Behind it, Yugu came running as well, breathless and panting, covered head to toe in dust, her clothes disheveled and in utter disarray. “Mistress, you were right — this truly is an idiot… I told it to use the shark-silk to come back, but it insisted on carrying me on its back! And dropped me six times along the way…”

Though this was hardly the moment for it, the scene genuinely provoked laughter.

Chunyu Lin took a slow step backward, a look of doubt crossing his face. “Impossible. When my physical form died, the Heaven Fire Spirit Essence should have self-destructed. How could it possibly…”

He Bang was thoroughly smug. “It was originally going to self-destruct. But at the time, I had burst into your Heavenly Eye, and discovered that the power of the Heaven Water Spirit Essence and the Heaven Wind Spirit Essence could nourish it and keep it alive temporarily. It so happened that I had promised this serpent a chance to cultivate a human form within fifty years, so I let it benefit from the arrangement. As a three-eyed serpent, it was originally insufficient to absorb the Heaven Fire Spirit Essence. But with your physical body as sustenance, it was possible for it to survive.”

Chunyu Lin understood at last. “You hid it all along — to use against me.”

He Bang leaned against Rong Chen Zi’s shoulder and reached into his pouch for something to eat. “My immortal body was scorched by the Heaven Fire Spirit Essence, and it took several months to recover. During that time, had word of it leaked out, people would inevitably have come to seize the treasure, and it would not have survived. As for using it against you… it was nothing more than sharpening a blade. I never intended to act against anyone. But I said I would let you go. If you would not go, then I was naturally going to find a resting place for you.”

Chunyu Lin lowered his eyes, his voice as faint as a light breeze. “A burial ground?”

He Bang stuffed a piece of dried fruit into her mouth, and after a long while said, “More or less.”

This little Resonant Serpent had absorbed the physical essence of the Serpent King, and also obtained the Heaven Fire Spirit Essence, granting it at least forty percent of the Resonant Serpent’s power at its prime. With He Bang, Rong Chen Zi, and the others added in, Chunyu Lin now had no hope of winning whatsoever.

Rong Chen Zi let out a breath of relief. He reached into his pouch for a medicinal pill, only to discover upon putting it in his mouth that it was a candy pill.

With this three-eyed serpent, the tide of battle reversed in an instant. But He Bang’s mind was elsewhere. “If there were a guardian divine beast here as well, it would surely extend the nation’s fate.” She looked at Chunyu Lin, her gaze deep and still. “In a little over a hundred years, the sinister energy within your body will be dissolved and absorbed by the dragon energy. At that point, I’ll find another place for you.”

But Chunyu Lin suddenly went wild. “No! I would rather die!”

Rong Chen Zi said quietly, “It has been traumatized by imprisonment. But every cause has its effect — this is the bitter fruit you yourself have cultivated.”

“No, you will not!” Chunyu Lin shouted, then lunged toward Rong Chen Zi, every move aimed to kill. Rong Chen Zi’s cultivation was no match for his, yet his advance and retreat were measured and composed, and Chunyu Lin could not gain the upper hand. The little three-eyed serpent drove him toward the cracks in the ice. The Heaven Fire Spirit Essence within his body instantly melted the ice, and the pool water began to flow once more.

Chunyu Lin was driven into the water. He Bang followed unhurriedly behind. Rong Chen Zi led the way ahead. “The national fate will continuously draw upon the dragon energy, and once the dragon energy is exhausted, the dynasty will fall. There must be a place here that is closest to the earth’s vital energy. If we trap it there, that spot will rapidly drain it of its power. As an ancient preternatural beast, extending the nation’s fate by fifty years would not be a problem.”

Below the spring it was pitch dark. He Bang produced a pearl for light. The group drove Chunyu Lin down to the base of the mountain, where they came upon a place where the water surged and churned — the still pool behaved like a drain in the sea, endlessly devouring everything around it.

The three-eyed serpent was about to drive Chunyu Lin into it when the water current suddenly shifted violently. He Bang, as a water creature, was extremely sensitive to the water around her. She listened in stillness for a moment, then suddenly said, “The terrain above is changing.”

Everyone turned to look at her. She raised her head and looked upward. “What’s happening? This place is sinking.”

Zhuang Shaoqin’s face went pale. He immediately moved to go up and investigate. The three-eyed serpent panicked as well. “Your Majesty, what about him then?”

He Bang began to tremble faintly. “Something is wrong. There’s something strange here. Run!”

