simply let the array of sacred implements batter her to pieces, no matter the cost, and refused to loosen her grip. She would drag someone with her to the grave.
The spring water had long since parted in two streams, leaving a wide expanse of riverbed exposed. Qin Yao had been dragged down until more than half her body was buried in the mud. In the grip of overwhelming terror, she shed every last trace of the composure she kept so carefully in ordinary life. She burst into tears and cried out: “Master, Young Master — I don’t want to be buried alive with the Jade Corpse! Help me think of something!”
“Don’t be afraid! My good child! Your master will not let this evil creature harm you!” Qing Xuzi roared, his voice hoarse and barely recognisable from the frantic urgency in it.
Lin Xiao poured every last ounce of concentration into fighting the Jade Corpse, too pressed to answer — but through his relentless, unyielding effort, the Chixiao Sword at last managed to carve open a crack in the Jade Corpse’s chest.
He drew a heaving breath and snapped his eyes up to the Jade Corpse’s face. The flames burning in his eyes looked capable of incinerating everything. He snarled: “Let her go — now!”
The Jade Corpse’s gaze was cold and remote. She laughed one cold laugh after another — even if only a thread of strength remained in her body, she would not release Qin Yao. That much was certain.
Yuan Jue and his disciples had nearly exhausted every shred of power they had on suppressing the Jade Corpse; there was nothing left with which to help Qin Yao escape. Seeing that even Qing Xuzi and the others risked being dragged below the surface, the monks around them had no choice but to run forward and pull at Qing Xuzi’s group, urging: “Daoist masters, please let go — if you hold on any longer, it won’t only be our martial sister who is dragged under — you will be too!”
Qing Xuzi was gritting his teeth and fighting alongside Lin Xiao, but hearing this he turned and barked at A’Han: “A’Han! Get to the bank — now!”
“No!” A’Han defied his master for the first and only time, pressing forward with red-rimmed eyes. “The Jade Corpse is dragging A’Yao away! I won’t go up there. Wherever Master and A’Yao go, I go too.”
“Get to the bank! If you dare disobey me, I swear that even in death I will never again acknowledge you as my disciple!”
Yuan Jue, body still unable to move, nevertheless strained his eyes toward one of his disciples across the way, signalling with a sharp glance.
That monk was quick-witted and understood at once. He immediately rallied a group of his brothers, who swarmed over and grabbed A’Han, ignoring his struggles, and physically dragged him up out of the mud.
A’Han threw his arms around his master and clenched his teeth and would not let go. With the full force of the monks pulling together, Qing Xuzi was dragged out along with him.
Qing Xuzi and A’Han had barely stumbled back onto the bank before their faces went frantic with alarm — they were ready to throw themselves straight back in and go after Qin Yao, when they found themselves blocked by a wall of Yuan Jue’s disciples.
Those monks held them back with eyes full of grief and said gently: “All conditioned phenomena are thus — all things in the world are already ordained. If you go back in, Daoist masters, you will only add to the toll of the fallen.”
Before they could finish, seeing that Qing Xuzi and A’Han were still straining to push through, Yuan Jue’s disciples threw themselves into a tight circle around both men at their master’s signal, and no matter what the two did, they would not be moved.
At the same moment, another group of disciples volunteered to wade in and pull Lin Xiao out.
By now more than half of Qin Yao’s body was submerged in the mud. In her despair, she had already given up any hope of escape. Seeing that Lin Xiao still refused to leave, she cried out urgently: “Young Master, please go up! If you don’t get out now, you’ll be dragged down too!”
Then — crack — the fissures in the Jade Corpse’s chest multiplied, branching and spreading in all directions like the finest crazing on a piece of white-glazed porcelain.
Lin Xiao ground his teeth and held his sword against the Jade Corpse, saying each word like a stone: “I will not abandon you.”
The Jade Corpse, who had been keeping her gaze at its most ferocious and cold, suddenly went utterly still.
Qin Yao’s tears were streaming down her face. She wept for a moment, then forced her arms up and pushed Lin Xiao outward, crying through her tears: “If there is any chance to live, why throw it away? Why must two people be bound together in death? Go now — I won’t feel as bad if you’re safe. And if you still won’t let go, I swear I will never speak to you again!”
Lin Xiao felt a wave of cold wash through him. After this? If he let go now, there would be no after.
He looked at Qin Yao. Something tightened in his throat.
She had tears in her eyes. She was standing right here before him, alive — he had only to reach out to touch her.
