THE DARK SHADOW swept toward him, certain of its success.
Feng Xiao whirled mid-charge, his fingers plucking at his zither strings. Charged with true qi, they produced a sound that sliced through the air and pierced the black shadow.
Instantly, the shadow transformed into black smoke and dissipated into nothingness.
Feng Xiao wasted no time. He unleashed two more bursts of true qi at the figures of Cui Buqu and Qin Miaoyu. Two more shadows disintegrated.
Fake. All of it was fake.
"A bunch of petty tricks!" sneered Feng Xiao.
The illusions were impressive—but he wasn't so easily fooled. He'd seen that decrepit old coot Fan Yun's Ursa Major Twin Jade Array, after all. In comparison, this spectacle was like a child's first attempt.
As the three shadows fragmented, the fog lifted at last to reveal the luminous moon.
The sky had brightened without them noticing. Though their surroundings remained desolate, the oppressive flicker of dim light and ghostly shadows had completely disappeared, the sinister gloom giving way to the clean light of the moon overhead.
Feng Xiao turned. Yuan Sansi and his three companions remained trapped in the illusion, unable to break free.
Hong Li swung his saber in a frenzied rage, then hurled himself headfirst into a tree trunk with a sickening thud. He collapsed limply to the ground, blood and brain matter oozing from his shattered skull.
Yuan Sansi and Ning Shewo fared slightly better thanks to their more solid martial arts. Ning Shewo stood frozen, a frown wrinkling his brow, while Yuan Sansi simply clenched his jaw. His eyes were trained on Feng Xiao, caught between clarity and confusion.
There was no trace of the carriages.
Feng Xiao had thought to let the remaining two perish, but now he reconsidered. They were all in the same boat; it would be wiser to keep them around in case they encountered another foe. With a flick of his fingers, zither strings flew out, striking for the space between their eyebrows. They shuddered, their eyes focusing as their befuddlement fell away.
Ning Shewo felt as if he'd woken from a deep sleep. His expression swiftly went from dazed to alert. Yuan Sansi was a cut above Ning Shewo in skill. He tilted his head to dodge and countered with his whip sword, which wrapped around the zither strings as he stepped aside. Feng Xiao sent another string whistling toward Yuan Sansi's shoulder. He darted a few steps back before also coming to his senses.
"What happened?" Ning Shewo's expression was grim. His first thought upon seeing Hong Li crumpled on the ground was that Feng Xiao had killed him. But if that were the case, Feng Xiao ought to have taken the chance to kill Ning Shewo as well. Ning Shewo took a moment to gather himself. After concluding Hong Li had ended his own life, he ignored the corpse and surveyed his surroundings. "Are we trapped in an array? Does Deputy Chief Feng know how to break it?"
"If I did, I'd have killed you both," said Feng Xiao bluntly.
Ning Shewo pretended not to hear his tone. He smiled shamelessly. "Then I must thank Deputy Chief Feng for his great mercy. The enemy seeks to trap us here and provoke us into slaughtering one another. Yet you hold no grudges and choose to collaborate instead! Truly commendable."
Feng Xiao studied him, then turned to Yuan Sansi. "Is this the real Ning Shewo? Or an illusion?"
"Real!" Yuan Sansi snapped. "He spends half his time talking to officials of the Chen dynasty. All officials speak like this at court!"
"I don't," said Feng Xiao.
This was true. Feng Xiao's abilities spoke for themselves; he had no need for a honeyed tongue. In light of their circumstances, Yuan Sansi barely held himself back from making a scathing remark.
Feng Xiao seemed completely relaxed. His clever fingers wove together the two strings in his hand to make a tightly furled flower.
The corner of Yuan Sansi's eye twitched.
Feng Xiao shook the flower; with a flourish of his wrist, it bloomed, and the strings separated once more into strands. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
Yuan Sansi said nothing. Why was he watching the deputy chief of the Jiejian Bureau perform parlor tricks? Even as the thought occurred to him, he knew the answer: because they were completely unable to leave.
Ning Shewo left to wander the misty woods around them. He sank into the fog and disappeared, only to re-emerge some time later on the other side of the clearing, breathless and fatigued. He met Yuan Sansi's eyes and shook his head—there was no way out. There were a hundred promising paths, yet none of them had delivered him through the mist.
Now that they knew they'd been caught in an enemy's trap, Yuan Sansi and Ning Shewo had no more desire to fight. If they wished to settle things with Feng Xiao, it would have to wait until after they were free.
But who would bring two sets of nemeses together like this? Yuan Sansi could think of only one man: Fan Yun.
He had betrayed the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, but he wasn't on Feng Xiao's side either. What was more, he was an expert in arrays and divination. He was the prime suspect.
Yuan Sansi looked around. Three elite martial artists, and they were all hopelessly trapped. If word of this got out, no one would believe it.
Feng Xiao sat down cross-legged, wracking his brains for a means of escape. He pulled a mandarin from his sleeve and began to peel it as he thought.
It was a mandarin he'd taken from Pei Jingzhe before setting off that morning. He'd wanted to tease Cui Buqu with it; he hadn't anticipated stumbling into this damn array. The fruit, warmed inside his sleeve, was exceptionally sweet on his tongue.
Seeing Feng Xiao savor each segment, Yuan Sansi bit the inside of his cheek. "Are you not eager to leave, Deputy Chief Feng?" he ground out.
"I can't break the array," Feng Xiao replied, matter-of-fact. "What point is there running around in circles? We must wait to be rescued."
