Lei’s mace opened a wide path through the guards, Fatty Lou and Zhu Luli supporting him from the sides as they closed in on the broken part of the Library. Sun Hu joined them not long after, his chains flying and sending most of the guards sprawling about in a shambling mess.

The man had some skill, Lei had to admit, but it didn’t slip past his notice that he himself wasn’t weak. His stats were doing some work here. It felt like a deep strength boiled right underneath his skin.

But what really made him curious was the rot—or rather, the rotten mana that oozed into his body. The Maiden’s Flame caught those stray trickles like a net and squashed them round before purifying them with ethereal flames, sending them down to his meridians.

Then Dao Seed took control. That tiny sprout forced the purified energy to round into one circle after another, even as Lei fought against the guards. He didn’t have to pay any attention to what was happening inside his body. He had that little seed for that.

Once they managed to clear the zombie-like guards, Lei was the first one to step inside the Library. He paused when it occurred to him how everything looked so… normal. The shelves lining the first floor remained the same—untouched, clean.

He could’ve believed this was just another day in the Library if not for the waves of green fog hanging thick in the air. They rolled almost lazily about the shelves, stirring the moment Lei brushed against them, coiling around his arms and legs.

“This…” Sun Hu said, one hand clamped over his mouth, his voice hoarse. “There’s no air here. I can barely breathe.”

Fatty Lou arched an eyebrow at him. “Really?”

“I can breathe just fine,” Snake said.

Stone nodded beside him. “But it’s heavy. It feels like walking in a swamp.”

Sun Hu gave them a confused glance. “You don’t feel it?”

“Enough.” Lei gestured at them. “They must’ve heard our little entrance. We need to be prepared.”

“But I just—“

“Move,” Zhu Luli urged the man with a glare, her fingers glistening sharp in the fog. The man’s face eased under her gaze, and he shook his head.

They moved on.

This Library was a part of Emperor Xia’s legacy. All kinds of books were being displayed here for Jiangzhen’s folk, even though most of them couldn’t read. Lei still had trouble believing that a mortal city had been graced by something this valuable. Odd that of all the places, they chose the Library as their base.

He shook his head and weaved through the bookshelves. He could see the staircase from here. Something glistened dangerously sharp right across it. Shaped like a thorn and wreathed in greenish waves of rot, it towered over the shelves and pulsed ominously like a heartbeat.

The last thorn.

It was near the entrance. When Lei craned his head from over a shelf with Fatty Lou’s help, his eyes narrowed at the line circling the giant thorn. Men sat about it with their hands clasped before their chests as if praying, their robes partly melted into their skin and sizzling with a sickening sound.

There were familiar faces among them. There, the head of the City Guard, Jin Longwei, who didn’t seem like a human at all. Veins had crawled out from underneath his neck and stretched over his face, pulsing ominously. Beside him was the Head Scribe, Dai Aiguo, whose belly bloated strangely as if he was about to burst.

Two figures sat closer than the others to the thorn, facing it directly with eyes closed. Lei didn’t know either of them, but assumed the one with a bulkier frame must be the Governor. He looked like some strange mix between a beast and a man, just like how Sun Hu described, and was younger than the other man.

Who is that other guy though?

Lei shifted slightly when Snake stretched his head out from beside him, curious eyes peering out toward the thorn. He let out a disgusted “Uhh” before his eyes narrowed.

“That man!” he said, his voice trembling, one finger pointing at the man who sat near the Governor. “I know that man!”

“Who?” Lei placed a hand over the boy’s back and looked him in the eye. “Who is that man?”

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“It’s the one who kidnapped us, Big Brother Lei!” Snake said, teeth clenched. He was shaking, fingers clenching tightly over the shelf’s edge. “The one that thug served!”

“It’s the brother of that Elder Huang, then,” Lei nodded. There was little about that man in Elder Huang’s diary other than they both served the same Master. He was probably the one who had handled all the thugs and spread the venom around the Governor’s men.

Lei gave one last look at the thorn before gesturing Snake to get down, following him after. The group searched his eyes for answers.

“A dozen people,” he started, his mind heavy with thoughts. “For some reason, they don’t seem to have noticed our presence yet. Either this is a ritual that demands all their focus, like Brother Hu said, or they’ve laid the stupidest trap I’ve ever seen.”

“I don’t think it’s a trap,” Sun Hu said, looking sure of himself. “I don’t think they expect any resistance at all. From how they left the other two sources barely guarded like that, it’s safe to say they were fairly sure this whole thing would go smoothly without any trouble.”

Lei found himself agreeing with the man. For all the struggles and the chaos, the Governor’s men kept their silence. Even now, they were sitting here in the Library instead of preparing against a potential attack.