They had walked through life and death together, depending on each other in their extremity. What was there to say about letting go or not? Having decided she was his in this lifetime, how could he bring himself to let go at the moment when life itself was at stake?
“No.” He drove the sword forward another fraction of an inch, grinding his teeth. “I told you — I will not let go.”
A tremendous cracking sound tore through the air as new fissures swept across the Jade Statue — and this time, the fractures were no longer confined to where the sword met jade. They spread to her neck, to her shoulders and back, and even across the delicate curve of her jaw.
Forced backward by the inexorable pressure of the sword, the Jade Corpse shifted, almost imperceptibly, and looked down at Lin Xiao.
This person driving a sword into her body was fighting with everything he had to pull the girl from her arms.
That single-minded, heedless devotion — as though the girl were the flame of his life, and without her, his life would meet a long and lightless dark.
How many years had it been since she had seen such absolute, death-defying loyalty? No — in a hundred years she had never encountered it. Her memory held only betrayal and deceit.
It was like a shaft of light falling into a rotten, long-darkened hell. Memories from a distant past came crashing back over her through the gulf of all those years — sudden and overwhelming and without warning.
To follow each other through life and death, never to part.
The face of the person who had once whispered those words in her ear was long beyond remembering. What remained in the depths of her consciousness was only a hatred so deep it had carved itself into her bones.
And yet — standing here, in this moment — that hatred which she had nursed for a full hundred years began, in the face of these two wholehearted, guileless young souls, to dissolve. Like ice beneath a blazing sun, it was melting.
She gazed at Lin Xiao for a long, empty moment. The desolation in her eyes deepened gradually until it became as dense as ink. Whether it was because she had no more strength to hold on, or for some other reason entirely — when one more moment of resistance would have been enough to drag both young people down with her — she suddenly, violently, released her arms.
Qin Yao lost her support and toppled sideways.
Lin Xiao startled. He stared at the Jade Corpse for one unbelieving instant — then understood what had happened. He moved with the fastest speed he had, withdrew the Chixiao Sword, and caught Qin Yao.
Fearing any reversal of fortune, he gathered his breath, and without stopping for a single moment, flew back to the bank.
Qin Yao was dazed for a long stretch. When she finally came back to herself, she drew in a great, shuddering breath — and then, caring nothing for the mud caked all over her body, caring nothing for the eyes around her, she buried her face against Lin Xiao’s throat and wept openly and without restraint.
Lin Xiao held her tightly in silence.
He had no habit of weeping. Alive by the skin of their teeth, all he could do was let Qin Yao’s tears soak through his clothing.
But there was something lodged in his throat that felt like a wad of cotton, and his arms had never in his life been so unyielding — as though he wanted to press her into his very body and never be apart from her again.
Qing Xuzi pushed through the crowd and came running. Seeing this, the half of his soul he had very nearly lost found its way back; he let out a long breath. For once in his life, he completely forgot to scold Qin Yao and Lin Xiao for being too familiar with each other.
By now the Jade Corpse had no further hold to rely on, and she no longer resisted. She merely let the golden net press her slowly downward, her rigid body tilting to look blankly at the distant hills.
In the end, her entire jade form sank gradually into the riverbed — until even the top of her head vanished beneath the mud and left no trace behind.
Yuan Jue watched the Jade Corpse’s subjugation, finished reciting the remaining passage of the Vajra Mantra, and led his disciples in completing the formation.
Afterward, he pressed his palms together and looked into the distance. After a long silence, he said: “When the mind turns foolish, wisdom is severed; when the mind turns wise, wisdom is born. The Jade Corpse still held within her one impulse of compassion. There is hope yet for her redemption. My disciples will come here each day to recite the Great Compassion Mantra until the resentment in this place has faded, to help guide her through her ordeal.”
Everyone present answered in unison.
Qin Yao listened to the long, steady rhythm of the chanting around her, and slowly lifted her head from Lin Xiao’s arms. And then she saw it: the overcast sky above was suddenly rent apart, and a brilliant shaft of golden sunlight broke through the mountain mist and fell on all things below. Beneath this warmth of dawn, the grim and ghostly miasma that had hung over the mountain peaks vanished without trace.
In that single moment — insects chirped, birds called, butterflies danced, flowers flew on the breeze, and everything, suddenly, was alive.
Qin Yao felt her heart grow luminous and clear. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and exhaled softly.
That night — so long it had seemed it would never end — had finally passed.