Ning Shewo looked at him hopefully. "Do your companions include someone proficient with arrays?"
"Yes. Cui Buqu."
Yuan Sansi scoffed. "Do you seriously believe Cui Buqu will save you, Deputy Chief Feng? Forgive me for saying so, but your death here would be no great loss for him."
Feng Xiao smiled. "That's where you're wrong. Even if he'd only met me once by chance, he'd come to my rescue."
Let alone after what he said that night at the tavern.
Yuan Sansi furrowed his brow. He didn't want to hear the answer, yet he couldn't stop himself from asking. "Why?"
"Because of my face, my charm, my every graceful motion. They are all peerless and without parallel in the world," said Feng Xiao with perfect composure.
Yuan Sansi was speechless. For the first time in his life, he began to suspect that exceptional martial artists must have some serious shortcomings in other areas. In Feng Xiao's case, his brain.
***
Pei Jingzhe could never have anticipated running into Qiao Xian here.
She looked like her usual cold and indifferent self, but the moment she appeared, she grabbed his arm. "Quick, come with me. I know the way out!"
"Qiao-niangzi?!" Pei Jingzhe stammered. "Wait, what are you doing here?"
Qiao Xian turned to look at him, frowning. "I encountered a robbery on my way and thought you might be in danger too, so I turned around to follow you. Looks like I was right—you're in grave danger."
Pei Jingzhe allowed her to drag him several steps forward before he came to his senses and dug his heels into the ground. "No—my lord and Chief Cui are still inside! We have to save them!"
"They're already out! I just saw them."
"Where?" Pei Jingzhe asked, confused. "Why didn't I see them?"
Qiao Xian pointed.
Pei Jingzhe looked where she indicated. He was about to say there was nothing there when he spotted the black arrow winging toward him. Before he could dodge, he felt a hand grip his wrist as Qiao Xian pulled him into an embrace, blocking the arrow with her own back.
"Qiao Xian!" Pei Jingzhe held up her slumping body. His mind had gone blank.
"Hurry… Go!" Qiao Xian coughed blood between each word.
"We'll go together! I won't abandon you!"
But the arrow had done its work. Black blood seeped from the wound and spread to cover Qiao Xian's entire back, staining Pei Jingzhe's hands. The smell grew heavier, a foul, oozing stench that clogged his nose and throat and rendered him unable to move.
"Qiao…"
In his arms, Qiao Xian was visibly rotting away, her delicate features withering like an ephemeral spring bloom. But he couldn't let go. Pei Jingzhe gritted his teeth. He liked Qiao Xian, but not only because of her looks. Even if her beautiful face decayed into old bones, she would remain Qiao Xian. He would never be a shallow man whose love was only skin deep!
Pei Jingzhe cried out as agony pierced his skull, and a different smell wafted into his nostrils. It had the spicy bite of ginger and pepper yet was more pungent than both. He felt like someone had ripped off his head and snapped him back to reality. He looked down. All his hair stood on end, and his soul almost fled his body.
The one he was holding was not a dying Qiao Xian, but the man whose head Qin Miaoyu had sent flying, Lu Ming. Had he been weeping and wailing while cradling a headless corpse?
"Are you stupid?!" Qin Miaoyu couldn't take it anymore. She slapped the back of his head.
"Why are you just sitting there? Get up and help solve the array!" Cui Buqu urged. He stood a few feet away, frowning and coughing as he spoke.
Pei Jingzhe sorely wanted to toss the corpse in his arms to the ground, but then thought it would be disrespectful. Face twitching, he slowly released his grip.
The battle still churned around them.
Ming Yue and Guan Shanhai, along with the Jiejian Bureau's eagle riders and the Zuoyue guards, clashed with the elites from the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai who'd ambushed them. None were able to distinguish friend from foe as they tore at each other in a tangle of frenzied limbs. Ming Yue and Guan Shanhai were slightly better off: Though they swung their swords at the illusions, succumbing to the urge to vent their bloodlust, their brows were pinched and steps stumbling as they resisted.
Corpses from both sides littered the ground. Qin Miaoyu herself had accumulated her fair share of sword wounds. If this went on, it wouldn't matter how skilled they were as martial artists. The moment they depleted their internal energy, death awaited them.
Pei Jingzhe was dumbfounded, utterly at a loss.
"It's the fragrance here—there's something wrong with it," Qin Miaoyu rapidly explained. "It's the same one we smelled back at the manor. I had my suspicions then, so I gathered what spices I could find and ground them into a powder. It will clear your mind for now, but it's only a temporary solution. We need to break through the array!"
Back in Liugong City, it was Qin Miaoyu's expertise in fragrances that secured her position as Miao-niangzi, earning the favor of the dance house's finest performer. This same skill led Feng Xiao to grant her reprieve and take her into the Jiejian Bureau. Qin Miaoyu was naturally sensitive to scents, but she could only use her skill to cut through the fragrance clouding their minds. She couldn't solve the array—that was left to Cui Buqu.
Cui Buqu had covered his mouth and nose with a cloth coated in Qin Miaoyu's spice blend to shield him from the poisonous fragrance. Qin Miaoyu and Pei Jingzhe looked at him in desperation. All their hopes were pinned on him. Barring the coachmen, Cui Buqu was the only one present who wasn't a martial artist. Yet only he was capable of saving them.
"Cut down the trees," he said after a moment.
Pei Jingzhe was stupefied. "Which trees?"
"All the trees you can see," said Cui Buqu coldly. "Chop them all down!"