Jiangzhen was one old, rusted cauldron in which boiled a sickly, yellowish concoction. It reeked of rot and pus and every bit of evil to Lei’s senses. He scrunched his nose up, felt his Spiritual Sensitivity skill jolt alarmingly, then motioned for the group to follow him as he made for Aunt Lifen’s place.

On their way, they came across dozens of guards lying senseless on the ground, tongues lolling out, faces riddled with spots that looked like pockmarks. They picked some of their weapons, Lei himself getting a solid-looking mace that strangely reminded him of that spiritual ladle.

Zhu Luli, Snake, and Stone remained bare-handed. The former two had fingers sharper than a normal sword’s tip, and the latter had fists that made the concept of a weapon pointless for him. Lei had seen them in action for some time prior, but he was still curious to see their new strength.

On the other hand, he had his stats. He could tell how drastic a change had happened in his own body. He hardly felt the weight of the mace in his hand. His breaths came out in a constant rhythm even though he sprinted across the streets.

But you’re also taking care of me, eh?

The Dao Seed’s tiny sprout fluttered joyfully at the remark, sending a wave of pure energy around his body. Like the sun’s first sprinkle of light, it cast a warm glow over his meridians and illuminated the pristine paths through which the new spiritual energy-mana blend coursed.

Onward, they continued.

It took them some time to reach Aunt Lifen’s place, where a deserted sight welcomed them. The wooden door clanked weakly against the walls, letting all the wind in. Nothing, not even one person, was in sight. The rooms were empty, save for the cauldron Zhu Luli had brought here in the morning, which was half-full with the remedy.

They must’ve taken her.

Lei didn’t let the sight get to him. He left the questions unanswered, and instead led the group toward the eastern market. It was past time to stop and talk through this. Meaningless to search for Aunt Lifen as well.

The moment we’ll get our hands on that source, they will be forced to show their hand.

Through the Spiritual Sensitivity skill, he could tell the current coming from the Library had a thicker, almost suffocating feel to it. The other two currents, one situated close to the Governor’s place, and the other resting in the Eastern Market, were milder in comparison.

You’re at the Library, then? You wait there.

Lei clenched his fists and bolted through the streets until he reached the Eastern Market. He motioned for the group to slow down, trudging silently through one of the back streets, casting an eye across the square from here.

This place was where his old stall had been. Where everything had started. Now, everything lay in a scattered mass. Stalls overturned, the ground riddled with cracks, and some buildings crumbled onto their own foundation. The rot was visible here, a stretch of heavy fog that hung thick in the air.

“I don’t see anybody,” Zhu Luli said, craning her head from the street and gazing deeply at the square. “There’s no one here.”

Lei scowled. That made no sense. The current streamed from below the heart of the square, oozing through the cracks in the earth. There was something there, but why was nobody in sight? They couldn’t have left it there without protection, could they?

“This whole thing stinks of a trap,” Fatty Lou said, shifting on his feet. “If Brother Lei’s right and one of the formation pieces lay here in that square, they should’ve been guarding the place with their lives.”

“Perhaps they are,” Lei said, heart thumping in his chest. “But we can’t see it. I’ll go first. Be careful and keep your eyes on me.”

“But we don’t know what’s in there!” came Stone’s voice, after which everybody turned at him and the boy flushed. “I-I mean, can’t we do something else?” he stammered.

Lei shook his head. “Be good now, Little Stone. I’ll just go and check. I’ll be counting on you.”

“Uh…” Stone’s chin drooped down and Snake patted him on the back. That surprised Lei. Looked like the competitive duo seemed to understand that this wasn’t the time for their old games.

“Shouldn’t I—“ Zhu Luli tried to say, but Lei raised a hand at her and nodded with strength.

“This is my city,” he said, gazing across the rotten fog. “And my responsibility.”

Mace in hand, he strutted out from the street and let the fog coil around his body. Each breath sent a stabbing pain down his throat, rotten mana trying to ooze into his veins and meridians.

Lei willed the Maiden’s flame to burn, and burn it did, roaring into action as it sent tongues of flame toward seeping rot. A warmth cuddled him tight. Clashed against the rot with brutal precision. Tendrils of flame squeezed the rotten spheres and flushed the life out of them, biting deep into their cores.

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They had no chance against the inner flame that burned within Lei’s chest.

His shoulders relaxed. The grip around the mace remained strong, however. At each step, he expected something to lunge at him, skin prickling with invisible fear. And yet the fog stood a spectator until he skirted around the cracks and arrived at the core of the square.

Ah…

When he stared down the crack in the earth, the Spiritual Sensitivity screamed in his mind. A strong aura oozed out from the hole, coming from a piece of metal that shaped like a thorn. Black tendrils had been wrapped around it, nearly coating its surface, but there were gaps that simmered with a greenish, rotten light.

What is this?

It certainly didn’t look like a formation flag. From how the skill responded to its presence, it was unmistakably from another world, probably carried here by those bastards. Even now, it sucked the air inside and belched out foul, sickly rotten mana in waves.

He was about to turn back and motion for the group when his feet slipped, and a tiny rock tumbled down into the hole. It plummeted below with a loud thud. The air shifted. A dark shadow lashed out with impossible speed.