“Arrogant fools,” Fatty Lou said, his face twisted with disgust. “Did they really think the people of Jiangzhen would watch them take their city like that? We might be simple people with simple means, but that doesn’t mean we’ll go down without a fight.”

“It wasn’t much of a fight, though, Brother Lou,” Zhu Luli said with a shake of her head. “If not for Sun Hu and us, who else in this city could mount a resistance against them? The Governor knew this city like the back of his hand, knew the local cultivators were too weak to do anything. That’s why he must’ve decided to go with this plan in the first place.”

“Not a trap, then.” Lei nodded. Then again, just from a numbers perspective, it looked like they should’ve been the ones trying to lure the Governor into a trap rather than the other way around. They were terribly outnumbered, after all.

“What is the plan?” Snake’s voice had a hard tinge to it. He looked furious. “And can we take that man with Stone, Big Brother Lei? I’ll make him regret—”

“It’s okay, Snake,” Lei said, waving a hand at him. “I understand, but this is not the time to let your emotions get to your head. Focus on what’s important.”

“I say we go for the Governor straight,” Fatty Lou said. “He’s the most powerful one amongst them, right? If we can take him out quickly, then the rest will buckle under the shock.”

Sun Hu shook his head. “He could have some tricks up his sleeve. I don’t think he would just sit there and let us deal with him. We don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“It’s true that we don’t know much of anything,” Zhu Luli said as she pointed at the tip of the thorn that was barely visible from between the shelves. “But there’s one thing we know. That thing is not an indestructible treasure. It might be bigger, but it looks like the same thorn to my eyes.”

Lei felt his skin prickle as he gazed at her. “You want us to go for the thorn first? That’s actually… a good idea. If we can cut them out from the source, the spiritual energy will return to Jiangzhen and weigh them down.”

“True… Mana hates spiritual energy,” Fatty Lou muttered, then his face dropped. “But we don’t know how long it’ll take for the ambient spiritual energy to wash the mana away.”

“Can I?” Sun Hu said all of a sudden, earning a glance from everyone. He scratched his head as he asked, “What is mana? You keep saying that word, but I don’t think I’ve heard it before.”

“An energy from another world,” Zhu Luli said.

“Something foul and doesn’t belong to our world,” Fatty Lou said.

“It’s different but also similar to spiritual energy,” Snake and Stone said at the same time.

“See that?” Little Mei’s voice came from behind. She was waving a hand toward the rotten waves inside the Library. “That is mana. The rotten kind. These people are using the city folk to generate this source. They are likely planning to do something bad with it. Little Yao says it smells like death, too, so it can’t be a good thing.”

Lei was taken aback at how Little Mei smoothly delivered those words. Her eyes glinted joyfully as she stroked the furry squirrel in her arms. Innocent, sure, but still a monstrous genius either way.

“Another world… Rotten kind… Yes, I understand,” Sun Hu said and nodded.

“Did you? Really?” Fatty Lou asked.

“I guess?” Sun Hu muttered. “What’s there not to understand? I’ve once read a report about a meteor that was nearly the size of the world. Did you know that a dozen Seniors from the Empire made a pact and destroyed it into pieces so small that many people thought it was just hailing?”

“Was there something like that?” Zhu Luli seemed genuinely curious.

“There was,” Sun Hu nodded. “My point is, I’ve no reason to doubt you as of now. Either way, we’ll see the truth of it once we’ve dealt with this trouble.”

Lei gazed deeply at Sun Hu before raising a hand. “We’re going straight for the thorn, then. Brother Hu, we’ll be relying on your chains to stir up a little bit of chaos. I’ll use that opportunity to go for the thorn. Brother Lou and Sister Luli will be covering for me.”

“What about us?” Snake and Stone asked.

Lei pulled the boys close and gave them a bright smile. “You and Little Mei will be our trump cards. You’ll wait for an opportunity to strike. Don’t be hasty, understood? Take your time and pick your fights. Make good use of the chaos.”

Snake looked thoughtful for a second, then gave him a solemn nod and pulled Stone by the arm. He dragged him near Little Mei, and the three kids started whispering among each other.

“It’s now or never,” Lei said, fingers curled hard around the mace’s handle. He felt Fatty Lou’s gaze on him. “What do you think, Brother Lou?”

“I was thinking about the restaurant,” Fatty Lou said with a long, heavy sigh. “I liked being the manager, you know? All that talking and welcoming the guests… I was thinking that it’s something I could do.”

Lei arched an eyebrow at him. A smile parted his lips. “Then perhaps we can go for another place once we’re done with… this. A bigger one, this time, what do you say?”

“Doesn’t have to be big,” Fatty Lou muttered. “Doesn’t matter as long as it’s ours.”

“You’re right,” Lei said. “As long as it’s ours.”

With a final look at each other, they started toward the thorn.