"WHAT'S GOING ON?"
The Butterfly-Boned clan members at the back of the crowd anxiously craned their necks to see what had transpired.
Chu Wanning's barricades, stout as they were, were like heaped sand before the amassed waters. Jiuge's barrier was first to splinter, water trickling through the woven willow vines. Alarmed, the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts jostled toward the front. "What happened?" they yelled. "Why won't they let us in?"
One of them looked over her shoulder and paled. "The Martyr's Path is collapsing!"
"What?!"
The clan was hemmed in on all sides. Before them, the gate to the demon realm was closing. Behind them, the bridge was falling apart. Beneath their feet was a fathomless abyss. There was nowhere for them to flee.
Panic took hold of the crowd. Shi Mei yelled over the fray, "Everyone, come forward—stay calm!"
"Hua-zongshi…"
A sound-amplifying technique brought Shi Mei's words to the ears of every last member of the crowd. "I promised—I will bring you all home."
This was the goal he'd chased over two lifetimes, his mother's most cherished wish. Now that they'd come this far, he refused to cede an inch.
"But Zongshi, how can we fight this demon guard?!"
Shi Mei turned back to look at his people, the light of the apocalypse reflected in his pale brown eyes. "We couldn't have done it in the past. But what about now?"
The frightened Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts realized with a start: The demonic qi emanating from the gate had restored the demon race's spiritual energy to their bodies.
"All of you, stand behind me. Gather together and try to slow down the disintegration of the Martyr's Path."
"What about you, Zongshi?"
Shi Mei glanced up at the hatchet-wielding skeleton. "I'm going to defeat him."
The skeleton launched himself at Shi Mei with a roar.
"Zongshi, watch out!"
Shi Mei was unfazed. Demonic qi suffused his body; never before had he felt such bountiful energy coursing through him. He stepped forward, fearless. The Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts were supposed to be powerful, yet because of one person's betrayal, they'd endured injustice for thousands of years.
His eyes flashed with hatred. Flames burst from his palms; he hurled them toward the skeleton.
The skeleton twisted aside, and the fireball struck the gate, scorching a black mark into it. "Traitor—you dare disobey us?!"
"How is it my fault what blood flows through my veins?" Shi Mei raged. "Because I share the blood of Gouchen's line, I was banished to the mortal realm, lucky to form even a feeble core. Because I share the blood of the gods, I'm turned away at your door, denied my homecoming—what have I done wrong? What have the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts done wrong? Whom have I betrayed?"
The skeleton repeated forebodingly, "Traitor, you dare disobey…"
The flow of energy into the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts was like a monk invoking the name of the Buddha, like a clay statue gilded and burnished to a shine—something formerly insubstantial given ineffable power.
Up in the sky, Chu Wanning was straining to contain the floodwaters. Nearly all the other cultivators had retreated behind the Xuanwu barrier to the junction between the two worlds. Before the gate, Shi Mei and the demonic skeleton were locked in ferocious combat.
Everyone had to shoulder their own missions, make their own choices. No matter what strife had once been between them, no time remained for last disputes. As the final reckoning drew nigh, the same determination was etched across all their faces—no matter how weak I may be, I refuse to stand back and do nothing.
"Zongshi! The path has collapsed!"
"We can't hold out much longer…"
Many of the younger Butterfly-Boned began to weep in terrified despair. The whipping wind dragged the sobbing to Shi Mei's ears like it had all those years ago, when he had rammed his slight body against that ice-cold stone door in Tianyin Pavilion. When that door had opened, he saw his father, blood dripping from his mouth, and his mother, torn from limb to limb. He heard his mother crying out as she dragged her gore-drenched body along the ground. Run! she'd screamed at Shi Mei, her final warning tearing from her throat. Run now!
Run—get away from here. Run—find a place that will take us in at last. Bring everyone with you, all your persecuted kin. This is my final wish, the dream for which I've sold my body and soul and given my life. Run—please.
"How have I let down the demonic race?! How?!"
It was Shi Mei's last question, but he didn't expect an answer. He leapt up, darting around the enormous hatchet as it swung downward. Graceful as a kite, he touched down on the skeleton's shoulder and dropped to his knees, grabbing the monster's swiveling skull.