Lei threw himself sideways, banged his head on the ground, and smelled of rotten pus. The shadow missed him by a hair's breadth and streaked across the square, crashing into a building and drilling halfway in. Rocks and walls rained down in a shower of dust.

The Spiritual Sensitivity skill roared. Lei trusted it with blind devotion and rolled back—back from the crack—and saw another streak lunging from inside the hole like a dark tendril.

Dozens of them stretched out and made for him. Their tips glinted sharp. He barely had time to raise the mace when one of them streaked near his face. It smacked into the mace and bounced shakily off, the impact sending a tremor down Lei’s arms.

Breath rasped in his chest, fingers shaking as adrenaline took control. He ducked under another tendril and came out swinging the mace, the heavy weapon finding purchase with a sickening squelch. Pus spilled out from where it crushed the tendril. It wriggled back and forth, like a dying worm thrashing in a final, desperate attempt to find solace.

Lei scrambled away from it, moving through the other tendrils.

That was when a silver light glistened in the yellow of the fog.

Zhu Luli waved a contemptuous hand toward the tendrils, and a web of silver lights stretched forth, cutting deep into their web. She swatted one away with her other hand and grabbed the one making for Lei with ease.

More came from the hole. Hundreds of tendrils stretched in an endless tide.

Then Fatty Lou was running, Snake and Stone trailing him, Little Mei a little further back with a strained smile on her face. His brother-in-arms wrapped his arms around a particularly large tendril and squeezed it tight, and tighter still, until the thing burst in a shower of pus.

Stone’s fists smashed into two streaks, Snake coming up behind him and finishing them with fingers sharper than swords. A long shadow fell upon them. Both kids looked up, only to witness a little squirrel tearing the large tendril with a sweep of its claws. When Little Yao landed back with grace, her gaze snapped to Little Mei as if expectant. The little girl gave the squirrel a proud, approving nod.

That seemed to motivate Little Yao like no words before.

Right, Lei thought. He wasn’t alone. He had company with him. People that he could trust.

“We move!” he roared, fingers curling painfully tight around the mace, and started making his way to the core. Others closed the distance and joined him, the group stretching in a formation that left little to no holes.

They fought with all their worth. Fingers slashed, weapons crushed, rot spilled, and hissed against the broken earth. Lei felt himself a fool when he saw how the kids handled themselves. Snake and Stone were a deadly duo, always looking out for each other, covering themselves whenever a tendril tried to seep through their hold.

Zhu Luli, on the other hand, was a force of nature. It seemed breaking through the Qi Condensation Stage had allowed her to use her Thousand Node Fingers outside of her body. She weaved threads of Qi across the air, their tips brutally sharp and terribly efficient at cutting these ungodly things.

Even she had trouble keeping up with Fatty Lou, though. Lei could hardly believe his eyes. His brother-in-arms crushed the tendrils like one might crush a handful of grapes with but a palm. He even sent some of them reeling with the back of his hand, clicking his tongue after them as if disappointed.

But the tendrils had already blotted the sky in a dark, dreary black. It seemed there was no end to them. The closer they got to the core, the harder it got moving through the wall of shadowy streaks. Lei had to open a path with his mace, swinging it madly, arms aching in a song that couldn’t quite reach his ears.

Power ran in his blood. He felt it. The Dao Seed’s constant supply bolstered the spiritual energy-mana blend in a way that left him breathless.

“I’ll try to make a jump for it!” he roared over the din of crashing echoes, hoping the others would hear him. “Hold the path for me!”

He saw Fatty Lou nod. Zhu Luli gazed solemnly at the dark wall and mouthed a ‘Yes’ to him. With that, Lei hauled the mace and whirled it over his head to widen the path. He pushed forward. The tip of the long crack revealed itself like a cut across a black sleeve.

Lei sucked a deep breath, then he was running, breath hissing in his throat, tendrils flashing around him. The world spun and turned and twisted. He felt a cold touch near his back. Another one to his feet. Shadowy arms trying to hold him.

He didn’t let them. His feet crunched over the tip of the crack, and he launched himself downward to the thorn that gleamed dangerously green. Most of the tendrils wrapped around it were busy trying to hold the group, leaving only one or two of them to guard the otherworldly metal.

The momentum weighed down his shoulders like a mountain. Lei fought against gravity and hauled the mace high, Maiden’s fire burning in his chest. A single move. That was what he needed. One impact to crush the damned thing.

What few tendrils were left near the thorn stretched out to him, their sharp tips inching slowly toward his chest. Lei closed his eyes. A wound or two seemed a good bargain against getting rid of the rot. He had his people behind his back. Pain was just a price to pay.

Silver light glistened on the dark of his lids. His eyes snapped open. A web of pristine light lashed out from beside him and smashed into the tendrils, sending them sprawling to the sides and leaving the thorn wide open.

Lei screamed as he brought down the mace with all his strength. The tip of the weapon crushed into the thorn. A painful wail sounded in his mind. Metal screeched. Then something cracked. It was the most beautiful sound he’d heard in his life.

He crashed down to the ground. Banged his head, hard. Rolled away and tried to flounder back to his feet, slipping, and failing… His mind reeled. He could barely keep his eyes open, and yet that was all it took to bring a smile upon his lips.

There, he saw it. The thorn was riddled with cracks and crumbling.