Rong Chen Zi took her hand. Zhuang Shaoqin shielded Ye Tian. Even the little Resonant Serpent, in the ensuing chaos, scooped Yugu onto its back. The group surged upward to the surface of the pool. Above, everything was eerily quiet — nothing had changed, and not even the water’s surface showed the slightest ripple. Rong Chen Zi looked at He Bang. “An illusion?”

He Bang shed her human form and submerged herself in the pool. After a long moment, she reappeared. “No — this place truly is sinking!!”

The group ran back the way they had come. But all around them, the temperature was rising rapidly, and the pool began to boil. He Bang controlled the water to bring the temperature down, but it was still too high for any ordinary person to withstand. He Bang could sense the currents of the water, and looked all around. “Lava.”

At this single word, everyone turned pale with shock. “There is a volcano here?”

He Bang shook her head. “It must be man-made. When a living creature attempts to escape as the mausoleum sinks, it triggers the mechanism. The scale is not vast, but more than sufficient to kill every living thing inside. The mechanism will certainly not destroy the mausoleum itself, so for now we can flee back to the burial ground — we won’t die just yet. The only question is how long the mausoleum might take before it rises again. We don’t know how many years we could be trapped here. Nor do we know what other traps the mausoleum may contain.”

Inside grew hotter and hotter. Red lava was already visible flowing down all around them.

Everyone was drenched in sweat. Then someone let out a sharp cry. He Bang turned — Ye Tian’s iron chain suddenly snapped. Chunyu Lin had pursued them from behind. The solar ring in his hand severed the chain, and the lunar ring in his right hand shot straight for Ye Tian.

Ye Tian was no match for him in the first place, and caught completely off guard, she plunged straight downward. He Bang reached out without thinking and seized Ye Tian’s wrist. Her right hand formed a seal to block the lunar ring rushing at her.

There was no time. She managed only to form a single layer of water-pattern shield. The lunar ring struck the water pattern with a crash, tearing it apart, and her right hand was immediately cut and bleeding. She gritted her teeth but held Ye Tian’s wrist in an iron grip. In that brief moment, enough time had passed for Rong Chen Zi and Zhuang Shaoqin to rush over to the rescue. He Bang’s mortal body was too fragile, and just as her left hand barely managed to clench Ye Tian’s wrist, there came a crisp snap — the sound of a bone breaking. Ye Tian looked up in shock, and saw He Bang biting her lip, both hands gripping her with a force that seemed as though it might shatter her wrists.

Behind He Bang, Yugu quickly threw down the shark-silk. Ye Tian grasped it with her right hand, and Yugu pulled her up. He Bang bit her teeth together, a sheen of cold sweat across her brow. Rong Chen Zi took her hand and kept running forward. The red lava was rising at terrifying speed, creeping ever closer to the iron chains.

The group, light as swallows though they all were, felt to those rusted chains as though they weighed a thousand pounds.

He Bang gathered the water reserves within her body and used a water-evasion technique to carry everyone to the exit — only to arrive and find the exit completely covered by lava. There was no way out.

He Bang had no means left to cool the temperature with water. Rong Chen Zi and Zhuang Shaoqin had no time to chase down Chunyu Lin. Rong Chen Zi sheltered He Bang in his arms. “This cannot be the only exit — otherwise this mausoleum could never be opened again. Could it be that it descends by rotating?”

Zhenren Xingzhi’s expression was grave as well. “So the exit has turned to another location? But then how are we to find it?”

He Bang had no sense of direction to begin with, and now she was in complete disarray. The lava was rising and rising, drawing ever nearer to the iron chains. The heat steamed and billowed. He Bang used the water-evasion technique three times — east, west, and south all led nowhere. She was gasping for breath, and the water within her body could no longer carry so many people. “Run north.”

The temperature was far too high. The others in the group were all of mortal flesh, and merely remaining conscious took everything they had. The little Resonant Serpent carried everyone on its back and ran north. The scene was truly harrowing — everyone was too frightened even to faint, and even Zhenren Xingzhi could not hold back a cry of alarm.

The northern exit came into sight. There was indeed no lava in that direction. Inside, the temperature had grown so extreme that the others all believed the door before them was a hallucination. The little Resonant Serpent’s techniques were fire-aligned, and it could still endure. It carried Zhenren Xingzhi, Yugu, Qingxuan, and the others all the way to the mouth of the corridor.

Zhenren Xingzhi was already injured and extremely weak. Rong Chen Zi sent him up to the corridor mouth first. Zhuang Shaoqin got Ye Tian and the other disciples up as well.

Rong Chen Zi turned back and reached out a hand to He Bang. He Bang involuntarily reached out — and then a searing pain shot through her elbow. Her grip gave way, and she plunged downward. Rong Chen Zi was so frightened his soul nearly left his body. “Xiao He!!”