The surface below them swayed with growing severity as the bridge of Zhenlong pawns continued to fall away. Corpses tumbled into the yawning abyss, landing too far below to hear. Shi Mei glanced over and saw his clanspeople crowded together, pooling their newly acquired demonic energy to slow down the bridge's disintegration as much as possible. They were pure-blooded Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts, a flock of birds winging back to their nest—but what about him?
Within a lightless abyss, a bat's leathery wings beat fruitlessly.
Shi Mei's palm ignited with a chilling light. A thorny vine unfurled, scintillating with demonic energy. Shi Mei swung the vine, lashing the demon skeleton squarely in the forehead.
What exactly was a bat? A bird soaring through the heavens? Or a beast huddled in the darkness? Perhaps neither side would claim him. His blood was dirty. No matter where he went, he would be considered a traitor.
The skeleton swayed for a suspended moment, then crashed to the ground. Its bones collapsed into dust, then vanished like smoke on the wind. The gate to the demon realm was now open barely a crack. Shi Mei alighted on the ground and bounded back into the air toward the gate. He wedged his body between the two leaves of engraved stone.
He turned toward the confused, tearful Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts below him. "Why are you all just standing there?" he snapped. "Run!"
Run…
Run! Hua Gui's last cry seemed to cut through the darkness, just as heartrending as it'd been twenty years before. A-Nan, run!
Shi Mei closed his eyes. He could see the flesh of her arm torn open, the broken bones of her leg. His mother writhed and flailed in a spreading pool of blood, struggling like a felled beast. She grabbed her husband's leg, trying to give her child a chance to escape.
Run! Run now! Don't turn around! Don't come back!
The man's heel came down on her face. Blood splattered. In her last moments, she summoned all her strength to whimper, Run…
With a crisp crack, his heel crushed her throat.
Shi Mei gnashed his teeth, channeling demonic energy into his limbs. His joints strained and popped as he braced himself between the doors, forcing the portal to the demon realm to remain open. He looked below. His brow was sheened with sweat, and blood trickled from his bitten lips. He trembled violently, his bones on the verge of shattering. The inward movement of the doors had slowed, but the force behind them hadn't lessened a bit. Imperious, without mercy, they bore down on his body of flesh and blood.
One inch, two… One foot… Two feet…
His veins bulged, and his face flushed crimson. But his eyes remained fixed on the crowd streaming past beneath him. "Run…" he croaked.
Faster—as fast as you can. I said I'd bring you home. My hands are covered in blood; everyone curses my name. I trespassed against my teacher, and my friends have forsaken me. I've committed every manner of evil to forge this path.
But—I'm no traitor.
His bones were about to snap, but he strained to hold those colossal doors open. How laughable—he was like an ant trying to hold up the sky, a mayfly trying to shake a tree. A great rumble echoed in his ears. With effort, Shi Mei raised his dripping face and lifted sodden lashes to squint in the direction of the sound. He saw Chu Wanning pummeled by towering waves.
Tianwen and Jiuge's barricade had splintered. As their master tumbled out of the sky, the wall he'd toiled to maintain broke apart in seconds. A huge wave knocked Chu Wanning into the flood.
"Shizun…"
The water, now unobstructed, crashed toward the juncture between the two worlds. Waves leveled buildings and mountains, and the tide filled valleys and ravines. In the blink of an eye, the roiling waves had swallowed the earth.
The mortal realm was irrevocably changed; there was no going back.
The crush of the demon gate was overwhelming. Shi Mei could feel his joints dislocating, but he had no more spiritual energy left. He choked up a mouthful of blood and glanced downward. There were still a dozen people waiting to pass through.
He couldn't have said where he got the strength. But he let out a roar, eyes bulging, tendons standing out from his neck. He braced his hands and feet against the doors threatening to crush him with inexorable force.
"Hua-zongshi!"
The Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts who'd fled into the demon realm lingered close to the gate, crowding together and gazing up at Shi Mei.
But he couldn't see their faces clearly anymore. His vision was dim and hazy.
Eight more… Five… Three…
A wild grin, ecstatic yet spiteful, unfolded across his agonized features. Blood dripped from his lips, dyeing his teeth scarlet.
What of fate and destiny, what of gods and demons? You thought you could keep me out, you thought you could strike down my life's work—but no… There's nothing that can prevail over a heart hard as iron, a body steadfast as stone.
