Chao could barely keep his mind awake. The blast had catapulted him off the earth, his seared flesh impacting with the canopy above, then the dusty ground below, causing immense pain and hurt. His body was charred all over, blood and pus oozing out through the white cracks in his cracked skin, and his vision was blurred and unsteady. He tried to move, but his muscles wouldn't respond. Yet, as his vision cleared, some of the pain left him, and he saw the red dust from the explosion clearing, settling down on the ground like a crimson cloud of ash.

The six fiery wine lemurs spotted him just as he spotted them, the lemur leader at the forefront, emanating bloodlust with the stench of fire. The babe was nowhere to be seen.

Chao struggled to stand up, but his legs barely supported him. He looked ahead and saw the fiery wine lemurs glaring back silently, seething with anger and despair. Their hands were empty, their qi maddening their forms as drool dripped down with every snarl. They slowly closed in, readying their claws and fangs.

Chao knew he was in trouble despite the lemurs not resorting to their usual tactics of throwing stone artillery. Was it because there were no good stones within reach of their hands? Or was it because these lemurs wanted revenge, a painful one at that, tearing Chao limb from limb with their bare claws?

By this time, Chao could no longer feel any pain. He could barely feel his hand touching his weapon, but with a steady heart, he brought the rusty sword into a stance.

The mirror fortress gleamed above his skin, the blasted artifact going into its healing form for some reason, forming a thin film of translucent gold-green. The healing soothed his mind and closed his cracked skin, but it also brought back the pain, a minor annoyance. He would have preferred it to go into damage reflection form for the fight, which might be his last. But the mirror fortress seemed to have a mind of its own, and after all these years, Chao knew he could not negotiate with its arbitrary decisions.

Thankfully, he had not let go of the rusty sword when the wine explosion hurled him across, not letting it go even as the fire and steam set him ablaze. Yet the fire had also burnt off the poison he had applied. No longer would it paralyze his foes, and there was no time to reapply the poison. If he looked away from the seven lemurs to retrieve anything from his storage artifact, that would be his demise.

Still, Chao would fight. And he would win. He stared the fiery fiends down with his bloodshot eyes, the blood dripping down his face like lines of crimson tears, and took a tiny step back.

The lemurs charged at him with a deafening roar.

Chao ducked and weaved, avoiding their powerful claws and fangs. He struck out with his sword, but his hands would not listen to his brain properly. Most of his slashes missed, and the ones that hit barely scratched through their fiery coat. He knew he needed to find a weakness if he were to stand any chance of survival.

"Gah!"

One fiery wine lemur nicked his arm as he dodged another, and a third tore off a chunk of his leg with a sudden low lunge. He stumbled, seeming to fall down and exposing his unguarded front and back. But his eyes gleamed with absolute focus.

The lemurs took the chance, closing in on him by breaking their formation, and Chao saw his opening. One of the lemurs had a scar on its belly, a sign of a previous wound. As Chao leaned forward in his unsteady gait, he knew that this was the lemur he had to take out first. He dodged the others, only sustaining cursory injuries, and charged towards the scarred fiery wine lemur, sword piercing up from below, hidden by his tilted body.

The lemur was caught off guard, and Chao's sword struck deep into its flesh. The lemur let out a howl of pain and fell to the ground. Chao quickly turned to face the others, ready for their next attack.

The six remaining lemurs were even angrier now, but Chao also saw hints of anguish in their eyes. He snarled like he was the beast, and they charged at Chao with renewed ferocity, as if to wash away their desperation with rage. Chao stood his ground. He blocked their blows with his sword and countered with lightning-fast strikes.

The lemurs were relentless, and Chao was running out of both qi and energy. He could feel his wounds reopening and his movements becoming sluggish. But he refused to give up.

Finally, another chance presented itself. One of the fiery wine lemurs had stumbled, and another had stopped to help it. Chao seized the opportunity and charged towards them, his sword raised high. He struck out with all his might, and the fiery wine lemur that tried to help the fallen one up lost its head. Chao's sword continued its trajectory down, slashing apart the other one's throat in a rain of fiery blood.

Four remained. And Chao had the chance to consume some Spirit qi boosting pills and Origin qi rejuvenation pills. He even applied another dose of poison to his sword. The lemurs could no longer pressure him to weakness, and at this point, the fight was over.

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In the end, only the fiery lemur leader remained. It backed away slowly, towards a tree where Chao could now see the lemur babe sleeping in a bundle of grass. Chao knew he had to act fast. He took a deep breath and charged at the leader, his sword aimed straight for its heart.

"GRAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"

The lemur tried to dodge, but Chao was too quick. The sword sliced through the air and landed a hit. But at the last moment, the lemur's fiery claws nicked his shoulders, and he jumped back, dodging the fangs that tried to puncture his throat.

The lemur leader fell back, taking hold of the babe and trying to run away. But the poison activated, and it stumbled onto the ground, using its body to protect the last of its tribe.

Chao took another deep breath and walked towards the foe that had almost killed him twice today, with the resolve to finally end its fiendish life.