He Bang was equally terrified out of her wits. She found her footing on the tips of her toes and tried to use wind transference, when suddenly her waist was seized, and something wrapped her in an embrace. Rong Chen Zi, who had been rushing toward her, froze in his tracks, not daring to move. “Don’t hurt her!”

He Bang turned her head — and saw Chunyu Lin. His hair was disheveled, his appearance haggard. Yet he was still smiling. “How can you be so careless, Your Majesty?”

He Bang opened her mouth and burst into loud wailing. The corridor exit was right before their eyes, and yet she could not reach it. Rong Chen Zi’s mind was a storm of urgency. “Whatever you want — we can talk about it. First come out!”

Chunyu Lin stood at the corridor entrance. All around them, the lava rose, bubbling. Chunyu Lin gazed tenderly at He Bang, and slowly wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Don’t cry.”

Beneath their feet the lava churned and rolled. He Bang did not dare move a muscle. Chunyu Lin held her and walked back the way they had come, his voice gentle. “What you said is not wrong — I no longer have any chance of winning against Daozong. But in this desolate ancient tomb, through endless ages, if Your Majesty were to be here as my companion, it would not be so lonely.”

He Bang wailed at full volume. “Zhiguan, Zhiguan, save me! I don’t want to be locked up — there’s nothing to eat here!”

Rong Chen Zi’s hand around his sword was trembling. “Release her. Whatever you demand, I will agree.”

Chunyu Lin did not stop walking. “I no longer wish for anything. This world has always been the strong devouring the weak. Having become weak, what is there left to ask for?”

He Bang’s constitution was far too delicate, and at such close range, no one dared make a move. She wept pitifully in Chunyu Lin’s arms. Rong Chen Zi was shaking all over — and then suddenly a golden light gathered at his Baihui acupoint, streaking directly toward Chunyu Lin.

Chunyu Lin had no time to react. His entire body suddenly went numb, losing all sensation.

Those at the corridor mouth watched as he stiffly clutched He Bang, the two of them plummeting downward together. The little three-eyed serpent shot over and caught them both, carrying them back to the corridor mouth.

In Zhuang Shaoqin’s eyes there was a flash of grief — for all those who followed the Daoist path knew that of all the energies in existence, dragon energy was the most powerful. All other energies would be devoured and dissolved in its presence.

And the soul — the yuan spirit — was among the most fragile of all energies. Once the soul departed the body amid dragon energy, in mere moments it would be reduced to nothing.

His movements stiff, Chunyu Lin set He Bang down at the corridor entrance and leaned close to her. “Summer divides the realm into nine provinces, and one cauldron is cast for each province — nine cauldrons for all under heaven. And so a ‘vessel’… is something precious, precious beyond all measure. Worth more than life itself.”

The imperial mausoleum sank deeper. The lava swallowed everything — until the field of vision held nothing but a sea of shimmering, churning red. Before them, Chunyu Lin’s gaze slowly cleared. In the very instant his consciousness returned, the three-eyed serpent swept its tail and knocked He Bang away from him, then expelled a jet of flame to drive him back toward the lava at the corridor entrance.

Zhuang Shaoqin advanced step by step with his talismans. Ye Tian propped up Rong Chen Zi, her voice breaking in terror. “Senior Brother?!”

Rong Chen Zi’s expression was vacant and hollow, as though he was utterly without awareness of anything around him. Zhenren Xingzhi was naturally most concerned about the Serpent King. His voice carried genuine puzzlement. “His magical form is water-aligned, and his techniques are fire-aligned. By all reasoning, water and fire should not coexist. How is it possible that water and fire now complement each other without any conflict?”

He Bang stood in a daze, as though she too had lost her soul. Zhenren Xingzhi gripped her by both shoulders. “Your Majesty? Your Majesty? This is not the moment for grief. The Serpent King must be eliminated. If it escapes this place, once its power is restored, everything Daozong has worked toward will come to nothing!”

He Bang stared blankly at Rong Chen Zi. Ye Tian’s weeping was enough to break any listener’s heart. Then He Bang’s mouth curved faintly upward — and she smiled. “What does it matter if it escapes? What does it matter if all our efforts come to nothing? I fear not the destruction of heaven and earth — what should I fear from a world-ravaging demon?” She looked toward Rong Chen Zi, and her voice grew quieter and quieter. “The only thing I fear is a single light-hearted sentence from you, binding me for a thousand, ten thousand years — so that from that moment on, I can never find my way back to my deep sea.”