The very last…one…
"Run…"
Shi Mei laughed in triumph. Who said a mayfly couldn't shake a tree? As long as they steeled themselves, even ants could breach a dam. He'd done it, hadn't he?
The two halves of the gate collided with a dull boom. His vision filled with interlacing red and black—the red of blood, the black of night. He was a bat, trapped between them, and the last thing that reached his ears was a crisp, hair-raising crack.
Was it the sound of his skull shattering? Or was it an echo from his childhood, as his mother's neck snapped underfoot…
"Hua-zongshi! Zongshi!" As the gate rumbled shut, the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feasts began to wail from the other side, cut off from their former world.
The gate to the demon realm was splashed with bright blood, and Hua Binan's severed limbs tumbled from the seam. The next huge wave crashed down, dashing away the Martyr's Path built from thousands of corpses.
When the wave subsided, the demon gate was gone. Sisheng Peak was next to succumb to the maelstrom. The Heaven-Piercing Tower collapsed, the Red Lotus Pavilion was obliterated. What was once Loyalty Hall disappeared beneath the waves in a shower of broken tile.
Chu Wanning choked on mouthfuls of water, gasping for air. He tried fruitlessly to summon Huaisha, but his spiritual energy was depleted. Another huge wave crested and broke, knocking the wind out of him. A piece of driftwood shoved him beneath the surface. His features contorted in desperation, but he couldn't breathe…couldn't grab anything to stay afloat…
His white robes rippled, dark hair tangling between the waves. He was sinking, sinking. Everything slowly dimmed around him. He was suffocating; he could feel his consciousness flickering.
Xue Meng and the others should have made it to the other side of the Xuanwu barrier by now. But what if anything were to go wrong after that? And what about Mo Ran?
Mo Ran…
He opened his eyes in the frigid waters. The light from the sky was so far away. A trail of fine bubbles floated from his lips. Dazed, he tilted his face upward. Perhaps because he was on the verge of drowning, a vision took shape before him. An ink-dark silhouette knifed through the depths. When the figure drew closer, he made out a familiar face—eyes so dark they gleamed purple, and the lattice of cuts and scrapes covering his features—marks from his failed attempt to destroy this corpse.
Chu Wanning squeezed his eyes shut. He had really been too, too cruel—surely this was retribution. Even his dying hallucination tormented him. I'm sorry… he wanted to say. His lips opened and closed, but only a stream of bubbles poured out.
Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed him, and Chu Wanning found himself pressed firmly to a broad chest. Though not a hint of warmth lingered there, the red-hot ferocity emanating from this man threatened to boil the water around him.
"Chu Wanning."
Someone was calling his name.
"Wanning!"
He was hazily aware of another mouth pressed to his. Cool lips opened against his own, channeling a thread of spiritual energy into him.
"Bugui!"
A jade-green blur cut through the water. The man grabbed the glowing blade, which yanked them upward. Hardly a moment later, they surfaced with a loud splash.
Chu Wanning, always sensitive to the cold, was soaked to the bone and shaking. His lips were gray and bloodless as he gulped air into his burning lungs. It took him a few breaths to realize what had happened. When he did, his head jerked up. He found himself gazing into a pair of dark, dewy eyes—no longer scattered and confused, but sharp and clear.
Mo Ran was breathing heavily too, his lips parted and slightly wet. His sodden black robes were plastered to his muscular chest. He stared down at Chu Wanning without a word.
Who was this? A puppet or a living person? Taxian-jun or Mo-zongshi? Chu Wanning swallowed around a lump in his throat. He was at a loss for words; his throat bobbed soundlessly. Just as he was about to speak, a drop of seawater slid down his forehead and landed in his eyes. He squinched them shut, their corners reddening.
The man pulled him into an embrace amidst the rocking waves, pressing cool lips to the crown of his head. "This venerable one was late."
Chu Wanning didn't know what to say.
"Hua Binan's bonds are broken. No one can control this venerable one anymore." He kissed Chu Wanning's forehead and eyelashes, still breathless from the urgency of his dive.
Taxian-jun watched Chu Wanning's eyes slowly open again and reached up to caress his hair. He cast his gaze over the floodwaters that filled the mortal realm. "Come," he said, his voice slow and grave. "I'll take you back to your world."