"You are a chaosfiend!" Chao yelled at the creature, trying to hide the babe with its body, "Stop acting like renyao!" But the fiend could not understand his words.

Chao's heart sank as he saw the look of despair in the fiery wine lemur's eyes. He knew what he had to do. He stepped forward, his sword raised, but the lemur didn't move. It simply looked up at Chao with a mixture of sadness and acceptance.

He hesitated for a moment, his sword wavering in his hand. But then he steeled himself and brought the sword down with all his might. The lemur fell to the ground, its lifeless body still cradling the lemur babe that had just begun to stir awake.

Chao stood there for a moment, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. He felt a sense of emptiness in his heart, but he knew that what he had done was necessary. He turned and started to limp away, his injuries from the fight beginning to catch up with him, not to mention his burnt black body that needed to be bandaged with Origin qi ointment as soon as possible. He stumbled, falling to the ground with a thud.

And he lay there, panting and bleeding, looking at the dusky sky with hollow eyes.

Chao had won the fight, but at a great cost. He had lost a lot of blood and was too weak to move. He closed his eyes and waited. And waited. And waited. Was it for slumber? Or for death to claim him? Or was it to just... let go.

But as he lay there, he heard a rustling sound.

"Chirii!"

It was the fiery wine lemur babe.

"Must pull out weeds by their roots," Chao muttered, his voice filled with exhaustion.

He stood up again, the mirror fortress had done an excellent job healing him. The pain had returned in full force, and he had trouble staying sane. He walked to the corpse of the Fiery Wine lemur leader.

The Fiery Wine lemur infant stared back with its glistening red eyes.

"Chreee~"

It looked at the leader, seemingly not understanding why the larger male had closed its eyes. Then it looked at Chao, extending its tiny, furry paws.

Chao laughed.

The babe was startled. It quickly shrunk back its paws, tears welling up in its eyes.

Chao's hand was empty. He had let go of the sword where he had stumbled.

"Chraa! Chraa!" It cried, large pearls of tears falling down its wrinkly, furry face.

Chao just watched it cry. And cry it did until its throat was hoarse. Perhaps it was wondering why none of the adults came to cheer it up? Or why its brothers and sisters did not join it in crying too.

"Son of a whore…." Chao covered his face. He did not want anything to see him right now.

***

"There might be an Unfolding Heaven Realm Voidfiend. But the plan is the same, with Her Imperial Majesty the Flareful Empress keeping an eye out, we will do the parts we planned."

Yung was nervously standing near a clearing, hidden by some manner of warding talisman or formation, hearing An Ping giving the gathered cultivators a last briefing.

They were very professional, even Ziyou Maque and Youjin Liu had decided to leave the overall commands of the mission to them.

"Such an elegant lie, how reminiscent of Xiyue Wuzhong that married maiden is." Su Nanya lay lazily on her palanquin, carried by masked fox yao and being fanned by Miss Maid. "Her subjects are terrified, oh so adorable they are, like frightened little fox kits."

Yung had to admit, he was terrified too. By what he read in the scrolls, Unfolding Heaven was a completely different ball game than Imperfect Heaven. The potential to 'kill', among other things, was not even in the same league. He wasn't afraid that he would die, no. He trusted his girlfriend would do everything to save her gigolo. He'd even gotten a pinky promise out of her this morning after 'coaxing' her.

That wasn't a problem. The issue was the cultivators. The mercenaries.

At the end of the day, recovering the Foxmoths was uniquely his agenda. Even the Youjin Clan did not consider them a pillar of their clan anymore. But to Yung, these fuzzy little Chaosfiends fit into an important slot of his plans.

And if to actuate that, one or many of the cultivators here died.... That would be my responsibility.

Yung shook his head. He tried to persuade himself that these people were being given proper remuneration for their work. That they weren't being forced, and recovering the Foxmoths was in their best interest too.

Yet nothing clicked except his tongue.

“Rude.” The princess said, yawning.

The briefing went on.

"An Xing's team is at the farthest mile by the ocean. Team 2 and Team 3 are also spread out. We are two hours away before they trigger the fiend rush and lure the stampede here," An Ping explained. She raised her hand, about twenty rings and more bangles were fitted onto it.

They were all communicator tokens in different forms.

"I won't be joining the foray unless truly necessary. I will oversee the communications, and doing so many tasks is certainly a drain," said the tall Xiyue princess.

"Boo! Missing out on fights now, are you? Lazy! I call for an abdication," said a monkey-looking man in a Dark Star garb.

"Aye, think she's smart 'cause she's got married," another woman said, a hint of playful jealousy in her voice.

"You two! No wine for you in the afterparty!" An Ping shouted.

"Tyranny! Tyranny! We got a tyrant here!" The first monkey-looking man said with pretend offence, and laughter rang out.

Yung could see even the Madlanders and the Youjin Clanskin chuckling too at the antics.

"Oh, how terrified they are, such feeble a being, these poor ren kits." Su Nanya yawned. Yung was standing right beside the palanquin with a complicated heart.

The vixen didn't like it that he was ignoring her, so she reached her hand out from the edge of her royal seat and ruffled his curly hair. But that did not do much to ease his tension.